BL    CAN CAS CAT CH CI CL   CO

THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI (1919/Decla-Bioskop) 78mins. 4682 feet. 6 reels. Silent. Germany. Aka: DAS KABINETT DES DR. CALIGARI.
Credits: Dir: Robert Wiene; Prod: Erich Pommer & Rudolf Meinart; Sc: Carl Meyer & Hans Janowitz; Ph: Willy Hameister; Art: Herman Warm, Walter Rohrig & Walter Reimann. Costumes: Walter Reimann. From story by Hans Janowitz.
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinz von Twardowski, Rudolph Lettinger, Rudolph Klein-Rogge, Walter Reimann, Ludwig Rex, Elsa Wagner, Henri Peters-Arnolds, Hans Lanser-Ludolff.
"A fantastic and thrilling mystery produced in the impressionistic manner...the most amazing contribution to screen art since the earliest days of the cinema!"

CAGLIOSTRO (1929/Oswald Film) BW. Silent. Germany/France.
Credits: Dir. & Prod: Richard Oswald.
Cast: Hans Stuwe, Alfred Abel, Renee Heribel, Charles Dullin, Edmond Van Daele, Suzanne Bianchetti, Rina de Liguoro.
Cagliostro, (Stuwe), is an infamous mesmerist.

LE CAKE-WALK INFERNAL (1903/Star Film) 325 feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE INFERNAL CAKE WALK.
Credits: Georges Melies.
Horned demons and magical balls of flame appear inside Satan's cave.

CALL FROM THE DEAD (1915/Thanhouser) 2 reels. BW. Silent. US.
The vengeful corpse of his victim horrifies a murderer.

THE CALL OF SILVA (1923) see Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu

CALLING DOCTOR DEATH (1943/Inner Sanctum Films/Universal) 63mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Reginald LeBorg; Prod: Ben Pivar; Sc: Edward Dein; Ph: Virgil Miller; Ed: Norman A. Cerf; Art: John B. Goodman & Ralph M. DeLacy; Sets: Russell A. Gausman & Andrew J. Gilmore; Sfx: John P. Fulton; Tech: William Hedgcock; Mus: Paul Sawtell. An "Inner Sanctum Mystery" by arrangement with Simon & Schuster Inc.
Cast: Lon Chaney Jnr., J. Carrol Naish, Patricia Morrison, Ramsay Ames, Holmes Herbert, David Bruce, Fay Helm, Alec Craig, Mary Hale, Fred Gierman, Lisa Golm, George Eldredge, Charles Wagenheim, John Elliott, David Hoffman, Norman Rainey, Rex Lease, Paul Phillips, Frank Marlowe, Keith Ferguson, Charles Moore, Earl Hodgins, Kernan Cripps, Perc Launders, Jack Rockwell, Robert Hill, Jack C. Smith, Al Ferguson.
"Terror strikes as a madman rules!"
Eminent neurologist Doctor Mark Steele, (Chaney), so hates his unfaithful wife, (Ames), that when her mutilated corpse is discovered he is police inspector Gregg's, (Naish), prime suspect. However, the doctor believes he might have committed the crime while during a blackout caused by self-hypnosis.
The first of many suspenseful potboilers inspired by the "Inner Sanctum" radio series. Despite the interesting premise, the film fails to tie the plot together satisfactorily.

