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OBEAH (1935) BW.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: F. Herrick.
Cast: Phillips H. Lord.
A voodoo curse is placed on a jungle explorer by a high priestess whose chants are only
understood by monkeys. OBSESSION
(1948/Independent Soveriegn) 98mins. UK. Aka: THE HIDDEN ROOM (US).
Credits: Dir: Edward Dmytryk; Prod: Nat A. Bronsten;
Sc: Alec Coppel; Ph: C.M. Pennington-Richards & Robert Day; Ed: Lilo Carruthers; Mus:
Nino Rota.
From the play "A Man About a Dog" by Alec Coppel.
Cast: Robert Newton, Sally Gray, Naunton Wayne, Phil
Brown, Olga Lindo, Ronald Adam, James Harcourt, Allan Jeayes, Russell Waters, Michael
Balfour, Betty Cooper, Roddy Hughes, Stanley Baker, Lyonel Watts, Monty the dog.
Incensed by his wife's, (Gray), continual flirtations, Doctor Riordan, (Newton), decides
to kidnap her present lover, (Brown), and chain him up in the cellar, keeping him alive
until the investigation of his disappearence is over. While a Scotland Yard inspector,
(Wayne), searches for the missing man, the insanely jealous husband prepares an acid bath
for his victim, but the man's dog has picked up the scent and the police are led to the
scene.
An effective thriller that creates plenty of tension with a good performance by Wayne.
Dmytryk's first British film after being blacklisted by the McCarthy witch-hunts in the
United States.
THE OCCULT (1913/American/Flying
A.) BW. Silent. US.
Features hypnotism.
OH, YOU SKELETON (1910/Selig
Polyscope Co.) BW. Silent. US.
Skeletons chase a maid.
THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932/Universal)
74mins. BW. US. Re-released in 1945.
Credits: Dir: James Whale; Prod: Carl Laemmle Jnr.; Sc: Ben W. Levy & R.C. Sherriff; Ph: Arthur Edeson; Ed: Maurice Pivar & Clarence Kolster; Art: Charles D. Hall; Sfx: John P. Fulton;
Mu: Jack P. Pierce; Mus: Benhard Kaun.
From "Benighted" by J.B. Priestly.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton, John Dudgeon
(Elspeth Dudgeon), Raymond Massey, Ernest Thesiger, Gloria
Stuart, Lilian Bond, Eva Moore, Melvyn Douglas, Brember Wills. |
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Philip Waverton, (Massey), Margaret Waverton, (Stuart),
and their friend Roger Penderel, (Douglas), take refuge from a terrible storm at an
isolated farmhouse in Wales and find themselves guests of the strange Horace Femm,
(Thesiger), the partly deaf Rebecca Femm, (Moore), and their mute butler Morgan,
(Karloff). That night the travellers are joined by Sir William Porterhouse, (Laughton),
and his chorus girl companion Gladys DuCane, (Bond), when the drunken butler releases
Saul, (Wills), the insane son of the family from his locked room who attempts to murder
the guests and burn the house down.
A delightful horror comedy with memorable lines and a grotesque atmosphere all of its own.
The superb characterisations, the witty script and stylish direction conceals some of the
plot flaws.
Along with Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927), this film remains the seminal
old-dark-house mystery. |
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This was thought to be a lost film until director Curtis
Harrington, a friend of Whale during his later life, uncovered a neglected print in the
Universal vaults during the late Sixties. THE OLD
SHOEMAKER (1909/Gaumont) 6mins. BW. Silent. France.
A murderer is driven insane by ghostly visions of his victim.
AN OLD-TIME NIGHTMARE (1911/Powers) BW. Silent. US.
A boy is menaced by giant birds.
ON BORROWED TIME (1939/MGM.)
98mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Hal S. Bucquet; Prod: Sidney Franklin; Sc: Alice Duer G. Miller, Frank
O'Neill & Claudine West; Ph: Joseph Ruttenberg; Ed: George Boemler; Art: Cedric
Gibbons; Mus: Franz Waxman. From a play by Paul Osbourne and the novel by Lawrence Edward
Watkin.
