THE WOLF MAN / MAN TURNED BEAST... - 1941

Us guys here at The Dungeon are on a binge to find all the great stuff from the thirties and forties that we haven't reviewed yet, like today's post, THE WOLF MAN, so hold on to your hats! Our story goes like this... Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Wales after his brother (who looked exactly like Larry) dies. One night, him, Gwen Conliffe and Jenny Williams are out for a walk in the woods where Jenny's  picking some Wolf's Bane flowers. They end up at a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller named Bela...

This classic horror tale stars Lon (SON OF DRACULA) Chaney, Claude (THE INVISIBLE MAN) Rains, Warren (THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS) Williams, Ralph (THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN) Bellamy, Patric (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN) Knowles, Bela (THE INVISIBLR RAY) Lugosi, Maria (TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS) Ouspenskaya and Evelyn (THE FROZEN GHOST) Ankers.

So, Larry has come home after his bro dies, he settles in and helps his father repair his telescope. The one thing about this movie that really bugs me is that no way is Claude Rains Larry's father, they look nothing alike and are about a foot difference in height. That includes his dead brother who looks exactly like Larry!! They must have had a wild looking mom!

Larry looks through the telescope and sees a heavenly image, and goes to her shop to meet her. It's also weird that Gwen doesn't recognize Larry when his brother had lived there for years!! Anyway, Larry buys a cane with a wolf's head handle and she tells him some of the history behind the wolf's head, and it involves werewolves!

The night Larry, Gwen and Jenny go to the carnival, Jenny wants her fortune told so Bela invites her into his tent for a reading. Bela asks to hold her hands, and he sees the pentagram on her palm. He then tells her that she needs to run away from the area and get to somewhere safe.

Well, Jenny is attacked and killed by a wolf and the animal then attacks Larry when he comes to help. Larry ends up killing the wolf with his cane after being bitten on the chest...

At the murder scene, the authorities confirms that Jenny was killed by a wolf, but there's no wolf! Instead, they find Bela face down, dead. They also notice that he isn't wearing any shoes. Another weird thing, Jenny and Larry were both clearly attacked by a wolf, not a monster wearing clothes!

And guess what, they found Larry's cane at the murder scene! Clearly, Larry killed Bela with his cane by mistake in the heat of the battle with the wolf.

Larry finds Maleva and needs to know the answers to his questions. Unfortunately, she only has bad news for him...

And it isn't long before Larry's out looking for more victims. He finds a grounds keeper at the graveyard and deep-sixes him!.. Ironic!

By now Larry's convinced that he's a werewolf so dad brings in Dr. Lloyd to talk with his son. But, the doctor and friends there all say that it just has to be Larry's imagination.

Well, it's definitely NOT his imagination! This part kills me, poor Larry has stepped into a large trap set out for him by the authorities and it's clinging to his ankle as he writhes in agony. He passes out and turns back to his human form. He awakens and hobbles back to his house, even past the authorities because he was Larry Talbot, and not a werewolf!

Larry does not know what to do! He wants to see Gwen but as he's talking with her, he sees a pentagram on her palm, he freaks out and runs into the night.

He goes home and has his father tie him to a chair and lock the doors and windows, to assure that he will be restrained and can't do any harm, if he does so happen to change into the dreaded wolf man!

While the authorities keep up the search for the werewolf, Maleva rides by in her cart. Larry's dad stops her and wants to know why she's filling his son's head with all those crazy ideas. But the wise old lady has a few things to say herself.

Of course, Gwen is next!

So, dad ends up killing his own son, finally realizing that Larry was right all along... Don't worry, Gwen is okay, but it's not a happy ending.

We'll end with this very cool Mexican poster! Check in tomorrow, here at The Dungeon!

THE MAD GHOUL - "A New Sensation In Horror" (1943)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday presentation just keeps the Universal madball rolling with "The Mad Ghoul" from 1943.

He's not really mad or a ghoul, but "The Mad Ghoul" sounds better than "The Poor Sap Who Was Lied To And Manipulated By His Evil Professor."

