Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Watson (Nigel Bruce) are back, and this time out, their story takes its inspiration from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual.’ They left behind some of the World War II storylines, though it still has an influence. Watson is voluneering at a convalescence home housed on the…
Tag: 1943
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943) – Roy William Neill
I quite liked this entry in the Univeral Monsters series. Lon Chaney Jr. returns as Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolf Man, and Bela Lugosi, whose name gets buried in the starring credits while Chaney gets an ‘and’ plays Frankenstein’s Monster. Apparently, Talbot wasn’t dead. He was buried, draped in wolfsbane to keep him trapped and…
Son of Dracula (1943) – Robert Siodmak
A mustachioed Lon Chaney Jr. takes over the role of Dracula in Son of Dracula, and while people insist he sounds like a foreigner he doesn’t sound like the Dracula we’ve been introduced to before, but perhaps he’s just another incarnation of the same creature. The Count, under the assumed name of Alucard (come on!)…
Phantom of the Opera (1943) – Arthur Lubin
It’s the first color Universal Monster movie! Phantom of the Opera is presented in gorgeous technicolor, this is the only one of the original Universal Monster movies that won the Oscars it was nominated for, Best Cinematography (Color) and Best Art Direction (Color). While one could argue that the Universal Monster series started with the…
Shadow of a Doubt (1943) – Alfred Hitchock
It’s time for a little more Hitchcock as I dive into another old favourite, Shadow of a Doubt starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. A coming-of-age tale with a twist of murder, this film remains completely captivating thanks to the direction, the leading and the wonderful supporting cast which are all recognisable to anyone who…
Captive Wild Woman (1943) – Edward Dmytryk
John Carradine as a detached, and insane scientist, who somehow still gets work, an animal trainer who wants a shot at the big top, and a gorilla suit that becomes a beautiful women with strange powers over the animals of the circus. It’s all here in the next big title in DK Canada’s Monsters in…
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) – Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid
As I explore the final pages of DK Canada’s immensely informative The Movie Book, I’ve moved into the last section of this catalogue of films. Herein lies another title from The Directory, a selection of titles that are exceptional but didn’t make the cut for the main body of the text. Meshes of the Afternoon…
Revenge of the Zombies (1943) – Steve Sekely
Not all zombie movies are going to be winners, and I realize that as I continue to explore the dark recesses of DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book, and its chapter on zombies. This feature from 1943 is too short (and still feels too long) and doesn’t have a lot going for it, despite…
Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead (2009) – Steve Perry
Haiti 1943. Steve Perry pens the last (to date) canon novel in the Indiana Jones series, that is set five years after The Last Crusade, and takes place in the midst of the Second World War. Indy is older now, in his forties, he is working for the OSS, and he is joined by his…
Ossessione (1943) – Luchino Visconti
DK Canada’s The Movie Book brings me a tale of love and jealousy as I settled in to take in Visconti’s Ossessione. When a drifter named Gino (Massimo Girotti) arrives at a restaurant, he finds himself caught up in a romance with the repugnant owner, Giuseppe’s (Juan de Landa) wife, Giovanna (Clara Calamai). Both characters…
The Mind Reels 