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Cedric
Hardwicke, Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel, Henry Travers, Bobs Watson, Nat Pendleton, Ian Wolfe, Truman Bradley, Grant Mitchell, Eily Malyon, James
Burke, Chris Waldron, Philip Terry.
"... faith still performs miracles and a good deed does find its just
reward."
Those boys who try to steal Grandpa Northrop's apples from his apple tree find that they
cannot get down unless Grandpa, (Barrymore), wishes it. When Death as Mr. Brink,
(Hardwicke), claims a young boy's mother and father, Grandpa and Aunt Nelly look after the
youngster until one day Death calims Aunt Nelly and an interfering relative decides to
adopt the boy herself for the insurance money due to the youngster. Grandpa tries to raise
his standing in the community to fight the adoption suit, but he becomes exhausted and
Death pays him a visit only to be tricked up into the apple tree where Grandpa intends to
keep him. Only Grandpa can hear Death's voice and slowly the townsfolk believe he is
insane until they discover that no one can die while Death is in the tree. A doctor
legally forces Northrop to let Death down allowing him time to explain to his young charge
that he will be leaving. The boy runs off and is tempted by Mr. Brink to climb the apple
tree, but the child breaks his legs and while screaming in pain Northrop allows Death to
claim them both. Grandpa and the boy cross over to the light and Aunt Nelly.
An engaging sentimental fantasy that compares well with the works of the king of Americana
sentiment, Frank Capra. |
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ON TIME (1924/Truart/Carlos Prod.) 6reels. BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: Henry Lehrman; Prod: Richard Talmadge; Sc: Garrett Fort; Ph: William
Marshall; Ed. & Titles: Ralph Spence. From a story by Al Cohn.
Cast: Richard Talmadge, Billie Dove, Stuart Holmes, George Siegmann, Tom Wilson,
Charles Clary, Douglas Gerard, Fred Kirby, Frankie Mann, John George.
Harry Willis, (Talmadge), promises his fiancee, (Dove), that he will make a fortune in six
months. When he feels he has failed, a mysterious Chinaman offers him $10,000 if he
follows his instructions for one day. Harry is whisked into a series of misadventures,
including a crazed doctor's attempt to perform a brain transplant on him using a gorilla
as the donor. The denoument reveals this to be a ruse to see if our hero is capable of
becoming a big movie star and is given the $10,000 with a movie contract.
A flatly directed comedy without any flair or visual excitement.
Talmadge, a former stunt double for Douglas Fairbanks and Harold Lloyd among others, later
became a stunt director. ONCE IN A NEW MOON (1934/Fox
British) 63mins. BW. UK.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Anthony Kimmins. From a novel by Owen Rutter.
Cast: Eliot Makeham, Rene Ray, Morten Selten, Wally Patch, John Clements, Derrick
de Marney, Mary Hinton, Gerald Barry, Cecil Landau, Richard Boolden, H. Saxon Snell, John
Turnbull, Ralph Howard, Vernon Kelso, Thorley Walters, Franklyn Kelsey, Walter Roy,
Charles Paton, William Fazan.
An English village is hurled into space when a dead star collides with the moon. Civil war
soon threatens the inhabitants of the new colony when the richer villagers begin to
harrass the poorer ones. Eventually the village returns to Earth.
An intelligent fantasy film that in many ways was ahead of its time. |
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ONE BODY TOO MANY (1944/Pine-Thomas/Paramount) 74mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Frank McDonald; Prod: William Pine & Willam Thomas; Sc: Winston
Miller & Maxwell Shane; Ph: Fred Jackman; Ed: Howard Smith & Henry Adams; Art: F.
Paul Sylos; Sets: Ben Berk; Mus: Alexander Laszlo.
