I Just Watched...

[film lover 293]

"Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows" (2007).  Narrated by Martin Scorsese.

 

Excellent documentary examines Lewton's life, from his arrival in Hollywood and sponsorship by his aunt Nazimova, to an 8 year stint working for David O. Selznick, to his arrival at RKO and his setting up a low budget horror film unit.  The documentary examines each film he made, from "Cat People" (1942) to his final film "Apache Drums" (1951).  Lewton had a deep streak of pessimism in his nature, and that deeply influenced his films.

 

This is one of the two best documentaries I've seen for the first time this year.  A must see for horror film lovers, and those who admire Lewton's films.  Documentary gets at what made Lewton tick, so to speak.  3.6/4.

 

Thanks TCM for showing this gem.

[ChristineHoard]

film lover 293, Glad you caught the Val Lewton doc.  I watched it again, too, for the third time and I still think it's excellent and might bump up your rating a bit.  I like that TCM still runs this every now and then, usually when they run a bunch of the Val Lewton RKO flicks.

I think THE BODY SNATCHER is my favorite and I think it's one of Karloff's best performances.  I also like how Lewton used a lot of the same people repeatedly and gave roles to fading stars;  Richard Dix in THE GHOST SHIP gives a fine performance.

[cigarjoe]

Drum (1976)

 

Directed by Steve Carver, based on the Kyle Onstott novel the cinematography was by Lucien Ballard and the music was by Charlie Smalls. The film was released by United Artists and is a sequel to the film Mandingo (which I've never seen either), released in 1975. The film stars Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Pam Grier, Ken Norton, Yaphet Kotto.  

 

Drum (Norton) has been born to a white prostitute (Vega), who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up as whorehouse servant but is forced to bare-knuckle-box another slave Blaise (Kotto) for the entertainment of a white effeminate/gay slaveholder, a Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny (Colicos). DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but his advances are rejected and during the ensuing scuffle Drum's "mammy" is shot. 

 

Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell (Oates) and are both taken to his plantation to work. Regine (Grier) is purchased by Maxwell as well and is taken to the plantation for his own personal desires as a bedwench. He also purchases a white **** Augusta Chauvel (Lewis) to be his housekeeper,/fiance

 

Maxwells plantation is a stud farm he doesn't grow cotton he breeds slaves. The film is a hoot. Maxwell's got an out of control daughter Sophie (Smith) with raging hormones who likes to run around the "farm" making the male slaves let her unbutton their breeches and "play" with their snakes. Sophie also tries to force Blaise to sleep with her, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be nutted for the alleged rape. Blaise is chained up in the barn and while helpless Sophie comes in lifts her hoop skirts and flashes Blaise, but Maxwell see's her do it, so he not quite as inclined to really believe Sophie.

 

Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. Casual round the dining table dinner conversations includes the best way to castrate a slave.

 

Drum frees his friend Blaise from his chains and it all ends up turning into a slave revolt led by Blaise, with the slaves burning down the out buildings. During the storming of the main house fighting Drum grabs hold of DeMarigny's johnson & balls and rips them off by the roots, that method wasn't mentioned in the dinner conversation.  

 

Maxwell and Chauvel are all saved by Drum. In appreciation for saving his family and also knowing that if Drum stays the prevailing sentiment of the white slaveholders would demand that he kill him, Maxwell sets Drum free and tells him to run into the night.

 

A much better written and choreographed ending than somewhat similar Django Unchained, it's a better film. 9/10 The whole cast is excellent, entertaining and well made, check it out currently on Youtube while you can.

 

A classic worthy of TCM

[Janet0312]

Man-Made Monster (1941) youtube (but for how long?)

 

One of the best of the Universal 1940s horror flicks, moving rapidly along at just under an hour. Lon Chaney stars as sideshow entertainer whose act features him working with electricity. When he is the only survivor of a bus crash where the other passengers are electrocuted, scientist Samuel S. Hinds invites him to participate in a few experiments to determine his immunity to electricity. So far so good. Hinds has an associate, played by Lionel Atwill. Now you know something will go wrong. Atwill has the idea that he can create a species of beings powered by electricity, and Chaney is his perfect subject. Pretty soon Chaney is glowing like Chernobyl and kills Hinds. Chaney is sentenced to die in the electric chair, but the execution does not go as planned.

