NIGHT EDITOR - "It's A Nightmare! With Convulsions!" (1946)

It's time for another Weird Ass Wednesday from down in The Dungeon! Tonight's feature is a special for for all the quadruple F'ers out there, you know, the card carrying members of the Freakin' Femme Fatale Fanclub!

 "Night Editor" doesn't seem like a very exciting title, but it's a movie that was based on a very popular radio show of the time, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

New York City, circa 1946.

Not the New York Times, but the New York Star!

Love this shot of the storyteller with the cool silhouette in the background! So it's newspaper guys sitting around waiting for something to happen while playing cards and shooting the shit!

This story is about New York police Lieutenant Tony Cochrane as played by William Gargan!

Tony's got lots of problems! He's a happily married cop with a psycho socialite girlfriend, and because of it, he doesn't have a lot to gain, but he sure has a lot to lose! Femme fatale Jill Merrill is played by Janis (The Woman On Pier 13) Carter!

Tony and Jill have parked it and are smooching when a car comes speeding in. They see the driver beating a young lady with a tire iron, and when approached, he runs off into the night!

Tony's got a big problem now! He's a cop, and he's witnessed a murder, but he can't do anything about it without damaging his career and his marriage!

And it doesn't help things one bit that Jill is a total bitch!

Tony arranges to meet Jill in the library where they can talk undisturbed!

In the meantime Tony realizes that the rich sleazy weasel Douglas Loring is the guy he saw running from the car! Douglas is played by the classic Frank (Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, End Of The Beginning) Wilcox.

Now it gets really complicated. Tony finds out that Jill and Douglas are good friends, and that she also knew the dead girl, a little matter she never told Tony!

Tony is now officially screwed!
A lot of the time William Gargan reminds me of  Eddie Constantine in one of his Lemmy Caution roles! Not quite sure why, but I think it's his demeanor.

The only person who has any sense is Tony's partner Ole. Police Lieutenant Ole Strom is played by Paul E. (The Mummy's Tomb) Burns. Paul was also the janitor in the "Twilight Zone" episode titled "Escape Clause."

If that's not all bad enough, Douglas and Jill are also lovers!!

Not too subtle!!

 "Night Editor" is a simple enough movie, but it kept me plenty entertained! My copy is part of a four film set of Columbia Classics called "Bad Girls Of Film Noir," that also includes "One Girl's Confession," "Women's Prison," and "Over-Exposed," a pretty nice package that you really ought to check out if you like this kind of stuff!

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE / Are You A Jekyll Or A Hyde? - 1941

In today's classic tale, Dr. Jekyll allows his dark side to run wild when he drinks a potion that turns him into the evil... Mr. Hyde.

This thing stars Spencer (IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD) Tracy, Ingrid (NOTORIOUS) Bergman, Lana (MADAME X) Turner, Donald (IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA) Crisp, Ian (DOCTOR BLOOD'S COFFIN) Hunter, Barton (UNKNOWN ISLAND) MacLane and many more.

Here's Dr. Jekyll working in his lab, he's experimenting on animals with two serums, one makes them hostile, one makes them gentle...

The doc decides to experiment on himself to see if the serums work on humans beans!

After downing a beaker of his 'bad side' serum, the doctor has hallucinations where he's whipping two white stallions to go faster. Then, they turn into the two women in his life! Something ain't right here. Man, Ingrid and Lana were so beautiful!

Mr. Hyde gets a good look at himself in the mirror!

He combs his hair and heads out to the pub. It doesn't take long before he creates a pile of trouble, including hurting people and starting a big fight!

Caught in conundrum, Mr. Hyde confides in his friend the secret he's been keeping...

He is really Dr. Jekyll in disguise!

But, there's a problem... Jekyll now turns back into Hyde without the use of the serum! He goes to see his girl, Beatrix, and scares the Hell out of her, then, kills her butler with his cane before he splits the scene!

Back at the ranch, the police show up. Apparently, Dr. Jekyll was attacked by Mr. Hyde and the cops are ready to leave when...

Jekyll's friend arrives (the one he showed the transformation) and begs him to tell the police the truth. While denying it, he changes back into Hyde and goes berserk!

So, Hyde is shot dead and he transforms back into Jekyll bringing our tale to an end - Join us again on Wednesday when Eegah!! will occupy this space!.. Later!

A DOPPIA FACCI - "A Double Face" (1969)

Twelve years and almost 3000 movies later, and we still haven't made a cent, and tonight ain't gonna be any different. This Saturday Night Special for the beginning of 2019 is a film called "A Doppia Faccia" or "Double  Face" and sometimes even "Puzzle Of Horrors" depending on who you talk to!
 

This film should have actually been called something like "The Many Looks Of Klaus Kinski" because that's mostly what it is!

Now I'm not complaining because Klaus Kinski is a perennial favourite, and a member of The Dungeon Hall Of Fame, and it's good to see him in a role as a handsome leading man instead of some psychotic freak case!

Pretty daring for 1969, and even more daring for whatever year Edgar Wallace wrote it, Klaus's wife is a lesbian, and is played by the marvelous Margaret Lee of  "Secret Agent Super Dragon," "Psycho-Circus," "Venus In Furs" etc. fame!!

When your relationship is this far gone, even going to races isn't going to save it! You've already lost the bet before you even got started! I always like shots of people looking through their binoculars at the racetrack!

Klaus's wife also has a cool snake ring.....

...and a nasty scar on her neck that will be handy when trying to identify her later once things get strange!

I'm willing to bet that at least 40% of the movie is closeups of Klaus, and maybe even more than that!

The music is swinging and strange from start to finish! Working as Joan Christian for whatever weird contractual obligation, Nora Orlandi is the woman responsible!

The music in this club scene was just as disorienting as this still, and sounded like four or five different songs playing at the same time!

Klaus just keeps racking up more closeups!

This is a pretty cool and and atmospheric alley shot!

How ironic, I have a pair of dikes exactly like this!!

A good lighting person is worth their weight in gold!

For the whole story and even more closeups of Klaus's mug, I recommend you go on over to Sinister Cinema and grab yourself a copy! I also found it streaming for free on YouTube, but the quality is so bad, it's not really worth the effort or the time!