Cast: Jack Haley, Fay Helm, Bela Lugosi, Jean Parker,
Bernard Nedell, Blanche Yurka, Douglas Fowley, Dorothy Granger, Lyle Talbot, Lucien
Littlefield, Jessica Newcombe, Maxine Fife, William Edmunds, George
Zucco.
"Funniest Killer-Diller Chiller!"
An insurance salesman, (Haley), arrives at an eerie mansion to find that his prospective
customer is dead. He tries to investigate the murder and at the same time guard the
millionaire's corpse from scheming heirs until the will is read.
A charming "Old Dark House" mystery which had the potential to be much funnier
than it is.
Lugosi appears as the butler Larchmont, the obligitory red-herring and recieved third
billing. ONE EXCITING
NIGHT (1922/United Artists) 11 reels. BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: D.W. Griffith; Sc: Irene Sinclair (D.W. Griffith); Ph: Hendrick Sarton
& Irving S. Ruby; Art: Charles M. Kirk; Sfx: Edward Scholl; Mus: Albert Pesce.
From a story by Irene Sinclair (D.W. Griffith).
Cast: Carol Dempster, Henry Hull, Morgan Wallace,
Porter Strong, C.H. Crocker-King, Margaret Dale, Frank Sheridan, Frank Wunderlee, Grace
Griswold, Irma Harrison, Herbert Sutch, Percy Carr, Charles Emmett Mack.
"...hilarious thriller with hidden safes, sliding panels, masked figures,
revolving bookcases, guns, knives, hidden hands groping out of doorways, all...are
present".
A young woman, (Dempster), is sought in marriage by a wealthy older man, (Wallace), who
she dislikes, but has a hold over her adoptive mother. She meets a young man, (Hull), and
falls in love, but they become embroiled with two murders, some hidden treasure and a
sinister hooded figure lurking behind secret doors and hidden panels.
Made to try and profit from the vogue of the time for mystery thrillers, but this lacks
menace and mood.
Griffith took the plot from "The Bat" a current Broadway hit.
An unfunny comedian in a blackface, (Strong), does nothing to help the film either.
Despite the poor quality of the film, it set the trend for a series of haunted-house
comedies.
ONE FRIGHTENED NIGHT (1935/Mascot)
67mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Christy Cabanne ; Prod: George Yohalem; Ex.Prod: Nat Levine; Sc: Wellyn
Totman; Ph: Ernest Miller & William Nobles; Ed: Joseph H. Lewis & Edward Curtiss;
Sfx: Jack Coyle & Howard Lydecker; Horror Mask: Markoff; Mus: Arthur Kay. From a story
Stuart Palmer.
Cast: Charles Grapewin, Mary Carlisle, Arthur Hohl, Evelyn Knapp, Wallace Ford, Hedda Hopper, Regis Toomey, Fred Kelsey, Clarence
H. Wilson, Adrian Morris, Rafaela Ottiano, Lucien Littlefield.
"You'll gasp with terror...as you laugh with glee! While you're wondering who
killed the first Doris Waverly...in the swellest "Who done it" ever
filmed!"
Conniving relatives assemble at an eerie mansion at the request of Old Sir Jasper,
(Grapewin), in the hope of inheriting the wealth of the aging millionaire who wants to
give away his fortune to avoid a new inheritance tax. They stand to gain a fortune unless
Sir Jasper's long lost grandaughter, Doris, can be found. One woman claiming to be Doris
is found dead and a second claimant is terrorised by a shrouded appirition in a hideous
mask. |
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An entertaining, low budget Cat and
the Canary clone.
One of the few features produced by Mascot who normally specialised in serials. ONE GLORIOUS DAY (1922/Paramount) 56mins.
BW. Silent. US.
Aka: SOULS BEFORE BIRTH.
Credits: Dir: James Cruze; Sc: A.B. Baringer & Walter Woods; Ph: Karl Brown.
Cast: Lila Lee, Will Rogers, Alan Hale Sr., John Fox, George Nichols, Emily Raft,
Clarence Burton.