CANDLES AT NINE (1944/British National) 86mins. BW. UK.
Credits: Dir: John Harlow; Prod: Wallace Orton; Sc: John Harlow & Basil Mason; Ph: Jimmy Wilson & Arthur Grant. From a novel by Anthony Gilbert.
Cast: Jessie Matthews, Eliot Makeham, John Stuart, Beatrix Lehmann, Winifred Shotter, Reginald Purdell, Hugh Dempster, Joss Ambler, Vera Bogetti, Ernest Butcher, Guy Fielding, Gerry Wilmott, John Salew, Andre Van Gyseghem, C. Denier Warren, Patricia Hayes, Antony Holles.
Wealthy miser Everard Hope, (Makeham), taunts his relatives about the contents of his will and that night he is murdered. The sole heir is an unknown relative and actress named Dorothea, (Matthews), who is saved from death twice before even arriving at the Hope home by Gordon, (Stuart), from the CID. Further attempts are made on her life and the culprit is revealed to be the sinister housekeeper, (Lehmann).
A poor copy of the successful The Cat and the Canary without any suspense and interspersed with Matthews' musical numbers. After disastrous returns at the box office Matthews' headlining career in films finished.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA (1944/Republic) BW. Serial. 15 Chapters. US.
Credits: Dir: John English & Elmer Clifton.
Cast: Dick Purcell, Lionel Atwill, Lorna Grey, Charles Trowbridge, Russell Hicks, Frank Reicher, Edward Van Sloan.
The Scarab, (Atwill), is a crazed scientist with power over the thunderbolt who threatens to conquer the world. Captain America disguised as a district attorney, (Purcell), combats the evil menace.
A captivating serial with some interesting ideas.

CAPTAIN MEPHISTO AND THE TRANSFORMATION MACHINE (1945)
see Manhunt on Mystery Island

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943/Universal) 61mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Edward Dmytryk; Prod: Ben Pivar; Sc: Henry Sucher & Griffin Jay; Ph: George Robinson; Ed: Milton Carruth; Art: John B. Goodman & Ralph M. DeLacy; Sets: Russell A. Gausman & Ira S. Webb; Mu: Jack P. Pierce; Tech: William Hedgcock; Mus: Hans J. Salter. From a story by Ted Fithian, Neil P. Varnick & Maurice Pivar.
Cast: John Carradine, Evelyn Ankers, Aquanetta, Milburn Stone, Lloyd Corrigan, Fay Helm, Paul Fix, Clyde Beatty, Grant Withers, Martha MacVicar (Vickers), Vince Barnett, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Ed Peil Sr., Ray Walker, Gus Glassmire, Fern Emmett, William Gould, Joey Ray, Frank Mitchell, Anthony Warde, Harry Holman, Alexander Gill, Charles McAvoy, Virginia Engels, Joel Goodkind. Closing Narration: Turhan Bey.
"A human form with animal instincts!"
Scientist, Dr. Sigmund Walters, (Carradine), transforms a gorilla named Cheela, (Corrigan), with an injection of glandular fluids taken from a woman, (MacVicar), into a beautiful woman named Paula, (Aquanetta), who falls in love with animal trainer, Fred Mason, (Stone), who has recently returned from an expedition to Africa that provided Walters with Cheela. However, the trainer loves another girl, (Ankers), which causes the ape-woman to go on a jealous rampage and revert back to her primate state.
Not a bad ape melodrama despite the poor ape suit and B-movie budget. The animal training sequences were taken from the Clyde Beatty documentary THE BIG CAGE (1933).
This was Carradine's first role for Universal and it changed the course of his acting career.
Surprisingly this spawned the sequels Jungle Woman (1944), and Jungle Captive (1945).

CARNIVAL OF SINNERS (1942) see Le Main Du Diable

THE CASE OF BECKY (1915) BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: Frank Reicher.
Cast: Blanche Sweet, Carlyle Blackwell, James Neil.
A split personality is imposed on a girl through hypnotism.

THE CASE OF JONATHAN DREW (1926) see The Lodger

THE CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY (1940/British Lion/Pennant) 81mins. BW. UK.
Aka: THE FRIGHTENED LADY (US).
Credits: Dir: George King; Prod: S.W. Smith; Sc: Edward Dryhurst; Ph: Hone Glendinning; Ed: Leslie Norman; Art: Bernard Robinson; Mus: Jack Beaver. From the play by Edgar Wallace.
Cast: Marius Goring, Penelope Dudley Ward, Helen Haye, Patrick Barr, Felix Aylmer, John Warwick, George Merritt, Ronald Shiner, Roy Emerton, George Hayes, Elizabeth Scott, Torin Thatcher.
Lady Lebanon, (Haye), of Marks Priory is anxious for her son Willie, (Goring), to wed his cousin Ilsa Crane, (Ward), but Ilsa is shocked when an attempt is made on her life while her doctor, (Aylmer), and the chauffeur are strangled with an Indian scarf. Detective Inspector Tanner, (Merritt), use Ilsa as bait to trap the murderer and discover that the culprit is Lord Willie Lebanon himself who has inherited his deceased father's insanity and his servants are really male nurses in constant attendance. His mother, Lady Lebanon, has kept his mental state a secret to try and preserve the family bloodline.
A better than average British melodrama remaking the suspense mystery The Frightened Lady (1932).

