Round Up 1944, Part Two: The Soul Of A Monster

1944 was a better than average year for the fantastic on film.

There's a good deal of reviewer interest at the Internet Movie Database in regard to Columbia's obscure The Soul of a Monster (Dir: Will Jason), and there are three things most everyone seems to agree on whether they like the film or not: A) It's pretentious, B) It's preachy, and C) It's Lewtonesque. I'm sold, on all three counts. No, really. I like a film with a peculiar point of view, even if it's one I don't happen to agree with: at least you know someone had some kind of personal investment in the thing, which is the necessary first step in auteur cinema -- which, let's face it, is basically what we're looking for here. The plot? A dying man's wife makes a deal with the devil to save his life, but though the man recovers, he behaves as if his soul died. Doesn't appear to be available on DVD. Cast member Jim Bannon, if I am not mistaken, played the lead in Carlton E. Morse's classic I Love A Mystery on radio; it's a great old show, and it would be nice to see this film if only to put a face to the voice of man-of-action Jack Packard. Here's the first episode of perhaps their most famous serial, Temple of Vampires (the entire series -- or what survives of it -- can be downloaded for free at the Internet Archive):

Rene Clair's It Happened Tomorrow sounds like a sure bet. It stars Dick Powell, who started out as a song and dance man, but tried to break out of his typecasting in a number of films I'm very fond of, including Murder My Sweet (also '44), one of the classic Philip Marlowe detective movies, and a companion piece of sorts called Station West (1948), in which he successfully translated his detective shtick to the old west. He also played a detective in the always amusing Richard Diamond on radio. Which you can try by fiddling with the doohickey below:


Powell was hardly convincing as a tough guy, but he was good playing a smart aleck who couldn't keep his nose out of other people's business, and I find him very appealing onscreen. According to the glowing reviews he was never more appealing than he was in It Happened Tomorrow, despite the pencil-thin moustache he sports this time out. The story involves reporter Powell coming into possession of a newspaper that predicts the future and using it to scoop all the other papers, only to read of his own imminent demise. Doesn't sound all that hot, plotwise, does it, but they say it's a real charmer, and that the romance with Linda Darnell works extraordinarily well, and I want to see it. I can't find a trailer for this one, but here's one for the excellent Murder My Sweet, which will give you an idea of what old William Powell can do, if you don't already know:

Between Two Worlds involves Paul Henreid (Ingrid Bergman's equally heroic and boring husband in Casablanca) and Eleanor Parker as a despondent Austrian couple who commit suicide when they fail to make it to the ship that will carry them away from the Nazi bombs. They are surprised to wake up on a fogbound ship midway between Heaven and Hell with other recently deceased passengers and the great Sydney Greenstreet, who will apparently decided their fates. AMG is lukewarm, except on the subject of Greenstreet, who they say saves the film (I can believe it), but it appears to have a reasonable cult following on the IMDB. This one makes my list.

Britain's Ealing Studio's The Halfway House is essentially the same gimmick transplanted to a strange Welsh inn in the guise of a comedy/mystery, which sounds like a pleasant enough way to spend 95 minutes.

Also released in '44 were two interesting films about serial killers: the always interesting Edgar Ulmer's Bluebeard, and John Brahm's apparently successful remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger. Given the choice I still think I'd rather see the original Lodger, but Bluebeard, though reportedly plagued by an irritating and omnipresent score and threadbare production values, benefits from Ulmer's eye for a weird camera angle, John Carradine's favourite among his own performances, and sounds like it might be worth a look. 

Then there's Weird Woman, reputed to be the best of the six film Inner Sanctum series, which traded on the name recognition of the famous radio show. It's most interesting for being the first filmed version of Fritz Leiber's masterpiece Conjure Wife, later remade to greater effect as Night Of The Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!) in 1962. In it, a rationalist college professor is disgusted to learn that his wife has been protecting him from the other faculty wives and furthering his career with magic, all of which he undoes when he destroys all of the charms she has hidden around the house. The book, at any rate, is great stuff, rather reminiscent of M.R. James' Casting The Runes. I've been aware of the existence of Weird Woman for years, but the presence of the seriously underwhelming Lon Chaney Jr. (he was the lead in all of these Inner Sanctum things) really puts a damper on my desire to see it. However, I'm going to overcome it (that poster makes it look pretty good, actually), and add it to my list.