 

This is my favorite Chaney film. He gives a very relaxed performance early on as just a simple, likable, trusting soul, before the **** hits the fan. Atwill, as usual, is superb as a nutjob, and the supporting cast is fine as well. A bonus is Hans J. Salter’s score, which features his themes that were used over and over in many other Universal films. There is also a very touching relationship between Chaney and Hinds’ dog, which runs throughout the film. Highly recommended.

 

 

Most definitely one of Chaney's better performances. I love how he connects with Corky. So cute.

[darkblue]

Drum (1976)

 

A classic worthy of TCM

 

I wonder if TCM would ever show the first one - Mandingo.

[darkblue]

"Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lewton: The Man In The Shadows" (2007).  Narrated by Martin Scorsese.

 

Excellent documentary examines Lewton's life, from his arrival in Hollywood and sponsorship by his aunt Nazimova, to an 8 year stint working for David O. Selznick, to his arrival at RKO and his setting up a low budget horror film unit.  The documentary examines each film he made, from "Cat People" (1942) to his final film "Apache Drums" (1951).  Lewton had a deep streak of pessimism in his nature, and that deeply influenced his films.

 

This is one of the two best documentaries I've seen for the first time this year.  A must see for horror film lovers, and those who admire Lewton's films.  Documentary gets at what made Lewton tick, so to speak.  3.6/4.

 

Thanks TCM for showing this gem.

 

This time I made sure I recorded it to a DVD.

[rosebette]

I watched "The Unsuspected" (1947), Claude Rains as a charming radio mystery host who has a few dark mysteries of his own.  Not a great script, but good atmospheric directing from Michael Curtiz and the usual excellent performance by Uncle Claude.  Constance Bennett was also delightful in a supporting role; she had some good lines.   I 've decided I'm willing to watch Rains read the phone book for 2 hours and still enjoy it.   

 

I saw "The Battle of the Sexes" this week-end at the theater.  I thought both Emma Stone and Steve Carrell were terrific.   I was a young teen during the time of the Riggs-King match, and wasn't really aware of the real importance of King's battle.  Some of the stuff that came out people's mouths (not just Riggs, who was just an "act"), but Jack Kramer, was enough to make you gag.   It makes me grateful for women like King and for the changes in our culture; let's hope the clock doesn't turn back to the "good old days."

 

 

[EricJ]

I wonder if TCM would ever show the first one - Mandingo.

 

Probably not, Mandingo was a Dino DeLaurentiis potboiler for Paramount.  (When Dino did shlock for Paramount in the 70's, he did it big.)

Drum was a quick B-sequel knocking off on the sensationalism/controversy, and was picked up by UA, which is why it's showing on TCM.

 

I remember Robert Townsend's 1987 "Hollywood Shuffle" trying to satirize white Hollywood's portrayal of blacks by satirizing "Mandingo" and "JD's Revenge" from 1974, and I sat there thinking...."Do they realize how embarrassing it is being the only person in the theater OLD enough to get these jokes?" 

[hamradio]

"Destination Moon" (1950), even though this movie is dated, it was well thought out on a realistic level.  About the ending in shedding weight, the people of 1950 would be stunned, amazed how light weight and flimsy the actual Apollo lander that will wind up being discarded.

 

Certainly didn't weigh several tons!

 

[TomJH]

The Sea Wolf (1941)

 

Many posters, I'm sure, will be familiar with this vivid Warner Brothers adaption of the Jack London novel since it has been shown so many times over the years on TCM. If you haven't caught this production, however, you're overdue to do so.

 

Only now there is a difference. The Warners Archive Collection has just released the full original version of the film on DVD, available for viewing in its complete version for the first time since 1941.

 

This film was re-released in 1947 (in combination with Warners' The Sea Hawk) but both films were edited so more tickets could be sold for extra daily viewings for a shorter double bill. The Sea Hawk's edited scenes were restored to that film a number of years ago but, until this week with the DVD release, The Sea Wolf's television broadcasts were always the 1947 re-edited version. For the record the running time of the print shown on TCM has been 87:12, while the print on the Archive release runs 99:46.

 

The Sea Wolf is representative of Warners at the peak of its studio expertise. With Michael Curtiz in full dynamic directorial form, accompanied by his favourite cinematographer, Sol Polito, and sets by Anton Grot, a terrific ensemble cast all rise to the top with vivid characterizations. All of this plus a dark, at times ominous, musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, makes for a stirring tale of brutality and oppression set aboard a sealing vessel, The Ghost.

