December 31st, 2014 - The Phantom of the Opera (1943)

My wife and I have a lovely tradition (or at least I'm trying to make it one - 4 years is a tradition, right?) where we watch a horror movie on New Year's Eve. She's not too into the horror genre and is decidedly against the blood and guts, so I have to choose wisely about which movies to watch. So far, we've checked out The Cat o' Nine Tails, Detention, Pan's Labyrinth, and now Phantom of the Opera. I think the Phantom was her favorite so far, in that it's pretty far from a horror film and very Old Hollywood (huge cast, big set pieces, broad comedy). It was a little disappointing to me personally, having recently become enamored with Dario Argento's insane take on the tale. But still, it was an enjoyable time on the couch.

Here, the phantom is played by Claude Rains - also The Invisible Man! - we get to know a little about him in his pre-phantom days. He is a violinist at the famed Paris Opera House, and is struck by some sort of nerve issue that limits his ability to perform. He is secretly obsessed with the understudy Opera singer Christine DuBois (Susanna Foster), and is anonymously funding her obscenely expensive singing lessons with the best Opera teacher in Paris. Now that he can no longer make money playing the violin, he attempts to sell a sonata that he has written. When he brings it to the publishing house, he (mistakenly?) thinks they are going to steal it from him and freaks out. He gets acid in his face for his troubles (and murders two people in his rage) and the Phantom is born.

November 5th, 2014 - The Mummy (1932)

Ah, another Universal Monsters jam.  I already wrote in my entry of The Invisible Man about the issues inherent on writing about these films from the 1930s, so I won't go into that here.  Suffice to say that there's a different scale that you grade these on, you're wearing a different hat as a viewer.  You feel more detached, and I think it's impossible to ignore the decades and decades between then and now.   The films are not inherently better or worse, just... different.  I would say that The Mummy was less of an era-shock (a term I just made up) than The Invisible Man. Looking at it with my 2014 sensibility, dealing with a creature/plot from the ancient past was a better fit with the 1930's mentality as opposed to The Invisible Man - who really is more or less from the future. (Science!)  And even though I had some fears going in, it's another great entry in the Universal Monsters canon.

The movie starts with several British archeologists gloating about their latest find - the remains of the high priest Imhotep, who was mummified alive for breaking all sorts of holy ancient-Egyptian rules. He's just kind of propped up against the wall in the back... I guess they felt okay treating their priceless finds like that. Also amongst their findings is an ancient scroll that has the power to bring the dead back to life. The archeologists, being science-first folks, scoff at the idea that the scroll has any real-life power. The brashest young archeologist waits until he is alone and reads from the scroll. Our mummy begins to stir, and the young man freaks out and starts laugh/screaming, and doesn't stop. When the others come to see what the fuss is about, the mummy has vanished and the young man has gone totally mad. We later find out that he "died laughing, in a straight jacket." It's a pretty solid way to start the movie, and was already scarier than anything from The Invisible Man.

October 16th, 2014 - The Invisible Man (1933)

I have a pretty big gap in my knowledge of classic horror.  I've seen enough to have an idea of what was happening from the late 50s on, but most anything before that has escaped me.  So, when I saw the Universal Monsters BluRay collection on sale, I thought I'd scoop it up and check them out.  Eight of the classics, restored in HD (Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, etc...) - count me in!

But it seems pretty pointless to even review something like this.   I figure there are two trains of thought on movies from this era.  If you are interested, you've probably already seen it, or don't need some two-bit blogger convincing you to do so.  If you aren't interested in classic horror or are in the "old Black and White movies are boring!" camp, nothing I can say is going to convince you otherwise.  But I watched it and have to write something...