The Black Raven ~ 1943 -BW

QUICKIE: Murder, money, mobsters, marriage, and the worst storm imaginable.

PLOT: A remote country inn, "The Black Raven", is the setting for this mystery starring screen legend George Zucco. Zucco is Amos Bradford, the proprietor of the inn that has a series of mysterious guests arrive during a raging storm. Many of the guests unknowingly have connections to each other and things become very interesting when a murder and $50,000 in embezzled money enter the picture.

SUMMARY: First of all, it's not just a dark and stormy night, it's a frickin' hurricane out there! Hollywood was a bit over zealous with the rain and wind machines again. But it provides laughs as we pity poor Andy (Glenn Strange) the servant who continually gets soaked having to park the cars or get the bags. One of the great things about these older films is this over the topness that by today's standards is so unrealistic that it provides us a laugh.

So, at "The Black Raven" Inn various guests show up who are trying to make it over the border to Canada. The roads are all washed out, so spending the night to wait out the storm is the only option. The movie opens with an escaped convict come to kill Amos Bradford (George Zucco) the keeper of the Inn. He gets knocked down and tied up in a back room, and then the guests start arriving. First is Mike Bardoni (Noel Madison), a mob-boss on the run, trying to make it to Canada until things cool off. Next comes the nerdy banker Horace Weatherby (Byron Foulger) who embezzled $50,000 from his firm and is trying to make it to Canada undiscovered. Before he can get a room, Robert Randall (Robert Livingston) and Lee Winfield (Wanda McKay) show up. The couple is eloping to Canada to escape Lee's mob boss father Tim Winfield (Robert Middlemass) who also shows up not soon after the couple.

With all the players in place, it's not long until lives and stories intertwine. Tim Winfield becomes the most hated man at the party. World renowned meanie, he forbids his daughter to marry and roughs up the fiance Robert a bit, who in turn, threatens to kill him. Tim then discovers the identity of the banker on the run and takes his money from him. Mike Bardoni the mobster was trying to get away from Tim himself, and before we know it, Tim the mean mobster is dead. But who killed him? And what happened to that convict tied up in the back room? Add in the bumbling Sheriff (Charles Middleton) and we've got the makings of a classic murder mystery. They don't come much better than this. Ok, maybe they do, but this one is fun and there's some good laughs and you'll be surprised at who did what. YAY for George Zucco, I love him. The scene where he's making googley eyes at his servant is the best moment. Here's a couple zingers for you:

George Zucco: "Too bad you weren't born without a tongue instead of without a brain."

"With your imagination, you could see the Statue of Liberty do the conga!"

I've seen this listed as a remake of "The Rougues Tavern", but having seen both films, I find them very dissimilar. In fact I would not have know this was a remake without having read it on IMDB. It's a quick 65 minute film, and MillCreeks version was sub-par as usual, with frequent complete black screens instead of a movie. Die hard fans might want a restored, unedited version. I heard Roan Group.com carries a good version of it.

Mystery Collection: Disc 48 - side A

Watch for free here:

http://www.archive.org/details/black_raven

The Bowery at Midnight ~ 1942 -BW

QUICKIE: Bela is a sweet, kind hearted professor who helps the homeless.... psych! He's the same old villain that we love so much.

PLOT: A kindly university professor (Bela Lugosi) operates a soup kitchen with his daughter Judy (Wanda McKay) down in the Bowery, helping those less fortunate than most. This persona is a cover for the professor's true activities, heading a criminal operation out of the basement of the soup kitchen with his gang (Tom Neal, Vince Barnett, Dave O'Brien) who commit a series of daring robberies. When things get out of hand, Lugosi kills his henchmen, who wind up as zombies in the cellar of the soup kitchen. When one of the professor's students (John Archer) accidentally uncovers the truth, he is targeted for death to protect the Professor's secrets.

SUMMARY: Well, I'll give him this, the Professor has the perfect set up going. A college professor by day, he also runs a soup kitchen where a steady stream of criminals come through his mission door and he "hires them" on the spot. The gang does "a job" together and the recent recruit is killed off during the crime. Well, that's the smartest way to keep your nefarious dealings a secret and take a bigger cut at the same time. There's no one left to squeal on you. Of course the police are stumped about who is committing all these crimes. That is until one of the Professor's high society students goes under cover as a homeless person so he can gain some insight into "how the other half lives" as research for his term paper. Of course he too must be killed because he uncovers the Professor's secret identity.

The Professor has an assistant who manages to bring the dead back to life and he keeps the resurrected gang members in a hidden room in the cellar. This part of the movie is never fleshed out and it left me more confused than adding anything to the film. The movie ends with Richard (the student made zombie, yet who is now perfectly normal) making wedding plans with Judy. Yes I KNOW, every film made before 1960 ends with people getting married, but how has Richard become un-zombified? How did he become a zombie to begin with? It's like they took a plot from another zombie making movie and tried to stick it in here. Best not to think too hard about the plot in these films.

Also keep an eye out for the stereotypical "evil black cat" who likes to hang out with the dead . He adds a particularly scary element with his 6 month old baby meows. awwwww. Then Bela retorts: "How often have I told you to keep that cat from desecrating my graves!"

Horror Collection: Disc 36- side A

Watch for free online: http://www.archive.org/details/Bowery_at_Midnight

Part One at Youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOUjY-R5Bw

The Monster Maker ~ 1944 -BW

QUICKIE: Our hero gets injected with acromegaly by the mad Dr.

PLOT: A mad scientist-Dr. Igor Markoff (J. Carrol Naish) injects a concert pianist, Anthony Lawrence (Ralph Morgan) with a disease that only he has the antidote for, which he trys to blackmail the pianist's daughter, Patricia (Wanda McKay) into marriage for.

SUMMARY: J. Carrol Naish is seriously creepy and evil as the demented "Dr." who injects our hero with acromegaly. Our heroine is rightly nervous and suspicous of him. After degrading into grotesqueness, Mr. Lawrence has no choice but to submit to the evil Dr.'s demands in order to get a cure. But of course, the mad Dr. is killed and all hope is lost for a cure, or rather not, as the Dr.'s assistant Maxine (Tala Birell) saves the day by curing him. Always the happy ending as the movie closes with Lawrence giving a concert again.

Love this condescending dialogue:

Mr. Lawrence: (tapping Pat's nose) You've been listening to too many horror radio programs lately. What you need is a good workout on a badminton court. Come on, run along.

Right. We all know nothing will break a sweat like a good game of badminton, and his daughter is 20 something, not six.

There's a good sub-plot of the long-suffering assistant who is in love with the kooky Dr. and her slow realisation that the Dr. is mad and will never love her, but trys to kill her instead by having a giant ape attack her. So, why in these movies do the girls always confront the lunatic with "I'm going to reveal you to the authorities" threats? Don't they know that you never confront a mad Dr., but gently reassure his ego while looking for an opportunity to quietly slip away, turn him in and join a witness protection program?