I recently picked up a collection of Universal horror flicks, movies that didn't really fit into any of their other broad categories. They were diverting for the most part.
The Black Cat was a fun whodunnit, with a cranky old heiress who lives among many many cats and spiteful relatives. She's knocked off, but not before the mystery of her will creates havoc throughout the household. There's the obligatory outsider who tries to solve the mystery and some comedy relief brought by a guy who spends the whole movie appraising the antiques in the house. Wouldn't get this one by itself, but as part of this collection it was fun. The movie has a neat creepy quality. That's no doubt due to the presence of Bela Lugosi and Basil Rathbone, who are minor players in this one, but nonetheless are pretty good.
Captive Wild Woman was a bit of a disappointment. I'd long read about Acquanetta and her exotic beauty and these movies that cast her as humanized gorilla. That's the plot, a beautiful woman is created by John Carradine in his lab from an African gorilla. That's a pretty good basis for a horror movie, but this one spends way too much time as a standard jungle movie with Clyde Beatty inserts from other movies used to prolong the action. There's way too much screentime featuring lions and tigers fussing around, and it stops the movie dead in its tracks. Nonetheless there are a few great scenes. I'd still like to see the sequels some day; I'm a glutton I guess.
Horror Island was a lot of fun. There's some humor and a mysterious old castle on a distant island that becomes used as a minor tourist attraction by our dashing hero and his assistants while they look for a reported treasure somewhere on the grounds. It's pretty complicated and there's a mysterous phantomish figure acting out but never really posing that much of a threat. A nice cast of solid performers makes this a diverting entertainment with limited ambitions. This movie knows it's just there to pass the time and it does it very well.
Man-Mad Monster is a pretty interesting spin on the classic Frankenstein model. A man, played with surprising energy and aplomb by Lon Chaney Jr., is used as a guinea pig by a unscrupulous scientist played by Lionel Atwill because he has an unusual affinity for electricity. Through many treatments the man is transformed into an electrified zombie and much suffering is had before he is able to regain some measure of control. This is a pretty tragic tale as from the first you like the hero and you know he's lost. Neatly done little triller.
And finally there's Night Monster a movie that is really pretty creepy in places. A man suffering from paralysis calls in the doctors who failed to cure him and begins a long process of revenge. How that revenge is able to manifest itself is the secret of the movie and involves Eastern mysticism. There are several likeable folks here and most of them get killed, and the finale is pretty exciting in a classic Mummy movie kind of way. Bela is in this one, but he doesn't have hardly anything to do. Lionel Atwill is great, but doesn't stay long enough either. This one has a really good cast all the way through.
These movies aren't anything to get to hopped up about, but they are what they were meant to be, reasonly solid entertainment. I was mostly entertained mightily by them.
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