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The Invisible Man Returns (1940) starring Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Cedric Hardwicke

The Invisible Man Returns

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The Invisible Man Returns (1940) starring Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Cedric Hardwicke, Cecil Kellaway

 The Invisible Man Returns is an excellent movie, due to no small degree to the acting skills of Vincent Price. Vincent Price is  Geoffrey Radcliffe, the proverbial “man convicted of a murder that he didn’t commit” — the murder of his own brother. Soon to be executed, he’s given an unexpected last-minute reprieve — but not from the state. He’s visited by Dr. Frank Griffin  (John Sutton), the brother of the original Invisible Man, who offers to inject him with the unstable invisibility formula, warning him of the side effect: gradual insanity. Stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea, Vincent Price makes Hobson’s choice — and chooses the injection, hoping to find the actual murderer before he’s driven to insanity. At the same time, Dr. Griffin will try to find an antidote for the invisibility formula.

Forbidden Planet

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Forbidden Planet (1956) starring Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis

 What can be said about Forbidden Planet that hasn’t been said already? It was a beloved part of my childhood.  And it has become part of my children’s childhood as well.  What makes is such an enduring story?

M – Peter Lorre, Fritz Lang

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M (1931) directed by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre

I’ve known for a long time that Fritz Lang was a ground-breaking movie director (Metropolis for example)–but I’ve never truly appreciated that for myself, until I recently saw his black and white movie about a search for a child murderer, titled M.  Fritz Lang described M as a documentary, and I would have to agree with that–it looks, and feels, like a documentary.  

The Black Cat

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The Black Cat (1934) starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi

 Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi appeared together in eight different horror films–but very likely, the best of them was the first,  The Black Cat  – a monster movie where the monsters are all too human.

Synopsis of  The Black Cat

A young American couple traveling by train on their honeymoon meet Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) where they are both going to the same destination.   Lugosi is returning home after a fifteen-year absence, having been a prisoner of war.  Which we later learn was due to the betrayal of his commanding officer, Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff).  This resulted in the death of thousands of his own men.   After a driving accident, they are all the “guests” of Karloff. Who doesn’t seem eager for any of them to leave …

Frogs

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Frogs (1972) starring Ray Milland, Sam Elliot, Joan Van Ark

The movie Frogs is an attempt to recreate the horror of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Frogs mostly falls flat, however.

Synopsis of Frogs

A free-lance photographer is taking photos for an anti-pollution article in the Florida everglade when his canoe is swamped by a spoiled rich young man.  Who attempts to make amends by bringing him back to the family mansion. The grumpy family patriarch makes no secret of his controlling nature, over both his family and the environment. It appears that the environment seeks to return the favor …

Mysterious Island

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Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island (1961)

Many people consider the 1961 version of Jules Verne’s  Mysterious Island to be no more than an excuse for Ray Harryhausen to do his special effects magic.  And the special effects are wonderful, but there’s actually more that makes the movie very enjoyable.

Gorjia, aka Godzilla

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Gojira (1954) starring  Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata

Synopsis of Gojira

The ocean’s surface begins to boil white-hot. A Japanese freighter vanishes into the Pacific. And the superstitious villagers of Odo Island fear an ancient legend has come true …. The legend of Gojira! Awakened from an eons-long sleep by an atomic bomb explosion. The behemoth turns Tokyo into a wasteland of atomic fire and rubble.  Who, or what, can stop it?

Dr. Blood’s Coffin

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Dr. Blood’s Coffin (1961) starring  Kieron Moore, Hazel Court

Synopsis of  Dr. Blood’s Coffin

 In  Dr. Blood’s Coffin, young Dr. Blood returns home from medical school to live with his father, the village doctor of a small Cornish village with several abandoned tin mines. Villagers have been disappearing and being murdered, while young Dr. Blood begins courting his father’s nurse, Linda Parker, a lovely widow. But the young doctor is starting to show a macabre side as the body count continues to rise …

Invisible Agent

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Invisible Agent (1942) starring John Hall,  Ilona Massey, Peter Lorre,  Cedric Hardwicke,  J. Edward Bromberg,  Albert Bassermann

Invisible Agent is an entry in the Invisible Man series, set just before the United States entered World War II. The film begins with a Nazi undercover agent Conrad Stauffer ( played extremely well by Cedric Hardwicke) and Japanese agent  Baron Ikito (played well by Peter Lorre), entering a print shop owned by Frank Raymond (Jon Hall) — who is actually the grandson of the original Invisible Man

Peter Lorre biography

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Peter Lorre biography (1904-1964)

Peter Lorre caused an international sensation with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M (1931). He later became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries (in particular with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet), and, though frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, became star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

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