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THE CASE OF THE MISSING BLONDE (1938) see The Lady in the Morgue

THE CASTLE GHOST (1910/Pathe) 1 reel. BW. Silent.
A man in a haunted house shoots at a ghost, but the apparition turns out to be a young girl.

CASTLE IN THE DESERT (1942/Twentieth Century Fox) 62mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Harry Lachman.
Cast: Sidney Toler, Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglas Drumbrille, Henry Daniell, Edmund MacDonald, Victor Sen Young, Ethel Griffies.
Charlie Chan, (Toler), investigates when heirs to a family fortune are being killed at an eerie mansion in the Mojave Desert.
The last of Fox's Charlie Chan series is an effective mystery chiller.

THE CASTLE OF DOOM (1931) see Vampyr

CASTLE SINISTER (1932/Delta/Filmphone) 50mins. BW. UK.
Credits: Dir., Prod. & Sc: Widgey R. Newman.
Cast: Haddon Mason, Ilsa Kilpatrick, Eric Adney, Wally Patch, Edmund Kennedy.
Professor Bandov, (Adney), tries to put a girl's brain into an apeman's head at his castle on the Devon moors believing that this will benefit mankind. Eventually the resulting creature kills the professor.
A poor attempt for what was a familiar theme even for 1932. The sets and acting are both creaky, but the ape-creature provides a few chuckles.

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THE CAT CREEPS (1930/Universal) 71mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir. & Sound: Rupert Julian; Prod: Carl Laemmle Jnr.; Sc: Gladys Lehman & William Hurlbut; Ph: Jerry Ash & Hal Mohr. From the Broadway play of 1922 by John Willard.
Cast: Helen Twelvetrees, Raymond Hackett, Jean Hersholt, Neil Hamilton, Lilyan Tashman, Montague Love, Lawrence Grant, Theodore Von Eltz, Blanche Friderici, Elizabeth Patterson.
When an heiress, (Twelvetrees), arrives at a remote mansion to claim her fortune an escaped maniac, named The Cat, (Hamilton), terrorises her and the other relatives gathered there.
By all accounts this is a slick and well paced, sound remake of 1927's The Cat and the Canary that has avoided dating, even by contemporary standards, although this is mostly due to Mohr's effective camerawork than it is to the tiresome scenes of dialogue.
The simultaneously filmed Spanish language version, LA VOLUNTAD DEL MUERTO was filmed with an alternate cast starring Lupita Tovar, directed by Rupert Julian and Paul Kohner. This version, Kohner's first project as Universal's foreign language producer, was so well lit that Laemmle Jnr. ordered the American version to be reshot in the same manner.
Kohner later married his Spanish speaking discovery Lupita Tovar.
Both versions are currently lost although the eight sound discs have been recovered.

THE CAT CREEPS (1946/Universal) 58mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Erle C. Kenton; Prod: Howard Welsch; A.Prod: Will Cowan; Sc: Edward Dein, Jerry Warner & Gertrude Hoffman (uncredited); Ph: George Robinson & Elwood Bredell (uncredited); Ed: Russell Schoengarth; Art: Jack Otterson & Abraham Grossman; Sets: Russell A. Gausman & T.F. Offenbecker; Tech: William Hedgcock; Mus: Paul Sawtell. From a story by Gerald Geraghty.
Cast: Noah Beery Jnr., Paul Kelly, Lois Collier, Douglass Dumbrille, Jonathan Hale, Rose Hobart, Fred Brady, Iris Clive, Vera Lewis, William B. Davidson, Arthur Loft, Jerry Jerome.
"It will scare you out of your skin!"
At Key Towers, the remote island home of Cora Williams, (Lewis), several people are gathered, including a crooked lawyer and a private-eye, (Dumbrille), who are all linked by their implication in the apparent suicide of Eric Goran. That night a journalist, (Brady), and a photographer, (Beery), for the Morning Chronicle are stranded at the house with the other guests and subjected to a night of terror. The soul of a murdered woman seems to live on in a cat that possesses extra sensory powers while the newspapermen try to solve the murder and discover a hidden fortune.
A competent and atmospheric thriller is helped along by the good production values even if the plot seems familiar and the dated humour tends to lessen the atmosphere. Regarded as one of Universal's worst entries in the horror field, made at a time when the public's interest in horror was apparently waning and most of Universal's competitors had ceased making films in this genre.