Kindly professor Ezra Botts is obsessed with spiritualism and manages to release his
spirit from his body, but a new spirit named Eck (short for ectoplasm), enters his empty
form, while his own spirit wanders aimlessly, searching for its owner.
ONE HOUR BEFORE DAWN (1920/Pathe) BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: Henry King. From the novel "Behind Red Curtains" by Mansfield
Scott.
Cast: H.B. Warner.
While hypnotised a man commits murder one hour before the dawn.
ONE MILLION B.C. (1940/UA./Roach)
80mins. BW. US.
Aka: MAN AND HIS MATE (UK); THE CAVE DWELLERS; CAVE MAN.
Credits: Dir: Hal Roach & Hal Roach Jnr.; Prod: Hal Roach; A.Prod: D.W. Griffith
(uncredited); Sc: Mickell Novak, George Baker, Grover Jones & Joseph Frickert; Ph:
Norbert Brodine; Ed: Ray Snyder; Art: Charles D. Hall & Nicolai Remisoff; Sets: W.L.
Stevens; Sfx: Roy Seawright & Frank Young; Mus: Werner R. Heymann. From the novel by
Eugene Roche and "Mans Genesis" by D.W. Griffith.
Cast: Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Lon Chaney Jnr.,
John Hubbard, Nigel de Brulier, Robert Kent, Conrad Nagel, Mamo Clark, Inez Palange, Edgar
Edwards, Mary Gale, Jacqueline Dalya, Jean Porter, Sisher.
"The most exciting adventure in a million years!"
The prehistoric Rock People banish Tumak, (Mature), who faces various dangers until he is
nursed back to health by the kindly, blonde Shell People where he meets the beautiful
Loana, (Landis). Tumak helps the Shell People defeat a threatening dinosaur and returns to
his own tribe with Loana who teaches them to be less savage. Together the tribes vanquish
a giant monster and Tumak and Loana find happiness together.
After this virtually silent prehistoric adventure was released a ban was initiated by
animal welfare groups from using live reptiles made up to look like dinosaurs in dinosaur
fight scenes. Subsequently scenes from this film have been used for many other dinosaur
productions.
D.W. Griffith was taken on as a producer, some sources say just for his name, but others
believe that an argument developed between Griffith and Roach when Griffith insisted that
the characters were to be given dialogue. Roach disagreed, believing mere grunts were
sufficient and Griffith removed his name from the credits in protest.
The music score received an Academy Award Nomination.
ONE MILLION DOLLARS (1915/Rolfe-Metro) 5 reels. BW.
Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: John W. Noble.
Cast: William Faversham, Henry Bergman, Charles Graham.
A detective with supernatural powers projects his astral spirit into the presence of his
suspects.
THE 1,000 SPOOK (1907/Urban Trading Co.) 155 feet.
BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir: Walter R. Booth.
A vapor emitted from a wizard materialises into the ghost of a woman.
ONE TOO EXCITING NIGHT (1912/Cecil Hepworth) 15mins.
BW. Silent. UK.
A man purchases a haunted house.
ONE WAY STREET (1925/First National) 6 reels. BW.
Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: John F. Dillon; Prod: Earl Hudson; Sc: Arthur Statter & Mary
Scully; Adaptation: Earl Hudson; Ph: Arthur Edeson.
Cast: Dorothy Cumming, Ben Lyon, Anna Q. Nilsson, Marjorie Daw, Lumsden Hare.
An aging woman's youth is restored whe she is treated with monkey glands.
ONESIME ET LA DIABLE (1912/Gaumont)
BW. Silent. France.
Aka: SIMPLE SIMON AND THE DEVIL.
Credits: Dir: Jean Durand.
Cast: Ernest Bourbon.
In a dream, a man's soul is claimed by the Devil.
ONESIME ET LA MAISON HANTE (1913/Gaumont)
BW. Silent. France.