 

As the brutal, sadistic captain of the ship, Wolf Larsen, Edward G. Robinson gives one of the great performances of his career. In fact this has long been my favourite Robinson film and performance, and that's saying a lot considering the often brilliant work this actor accomplished throughout his career. It's a complex characterization, however, he's not just a mere brute.

 

But the supporting cast is a standout, as well. John Garfield brings sensitivity to his role as a rebellious crew member, and Ida Lupino is terrific as an escaped convict (we never know her crime) who finds herself aboard The Ghost because of circumstances, and is tormented by Robinson as much as any of the male crew members.

 

But there is also Gene Lockhart as the pathetic alcoholic ship's doctor who wants to be treated with dignity (something the sadistic Larsen will never allow) and Barry Fitzgerald as Cookie, the ship's knife wielding cook and chief informant to the captain, a conniving, evil little man who cackles with glee as others around him are tormented but remains fearful of the captain himself.

 

In viewing the twelve and a half minutes restored to the film it is apparent there was no one big scene missing all these years. Scenes in the film were trimmed, so you might catch selections of a 30 second bit here or there that you've never seen before. There's a small bit at the film's beginning, for example, in which Garfield is hiding from police on a Frisco street that's new, later you see the character of the bookish Van Weyden (played, and played well, by Alexander Knox) when he first wakes up on The Ghost after being fished out of the drink.

 

My favourite restored scene runs about 75 seconds, and it was gratifying to see it for the first time. It's when Lupino's character is first revealed as a jailbird on the ship before the laughing crew and she begs Robinson to set her ashore somewhere other than return her to Frisco (where police are looking for her).

 

Lupino is stunning in this scene, pleading in vain with Robinson, even to the extent of offering to make it "worthwhile" for him if he does so, to which he barks at her she's not on the Barbary Coast. Lupino pleads, cries and collapses. It's a great moment for her, showing her full dramatic force as an actress, and there is also a telling closeup of Garfield, his eyes filled with pain, as he sees her grovel before a brute like Wolf Larsen. "Don't beg him," he tells her as he leaps beside her, ready to spit in Robinson's eye even if it means another beating. "Beg?" a distraught Lupino responds, "I'd crawl on my knees over every inch of this deck. I'd do anything, ANYTHING, to not have to go back!"

 

It's a very strong scene, and it's great to see it restored to the film.

 

One more thing. I know the Archive Collection doesn't spend any more money on these prints than is necessary but this 35 mil. print of The Sea Wolf is beautiful, with all of the new scenes seamlessly restored to the production. Warners really did do this film justice with this release. I'm assuming that TCM will eventually broadcast this version of the film, for those who don't care to spend the money on the DVD.

 

The Sea Wolf is one of those dramatically stirring productions that fully deserves to be hailed as a film classic, in my opinion. It has always mystified me that this film is not better known.

 

 

3.5 out of 4

[ChristineHoard]

I love The Sea Wolf.  How is it that Eddie G never got nominated for an Oscar?  So many great performances and this is one of his very best.

[TomJH]

I love The Sea Wolf.  How is it that Eddie G never got nominated for an Oscar?  So many great performances and this is one of his very best.

 

Yeh, Christine, perhaps one of the problems for Eddie G. and The Sea Wolf was that 1941 was an outstanding year for films so maybe it got lost in the shuffle.

 

Aside from Robinson, one of my favourite scenes in the film is a tender tough "love scene" between Garfield and Lupino. There's no kissing or even physical contact. They merely talk as they smoke a pair of cigarettes.

 

The scene's in the ship's cargo hold after Garfield has been thrown there for defying Wolf Larsen, and Lupino comes to visit him. These two characters have both been beaten down by life, are outcasts of society and now here they are, both being oppressed again, this time by the tyranny of Larsen's rule. She is tired and resigned, ready to give it all up, while Garfield is still defiant, ready to fight back. They feed off each other. She brings out his sensitivity and he inspires her to keep going.

 

Erich Wolfgang Korngold has the lonely sounds of a harmonica playing in the background, adding to the poignancy of these two lonely souls who have a moment of solace in one another's company. The scene ends with a closeup of a tired Lupino's face, a single tear rolling down her cheek, as she speaks with an ache of a desire for peace, a need for freedom. Lupino makes you feel her character's pain.

