30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 22: The Phantom Creeps (1939)

The task at hand for today's 30 Day Movie Challenge is one that I usually reserve for Sundays when I do Sundays At The Classics as that is usually to watch films made before 1969. The task for today however was to watch a film that was made before 1960 and easy enough I found the 1939 action/horror film The Phantom Creeps which was directed by Ford Beebe (Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe) and Saul A. Goodkind (Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery). The film stars the late and great horror legend Bela Lugosi (Svengali/White Zombie) as famed scientist Dr. Alex Zorka, a man that has been doing experiments that the US government has no idea about the could be dangerous if placed into the wrong hands. After he figures out that they know, Zorka will try everything including faking his own death to try and get away with his most prized experiments, but can the government stop him before it's too late. The film also stars Robert Kent (King Of The Royal Mounted) as Captain Bob West, Dorothy Arnold (Secrets Of A Nurse) as Jean Drew, Edwin Stanley (The Man Who Came To Dinner) as Dr. Fred Mallory, Regis Toomey (His Girl Friday) as Jim Daly, Jack C. Smith (Hittin' The Trail) as Monk, Ed Wolff (The Phantom of the Opera) as The Robot, Dora Clement (The Philco Television Playhouse) as Ann Zorka, and Edward Van Sloan (Dracula) as Jarvis.

There was honestly so much potential with this film that it started going downhill the deeper the film went. I mean the story just started to get too dumb and they made the government look really stupid with how many times an item was stolen and then retrieved only to be stolen again and then only to be retrieved again. It was almost like they kept running out of stuff to write about so they were like hey just have this guy steal it only to be returned. There were things that I did like about the film and one of them was definitely Bela Lugosi for one who was superb as usual and the other thing was the robot that they created which has ended up on the stage of Rob Zombie when he performs live and in some of his music videos. The robot even moves on stage exactly the same way he does in the film which I always thought was really cool. I definitely thought that there should have been more of him, but I understands why they chose to save him at times. The final sequence is kind of funny because they show archived footage of the burning Zeppelin and they show that  it was Zorka's fault for that happening as he plans to show the world his wraith. Again, I thought it was a film that had a lot of great ideas that just were not executed to it's full potential, but it's still a fun movie to watch which is why I am going to give it an B- for a final grade.

White Zombie (1932)

It's another Sunday at the Classics and for this week I wanted to check out a classic film starring the one and only Bela Lugosi (Dracula). One of the first metal bands to name their group after a horror film was Black Sabbath and the trend would continue into the 1980's with the birth of White Zombie who were fronted by rocker/director Rob Zombie (House Of 1000 Corpses), but unlike Sabbath I had never seen the film for which Zombie named his band after until today. The film White Zombie was released in 1932 a year after Lugosi had starred as Dracula, but in this one Lugosi stars as witch doctor 'Murder' Legendre. A young couple is about to arrive in Haiti to get married at the home of the wealthy Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer), but little do they know that Beaumont has other plans in store for them and it involves the witch doctor who has interior motives himself. The film also stars  Madge Bellamy (Black Paradise) as Madeline Short Parker, John Harron (Below The Line) as Neil Parker, Joseph Cawthorn (The Taming Of The Shrew) as Dr. Bruner, Brandon Hurst (The Man Who Laughs) as Silver, George Burr Macannan (Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon) as Von Gelder - Zombie, Frederick Peters (Miracles Of The Jungle) as Chauvin - Zombie, and the film was directed by Victor Halperin (The Unknown Lover).

One thing you have to remember about a film like this is that it was made in 1932 and all of the special effects are practical. What I mean by practical is that they are going to have a horrible looking vulture fly around when you can definitely see the string attached to him at the time and I can appreciate the effort that went into it. The only thing I could really appreciate were the zombies and not because they looked like flesh eating dead people, but in 1932 zombies in the west indies were newly dead people who were brought back to be mindless drones. That was always the belief and it was shown in films like In The Mouth Of Madness which owes a debt to this film. One of the true highlights of the film was obviously Bela Lugosi who at times was masterful especially when he was going through his diabolical spiel as he turned you into a zombie. I definitely loved his death scene as you can so tell that it was a dummy that hits the water on the way down, but again that's due to special effects being what they were in 1932. One of the things that bothered me about the film were the transition scenes that featured every basic transition that you can get with Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, but again I forgive it for the fact that it came out in 1932, but one thing I can't forgive is that man in blackface. Dan Crimmins plays a random witch doctor who is wearing make up and the worst part about is that they had plenty of African Americans with roles in the film itself. It's a head scratcher, but there are things to like about the film as much as there are things to hate about it. That is why I am giving it an C+ for a final grade.