A PRC poverty row production that makes the most of its limited budget. A lot of credit should go to production designers Eugene Shufftan and Edgar Ulmer who collaborated on the movie's sumptuous look. Even when the middle part drags, the visuals remain arresting. Note too how the meagre exterior sets are stylized to make up for the limitations. Of course, cult director Ulmer was no stranger to transforming army surplus material into artistic effects. The overall result is an atmospheric recreation of 19th century Paris.
Making Carradine's Bluebeard a puppeteer is a novel and interesting wrinkle. Then too, I can't help thinking there is more plot potential in continuing with Bluebeard the puppet master than in shifting the story line over to Bluebeard the painter, as the screenplay does. Nonetheless, those early scenes in the park are good ones. However, the cadaverous actor who can be as florid and intense as anyone seems a little too understated here. While physically he looks the part of the grim reaper, Carradine is simply no good as a simpering lover, while too many of his scenes lack the menace the role calls for. Unfortunately, the result compares unfavorably, for example, with Laird Cregar's riveting Jack the Ripper in that Gothic thriller The Lodger of the same year. It appears Ulmer is much more the visual artist than the thespic coach.
Nonetheless, the movie remains an interesting curiosity. Consider the sheer wackiness of presenting Iris Adrian whose cheap Brooklyn accent can barely be disguised as a Parisian. Still, it does amount to an amusing turn. Also, note the off-angle camera staging of Carradine's flashback sequence, which is both effective in identifying the sequence and artfully composed. Such camera effects were hardly a Hollywood staple at a time when producers generally felt they would confuse the audience.
Of course, there's the question that always arises for fans of Ulmer. What would he have done with an A-budget and A-material in a career spent in the lower depths of Hollywood production. Hard to say-- perhaps he needed the challenge of PRC-type constraints. However, I think it's fair to say that none of his poverty row productions are without genuine points of interest and entertainment, and-- as is the case with Bluebeard-- may even rise at times to artistic levels.