THE CAT PEOPLE (1942/RKO.) 73mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Jacques Tourneur; Prod: Val Lewton; Sc: DeWitt Bodeen; Ph: Nicholas Musuraca; Ed: Mark Robson; Art: Albert D'Agostino & Walter E. Keller; Sets: Darrell Silvera & Al Fields; Mus: Roy Webb & Constantin Bakaleinikoff.
Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Kent Smith, Jack Holt, Jane Randolph, Mary Halsey, Elizabeth Russell, Alan Napier, Elizabeth Dunne, Betty Roadman, Alec Craig.
"Kiss me and I'll claw you to death!"
"She knew strange, fierce pleasures that no other woman could feel!"
"A kiss could change her into a monstrous fang-and-claw killer!"
Due to her Serbian heritage, fashion designer Irena Dubrovna, (Simon), is capable of transforming into a large cat when her emotions become too strong. She reluctantly marries Oliver Reed, (Smith), but he becomes concerned when they don't make love, so he persuades her to visit psychiatrist Dr. Judd, (Conway), however when the doctor tries to seduce her, he is clawed to death for his trouble. Meanwhile her husband seeks solace in the arms of another woman, (Randolph), and several attempts are made on her life by a large cat. When the animal is fatally wounded, it makes its way to the city zoo and dies near the panther cage transforming back into Irena.
This is mostly a social comment on the fear of sex rather than a monster film, but Tourneur achieves an eerie atmosphere with a good use of shadow and light. A highlight is the scene in which Randolph is stalked by the panther at night in a swimming pool building reportedly inspired by Tourneur's own experience when he nearly drowned swimming at night in a lake. In the film he created the panther's shadow with his fist.
This is the first of Val Lewton's productions for the RKO "B" movie unit which met with great success, costing only $134 thousand to make on sets borrowed from THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS and grossing over $4 million, saving RKO. from bankruptcy.
Despite a few truly classic scenes, the film is somewhat overrated and occasionally slow. Other Lewton films are better paced and much more enjoyable. Ironically, Val Lewton suffered from gatophobia, a morbid fear of cats.
Sequel: Curse of the Cat People (1944).

THE CAT THAT CHANGED INTO A WOMAN (1910)
see La Chatte Metamorphosee en Femme

THE CATMAN OF PARIS (1940/Republic) 65mins. BW. US. Released 1946.
Credits: Dir: Lesley Selander; Prod: Marek V. Libkov; Sc: Sherman L. Lowe; Ph: Reggie Lanning; Ed: Harry Keller; Sfx: Howard & Theodore Lydecker; Art: Gano Chittenden; Mu: Dale Butts; Mus: Dale Butts.
Cast: Robert Wilke, Fritz Feld, Carl Esmond, Gerald Mohr, Lenore Aubert, Adele Mara, Douglass Dumbrille, John Dehner, Anthony Caruso.
Brilliant, but controversial author Charles Regnier, (Esmond), suffers from blackouts ever since a visit to the Orient and believes himself to be the "claw" killer that stalks the streets of Paris. His lover, (Aubert), discovers that the real culprit is actually someone, (Wilke), who turns into were-cat every 300 years when a constellation of stars are in the right position. The lycanthrope is on his ninth and last incarnation.
The monster make-up is cheap and obvious in this dated, low budget variation of the Jekyll and Hyde story.

