At the Octoplex

Even though it's closer to Thanksgiving, I'm still catching up on our Halloween movies. We watched a great batch of old classics, four double bills. Here goes:

Son of Frankenstein/Ghost of Frankenstein (1939/1942) are up first. These sequels both feature Bela Lugosi as Ygor, deformed when he survived a hanging. He looks very dashing in a wolfman-esque beard - it squares off his heart-shaped face. In Son, when Basil Rathbone as Baron von Frankenstein's heir shows up at the castle, Ygor is always nearby, tootling his oxhorn flute.

When the young doctor revives the corpse of the monster (Boris Karloff), he discovers that it only responds to Ygor's flute. The monster then begins murdering the jurors who judged Ygor, and it's time for the old torch-carrying mob. Ygor is shot and the monster is pushed into a pit of molten sulfur. That's the last we'll see of them!

Until Ghost. When the villagers blow up Castle Frankenstein, it releases the monster (Lon Chaney, Jr., this time) from the pit, which has preserved it. Ygor takes him to see Cedric Hardwicke, the old Baron's other son, to get him a tune-up. Before he can do much, the monster kills Dr. Frankenstein's co-worker, Dr. Lionel Atwill. The old Baron's ghost appears to the doctor. and suggests putting Atwill's brain in the monster, so it won't be evil. Ygor, however, wants them to use his brain - he has been hanged and shot and is pretty banged up. Guess what happens?

Note that both Son and Ghost have, respectively, a son and a ghost as advertised. They also have great casts and are a lot of fun.

Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection: Mark of the Vampire/The Mask of Fu Manchu (1935/1932) is up next. These two are a bit different, each notorious in their own way. Mark takes place in some Eastern European town with gypsies, etc. Elizabeth Allan is daughter of the lord of the manor, who winds up dead - with two small puncture wounds in his throat. Police inspector Lionel Atwill doesn't believe it is vampires, but when specialist Lionel Barrymore shows up, he confirms: vampires. Notice that creepy strangers Bela Lugosi and Caroll Borland have just moved in, scaring the locals.

Before I get to the spoiler ending, I should mention that the commentary track featured horror and SF author Kim Newman, one of our faves. So, although we don't listen to a lot of these tracks, we had to listen to this one, and were glad we did. For one thing, they talked about how Mark was more or less a remake of Todd Browning's London After Midnight, a lost film. The gimmick in both films is that the vampires are fake, used by the police to expose the real murderer. I sure didn't see that twist coming.

I'm afraid I don't have much to say about Mask of Fu Manchu. It's possible I fell asleep a little. I do want to say that Boris Karloff makes a great Dr. Fu, if you don't mind the yellowface. Even better (worse) is Myrna Loy as his daughter Fa Lo See. For some reason, many of Loy's early roles had her playing Asian. I'll admit she has an exotic look, but I don't really see Asian. However, when she is given Sir Nayland Smith as a plaything, she has him whipped by a large African man, and it is pretty kinky. Oh, Mrs. Thin Man! So, if you are politically insensitive, this precode might be worth a watch.

The next double double comes courtesy of Rod Heath, of Ferdy On Films. He masterfully dissects the four Mummy sequels, available on 2 discs, The Mummy's Hand/The Mummy's Tomb (1940/1942) and The Mummy's Ghost/The Mummy's Curse (1944). Hand sets up the premise for the series as the retiring priest tells new priest George Zucco about how Kharis stole a bunch of tanna leaves (they look like eucalyptus to us) to try to revive his dead love Ananka. As punishment, he is entombed alive with a big supply of leaves, and the priests keep him alive with a few drops of tanna potion.

Note: Kharis is presumably based on the Greek word for devotion (root of charm, charisma) and Ananka comes from the word for necessity or destiny.

Hand features a roguish archeologist Dick Foran and his Brooklyn buddy Wallace Ford scouring Egypt for ancient treasure. They get funding from a cabaret magician (Cecil Kellaway), to the dismay of his beautiful daughter Peggy Moran. Of course, she becomes the target of both the mummy (Tom Tyler) and Zucco. It ends with the mummy heading back to America with our heroes.

There is no particular "hand" on hand.

In Tomb, we go to Foran's home in Massachusetts, where, as an old man, he tells his friends and family the story again. In Egypt, Zucco is telling the same story to his disciple, Turhan Bey. Soon, Bey is in Mass. too, setting up as gravedigger in the local cemetery, with the undead mummy - Lon Chaney, Jr, now a three-monster player (Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, Kharis). After some killing, Ford shows up (Moran has gone to her reward, it seems), but the younger generation, John Hubbard ad Elyse Knox are taking the main duties, including Knox's duty as re-incarnated Ananka substitute.

Kharis hangs out in a tomb in the cemetery, so the title checks out.

In Ghost, Zucco hands over the high priest duties to cadaverous John Carradine, who heads to Mass. to get the mummy back to Egypt. There, archeology student Robert Lowery is studying Kharis, but his main interest is otherworldy, Egyptian orphan Ramsay Ames. Surprise! She is Ananka reincarnated. Kharis catches her, and they both sink into a Massachusetts swamp. Ghosts are not in evidence.

Finally, in Curse, Massachusetts has moved to Louisiana (now the swamp makes sense). Some engineers are draining the swamp, but people keep turning up dead - maybe a mummy or two have been dug up? Beautiful exotic Virginia Christine (Mrs. Olson for Folgers) is wandering around without her memory, and there are some Egyptians (Peter Coe and Martin Koslek) skulking around the ruined chapel on the hill (noted ornament to any Louisiana town). The curse in question is probably when the Mummy shouts "Fuck this!" at the end.

Wow, what a great collection of b-horror movies! And (even though it is Thanksgiving by the calendar), I'm not done with spooky October yet.