 

 

Lupino and Garfield became friends while making this film, and would remain so until his death 11 years later. When she later appeared in the film version of The Big Knife (with Jack Palance in the role Garfield had played on the stage) shortly after Garfield's death there's a scene in which she must scream after learning of his character's death. It's tempting to think that, with Garfield's own death still so fresh on her mind, the force of her performance here was as a result of her memory of her feelings at the news of her departed friend's death.

 

[cigarjoe]

I wonder if TCM would ever show the first one - Mandingo.

I've never seen it, Drum was refreshingly not PC.

[scsu1975]

My Blood Runs Cold (1965) TCM Movies On Demand (which seems to be working again)

 

Ok suspense yarn with Troy Donahue trying to convince Joey Heatherton that she is his reincarnated lover from about 100 years ago. Heatherton’s father (Barry Sullivan) is pretty suspicious, while her aunt (Jeanette Nolan) seems to know a lot that the others don’t. The ending is a little too unsatisfying, but what the hell … at least we get some shots of Heatherton in a couple of bathing suits and a teddy. The location photography is pretty good too. William Conrad produced and directed, and that’s his voice in the opening credits reading a verse from Lord Byron. He can also be heard as the voice of a helicopter pilot.

 

[ChristineHoard]

Very poignant, TomJH, I remember those scenes from both movies.  Thanks.

[marcar]

I just watched Tom Thumb (1958) for the first time ever because of a long-running joke in my family. My older brother, born in 1953 was taken by my parents to see it at a Saturday matinee, thinking he would enjoy the kids' movie.

 

Instead when Russ Tamblyn appeared as the little red-headed freak that he is, my 5-year-old brother started screaming and crying and had to be taken out of the theater.

 

As I got older (I was only 3 when the movie debacle happened) and heard this story, I would sneak up in back of my brother and scream "Tom Thumb" and he would cry and leave the room. I can't tell you the countless times I did this to the poor kid but it was just so much fun. 

 

From then on, all Russ Tamblyn movies were banned in our house. And it's taken me 59 years to watch Tom Thumb because of this..

 

As for the movie, it was pretty awful and I could see how it would scare a little kid. It seems adults who make kids' movies don't always realize that what adults think is "cute", kids can see as very scary. The Yawning Man that George Pal took such pride in during that documentary TCM showed earlier, was really creepy. And the Jack-in-the-Box, the dancing clowns and all the toys coming to life were particularly ghoulish.

 

However, the best part of the movie was the team of Terri Thomas and Peter Sellers as the bad guys/robbers. In their black costumes and crazy hats and accents, they were hysterical. Peter Sellers in a fat suit was a particular highlight.

 

And Alan Young  was very recognizable because of  "A horse is a horse, unless of course"...and you know the rest.

 

These movies are being shown as a salute to Pal and his early special effects work, but I watched for a very different reason.

[marcar]

My Blood Runs Cold (1965) TCM Movies On Demand (which seems to be working again)

 

Ok suspense yarn with Troy Donahue trying to convince Joey Heatherton that she is his reincarnated lover from about 100 years ago. Heatherton’s father (Barry Sullivan) is pretty suspicious, while her aunt (Jeanette Nolan) seems to know a lot that the others don’t. The ending is a little too unsatisfying

 

Thanks scsu1975​ for recommending this movie. I enjoyed it and had never even heard of it before your post. 

 

Jeannette Nolan was a rival for a shorter version of Joan Crawford with those crazy wigs and costumes: a serape and Peruvian straw hat, sequined go-go boots, and an Elizabethan style gown. She was great in a supporting role. 

 

I was surprised how good Troy Donahue was and so was Joey Heatherton (despite her chipmunk-like voice). And she wore a shorty nightgown, not a teddy. Pls keep your sexist remarks accurate...sorta kidding.

 

The crazy harpsichord music that played every time the characters talked about the century-old past was also a great touch. I agree with you about the ending, not as good as it could have been.

 

BTW what's a sand plant?

[EricJ]

I just watched Tom Thumb (1958) for the first time ever because of a long-running joke in my family. My older brother, born in 1953 was taken by my parents to see it at a Saturday matinee, thinking he would enjoy the kids' movie.