Aka: SIMPLE SIMON AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE.
Credits: Dir: Jean Durand.
Cast: Ernest Bourbon.
ONLY A ROOM-ER (1916/Cricks) 1 reel. BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir: Toby Cooper; Sc: E. Dangerfield.
Cast: Jack Jarman.
A man's friends play tricks on him while he sleeps in a haunted room.
L'ORACLE DE DELPHES (1903/Star
Film) 100 feet. BW. Silent. France.
Aka: THE ORACLE OF DELPHI.
Credits: Georges Melies.
A stone sphinx comes to life to wreak revenge upon a temple defiler.
THE ORACLE OF DELPHI (1903) see L'Oracle
de Delphes
ORIENTAL BLACK ART (1908/Star Film) BW. Silent.
France.
Credits: Georges Melies.
Spirits leave and re-enter a woman's body.
THE ORIENTAL MYSTIC (1909/Vitagraph) 1 reel. BW.
Silent. US.
A woman is frightened when a Turkish mystic suddenly appears and disappears in some
mirrors.
ORLAC'S HANDE (1924/Pan-Film)
92mins. 2212 feet. BW. Silent. Austria.
Aka: HAND'S OF ORLAC; THE SINISTER HANDS OF DR. ORLAC; DIE UNHEIMLICHEN HANDE DES ORLAK.
Credits: Dir: Robert Wiene; Prod. Manager: Karl
Ehrlich; Sc: Louis Nerz; Ph: Karl Freund, Hans Androschin & Gunther Krampf; Art:
Stefan Wessely, Hans Roue & Karl Exner. From "Les Mains d'Orlac" by Maurice
Renard.
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Fritz Kortner, Alexandra Sorina,
Carmen Cartelleri, Paul Askonas, Fritz Strassny, Homma. |
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When successful concert pianist, Paul Orlac, (Veidt),
crushes his hands in a railroad accident, a brilliant surgeon manages to graft on new
hands. The new hands have been taken from Vassar, a knife throwing murderer, whose evil
personality Paul believes is slowly takes over his mind. Eventually it is revealed to be
all a plot hatched by a greedy hospital aide named Nero, (Kortner), to drive Orlac insane
and steal his money.
Veidt shines as Orlac, in the earliest adaptation of the famous 1920 novel, after
collaborating with Wiene in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). ORPHEE (1950/Paulve1/Palais Royal)
112mins. BW. France. Aka: ORPHEUS.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: John Cocteau; Ph: Nicolas Hayer;
Des: Jean d'Eaubonne; Mus: Georges Auric. From a play by John Cocteau.
Cast: Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Juliette Greco, Francois Perier, Marie Dea,
Edouard Dermithe, Roger Blin.
The poet Orpheus, (Marais), becomes obsessed with the Princess of Death, (Casares),
asissting her when the poet Cegeste, (Dermithe), is killed by motorcyclists, but then
Orpheus sees Cegeste walking through a mirrior at the princess' house. Haunted by what he
saw, Orpheus is then informed by Heurtebise, (Perier), that his wife Eurydice, (Dea), has
also been killed. Passing through the mirror to the underworld, Orpheus learns that his
wife will be restored to him if he promises never to look at her, but when he breaks his
promise he is killed by a mob. Eventually Orpheus is reunited with his wife when the
princess and Heurtebise are punished for interfering with the affairs of mortals. |
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A moody poetic masterpiece of fantasy cinema interwoven
with old myths that nicely complements Cocteau's other parts of the Orpheus trilogy begins
with Le Sang d'un Poete (1930) and ends
with LE TESTAMENT D'ORPHEE (1960).
The odd camera angles, and atmospheric lighting creates a film that is the closest anyone
has come to portraying poetry and imagination on the screen.
Highlights include the entry to the hereafter through a mirror.
