Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man - 1943

A monster double feature!

The Wolf Man is back thanks to some grave robbers. I'm not sure why they chose this particular grave at this particular time, but whatever. He's been "dead" for four years, but the full moon wakes him up. Now whenever the moon is full, he kills. He's aware of what he's doing and wants to die.

He tracks down Maleva, the gypsy woman, to beg for help. She agrees, and they head off to seek out Dr. Frankenstein. They find out he's dead, and Wolfie begins to lose hope. At one point, he's spotted and chased. He ends up in the underground area of the Frankenstein ruins, where he finds the creature. Breaking up the little ice wall, Bela monster is free, and the two are fast friends.

A doctor has tracked Wolfie down following the trail of full moon murders. When Elsa Frankenstein pops up, I had high hopes. She did pretty good for a bit, but then she fainted. The woman in the other movie fainted so much, I think she's given herself brain damage. Anyway, a dam breaks, and water flows through the "epic" battle between the two monsters.

This one ended abruptly, and I hated it. Frankenstein ('s monster) is totally fine, but Wolfie should be as well. The problem is, I couldn't see another movie with him. Oh well, maybe he got his wish and died. Too bad the doctor didn't die as well. I don't know what's up with these men and their thirst for power, but why do they keep wanting to fry up the monster and set him loose in the village? So odd...

BUT! Lionel Atwil, my new hero of these movies, was also present in this movie. I was afraid he was going to be a "red shirt," but he lived! He wasn't a villain this time, though, so that might have had something to do with it. He's moved up in the world. He's the mayor now!

The Mummy's Tomb - 1942

Back to our Universal monsters!

When this movie started, I was confused. I was wondering if I'd seen it before. Maybe I hadn't been paying enough attention, but old man was rehashing The Mummy's Hand. He spent a whopping ten minutes doing that.

Well, apparently geezer High Priest survived his bullet wound, and the mummy was just a little charred. I suppose HP just re-wrapped him, and he was fine. Kharis, our mummy, is now being resurrected to take revenge on the bloodline of the Bannings. Not sure why he waited 30 years to do that, but whatever. Kharis is brought to the States by the new HP, who takes up residence as caretaker of the local cemetery.

Once Kharis is out and about, he's pretty nimble. He climbs trellises and uses his jacked-up arm with ease, but only when he needs to. Poor Jim, though. He was just a bystander who tried to protect the dogs. Jim fainted only to get kicked in the head and be doomed to death.

I want to talk about the end. It was nuts. Dude went into his own house with a torch! Then, the mob just started throwing torches at his house as well. So, yeah, they set the whole house on fire. I don't know why they're all impressed with themselves, but we'll be seeing the mummy again.

I'm not giving this a good movie review. Babe was murdered in a stupid way. How do you go from walking down a main street to being stuck in a dead end with some tires? At least Babe tried to fight back...

Stage Fright - 1950

I randomly recorded this movie off TV because it sounded interesting and had Marlene Dietrich in it. I'd read a couple things about her life during WWII that really intrigued me. I had no idea this was an Alfred Hitchcock movie.

The movie is based on a book by Selwyn Jepson (published as Man Running, Outrun the Constable and Killer by Proxy). The name sounded familiar, so I checked, and I'd read his name a few times while reading books about the SOE. I'd love to get my hands on one of his novels now! He wrote numerous novels and was the screenwriter for a few movies as well.

Jonathan is on the run. His decision to help the woman he loves cover up the murder of her husband has led the police right to his door. He convinces Eve, a young woman in love with him, to hide him while he figures out what to do next. She takes him to her father's house, where she gets him interested in the case as well.

I'm not going to say much more than that. I really liked this movie. Eve was a bit annoying at times with her fawning over Jonathan and lying to Smith, but it didn't bother me enough that I wanted to throw something at her.

The end made me smile, but not because of the reason you might think. It's unusual for me to get surprised, but in this movie, something happened that pushed it over the top for me. A lot of the time, I'll get itchy fingers and need to do something while a movie is on, but this time I was glued to the screen. I'm pushing this one up into the Great Movie! category and would definitely watch it again.

Berserk (anime series) - 1997

After I read the first manga, I was trying to figure out if I wanted to keep going down the Berserk manga path. There are 14 deluxe editions, thick books, and they aren't cheap. Watching this series was research for me. How invested am I in Guts and his story?

This 25-episode series showed me the origin of Guts. He's taken in by a band of mercenaries led by Griffon. I'd like to try and describe Griffon, but I can't really find a word that describes him accurately. He's ambitious and has the mojo to attract most of the people around him. I had a "love polygon" diagram at the end showing how different characters were connected.

There's still a lot of blood gushing everywhere (the manga had a ton of people cut in half), but it wasn't terrible. I wouldn't let a child sit down and watch this, it is NOT a cartoon. It's hard to describe the depth I found in it, and I don't think everyone would see everything I saw. This is not a show for everyone. It's also not something to watch if you are wanting to feel better about your day. And for what it's worth, the end credit music sounds like old-school Smashing Pumpkins. It's not...

The last episode was just insane. I'm talking about jaw-dropped, 'what the heck did I just watch?' insane. Not only was it crazy, it was one of the most frustrating cliffhanger adventures I have ever seen. The way it ended made me jump to the internet to try and see if any of the immediate questions I had were answered in the manga...they were.

I still haven't 100% decided. It's a big investment of money and shelf space, but my plan currently is to read through the manga again and make my final decision after that. I found this particular series to be interesting, and even though I was slow to get involved with the story, once I got a few episodes in, I was binging them. The series did its job. I want to see more. It may involve dedicating a large amount of shelf space, but we shall see. Good Show!