 

As for the movie, it was pretty awful and I could see how it would scare a little kid. It seems adults who make kids' movies don't always realize that what adults think is "cute", kids can see as very scary. The Yawning Man that George Pal took such pride in during that documentary TCM showed earlier, was really creepy. And the Jack-in-the-Box, the dancing clowns and all the toys coming to life were particularly ghoulish.

 

Four years later (and also aired tonight), Pal did Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, and Tom Thumb looks hideously unwatchable by comparison.

Pal directed the fairytale segments on Grimm, while Henry Levin directed the German-historical Cinerama segments, and keeps things in moderation.  Pal tended to turn the whimsy up to 11--before cranking it up to 15--on his fairytale movies, and in Grimm, it's a change of pace when Laurence Harvey is telling one of the stories, and feels like the built-in humor of the story as he's telling it...But in Thumb, there's no script escape and we're TRAPPED in Pal's mugging, candy-colored nightmare.  TT just comes off as a bad first draft, that needed a few more revisions before Pal could consider himself the next Disney or Harryhausen.

 

Frankly, I always thought a then-unknown Sellers looked humiliated doing his Funny German Voice and not allowed to do anything else, and while the Puppetoons were the highlight of the "Shoemaker & the Elves" segment on Grimm, the Yawning Man drags his movie to a grinding, screeching, train-wreck halt in its tracks.

 

(Of the two, it helps which end you start from--

In our family, if you asked three generations which was their favorite story out of the Grimms' books, "The Dancing Princess" would always be mentioned, and usually because of Russ Tamblyn.

I'd have shown the "Gypsy dance" clip, but think I've already posted that one three or four times already.) 

[scsu1975]

My Blood Runs Cold (1965) TCM Movies On Demand (which seems to be working again)

 

Ok suspense yarn with Troy Donahue trying to convince Joey Heatherton that she is his reincarnated lover from about 100 years ago. Heatherton’s father (Barry Sullivan) is pretty suspicious, while her aunt (Jeanette Nolan) seems to know a lot that the others don’t. The ending is a little too unsatisfying

 

Thanks scsu1975​ for recommending this movie. I enjoyed it and had never even heard of it before your post. 

 

Jeannette Nolan was a rival for a shorter version of Joan Crawford with those crazy wigs and costumes: a serape and Peruvian straw hat, sequined go-go boots, and an Elizabethan style gown. She was great in a supporting role. 

 

I was surprised how good Troy Donahue was and so was Joey Heatherton (despite her chipmunk-like voice). And she wore a shorty nightgown, not a teddy. Pls keep your sexist remarks accurate...sorta kidding.

 

The crazy harpsichord music that played every time the characters talked about the century-old past was also a great touch. I agree with you about the ending, not as good as it could have been.

 

BTW what's a sand plant?

I agree about Nolan's fashions. They were hysterical. I also agree that Donahue gives a pretty good performance in an uncharacteristic-type role. He wasn't just a pretty face. He should have had more roles like this. And yes, Heatherton could certainly act (and she sang and danced pretty well too).

 

I did some newspaper research and found that the climax was filmed at the Del Monte Sand Plant in California, which was in the Moss Beach area. Apparently sand was mined from Moss Beach and shipped to the plant. Not sure what was done at the plant; perhaps purifying or washing out stuff.

[marcar]

Frankly, I always thought a then-unknown Sellers looked humiliated doing his Funny German Voice and not allowed to do anything else

 

Just a quick note ​scsu1975 ​Sellers plays an Italian named Anthony and even speaks a little Italian in the movie such as "Buona Sera" etc. 

[marcar]

Sorry, got my posters mixed-up. It was EricJ who posted about Sellers being German in Tom Thumb....

 

A Thousand APOLOGIES. Mea Culpa....

[marcar]

I just watched a strange little film called "Mickey One" by Arthur Penn from 1965 with Warren Beatty, which is two years before their classic "Bonnie and Clyde" collaboration.

 

The genre of the film is listed as "crime drama" but it owes more to Fellini than it does to say Siodmak.

 

Beatty is a top comic with an over-the-top lifestyle that is apparently thanks to the Mob. Suffice it to say, he runs afoul of the mob, has to flee for his life and ends up adopting the name of a guy he saw mugged (by stealing his Social Security card, no less). He is on the run for his life and ends up as a busboy in a seedy Detroit restaurant.