 

The always phenomenal George Zucco is Chemistry Professor, Dr. Alfred Morris. He's got some different ideas about how the laws of nature work.

David (The Smiling Ghost) Bruce is the Professor's best student Ted Allison. The professor likes him so much, he decides to just ruin his life!

 

Ted's girlfriend Isabel is a singing sensation on her way up, and his friend Eric is her accompanist. Isabel was played by the enchanting Evelyn Ankers, and Eric is played by the always great Turhan Bey!

Dr. Morris is not only insane, he's also a back-stabbing manipulative bastard. He's telling Isabel how he's watching over and out for Ted, while draining the life out of him. It's no secret that Dr. Morris would also really like to get into Isabel's panties!

Seventy-seven years ago, but with that mask on, this looks like it could have been filmed yesterday! The Prof is handling some serious substance that when ignited has this zombie effect. First he tried it on monkeys, and now it's Ted's turn. Unfortunately, Ted is not in on the deal. The tube on the mask stops him from inhaling the crap!

Dr. Morris ignites the shit, and then calls Ted into the room and locks him in, and this is the result! I just can't get over how it affects his hair!

Hey Doc, I don't really feel that great!

One of the original 'Queens of Horror,' if the world was a fair place, Evelyn Ankers would be as well known as Marilyn Monroe, but who said the world was a fair place?

I found this cool shot on Pinterest, that shows just some of the classic horror films Evelyn was in! A couple years later, and they could have added "Weird Woman," "The Frozen Ghost," and "The Invisible Man's Revenge" to that uncanny list!

For obvious reasons like "The Mummy's Hand," "The Monster And The Girl," "The Mad Monster," and "The Flying Serpent," just to name a few, George Zucco was, is, and always be a core member of The Dungeon Hall Of Fame!

So, let's see, when he's not busy being a ghoul, Ted wants to marry Isabel, and the Doctor is also hot for her, but she's actually in love with Eric, so it is a bit of a cluster! 

Turhan Bey as Eric is always awesome no matter if the role is classy like this, or creepy like in "The Mummy's Tomb," another film that also had George Zucco in it.

Dr. Morris just keeps on stoking the fire of deceit! The lies that flow from his lips make you wonder why he was not a politician, instead of a Professor!

The Professor has given the order to Ted, "Kill Eric, then kill yourself!"

Just being a ghoul wasn't enough. A ghoul with a gun takes it to a different level!

Everything ain't so merry in Merryville tonight!

Isabel is on a small tour thrilling audiences from one town to the next with her warbling!

The Doctor has Ted cutting hearts out of bodies left and right, and all over the place! In order to keep him going, he needs a full tank of juice. Eventually somebody puts two and two together and notices that the killings and heart extractions are happening in the same exact places and times that Isabel is performing.

This reporter figures it all out, and sets up a ruse with himself as bait acting like a corpse. As smart as he was to figure it all out, he wasn't smart enough to see Ted standing there with a scalpel in his hand!

The hour and a minute this film runs is almost over, so there's no more time for any more made up stories.

When he was in a normal state, Ted figured out what the Doctor was doing to him, so he turns the tables on him, and Dr. Morris inhales a big bunch of the stuff, and ends up suffering the same fate as Ted, but since he no longer has anybody to cut out hearts for him, his fate is sealed!

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE / THEY'RE MARKED...for DEATH! - 1944

Welp. looks like we've got another classic Universal movie today, this time, an eccentric scientist helps a fugitive running from the law become invisible, unwittingly giving him the power to exact revenge on his former friends and business partners...

It stars Jon (MONSTER FROM THE SURF) Hall, Leon (MEXICAN SPITFIRE'S ELEPHANT) Errol, John (THE UNEARTHLY) Carradine, Alan (PHILO VANCE'S SECRET MISSION) Curtis, Evelyn (THE WOLF MAN) Ankers, and Gale (THE BLACK CAT) Sondergaard.

