THE LADY AND THE MONSTER

Donovan's Brain

THE LADY AND THE MONSTER (1944). Director: George Sherman. 

Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) is a weird scientist who lives and works in a big old place called the Castle. He has two assistants: Janice (Vera Hruba Ralston), who is the object of his unwanted affections; and Dr. Patrick Cory (Richard Arlen), who is also in love with Janice. Mueller is obsessed with the idea of keeping a brain alive after death, and he gets his chance when a plane accident victim, wealthy W. H. Donovan, is brought to his estate. Although Cory goes along with it, he has serious misgivings, especially after the brain takes control of his mind and tries to get him to do things Donovan never had a chance to do while alive, such as getting his innocent son (William Henry of New Orleans Uncensored) acquitted of murder, and trying to run a child witness over with a car. 

Ralston and Arlen

Although The Lady and the Monster is not without flaws and has dull stretches, it improves as it goes along and turns out to be the somewhat superior version of the novel Donovan's Brain, which was also filmed under that title almost ten years later. Vera (Hruba) Ralston is billed above the title. Her husband ran Republic studios, which released this film, and was determined to turn her into a star, even though she perhaps lacked that all-important presence. Richard Arlen makes a better impression, although von Stroheim gives a strange, not terribly good performance along the lines of the one he delivered in The Crime of Dr. Crespi almost ten years earlier.

Richard Arlen and Sidney Blackmer

An interesting touch in the film is the way Arlen looks increasingly demonic the further he falls under Donovan's control. Sidney Blackmer acts with his customary authority as a lawyer that isn't sure of Arlen's motives or that he wants to work with him. Mary Nash is also effective as the sympathetic housekeeper, Mrs. Fain. William Henry only gets one scene and is adequate. The movie has an exciting climax involving a car and then a struggle on a cliffside. In the remake the brain begins to grow bigger but that doesn't happen in this version. 

Verdict: Okay brain movie with some suspense. **1/4. 

X MARKS THE SPOT

Damian O'Flynn

X MARKS THE SPOT (1942). Director: George Sherman. 

Eddie Delaney (Damian O'Flynn of The Hidden City) is a private eye who is about to go into the Army. His father, Timothy (Robert Homans), is a beat cop who is shot to death when he confronts some suspicious characters at a warehouse. Eddie is determined to find out who murdered his dad, but he is warned by Police Lt. Bill Decker (Dick Purcell) that he can't become a vigilante no matter how he feels. When a suspect named Marty Clark (Jack La Rue) is shot and killed in his own nightclub, Bill arrests Eddie for the crime. In tried and true PI fashion, Eddie slugs Bill and takes off to solve the crime on his own. He has help from his "dream gal," Linda (Helen Parrish), a woman whose voice he has only heard when he asks for a song on the jukebox but who got involved in the murder when someone asked her to say there was a black-out and she tells everyone to turn out the lights. 

Helen Parrish and Damian O'Flynn

X Marks the Spot is a standard WW2 private eye melodrama that doesn't boast too many surprises. Not as rugged as other private dicks, O'Flynn still makes a reasonably appealing protagonist, and Dick Purcell is also good as the head cop on the case. Helen Parrish is acceptable as Linda but there are more interesting females in the movie, such as Lulu (Anne Jeffreys), who dallies with Marty, and Billie (Edna Harris), Linda's amusing older co-worker. The only other well-known cast member in the movie is Neil Hamilton, who plays a man who hires Eddie to find out who stole two empty trucks that belonged to his company.

O'Flynn with Dick Purcell

The motive behind everything may seem strange today but we have to remember that during WW2 rubber was a hot commodity. This is another movie that takes advantage of the fact that decades before the jukeboxes with which we are familiar, people in clubs could get tunes by calling up an exchange wherein the "d.j" would play records at a central location and pipe them out to different establishments (or something like that; it's a bit confusing, frankly). George Sherman also directed The Lady and the Monster. 

Verdict: Acceptable PI meller. **1/2.