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Daily Archives: February 8, 2015

Shock (1946)

Posted on February 8, 2015 | Leave a comment

Shock
Directed by Alfred L. Werker
Written by Eugene Ling and Martin Berkeley; story by Albert DeMond
1946/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lt. Paul Stewart: Well, if you give Janet this insulin, how certain can you be it’ll help her?[/box]

This is really pretty bad but this noirish shocker might appeal for its interesting premise and Vincent Price’s hammy but fun performance.

Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) arrives at a San Francisco hotel for a reunion with her released POW husband, whom she had long thought dead. She is overcome with anxiety when it is early in the morning and he has not yet arrived. Then she overhears a loud argument between the couple in the room next door and sees the man beat his wife to death with a candlestick. By the time her husband finally arrives the next day, poor Janet is catatonic with shock.

Lt. Stewart calls the house doctor, who refers him to a noted psychiatrist resident in the hotel. This is the smooth-talking Dr. Richard Cross (Price). Dr. Cross rapidly assesses the situation and recommends that Janet be taken immediately to his country sanitorium for peace, quiet and treatment. It develops that the good doctor and his sexy nurse Elaine Jordan (Lynn Bari) have ample reason to ensure Janet does not recover too quickly … or ever.

Anabel Shaw’s is not the only over-the-top performance in a film that milks each situation for maximum melodrama. That does not prevent the movie from having a certain fascination for lovers of B cinema and/or Vincent Price.

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The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

Posted on February 8, 2015 | 2 comments

The Beast with Five Fingers
Directed by Robert Florey
Written by Curt Siodmak from a story by William Fryer Harvey
1946/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Conrad Ryler: I know, Julie, you’re afraid. He’s holding you with his pain and helplessness. He draws his energy from your life. He’ll never let you go.[/box]

This noir-tinged horror flick is a whole lot of creepy fun. The best part is watching Peter Lorre go mad.

The setting is Italy at the turn of the last century. Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) is a half-mad pianist who continues to play despite the loss of one hand. His favorite piece was composed especially for him by con-man Conrad (Robert Alda). Ingram has become obsessed with his nurse, Julie, and retains a resident astrologer, Hilary Cummins (Lorre). One night, he gathers these people and his lawyer to attest that he is of sound mind and changes his will to leave everything to Julie.

Soon after, Ingram takes a terrible fall down the stairs and dies. His greedy relatives come to the reading of the will and vow to contest it. But all who oppose the will start dropping like flies. Could the deceased’s severed hand be responsible? All the fingerprints and the evidence of the music issuing forth from the piano suggest that it could be. With J. Carroll Naish as the local comisario.

This movie takes some time to get going, but once it does it is filled with groovy special effects, flamboyant camera work, and a bravura performance by Peter Lorre. If you like this kind of thing, go for it.