THE CAT'S REVENGE (1908/Lux) 200 feet. BW. Silent.
The ghost of a cat haunts a man.

THE CAVE DEMONS (1898) see La Caverne Maudite

THE CAVE DWELLERS (1940) see One Million BC.

THE CAVE DWELLER'S ROMANCE (1913/Bison) 3 reels. BW. Silent. US.
A man is mystically transformed into a horse.

CAVE MAN (1940)see One Million BC.

LA CAVERNE MAUDITE (1898/Star Films) 65feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE CAVE DEMONS.
Credits: Georges Melies.
Inside a cave the ghosts and skeletons appear of people buried in mysterious circumstances. A young lady arrives, and she is immediately surrounded by the apparitions.
A creepy subject that was ahead of it's time and made with imaginative special effects. This is one of the first times Melies used duplex photography that caused the rocks and supports of the cavern to be seen through the transparent bodies of the ghosts.

CHAMBER OF HORRORS (1929/British Instructional) 5014 feet. BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Walter Summers; Prod: H. Bruce Woolfe.
Cast: Frank Stanmore, Elizabeth Hempel, Joan Maude, Leslie Holland, Fanny Wright.
James Budgeforth, (Stanmore), dreams that he murders his mistress Ninette, (Hempel), and goes insane during a night spent in Madame Tussauds wax museum.
The last silent horror film before the huge public demand for talkies overwhelmed the studios.

CHAMBER OF HORRORS (1940) see The Door With Seven Locks

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CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932)

THE CHARLATAN (1929) BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: George Melford; Sc: J.G. Hawks & Robert N. Lee.
Cast: Holmes Herbert, Margaret Livingston, Rockliffe Fellowes, Philo McCullough, Anita Garvin, Crauford Kent, Rose Tapley, Fred MacKaye, Dorothy Gould, Fritzi Fern.
Sideshow charlatan Count Merlin, (Herbert), shows Florence Talbot, (Livingston), her past in his crystal ball. Stunned by the revelations and Merlin's knowledge of her life, she leaves. Merlin is actually her long lost husband, Peter Dwight, in heavy disguise whom she had abandoned 18 years earlier taking away their daughter. Dwight sees an opportunity for revenge. At home, Florence's friend, Mrs. Deering becomes obsessed with Merlin's mysticism and wants to invite him to a party, which is greeted with enthusiasm by Talbot's daughter. Count Merlin accepts, and along with his dwarf assistant he performs his magic act. On a dark, stormy night at Florence's mansion, in a room filled with guests, Florence enters Merlin's magic cabinet and is mysteriously killed. All guests, including Florence's new husband, are suspects.
An enjoyable early entry to the "old-dark-house" genre.
(Thanks to Kenneth Strong for this review)

CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935/Twentieth Century Fox) 65mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Louis King.
Cast: Warner Oland, "Pat" Paterson, Thomas Beck, Rita Cansino (Hayworth), Jameson Thomas, Frank Conroy, Nigel de Brulier, Paul Porcasi, Stepin Fetchit, Frank Reicher, John George.
Charlie Chan searches for a mummified archaeologist lost amongst the pyramids.

CHARLIE CHAN IN MEETING AT MIDNIGHT (1944) see Black Magic

LA CHARRETTE FANTOME (1939) Aka: THE PHANTOM WAGON.

LA CHASSE DU COMTE ZAROFF (1932) see The Most Dangerous Game

LE CHATEAU HANTÉ (1897/Star Film) 65 feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE HAUNTED CASTLE; THE DEVIL'S CASTLE.
Credits: Georges Melies.
A film adaptation of a stage spectacle produced in 1890.
Not to be confused with Melies' Le Manoir du Diable (1896), also known as THE DEVIL'S CASTLE or THE HAUNTED CASTLE which was made on the same set.

LA CHATTE METAMORPHOSEE EN FEMME (1912/Pathe) 1 reel. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE CAT THAT WAS CHANGED INTO A WOMAN.
Credits: Dir: Louis Feuillade.
A cat is transformed into a woman by the Gods.

