Hopes were high when we turned this movie on. The title was horror-ish, and it starred our good pal, Bela Lugosi! Let's see what the movie had in store for us, shall we?
Before I start the review, I'm going to do things a little differently. Normally, after a movie, I head to the internet and download the movie poster for the review. When I do that, I read a bit about the movie. Sometimes I learn interesting tidbits about the filming, and other times I learn things that help me understand what I watched. This one was so confusing, I'm going to go through my impressions before looking anything up about the movie.
Murders are happening around the home of Mr. Kessler. His wife disappeared a few years ago, but he believes that one day she'll return. In reality, she ran away with another man, got into a car crash, got brain damage, and is living in a cellar under the barn. She's being fed by the groundskeeper who found her after the wreck, but she emerges from the cellar every once in a while, and that's when the murders happen.
You'd think she's the one responsible, but it's really Bela. When Mrs. Kessler stands beneath the window and stares at the house, Bela "senses" it and falls into a trance. He curls up his hand, and tracks down a victim to play peek-a-boo with before strangling them with his cape, robe or sometimes his bare hands. There were times during the movie I was wondering if she really was a ghost since she was outside in the rain, but she was perfectly dry. The rain was streaming down the window, so she wasn't protected by an overhang. But then, in the next moment, her face was wet. Then, she was dry again. Whatever.
Then we have Ralph. Poor Ralph. That man was executed for a murder he didn't commit, and no one really acknowledged that. His brother came from South America to find out what really happened, but at the end, no one mentioned that "hey, we really did have the wrong guy, eh?" Also, they were trying to pin the murders on the poor butler. And the whole psychiatry exam was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Let's sit him down in a chair and simply ask him, "Do you think Mr. Kessler is insane?" How is that a test of the butler's sanity? So weird.
And nothing made sense. Why did Bela go into a trance when his wife was near? Why did it make him kill people? Why did his wife die once she got into the house? She'd been near him before, so why at that moment does she die, and why does that moment break the spell over Bela? And why did lightning break the spell? And why were there no invisible ghosts?!
Every person in this movie was awful. The police railroaded poor Ralph. All they had was circumstantial evidence, and he supposedly had the best lawyer in the county. I have my doubts. The brother was an idiot, and his suspenders made his pants too high. The coroner couldn't tell when a person was dead. The cops watching the house never saw the woman in a bathrobe. The daughter was useless. The only helpful person was the butler. Evans was the man, and he's the real hero. And they tried pinning the murder on him!
I went to look into the movie and found nothing of note. I think if you're in the mood for a strange nonsensical Bela movie, you might be entertained by this one. I think The Devil Bat is much better though and would recommend it over this one easily.
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