LoisMaximus

I hated this film as a child and I hate it now for the same reason: Lon Chaney Jr. Is embarrassingly bad in it. I understand why Universal cast him--the same reason they cast Bela Lugosi in a frustratingly tiny role as a Roma fortuneteller, and the very English, petite Claude Rains as the enormous American Chaney's father--so they could put CHANEY LUGOSI RAINS in the ads. It was a venal decision that makes what was not going to be that great a film to begin with, thanks to Curt Siodmak's hacky screenplay, even less interesting and entertaining. Nowhere is the massive void in this film created by Chaney more obvious than in the brief scene between Rains and Maria Ouspenskaya in which they create a moment of recognizable human feeling between them, which seems almost thrilling given the phony pantomime it's encased in. Recall that in the beginning it was the strategic use of master theatrical craftsmen like Chaney Sr., Rains, Karloff, Lugosi, and Colin Clive that made earlier Universal horrors so enduringly thrilling. But by this time Universal had lost the knack.