LE CHAULDRON INFERNAL (1903/Star Film) 116feet. BW Silent. France.
Aka: THE INFERNAL CAULDRON AND THE PHANTASMAL VAPOURS.
Credits: Georges Melies.
The Devil boils three women in his cauldron, transforming them into flying spirits, and then into flames.

THE CHEESE MITES (1901/Booth) 70feet. BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Walter R. Booth.
"The Liliputians in a London restaurant."
Six inch high sailors dance the "Hornpipe" on a diner's piece of cheese.

THE CHEESE MITES (1903/Urban Trading Co./Micro Bioscope) 150feet. BW Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir: F. Martin Duncan.
A diner examines his cheese in a restaurant with a magnifying glass and observes mites magnified to '30 diameters.

THE CHEVAL MYSTERY (1915/Victor) 3 reels. BW. Silent. US.
Cast: Harry Meyers, Rosemary Theby.
An ordinary young woman is changed into a raving maniac by a hypnotist.

UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928/Bunuel & Dali) 16mins. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: AN ANDALUSIAN DOG.
Credits: Dir., Prod. & Sc: Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali; Ph: Albert Dubergen; Ed: Luis Bunuel; Art: Pierre Schilzneck; Mus: Beethoven & Wagner.
Cast: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Jaime Miravilles, Salvador Dali, Louis Bunuel.
A priest drags a piano containing a donkey's putrefying corpse. A fist is unclenched to show ants eating the palm. A person's eyeball is slowly cut with a razor.
A surreal montage of brutal and erotic images, all designed to titilate, shock and repulse. The script emerged from a discussion between Bunuel and Dali about their dreams and their meanings producing the most famous avant garde film in cinema's history.
Conceived as an attack on the esoteric "formalism" of avant-garde French films of the Twenties, controversy still persists whether Dali actually slaughtered the donkey and stole the severed hand from a mortuary for the sequences in the film.
Novelist George Orwell accused Dali of simply having "a sick mind".
A new soundtrack was added in 1983 by Maurico Kagel replacing the original music which was recorded from Bunuel's wind up gramophone record player.

LE CHIEN DER BASKERVILLE (1914/Pathe) 45mins. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES.
From the story by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes is on the trail of a monstrous dog loose on the moors that is threatening the lives of the Baskerville family.

THE CHIMES (1914/Cecil M. Hepworth) 2500feet. BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir & Sc: Thomas Bentley; Prod: Cecil M. Hepworth.
A spirit guides a man through a horrifying journey into the future.

CHINESE MAGIC (1900/Robert W. Paul) 100feet. BW. Silent. Aka: YELLOW PERIL.
Credits: Dir: Walter R. Booth.
A Chinese conjuror transforms himself into a giant bat.

CHIRURGIE FIN DE SIECLE (1902) see Une Indigestion

CHIRURGIEN AMERICAIN (1897/Star Film) 65feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: A TWENTIETH CENTURY SURGEON.
Credits: Georges Melies.
A tramp discovers that his body has been replaced at the hands of a surgeon who is tampering with nature.

CHLOE "Love is Calling" (1934) 62mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Marshall Neilan.
Cast: Olive Borden, Reed Howes, Molly O'Day.
A black voodooo mistress from the Florida Everglades emerges to have revenge on a white plantation owner. Evidence surfaces that her daughter Chloe, may actually be the plantation owner's daughter.
An atmospheric tale featuring swamps, alligators, voodoo rituals, snakes and bats.

CHRONICLES OF BLOOM CENTER (1915/Selig Polyscope Co.) 25mins. BW. Silent. US.
Cast: Sidney Smith, William Hutchinson.
Spiritualists are frightened by a man dressed as a ghost before real spirits appear.

LA CHUTE DE LA MAISON USHER (1928/Epstein) 55mins. (6 reels). BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.
Credits: Dir & Sc: Jean Epstein; A.Dir: Luis Bunuel; Ph: Lucas Y. Herbert; Art: Pierre Kefer.
From a story by Edgar Allan Poe.
Cast: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamyn, Pierre Hot, Fournez-Goffert, Madame Halma.
Sir Roderick Usher, (Debucourt), frantically tries to complete a portrait of his ailing wife, (Gance), who is aware that she is dying as the portrait progresses. When she dies she returns from the grave to save her husband from the lightening that is destroying the family home.
A loosely adapted version of the famous story that removes the novel's intriguing and incestuous brother-sister relationship, and attempts to create an avant-garde style. Ultimately, style is all that remains as most of the undertones of Poe's work are completely ignored.
Bunuel left the post of assistant director after he disagreed with Epstein's conception.

THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE (1915) see The Bat

LA CITE FOUDROYEE (1922) BW. Silent. France. Aka: THE CITY DESTROYED.
Credits: Dir. & Prod: Luitz Marat; Sc: Jean-Louis Bouqet.
Cast: Daniel Mendelle, Jeanne Maguenat, Armand Morins.
A mad scientist seeking to rule the world, destroys the city of Paris with his raygun.

THE CITY DESTROYED (1922) see Cite Foudroyee

CITY OF THE LOST MEN (1935) see The Lost City

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CLEOPATRE (1899/Star Films) 130feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: ROBBING CLEOPATRE'S TOMB (US).
Credits: Georges Melies.
Cast: Georges Melies.
A man with diabolical intent hacks a Queen's mummy to bits, then resurrects the woman from a smoking brazier.
American film producer, Charles Urban saw the potential in the film during a visit to London and took it to America under a new title. Urban then went on to distribute other Melies films in America.

THE CLIMAX (1944/Universal) 86mins. Colour. US.
Credits: Dir. & Prod: George Waggner; Ex.Prod: Joseph Gershenson; Sc: Curt Siodmak & Lynn Starling; Ph: Hal Mohr & W. Howard Greene; Ed: Russell Schoengarth; Art: John B. Goodman & Alexander Golitzen; Sets: Russell A. Gausman & Ira S. Webb; Sfx: John P. Fulton; Technicolor Dir: Natalie Kalmus & William Fritzsche; Mu: Jack P. Pierce; Tech: William Hedgecock; Mus: Edward Ward. From a play by Edward J. Locke.

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THE CLOWN AND THE AUTOMATON (1897) see Gugusse et l'Automate

THE CLOWN HERO (1915/IMP.) 2 reels. BW. Silent. US.
A boy is frightened by nightmares of strange animals.

THE CLUB PEST (1915/Biograph) 1 reel. BW. Silent. US.
A man attempts to stay overnight in a haunted house to win a bet.

THE CLUE OF THE PIGTAIL (1923) see The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu

THE CLUTCHING HAND (1936/Weiss Prod.) BW. Serial. 15 episodes. US.
Aka: THE AMAZING EXPLOITS OF THE CLUTCHING HAND.
Credits: Dir: Albert Herman; Prod: Louis Weiss; Ex.Prod: George M. Merrick; Sc: Leon D'Usseau & Dallas Fitzgerald; Ph: James Diamond; Ed: Earl Turner; Electrical Fx: Kenneth Strickfaden; Mus: Lee Zahler. From a novel by Arthur B. Reeve.
Cast: Jack Mulhall, Marion Shilling, Yakima Canutt, Reed Howes, William Farnun, Ruth Mix, Rex Lease, Mae Busch, Bryant Washburn, Robert Frazer, Gaston Glass, Mahlon Hamilton, Robert Walker, Joseph W. Girard, Charles Locher (Jon Hall), Frank Leigh, Franklyn Farnum, Knute Erickson, Richard Alexander, Milburn Morante, John Elliott, Henry Hall, Snub Pollard, Olin Francis, Robert Russell, William Desmond, Ethel Grove, Gordon S. Griffith, George Morell, Bull Montana, Slim Whittaker.
Dr. Paul Gironda, (Frazer), gathers together the directors of the International Research Foundation to demonstrate his formula for making synthetic gold, b ut the inventor is captured by a shadowy arch fiend, known as the "Clutching Hand". Scientific detective Craig Kennedy, (Mulhall), is asked by Gironda's daughter Verna, (Shilling), to find her father.
An entertaining cliff-hanger slightly hampered by an over-complex script.
An edited seven reel feature length version was also released.

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