 

This should be a tale of paranoia and fear, but it's filmed in an almost surreal style, owing much to Fellini, who had already made La Strada, La Dolce Vita , and 8 1/2 by then. There's a Japanese mime, who seems to turn up wherever Mickey is, played by Kamatari Fujiwara, which adds a circus-like atmosphere to this "crime drama." The supporting cast is filled with oddballs and even some former film stars, including an almost unrecognizable Franchot Tone and Hurd Hatfield, far from the days of "Portrait of Dorian Gray."

 

But it is the black-and white cinematography and the swooping camera work that give this pseudo-noir it's Felliniesque touches. There are garishly dressed and made-up women populating the entire film, close-ups of backstage strippers and transvestites wrangling their costumes, and a feeling of hysteria as the camera pans up-close on the audience members laughing at Mickey's performances.

 

Mickey One was fun to watch for a while but it couldn't make up it's mind what it was about, so I had a hard time staying engaged.

[cigarjoe]

I just watched a strange little film called "Mickey One" by Arthur Penn from 1965 with Warren Beatty, which is two years before their classic "Bonnie and Clyde" collaboration.

 

The genre of the film is listed as "crime drama" but it owes more to Fellini than it does to say Siodmak.

 

Beatty is a top comic with an over-the-top lifestyle that is apparently thanks to the Mob. Suffice it to say, he runs afoul of the mob, has to flee for his life and ends up adopting the name of a guy he saw mugged (by stealing his Social Security card, no less). He is on the run for his life and ends up as a busboy in a seedy Detroit restaurant.

 

This should be a tale of paranoia and fear, but it's filmed in an almost surreal style, owing much to Fellini, who had already made La Strada, La Dolce Vita , and 8 1/2 by then. There's a Japanese mime, who seems to turn up wherever Mickey is, played by Kamatari Fujiwara, which adds a circus-like atmosphere to this "crime drama." The supporting cast is filled with oddballs and even some former film stars, including an almost unrecognizable Franchot Tone and Hurd Hatfield, far from the days of "Portrait of Dorian Gray."

 

But it is the black-and white cinematography and the swooping camera work that give this pseudo-noir it's Felliniesque touches. There are garishly dressed and made-up women populating the entire film, close-ups of backstage strippers and transvestites wrangling their costumes, and a feeling of hysteria as the camera pans up-close on the audience members laughing at Mickey's performances.

 

Mickey One was fun to watch for a while but it couldn't make up it's mind what it was about, so I had a hard time staying engaged.

Agree, I saw it a few yeas ago and liked it up to a point, then it just sort of unraveled.

[kingrat]

Mickey One is worth seeing for Ghislain Cloquet's cinematography, but, as both of you said, it doesn't really work as a whole.

[film lover 293]

"The Horrible Doctor Hichcock" (1962)--Starring Robert Flemyng, Barbara Steele, and Montgomery Glenn.  Directed by Robert Hampton (Riccardo Freda, according to imdb).

 

Good Italian Gothic with a odd twist.

 

London, 1885.  Respected Dr. Hichcock (Flemyng) has had a rough day at work.  He goes home to his wife Margarets' (Teresa Fitzgerald) piano recital.  She plays badly enough for friends to whisper comments.  After she's through playing, she pleads a headache and the attendees quickly leave.   The doctor then mixes up a medicine to knock out the Mrs., so he can have sex with his pretending to be dead wife.  A few days later, the doctor puts too much barbituate into his formula and kills his wife for real.  After her funeral, he leaves London for twelve years.

 

Fast forward to 1897. The doctor has married Cynthia (Steele), who was a mental patient of his and has no idea of his past.  They return to London and Hichcock's old house.  Strange events start to happen.

 

The film looks expensive and fussily Victorian.  Director Freda wise has had all the music a note or so off key, to suggest things aren't right in the characters minds and that things aren't as placid as they may seem.   The film utilizes most of the old cliches successfully; a dark and stormy night, a window banging, a piano playing by itself, etc.

 

The film owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock, and steals some ideas from his films.  There's even a direct copy of one of his most famous shots, the glass of milk from "Suspicion" (1941).

 

Steele was a underrated actress, and is at her best here.  Flemyng is good as a man struggling not to become totally crazy.

 

This is definitely one of Freda's best films.  3/4.

 

Source--YouTube.