Bluebeard

John Carradine plays Blubeard--he paints women and then strangles them to death. He doesn't want to do it but is compelled to (we find out why at the end). Then he falls in love with beautiful Lucille (Jean Parker) and tries to fight his desire...

John Carradine said this was his best performance--he's right! He's dead on target in the title role. He shows that Bluebeard is not evil and driven by impulses beyond his control. He uses body language and facial expressions perfectly. Also director Edgar G. Ulmer directs this beautifully with strange camera angles and lots of shadows making this very atmospheric. Also there are some beautifully done background paintings.

But this was done over at PRC--a poverty row studio. Unfortunately it shows. The furnishings and costumes look pretty tacky and it just FEELS low budget. Also the biggest problem is constant background music. It's ALWAYS playing and very annoying. Half the time the music doesn't even match the mood of what's being acted! These prevent the film from becoming a true classic.

As it stands I'm giving it an 8 for Carradine and Ulmer. It should be seen just for them. Also this is one of the few films that prove what a good actor Carradine actually was.

This is a decent little film but more importantly it's a chance for the star (John Carradine) to show he COULD be a leading man and not just a cheesy supporting actor. In fact, I was THRILLED to see this film because only a couple weeks ago, I saw Carradine's worst film (BILLY THE KID VERSUS Dracula). This film helped to wash away the foul stench of failure from my mind--at least temporarily.

The film is, not surprisingly, a low-budget movie. Carradine played in many of these type of films but this one is different because it is actually well written, acted and engaging. And while it is NOT going to change your life by watching it, it does deliver excellent B-movie thrills.

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.

When not playing featured roles in classics like 'The Grapes of Wrath' John Carradine made a good living in stuff right at the bottom of the heap. These were the films in which he actually enjoyed top billing, so not surprisingly it was one of them that gave him his personal favourite of his roles; seldom off the screen and at his most dashing.

Garrulous but stylish, director Edgar G. Ulmer again makes bricks without straw; it's one drawback being Leo Erdody's unrelenting score, although it's fun to hear him constantly plunder Mussorgsky.

John Carradine had always considered his role as Gaston Morrell in Bluebeard as his favorite and since it's one of his few starring ones it's easy to see why. Director Edgar G. Ulmer makes the most of the low budget he had working for poverty row studio PRC in making one of the most atmospheric horror films of the '40s. Most of the supporting cast also do well here especially Jean Parker as Lucille who Gaston falls head over heels for and Ludwig Stossel as Jean Lamarte. The woman who played Renee, Sonia Sorel, would later marry Carradine and bear kids Keith and Robert with him. Iris Adrian lends some humor in a brief court sequence. Well worth seeking for old movie horror fans.