It's a twisted tale to start with, Bob Griffin has made his way back to London from South Africa after he became ill and ended up in a mental hospital. He has escaped from South Africa by killing two interns at the hospital. Running from the law, Griffin shows up at his partner's home and demands his cut of the fortune (of which he has the contract with him) from their diamond mine (business partner Sir Jasper Herrick and his wife left South Africa after they thought Griffin would die from his illness) but finds out that they lost most of the money in an investment that went south.

Griffin gets angry and tells Herrick that he wants everything they have including their home! And their daughter, Julie!!.. But after Griffin has a drink, he becomes dizzy and faints. Thinking they're dealing with a madman, Jasper and Irene take the contract and then have their butler dump the body near a nearby lake.

At the lake, Griffin wakes up but is still dizzy, and falls in the water. Luckily, Herbert Higgins is strolling by and pulls him out of the lake. He takes Griffin home with him and lets him stay there while he recovers.

Griffin, paranoid, goes wandering (he had to leave the place he was staying because of the police) and comes across a large stone house. It's the home of the scientist, Doctor Drury. Asking for help, he tells the doctor that he's hiding from the police, and that he was being unjustly accused. The doctor lets Griffin come in, and he shows him his mad lab.

Then the doc shows him his faithful invisible German Shepard, and tells him the story of how one intruder found that out the hard way!

So, after Griffin becomes invisible and pummels the doctor, he heads off into the night.

Griffin sneaks into Jasper's house and gives him a big surprise, and has him write out a letter of guilt dictated by the invisible bully, and then he leaves.

He goes back to Herbert's place and spooks the Hell out of his friend!

But, Herbert doesn't have the rent money and is getting kicked out. So, Griffin comes up with a scheme. They go to the pub and bet 5 pounds that Herbert can hit the bulls eye with all his darts. the big guy on the right top takes him up on the bet. After Griffith assists Herbert by running the dart to the center of the bulls eye a number of times, the little guy shoots a dart off of a squeeze box and it hits its mark. The guy who's betting with Herbert finally loses his cool!

He takes his money back from the little guy and is ready to clock him when Griffin steps in and knocks the big guy out cold. Everyone thinks Herbert hit him!

Griffin is creeping around the doctor's house one night.

He sees the doc give his dog a transfusion where it becomes visible again!

Griffin has the doctor call the police, asking for Mark Foster, Julie's beau, to have him come to his house where he can find the invisible man. What Griffin wants Foster for is to drain his blood for the transfusion, and to get rid of him so that he can marry Julie. But, Mark is not there, so Griffin decides to use Dr. Drury, calling the police back (as the doctor) to say he didn't make the call.

Then Mark shows up and the officers tell him the odd story of the phone calls. Mark (a newspaper reporter) grabs a policeman and they drive out to the doctor's place to check the story out.

In the meantime, Griffin has finished the transfusion and starts the place on fire! The dog (now visible) escapes the house and follows Griffin through the woods.

Now visible himself, Griffin goes back to Jasper's house and tells him and the butler that he's a guest who is there to stay for a while, and his name's not Griffin, it's Fields!

Griffin's new plan is to get rid of Mark and marry into the money with Julie!

Herbert drops in to say hello to his friend, but the crazy man is thinking about using Herbert's blood for the next transfusion!! The little guy weasels his way out of the sticky situation, so, Griffin wants him to kills the dog that keeps howling and is driving him crazy. Herbert agrees after Griffin says that he'll give him 1,000 pounds to take care of the dog!!

But at lunch when Julie and Mark are there, Griffin starts to turn invisible again. He runs out of the room saying that he had cut his hand with a knife.

Mark is lured to the basement where Griffin locks him in, then begins to pummel the unsuspecting victim. The maniac knocks Mark out and puts him on a table where he starts performing the transfusion...

Herbert cannot control the dog and it gets loose and goes directly to the basement door where it scratches and howls.

The police show up and knock a hole in the door and the dog jumps through and goes directly at Griffin. By the time the cops break in, it's too late, the invisible man is Dead!! Mark recovers and there's a happy ending.

If the world doesn't end, we'll be back on Wednesday with who the Hell knows what, here at The Dungeon!!..