Voodoo Man (1944), dir. William Beaudine, Banner Productions
By this point, Carradine's fortunes and personal life were reaching an all-time low, thus his needing more work, regardless of quality of the script. So why not a rehash of Monogram's earlier the Corpse Vanishes?
Dr. Marlowe (Bela Lugosi) is simply a man mourning his wife. Evelyn (Ellen Hall) isn't dead though, not in the way you would understand death. No, Evelyn's body is preserved but her soul is gone. To help with that, Marlowe has enlisted the aid of local gas station owner/warlock Nicholas (George Zucco).
Whenever Nicholas spots a tasty tomato, he works his magic plus scientific knowhow to kill their car. Marlowe, plus his aids Toby (John Carradine) and Grego (Pat McKee), ambush the victim.
Of course, a spot in the country where no one is seen again is going to get on someone's radar. In this case, it's Banner Motion Picture studio head S.K. (John Ince). He smells a story and by George, he'll get one for scale! He puts Ralph Dawson (Michael Ames) on it, but Ralph has more pressing concerns. Namely he's getting hitched to his best gal Betty (Wanda McKay).
Naturally Betty lives in the quaint little town of Twin Falls, which Marlowe and co. reside. Ralph doesn't know this, of course, but when his car breaks down past the single gas station, he's starting to panic, at least until Stella (Louise Currie) drives up. She's Betty's maid of honor, so she'd be happy to give him a ride into town.
This is a problem for Toby and Grego however, since they never had to deal with a witness though. They kill Stella's motor and soon Ralph hoofs it through the woods to a house off in the distance. Marlowe's house, as it turns out. Raph finds no help there and when he gets back, he finds no Stella either.
By the time he hikes into town, he's plenty sore. Betty and her ma think Stella's rib was hilarious, but as the hours drag by no Stella, well a joke's a joke but even they can go too far.
When Stella is found, thanks to the idiocy of Toby, she's pale and mute but she does react negatively when Marlowe is mentioned. Can Ralph solve the mystery?
Shockingly not as bad as one would think? Lugosi steals every scene he's in, but Carradine holds his own. He's not suave or commanding, but he does play an idiot goon with all the passion he put into Hamlet.
This may be also the first meta horror film too. Banner films making a film about Banner films? And the final line really sells it too, but I shan't spoil that.
No comments:
Post a Comment