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by Jim Hitt |
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FILM
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| "ANNABEL LEE" (poem, 1849) |
Annabel Lee
Joan Film Sales, 1921, 5 reels, silent, b&w, directed by William J. Scully, scenario by Arthur Brilliant.
cast:
John B. O'Brien (David Martin)
Lorraine Harding (Annabel Lee)
Florida Kingsley (Mother Martin)
Louis Stern (Colonel Lee)
Ben Grauer (David Martin, as a child)
Arline Blackburn (Annabel Lee, as a child)
Ernest Hilliard (David Granger)
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David Martin, a fisherman, loves Annabel Lee, the daughter of wealthy Colonel Lee. The colonel objects to the marriage but agrees to the match if David goes away for a year and their love remains true. Seeking a sunken treasure in the South Seas, David encounters a mutinous crew that sets him off on a desert island, but he hails a passing ship and returns home to find Annabel Lee waiting for him.
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"The Bells"
(a poem)
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1. The Bells
Pathé Exchange, Inc.; Extra Selected Frank Keenan Photoplay, 1918, directed by Ernest C. Warde, scenerio by Gilson Willets and
Jack Cunningham.
cast:
Frank Keenan (Mathias)
Lois Wilson (Annette)
Edward Coxen (Christian)
Bert Law ( Koveski)
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Mathias, a debt-ridden Alsatian innkeeper, robs and murders one of his guestsi. As the years pass, Mathias attains success but every time he hears sleigh bellsi, his conscience torments him. His daughter Annette marries Christian, captain of the guard, tand on their wedding day, a hynotist arrives to entertain. In an effort to avoid the mindreader, Mathias sneaks up to his room where he falls asleep and dreams that the mesmerist extracts a confession from him. Waking up, he rushes downstairs crying "The bells, the bells!" and he dies in his the arms of his wife.
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2. The Bells
Chadwick Pictures, 1926, 68m, silent, b&w, directed and scenario by James Young.
cast:
Lionel Barrymore (Mathias)
Boris Karloff (mentalist)
Gustav von Seyffertitz (Jerome Frantz)
E. Alyn Warren (Baruch Koweski)
Fred Warren
Available on DVD
Unable to pay his debts, Mathias, an Alsatian innkeeper, murders a rich traveler and takes his gold. Although no one suspects Mathias of the crime, his conscience torments him. Whenever he hears the church bells, Mathias is haunted by images of his crime and his victim. When Mathias sees the ghost of the traveler, he dies, his secret unconfessed.
The film is based on the French play 'Le Juif Polonais', which was based loosely on Poe's poem "The Bells" Lionel Barrymore plays the a Jewish entrepreneur who appropriates the dead man's fortune. Boris Karloff as a mesmeris adds to his problems.
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| "THE BLACK CAT" (short story 1843) |
1. The Black Cat
Universal, 1934, 66m., b&w, directed and screenplay by Edgar G. Ulmer.
cast:
Boris Karloff (Hjalmar Poelzig)
Bela Lugosi (Dr. Vitus Werdegast)
David Manners (Peter Alison)
Julie Bishop (Joan Alison)
Lucille Lund (Karen Werdegast Poelzig)
Egon Brecher (The Majordomo)
Harry Cording (Thamal)
Henry Armetta (Police Sergeant)
Albert Conti (Police Lieutenant)
Available on DVD
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Dr. Vitus Verdegast returns to Hungary to visit the remains of the town he defended before becoming a prisoner of war fifteen years earlier. He meets newlyweds Joan and Peter Allison with whom he shares a train compartment. Their hotel-bound bus crashes in a storm, and the travelers seek refuge in the, fortress-like home of famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig. There, Verdegast learns the fates of his daughter and wife. Poelzig keeps the wife in a glass case, and he has married the daughter. Poelzig forces Verdegast to play a game of chess for Allison's life. The climax sees Verdegast literally peeling the skin from Poelzig's chest and then blowing up the castle full of people celebrating a black mass, allowing Joan and Peter to escape.
The New York Times (May 19, 1934) warned that the film "was not remotely to be identified with Poe's short story" and that it was "more foolish than horrible." Verdegast does have an unnatural fear of cats, and several times a black cat crosses his path, but that appears the only connection to the Poe story. Karloff and Lugosi both give fine performances, and the atmosphere is somber and foreboding. In many ways, this film ranks right at the top of the Universal horror cycle. It was the studio's biggest hit in 1934.
rating: B
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2. Maniac
1934, 51m., b&w, directed by Dwain Esper, screenplay by Hildegarde Stadie
cast:
Bill Woods (Don Maxwell)
Horace B. Carpenter (Dr. Meirschultz)
Ted Edwards (Buckley)
Phyllis Diller (Mrs. Buckley
Thea Ramsey (Alice Maxwell)
Jenny Dark (Maizie)
Marvelle Andre (Marvel)
Celia McCann (Jo)
John P. Wade (Embalmer)
Marian Constance Blackton (Neighbor)
Available on video
Dr. Meirschultz restores life to a dead woman and then wants to reanimate a dead man by transplanting a living heart. He demands that his assistant Maxwell shoot himself in order to accomplish this, but Maxwell kills Dr. Meirschultz and assumes his identity. A one-eyed cat is the only connection to Poe.
The director, Dwain Esper, a real estate agent who went into the movies as a
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lark, claimed he made morally enlightened films that warned people against drugs, promiscuity, and mental illness. Let me warn you--this movie is an amazingly inept grade Z film without one redeeming feature, except that it provides plenty of laughs, intended or not.
rating: F
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3. The Black Cat
Universal 1941, 70m., b&w, directed by Albert S. Rogell, screenplay by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, Eric Taylor, and Robert Neville
cast: Basil Rathbone (Hartley), Hugh Herbert (Mr. Penny), Broderick Crawford (Hubert Smith), Bela Lugosi (Eduardo), Gale Sondergaard (Abigail Doone), Gladys Cooper (Myrna Hartley), Anne Gwynne (Elaine Winslow), Cecilia Loftus (Henrietta Winslow), Claire Dodd (Margaret Gordon), John Eldredge (Stanley Borden), Alan Ladd (Richard Hartley).
Available on video
The action takes place at a mansion where a greedy relative murders a wealthy old lady. When the lawyer reads the will, the relatives discover the inheritance is tied up until all the dead
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woman's cats have all died, and the killer methodically sets off to kill the other relatives as well as the cats.
This studio claimed that the film was "suggested" by the Poe story. Not only did the writers ignore the story, they ignored the spirit of Poe by turning the whole proceedings into a comedy. As the New York Times said, "The relation between the two (story and film) is microscopic" and that "the horrors generally fail to chill." Broderick Crawford made a good bumbling hero, and soon-to-be-star Alan Ladd appears in a miniscule role. Beal Logosi has little to do except make other people twitch nervously. All said and done, the movie is a enjoyable with a few good laughs.
rating: C+
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Jim Hitt is a graduate of North Texas State University and holds a BA in English and history and a MA in history. He taught high school in the California public school system for over thirty years, the last sixteen at Ventura Community College in Ventura, California. In addition he has also lectured for the Gene Autry Museum. He is also a member of the Western Writers of America and the author of THE AMERICAN WEST, FROM FICTION TO FILM (McFarland Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1990) and WORDS AND SHADOWS, (Citadel Publishers, New York, 1993). In 2001 Adventure Books published his novel THE LAST WARRIOR.His latest effort is the award winning novel CARNY. For more go to http://www.hittlist.com
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