THE MAGICIAN (1926)
Written and Directed by Rex Ingram

Oliver Haddo (Paul Wegener), magician, hypnotist and student of medicine, needs only the blood from a maiden’s heart to complete his experiment in the creation of artificial life and sculptor Margaret Dauncey (Alice Terry) has just the heart Haddo needs. From a novel by Somerset Maugham, this melodramatic love triangle becomes a full blown horror movie in its final third, when Haddo abducts the maiden whom he has forced to marry him - but without consummating the marriage, so her blood will remain pure - and carries her off to his secluded ruined tower, where a dwarf assists him, cauldrons bubble in his lab and a storm rages outside. James Whale must have seen this! Wegener gives a surprisingly restrained performance until Haddo goes completely bonkers in the climax, waving his arms in grand gestures, laughing maniacally and popping out his eyes. It’s a role that would have been a natural for Lugosi in just a few years time. Alice Terry (the director’s wife) is a bland and matronly heroine; hard to believe such a dull presence has sculpted the satanic faun that falls over, crushes her spine and later comes to life in a bacchanalian hypnotic sequence. Long unavailable and definitely worth a look. (Viewed on TCM, whose good looking print sports tints and a fine original score by Robert Israel that uses many motifs familiar to fans of classic horror films.)

MONSTROSITY (1964)

Written by Vy Russell, Sue Dwiggins, Dean Dillman Jr and Jack Pollexfen

Directed by Joseph V. Mascelli

Wealthy old Mrs. March (Marjorie Eaton) hires mad scientist Dr. Otto Frank (Frank Gerstle) to continue his research into brain transplantation and dead body rejuvenation, so that her brain can find a younger home. But two of the three foreign women ostensibly hired as live-in domestics have other ideas once they discover the true reason they’ve been brought to Mrs. March’s secluded mansion. This extremely odd little movie often looks like a more ambitious project than it turned out to be: many of its shots are as artfully lit and framed as any from a large budget studio picture of the era, but some appear to have been shot as quickly as a few lights could be set up, while some are frankly out of focus. Its running length of just over an hour makes it feel unfinished, though nothing seems to be missing from the final print. At any rate, its ideas are quite wacky, with Dr. Frank creating a dog man and a cat woman, and keeping one failed experiment around for her decorative value. While Gerstle and Eaton are familiar faces from many films and TV shows of the Fifties and Sixties and perform their tasks well, the rest of the cast had few (if any) credits beyond this film and are quite amateurish by comparison, particularly Judy Bamber as the British Bea, whose accent stumbles between Cockney and Southern U.S. The film’s original score sounds like library music, and is often “funny” at the oddest times, like when one of the women tests the comfort of her new bed. The last film produced by Jack Pollexfen, whose two female co-producers also co-wrote his great INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN. A very strange and entertaining movie, and one that appears to have been intended that way. How nice to still be discovering off-the-wall delights like this after so many decades of movie viewing. (Viewed on Comcast’s OnDemand, whose 35mm print from Something Weird looks surprisingly good, with a rich tonal range and only a few scratches and splices.)

— Robert Deveau, The Doomed Farmer