Round Up 1943

According to the Internet Movie Database, of the 955 films made in 1943, 28 fall under the headings of horror, science fiction or fantasy. They are:

A Guy Named Joe 
Aventuras de Cucuruchito y Pinocho 
Batman 
Cabin in the Sky 
Calling Dr. Death 
Captive Wild Woman 
Carnival of Sinners 
Dead Men Walk 
Du Barry Was a Lady 
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man   
Ghosts on the Loose 
Heaven Can Wait   
I Walked with a Zombie 
La posada sangrienta 
Lady of Burlesque 
Phantom of the Opera 
Revenge of the Zombies 
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death 
Son of Dracula 
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 
The Ape Man 
The Fighting Devil Dogs 
The Ghost and the Guest 
The Leopard Man 
The Mad Ghoul 
The Mysterious Doctor 
The Seventh Victim

Among other things, the IMDB spit out Lady Of Burlesque when I asked them for the list of horror films made in '43, and as it stars my beloved Barbara Stanwyck I'm tempted to rattle on about it for a while, but the truth is that it isn't her finest hour by a long chalk, and it isn't a horror film, either, just a little murder mystery set backstage at the Burlesque with the divine Ms S as famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Sadly, it sounds sexier than it is (great box art, though, as you can see above). Instead, track down Barbara's excellent Ball of Fire, The Mad Miss Manton (unfortunately currently only available in Warner's monstrously overpriced DVD-R Vault Collection), Meet John Doe (a wonderful film inexplicably fallen in to the public domain and unavailable on a decent DVD), The Lady Eve, Remember The Night (my favourite Christmas film, only available on Turner Classics DVD-R), Double Indemnity and Sam Fuller's bizarre Forty Guns (sooo influential on the spaghetti western). You won't regret it.

1943 was also the year of Universal's Technicolor remake of The Phantom Of The Opera with Claude Rains, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, and Son Of Dracula, none of which I feel a burning need to investigate. The arrival of the multi-creature monster mash means the fin de this particular siecle is in sight, and not in that good, potentially scary pre-millennial tension kind of way, but rather the "It's almost time to make Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein and call it a day" kind of way.  Edward Dmytryck, director of my favourite western of all time, Warlock (1959), wasted his time with Captive Wild Women, a mad scientist Ape-woman flick. Albeit a reputedly entertaining Ape-woman flick, but who really cares?

Of considerably greater interest, Jacques Tourneur's daddy Maurice directed La Main du Diable (U.S. title: Carnival of Sinners), in which a Faustian bargain lands a struggling artist with a severed hand for a talisman, and he must track down its previous owners in order to avoid perdition. Made in France during the occupation, the devil in this one is a civil servant in the Vichy government! How did they get that into theatres at home? To be honest, I had forgotten about Maurice Tourneur, but he apparently made more interesting fantastic films than this one, and there will be an opportunity to look into his career more closely later on.

In A Guy Named Joe (Dir: Victor Fleming), remade in 1989 by Stephen Spielberg as Always, Spencer Tracy plays a daredevil bomber pilot who dies and winds up drafted into Heaven's efforts to help the war effort against Hitler. Sent back to earth essentially as guardian angel to prepare green bomber pilot Van Johnson, he runs into old flame and cargo pilot Irene Dunne and realises how much he's missed her. The climax involves him accompanying her on a solo bombing mission she takes over from Johnson. This description doesn't do a lot to whet my appetite, but most reviewers seem to agree this thing is something special, and a particular high point for Tracy and supporting actor Ward Bond, best known for his work with John Ford. I can't get excited about it, but I guess this goes on my list.

Heaven Can Wait (Dir: Ernst Lubitsch, and not remade with Warren Beatty, as it turns out) stars Don Ameche, so good in radio's The Bickerson's, trying to talk his way in to Hell when courteous Satan Laird Cregar suggests he hasn't been wicked enough to qualify(?)! All sounds a bit George Bernard Shaw, but that's hardly a bad thing, and this is regarded as a particularly charming and sophisticated classic. Gene Tierney's in it, too! It goes on my list.

Munchausen (Dir: Josef Von Baky) In the middle of WW2, Nazi minister of propaganda Goebbels decreed the making of a lavish, full colour production to celebrate UFA's 50th Anniversary, and apparently thought it so important that it be good that blacklisted Jewish writer Erich Kastner was involved in the production. You can't see it, but I'm shaking my head right now. Terry Gilliam's Adventures of Baron Munchausen was spun out of the same classic tall tales, and this earlier film (one many detailing the Baron's exploits) is every bit as sprawling and problematic. It was intended for adults, and the full length original (now restored on Kino DVD by the invaluable Murnau Foundation) contained nude harem girls among its many wonders. Fantasy made in the shadow of the swastika? I'm most definitely in.


And finally, a mention of The Ape-Man, reputedly Bela Lugosi's worst film (and that's saying something), simply because director William 'One-Shot' Beaudine has the Greatest. Nickname. Ever. 

Not seeing a lot of what I tend to think of as science fiction so far this decade. You'd think there'd be rocket ships all over the place in the wake of Flash Gordon (1936) and Metropolis (1927)...