The Strange Mr. Gregory

Drab forties support only occasionally achieves some of the mystery atmosphere of the detective series movies - cut price noir. The unappealing middle aged cast work through a dumb plot about sinister stage magician Lowe lusting after married Rogers.The setting are quite elaborate and the crew tries for a few attention getting images ineffectually.

Famed magician Mr. Gregory (Edmund Lowe) is working to harness the supernatural. Amateur magician John Randall (Don Douglas) is an admirer, but Mr. Gregory secretly has his eyes set on his admirer's wife Ellen (Jean Rogers).

This starts with so much promise. The premise sets up for some supernatural darkness. Instead, it's stuck with court and false identity. I don't want this. I want supernatural powers. I want true dark horror. This is horror before the fans of the horrific. It's hesitant. It's trying to tip toe in the dark arts. It's playing with shadows without actually living inside the darkness.

Stars Ed Lowe, Jean Rogers, and Don Douglas. Gregory (Lowe) is into the occult, and does magic performances. When he starts paying too much attention to the married Ellen Randall, she starts to feel uncomfortable. It's a shortie film from monogram, so things have to move right along without much buildup. But honestly, they only met for a minute the first time. Then Gregory pursues Ellen, and is not at all subtle about it, with flowers and cards. When the hubby confronts the magician, Gregory ends up d-e-d dead. And of course Ellen's husband is suspect number one. It's pretty lame... the magician tries to pull a fast one, but i don't think anyone would have fallen for the trick he tries. Can Ellen figure out what the magician is trying to pull in time?

Lowe had been around since the silents. Rogers began with the talkies. Sadly, this was one of the last films for Douglas; he died in december 1945, complications of appendicitis at age 40. He was in some biggies... murder my sweet and gilda! Film directed by Phil Rosen; apparently, he was there right at the beginning with edison. Story by the oscar-nominated Myles Connolly. It's all just very okay. Clearly, it was a B film, the opening act for something more impressive.

Edmund Lowe plays a magician, Mr. Gregory in "The Strange Mr. Gregory" from 1945. This is a programmer from Monogram Studios and also features Jean Rogers, Marjorie Hoshelle (Mrs. Jeff Chandler), Donald Douglas, and Jonathan Hale.

Mr. Gregory is a strange man, with hypnotic eyes, and he's a man cloaked in mystery. Upon meeting John Randall (Douglas) and his wife, Ellen (Rogers), he falls madly in love with her and decides he must have her.

He comes up with a neat trick - one of the things he can do as a magician is go into a "death state." After teaching Randall a garroting technique at a party, he begins to send Ellen flowers.

Finally, Randall becomes so angry that he goes to Mr. Gregory's house and kills him, using the rope garroting trick. Gregory of course doesn't die, just goes into his death state. Though they don't show it, I guess he opens the coffin after he's in the mausoleum and leaves.

Soon, Gregory's heir and brother, Lane, arrives in town. He looks suspiciously like Mr. Gregory. He attends John Randall's murder trial, and tells the court that his brother was a despicable man. Though John is found guilty, he's given a short sentence.

"Lane" starts dating Ellen's friend Sheila (Hoshelle) to get closer to Ellen. He finally declares his love for her, and she reluctantly admits that she loves him too. Sheila, however, is suspicious of Lane.

The best thing about this film was Lowe's characterization of the magician and his brother - he pulled off playing the same man with different personalities very well. The rest of the film was unremarkable.