SILVER SCREAMS FOR HALLOWEENS

 THIS CAME OUT A FEW MONTHS AGO BUT IT'S PERFECT  FOR OCTOBER! 

Australian company Imprint (no they're not paying me) released a slam-bang box set called SILVER SCREAMS which gathers together 7 spiffy horror movies from Republic (the sort-of apres-poverty row studio) in a gorgeous package with sparkling prints.  There are only 6 films listed on the cover but I'll get to that in a minute. This is the first and, so far, only Imprint title I've ever gotten because . . . . well frankly, we all know how much it costs to ship from Australia to the United States.  But this one was a no-brainer since I didn't have most of the films included and, those I did have weren't very good prints.  One thing I can say about this box set is that the prints for these films are immaculate!  Another thing I can say is that I really appreciate such rarely-seen horror movies are getting some light shined on them.  THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST, THE PHANTOM SPEAKS, VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE APE MAN, SHE-DEVIL and UNKNOWN TERROR are also accompanied by a special bonus film THE LADY AND THE MONSTER.  It's a bit bewildering why the last film isn't mentioned on the front of the box but it's undoubtedly a really nice surprise to find it inside!  The thing about these Republic horror movies is that they have such a distinctive, sometimes offbeat feel to them that you don't find in other films of the time.  

THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST stars John Abbott as one of the most tired-looking, world-weary vampires you're ever likely to see.  His sad, basset hound eyes and sonorous voice really give you a sense of this vampire's world-weariness.  Even running a bar in an African port fails to spice up Webb Fallon's drab existence; he seems hardly able to summon up the gumption to bite a neck.  There is a creepiness to the sedate slowness of the film's pace which I quite enjoy.  ** 1/2

THE PHANTOM SPEAKS stars Richard Arlen and Stanley Ridges.  In the horror woild, you know Richard Arlen from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS and Stanley Ridges from BLACK FRIDAY.  This will be a useful reminder to you since Stanley Ridges plays exactly the same character here as he does in BLACK FRIDAY!  Ridges is a kindly doctor/spiritualist Dr. Renwick who claims that he can communicate with the dead.  To prove it, he consults with death row convict Harvey Bogardus (Tom Powers) on the eve of his execution.  Dr. Renwick conjures the ghost of Bogardus who promptly possesses the doctor and goes on a revenge murder spree for all those who convicted him.  This is where Ridges enters BLACK FRIDAY territory; the actor gets to portray the mild-mannered doctor and the cold-hearted murderer personalities.  Character actor Tom Powers (probably best known as Barbara Stanwyck's husband in DOUBLE INDEMNITY) also does a really fine job as the killer.  I am NO fan of the extremely dull BLACK FRIDAY which totally wastes Karloff and Lugosi; it pisses me off every time I see it because it amounts to a Stanley Ridges movie with Karloff & Lugosi supporting.  Oddly, I'm struggling with my rating for this because I think I actually enjoyed THE PHANTOM SPEAKS more than BLACK FRIDAY so I'm vacillating between ** 1/2 - ***.

THE LADY AND THE MONSTER is the movie snuck onto this disc as an extra feature.  Here we have a telling of DONOVAN'S BRAIN with Eric von Stroheim as Prof. Mueller (who preserves Donovan's brain in a tank), Richard Arlen as the Professor's assistant Dr. Cory (who falls under the influence of the pernicious brain) and the titanic Vera Hruba Ralston (who performs ineptly and without charisma . . . as usual).  This is a fun version of the tale in which von Stroheim is over-the-top entertaining and Arlen is surprisingly good in his split personality performance.  We also have Sidney Blackmer (Roman Castavet of ROSEMARY'S BABY) as a sleazy lawyer.  ***

VALLEY OF THE ZOMBIES is definitely my favourite film of the set.  This first-time watch stars the awesomely-creepy Ian Keith as the spectacularly-named Ormand Murks who is dead from an operation in an insane asylum and somehow (which is not made quite clear) comes back to life and has been stealing blood in the dark of night from the hospital's blood bank.   Coming across as more of a vampire than a zombie, Murks can only survive on blood; however, I think he syphons all the blood out of the bodies by artificial means rather than a fang-chomp on the neck.  Regardless, the film is dripping with spooky atmosphere and benefits tremendously from Keith's incredibly-creepy eyes and sepulchral voice which sounds like it's echoing from the tomb.  Lorna Gray is quite terrific as our ingenue who displays more backbone and initiative than most of these movies allow.  A super fun movie that clocks in just under an hour!  ***1/2

RETURN OF THE APE MAN is our Bela Lugosi/John Carradine prehistoric man epic which I discuss over in my SPOOK SISTERS post a short while ago.  **1/2

SHE DEVIL is the story of a terminally ill woman named Kyra Zelas (Mari Blanchard) given a serum created by Dr. Bach (Albert Dekker) and Dr. Scott (Dan Kelly) from a fruit fly which not only saves her life but allows her to develop the ability to recover immediately from any injury.  This is an movie adaptation of the story "THE ADAPTIVE ULTIMATE" which I first heard years ago on the old radio show ESCAPE.  The story here is quite absorbing even if it doesn't really provide much on the horror-o-meter.  Blanchard does a fine job of depicting the deliciously evil Kyra relishing her naughtiness.  The special features on this disc not only include the two-part ESCAPE radio shows but also an episode of TALES OF TOMORROW of the same story with singer/actor Lola Albright in the Blanchard role.  ***

THE UNKNOWN TERROR is probably the least of the films in the set.  Gina Matthews' (Mala Powers) brother has gone missing in a remote jungle searching for "The Cave of the Dead" so she calls together an exhibition to go find him . . . and the cave if possible.  She brings along her husband Dan (Bulldog Drummond himself John Howard) and her ex-flame Peter Morgan (Paul Richards).  The group encounters a "mad scientist" who has created some kind of fungus monster which somehow attacks locals and turns them into monsters.  The "fungus" which pours down cave walls AND drenches possessed locals looks like nothing more than soap suds.  This is no deal breaker, however, for poverty row horror flicks.  However, there is precious little horror in the movie with endless "trekking through the jungle" scenes followed by endless "walking through caves" scenes.  There are one or two nice moments (mostly at the end)  but mostly it's a chore getting through those 76 minutes.  **