Sequel: LE TESTAMENT D'ORPHEE. ORPHEUS (1950)
see Orphee |
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THE OTHER (1913) see Der
Anderer THE OTHER FU MANCHU (1945)
see El Otro Fu Manchu
THE OTHER PERSON (1921/Granger/Binger) 5319 feet.
BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir: B.E. Doxer-Pratt; Sc: Benedict James. From a novel by Fergus Hume.
Cast: Zoe Palmer, Adelqui Migliar, Arthur Pusey, E. Story-Gofton, William Hunter,
Ivor Dawson, Nora Hayden, Arthur Walcott.
A seance proves that a ghost compelled a spiritualist to murder his wealthy father.
THE OTHER SELF (1915/Lubin) 3 reels. BW. Silent. US.
Credits: Dir: Leon D. Kent; Sc: J.L. Lamothe.
A girl develops a split personality when she is hypnotised.
THE OTHER SELF (1918) see Das
Anderer Ich
EL OTRO FU MANCHU (1945/Bascon
Films) BW. Spain.
Aka: THE OTHER FU MANCHU.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Ramon Barriero.
Cast: Manuel Requena, Rosita Yarza, Adela Esteban. |
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OUANGA (1935/G.Terwilliger Prod./Paramount) 63mins. BW. US.
Aka: CRIME OF VOODOO.
Credits: Dir., Prod. & Sc: George Terwilliger; Ph: Carl Berger.
Cast: Fredi Washington, Philip Brandon, Sheldon Leonard, Marie Paxton, Winifred
Harris.
A Haitian woman, (Washington), is in fact a Voodoo Priestess who, with her powers of
hypnosis, manages to get whatever she wants, except for the love a young plantation owner,
(Leonard). The sorceress plots to destroy his fiancee, (Paxton), by using a curse known as
an Ouanga to frighten the plantation servants to help her scheme.
Writer and director Terwilliger attempted to film this story in Haiti to use authentic
voodoo dancers, drummers and worshippers for the film, but a series of unnerving
occurences forced Terwilliger, his principal cast and crew to relocate to Jamaica, where
they experienced tropical rainstorms, insects and searing heat, forcing them to film
everything at night. Two months later, the company returned to America with the completed
film.
Paramount bought the film but only released it outside America in 1935 under the title
OUANGA. Terwilliger revamped the script in 1939 which Arthur Leonard filmed in Jamaica as Pocomania. OUTWARD
BOUND (1930/Warner) 82mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Robert Milton; Sc: J. Grubb Alexander; Ph: Hal Mohr; Ed: Ralph Dawson;
Art: Anton Grot; Technical Fx: Fred Jackman; Mus: Erno Rapee.
From a play by Sutton Vane.
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jnr., Helen Chandler, Montagu Love, Leslie Howard, Alec B. Francis, Beryl Mercer,
Alison Skipworth, Dudley Digges, Lyonel Watts. |
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Lovers, Henry and Ann, (Fairbanks & Chandler), attempt
suicide by turning the gas on in their room and find themselves on board a luxury liner
where other travellers fail to realise they are dead and on a spectral journey for heaven
or possibly hell. Upon reaching their destination Thompson, the Examiner, (Digges), boards
the ship to pass judgement and announce their fate. Henry and Ann are considered
"half-ways" because of their suicide and are told to remain on the ship.
A well acted, but dated version of the popular 1920's play.
Remade as Between Two Worlds.AN OVER INCUBATED BABY (1901/Robert Paul) BW. Silent. UK.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Walter R. Booth.
A professor adapts a bird incubator to take a human baby and announces that he can acheive
"two years growth in two minutes". A sickly child enters the machine, but the
assistant upsets the controls and a wrinkled old man emerges a few minutes later.
Possibly an early influence on The
Fly (1958).
OWANA, THE DEVIL WOMAN (1913/Nestor)
2 reels. BW. Silent. US.
A native American witch transforms the son of a chief into a horse on his wedding day. The
transformation is only reversed when a kindly spirit destroys the evil witch.
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Classic Horror Movies A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |