Conjure Wife!

Conjure Wife is Fritz Leiber's first novel. It tells the story of a relatively young college professor and his wife, who just so happens to be witch. She uses her spells and such to protect her chosen man and help him along in his career. When he discovers her little notions, he stupidly destroys them thinking them whims. Things immediately start to go bad in his life. It seems there are other witches in town, and they don't cotton to the new couple at all. 

The short novel was first published in Unknown Worlds in 1943. We meet Norman Saylor who is a professor of Ethnology at Hempnell College, a small school rife with the politics of the kind which are all too common in such places. He's considered a candidate for the head of the Sociology Department. His wife is the lovely Tansy Saylor who is five years younger, she'd been a student of his when they fell in love. It seems that in this universe all women practice witchcraft more or less to different degrees. Men are oblivious to these practices, and sadly as man I can attest that makes too much sense. When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Transy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class. 

When Norman finds the various totems and trinkets Tansy uses to protect them, he foolishly destroys them and almost immediately his life is turned upside down. There is a threat to his life, a charge is made against him which is untrue, and his chances for the chairmanship dwindle when he makes some strong statements about sexual politics in his class. 

Tansy and Norman fail to communicate, and his lack of belief causes him to constantly seek logical answers to the strange events which increasingly surround him. There are more and more intrusions into their lives as he begins to believe, but then realizes he's rendered himself an easy victim to whatever is moving against hm. When Tansy at last begins to take direct action, it becomes a potential tragedy. 

This is a remarkable story, told by a master who keeps us inside Norman's experience and makes us feel his indecision and ultimate dread. At a critical moment he is called up on to act and the consequences of this actually made me gasp. That's what stories like this want to do, affect the reader, to draw us into the world the author fashions and makes us feel the same love, fear, or this instance terror that informs the characters. A zombie tale with a twist. Remarkable story. 

The novel was adapted to film three times. Weird Woman from Universal is an entertaining if not particularly faithful adaptation in 1944 of the Fritz Leiber story and features Lon Chaney Jr, Anne Gwynne and Evelyn Ankers. The story is hurt by the glossy studio presentation of the rituals, which needed a rougher treatment in places. The girl that played the witch-wife was too white-bread to sell the exotic nature of the tale; the poster makes her seem way scarier than anything in the movie itself. There is some really fine acting in this one, especially by Elizabeth Russell in a part that could have been far less in other hands. Evelyn Ankers is a real stand out and gleefully evil as the scorned woman, and her ultimate scene is pretty offbeat and strange. One big drag on the movie is Lon Chaney Jr. who is woefully miscast, but he was the face that sold the tickets. The most idiotic guy you've even seen on screen is constantly called brilliant by other characters as he did one dumb or insensitive thing after another. 

The story of Conjure Wife was adapted to the screen again in 1962 under the title of Burn Witch Burn, and is also known as Night of the Eagle. This minor classic features a screenplay Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont and stars Peter Wyngarde and Janet Blair. It's got a damn fine poster, that's for sure. The movie itself is crisp and like most all the British flicks I see, filled with excellent actors. Peter Wyngarde is great as the self-righteous husband who demands that his wife see the world as he does, with relentless logic. Janet Blair is outstanding as Tansy, a thoroughly modern woman who just so happens practices a little witchcraft when her busy and ambitious husband is away. This moody effort is easily the best of the adaptations, making changes necessary to keep a sharp ending. The use of an eagle as an avatar of evil didn't rally track with me and scenes featuring the creature are the weakest in the production. The use of a recording tape is used as a fetish, not unlike those elusive slips of paper in Night of the Demon. 

There was an early television adaptation of the story on the defunct DuPont Network in 1960 under the title Conjure Wife. I've not seen it and I've found almost nothing online about it.  I'd love to know more, and I welcome any corrections. 

The story was adapted a fourth if unofficial time as Witches Brew or Which Witch is Which in 1980. This outing stars Terri Garr and Richard Benjamin and is Lana Turner's final film. I've read this is supposed to be a comedy, but it's a strange one. The movie has the feel of an Indy film at times, with some clunky sound design. It's edited rather oddly too, keeping a too slow pace. We end up looking at some scenes way too long. At other times we are told the story in brisk effective short cuts. There were two directors on this one and I bet that accounts for the uneven atmosphere. Benjamin and Garr are the college couple in this one and he knows she's a witch but just gets tired of it. She gets rid of her stuff and all hell breaks loose. An angry student even becomes a sniper to take him out, but this side-plot is poorly developed. Lana Turner is great as an older witch looking to improve her lot in life and scoping out Terri Garr to help with it. The most surprising moment is an actual stop-motion flying demon. That's not in the novel. Fritz Leiber's name is never referenced, though some aspects of this movie are the closest of any of the movies. 

This is grand stuff for the Halloween season. I highly recommend the book and even the movies are well worth seeking out. You can read the novel here. 

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Justice Has A New Face - Darkman!

When Sam Raimi couldn't get the rights to bring The Shadow to the big screen, he created his own shadowy crimefighter and dubbed him "Darkman". If any movie got me to fall in love with the particular style of a filmmaker, it was Darkman.

Darkman appealed to me from the get-go, coming out in the same summer as Warren Beaty's Dick Tracy was barnstorming the country. I often think of these two movies together, two films about tough crimefighters with distinctive and unusual approaches to movie storytelling, and it's always the gritty Darkman that wins the contest. Beaty's movie is fun and full of vibrant colors and some delicious characters, but its self-awareness is too on the nose, while Raimi keeps Darkman's roots blended well enough that they don't stand out immediately. Later you think of it, but not while you're watching it.

For the folks who might not know, I'll just say that Darkman is scientist Peyton Westlake, a guy who discovers a liquid skin compound that proves to be light sensitive, a miracle for modern medicine moments before he and his partner are supposedly slain by mob boss Robert Durant in a move to retrieve a memo Westlake's girlfriend and lawyer had left at his place. But Westlake doesn't die, though it seems to be the case. Instead, he has his nervous system destroyed by doctors to save him from intense agony which in turn seems to give him immense strength when anger overwhelms him. He has lost his identity and the burns to his face and hands in particular make it impossible he thinks to return to the life he once had. Using his skin compound to create lifelike masks of limited duration, Darkman fights Durant's thugs and attempts to bring down the criminal enterprise that killed his friend, threatens his girl, and destroyed his life.

That's a pretty nifty premise. And even though Darkman is a "superhero" origin tale, it works as a crackerjack adventure too. Raimi's storytelling is top-notch and at once efficient and effective and eccentric. Darkman has a great cast, with Liam Neeson as Westlake/Darkman, Francis McDormand as his girlfriend Julie, and Larry Drake leading the way as the outrageous villain Robert Durant.

The movie was deemed a failure in its theatre release, but was ultimately successful in the video aftermarket, and produced two sequels, both straight-to-video affairs. The first was titled Darkman: The Return of Robert Durant and revives the main baddie from the first movie for another go around with a property deal and the constant struggle between idealism and the demands of the ordinary world. The movie's action is not as specific as the first film, both for budgetary reasons I suspect and because Raimi only produces this one and doesn't direct. It's a diverting film, echoing much of what happened in the first one as many sequels are wont to do.

Arnold Vosloo (who would go on to become The Mummy) is Darkman this time and he does a pretty decent job in his pre-Mummy days. Larry Drake is back as Durant and dominates the screen with this over-the-top baddie. This movie feels too much a need to cleave to the original and that hampers what can happen. The movie in many ways attempts to recreate the first one beat for beat but with fewer dollars. It's not a smart way to go I think ever.

The second sequel is titled Darkman: Die Darkman Die and progresses the story quite a bit. Jeff Fahey is delightfully vile as the new baddie named Rooker, but this time we see the villain's family who apparently are largely unaware of his crimes. He is confronted by Westlake again played by Vosloo and this time a permanent solution to Darkman's problem is dangled in front of the viewer. What will our hero choose, a life in the shadows dedicated to fighting evil or will he take a chance to live his life fully as Westlake. It's not a bad story really, though it breaks down a bit in the end, there is surprising complexity in this actioner. Whatever its failings at least they tried some new things. Again, Raimi is merely the producer.

I don't know if I want more Darkman movies or not. If Raimi were to direct, I'd say for sure. But with other hands, the special nature of the hero is lost a bit. Darkman is a very tortured superhero, and in the original his battle is so visceral that you feel his agony more than a bit thanks to Neeson's dang good acting. He gives us a Westlake who is truly on the edge of madness. In later installments this aspect is diminished quite a bit, to the detriment of the overall impact of the stories.

But if you've by some chance never seen the Darkman movies, but all means give them a look. The trilogy can be had for pretty small money. The original just might be one of the best superhero movies made before the avalanche of such films we enjoy in the modern day. Thank goodness Raimi was denied the rights to the Shadow, so we could get Darkman. 

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The Case Of The Fine California Muscatel!

 

Sherlock Holmes is one of those timeless characters who seems always to find a way to speak to the modern. Certainly the wild success of the BBC series Sherlock showed that the essence of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle detective could be translated quite successfully into the 21st Century. That's really nothing new since for intents and purposes the same thing was done when Universal Pictures featured Sherlock and his biographer Watson battling Nazis in the WWII in the classic series which for many, myself included, defined the character. Rathbone is often my favorite Sherlock, having to share that position with Jeremy Brett in the 1980's television series which was more true to the original stories. 

But part of the great Rathbone tradition I was unaware of for the most part was the radio shows he did with his onscreen partner Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. These half-hour mysteries, collectively titled The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were written by the likes of Anthony Boucher and Dennis Greene among others and offer up Sherlockian adventures from across time. The most exquisite conceit of the radio shows (which I picked up on CD last year and have been enjoying on those rare occasions I actually travel in these Covid-19 times) is that Nigel Bruce as Watson introduces the stories. He is once again elevated to his role as host and Bruce's delightful warmth of personality shines through. 

He plays the role of Watson as a retired physician who has come to California to spend his last years and while doing so does on the radio what he did in the short stories and novels and that's relate the adventures he had with Sherlock Holmes. Nigel Bruce is ideal for this sort of role, and despite what many think of him in the Universal movies, I've always found his Watson so charming that I am well able to forgive its dubious connection to the more straight-laced and frankly somewhat dull Watson of the Doyle stories. 

The gimmick is that a representative of the show's sponsor, which was California's  Petri Wine, goes to see Dr. Watson and they have a jovial conversation for a few moments before the story proper begins. Though the show is titled after Sherlock Holmes it's easily Nigel Bruce's Watson that dominates the proceedings. The shows also incorporate several ads for Petri Wines, but these are often done with humor and lightness. 

As in the stories we have Watson's voice relating to us though of course the bulk of the storytelling is done in traditional dramatic form with Basil Rathbone joining in to create a rousing little yarn. To be honest many of the mysteries are pretty flimsy as given the timeframe there's not much time for complications. But in addition to adaptations of the actual Doyle stories we get new ones which in almost every instance spin out of some detail from a canonical tale. 

Listening to those vintage adventures has gotten my interested again in the old movies and I dug out my collection and gave them another viewing. Aside from the few which are in public domain, I've not actually seen these that often and it's been long enough that the details have faded sufficiently to make them solid entertainment all over again. You'd have to really like Sherlock Holmes to enjoy the radio plays, but if you then they might offer a reasonably priced way to get more Sherlock into your life. 

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Curse Of The Undead!

Curse of the Undead is a flick I've been hankering to gather into my collection for many years now. I missed it somehow on VHS and have waited impatiently for it get a DVD release which has now finally happened thanks to the Kino-Lorber outfit. This is one of those Universal monster movies from the 50's which played on my TV in the 60's and slithered into my imagination at just the right time. The notion that this is a horror-western movie just makes it all the juicier. 

The story is dead simple. A small western town is suffering a plague and the viewer immediately knows vampires are afoot, though of course the locals aren't aware. The vampire in question (Michael Pate) is a man in black, a gunslinger who prowls around in the early stages of the movie before revealing himself to a young woman (Kathleen Crowley) who is seeking vengeance for the deaths of her father and brother. Turns out the vampire used to be a man who might have once owned the very ranch she's protecting, and it turns out much to my surprise (been a long time since I've seen it) that he genuinely falls in love with her. He's a depraved vampire of course, but he falls in love and that changes things. The scenes where he is preying on her neck are surprisingly sexy for a film of this vintage.

There's a preacher in town  (Eric Fleming) who finally figures out what the problem is and works overtime and often with little effectiveness to heal the many wounds in the community. Ultimately there's a showdown in classic western style. One of the weirdest things about this movie is that the vampire wanders around in the daylight though he complains at one point about being sensitive to light. This is never really brought up more than once and much of the movie happens in broad daylight undermining its effectiveness. The best scene, the one which is seared into my memory is one in which the vampire finds himself beneath the shadow of a cross and it gives him a problem. It's a beautifully shot scene and the film would've benefitted mightily from many like it. This movie ain't as good as I remembered in some ways, but in others it's better. That's fine too. 

As I said Curse of the Undead is one I've been aching for and it finished up my collection of these 50's Universals. Last year or thereabouts I got hold of The Thing the Couldn't Die and I've long had The Leech Woman, Tarantula, The Deadly Mantis, The Monolith Monsters, Monster on Campus, The Mole People and several more. These movies were my "classics", not the 30's Universals as good as they are. These are the stuff of my imagination. Nice to get to look at them yet again. 

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Captive Wild Woman!

Acquanetta is the star of Captive Wild Woman and this weirdo Universal horror flick which focuses most of its attention on a pipsqueak circus and the wannabe lion tamer (brave and stout) who is eager to make his bones and is not squeamish about making use of a lovely woman who casts a spell on the savage critters but never speaks a word. Milburn Stone plays the lion tamer and the always enchanting Evelyn Ankers is his main squeeze. That causes some problems when Acquanetta's character gets jealous, because she's not what she seems. She's a gorilla.

John Carradine steals this movie in my mind as one of the maddest scientists yet, a man willing to kill any number of women to see that his theories about glands and such is proven. He takes a stolen gorilla, uses the gland secretions of a living woman,  and the brain of a dead one to fabricate his "Gorilla Girl" played by the alluring Acquanetta. The small-time Dr. Moreau is as callous as he's ever been (and that's saying some since Carradine's played some real baddies) and does what he wants, the lives of others be damned.

The movie is loaded with a lot of lion and tiger action, so if that stuff ain't your bag give this one a dodge. Clyde Beatty is really doing the dangerous work that Stone is pretending to do and it looks harrowing enough without throwing a pugnacious gorilla-girl into the mix. In the final analysis I got the sense this movie was about men using women to get what they want and that ain't always what they should have.

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Dojo Classics - Doctor Cyclops!

I'm spending my month consuming some of the most entertaining sci-fi and monster flicks out there. A few years I picked up the two Universal Sci-Fi collections sold exclusively for a time at Best Buy and now available in one complete set on Amazon.

I'm starting with the real oddball in the mix, the 1940 Ernest B. Schoedsack production of Dr.Cyclops. This movie by one of King Kong's creators hits many of the same notes with an expedition finding danger on a grand scale in the remote jungle. This time though instead of a giant ape threatening wee humans, the humans get shrunk by the mad scientist Dr.Thorkel who then tries to murder them all before they can derail his crackpot schemes for world domination.

This is a movie that starts out excellently with some truly macabre scenes where Paul Fix plays the man who brought the eccentric Thorkel to the jungle and a radium deposit of magnicent proportions. The lighting is luried and shimmers as the madness of the tale reveals itself. Sadly the movie never achieves the wonderful power of the opening, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have virtues.


Thorkel calls in some respected scientists to check up on his work and then dismisses them summarily when they've done the meager work. Their pride will not allow them to leave and so they fall victim to Thorkel's power. He shrinks them and the myopic scientist becomes a "Cyclops" threatening the small group throughout the remainder of the movie.

It's right after they get shrunk that the tone of the movie undergoes a regrettable change and the well-developed tension is allowed to dwindle. We watch the shrunken humans (a blowhard elder scientist named Bullfinch, a beautiful assistant , a reluctant engineer, a itinerant fortune hunter, and Thorkel's own hispanic helper named Pedro) try to survive and the movie becomes more mild adventure rather than the great horror pic began as.

Albert Dekker as Dr.Cyclops is pretty good, though you do get weary of his mugging by the end of the flick. The greatest weakness I think is the odd shift in tone and the fact the romantic couple played by Thomas Coley and Janice Logan never seems credible to me. She's pretty spunky and he's a bit of a laconic lout.

The movie does look great from time to time, mostly when Cyclops is putting on his exotic headgear to watch radiation play across the bodies of his victims or when he's tweaking his machinery, which always seems to be doing. This is a pretty decent movie, but when you realize what it might have been given the wonderful opening it's a shame.

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Dojo Classics - Inner Sanctum!

One might call this 1943-1945 series from Universal "The Saga of Lon Chaney's Mustache". The second-generation creature feature actor sports his pencil thin mustache in all six of these thrillers, starring in all of them but surrounded by outstanding Universal studio players like Evelyn Ankers, J.Carrol Naish, Milburn Stone, and many more. Here's a neat link with a sturdy and reliable description of each movie. No need for me to repeat this good work.

Let me simply say which of these I liked best and why with few if any spoilers.


This is a solid thriller, but gets a bit tedious before it's done. I felt all of its very brief running time. J.Carrol Naish as the cop is the highlight for me, he's nicely sarcastic and the movie brightens considerably when he's on screen.


Good adaptation of the Fritz Leiber story, but hurt by the glossy studio presentation of the rituals. Needed a rougher treatment in places. The girl that played the witch-wife was too whitebread to sell the exotic nature of the tale; the poster makes her seem way scarier than anything in the movie itself. There is some really fine acting in this one, especially by Elizabeth Russell in a part that could have been far less in other hands. Evelyn Ankers is dandy too and her ultimate scene is pretty dang good.


Strange tale of jealousy and greed and oddball surgery, with Acquanetta proving why she had such short career. Good basic thriller, but little else with an especially unlikeable protagonist. Lon Chaney's characters in these can be quite hard to cotton to, but this guy a self-important and whiny artist is the worst.


Weird story that shifts around quite a bit. The first three movies were clearly set in the real world, this one seems more a classic "horror" flick with the introduction of a vintage locale - a wax museum. There's actual action in this one with some heady knife-wielding by scene-chewing villain Martin Kosleck.


This one turned out to be my favorite, a nice story told in flashback about a noble chemist tormented by a despicable boss. There's real charm in this one, and for the first time Lon Chaney is allowed to play an antagonist you feel full sympathy for. Most of the others are snarky know-it-alls who bring about their own problems to some extent. This guy too, but he's nicer about it. Brenda Joyce is great as the wife in this one.


This is the only one which has a sputter of humor in it, and sadly that gets snuffed out in the movie sooner than I liked. This one turns into a murder thriller and haunted house muncher, but ends up with a better ending than I expected. Lots of wacky characters in this Scooby-Doo-ish offering. It's a horrible title though, this flick deserved better.

Overall I give these a recommendation if you can find them cheaply which is readily possible now. These are professionally crafted and feature some very good acting, some great direction at times, and some good scripting here and there. They can lumber especially those directed by LeBorg, but they are all solid entertainments with a good atmosphere, especially those directed by LeBorg. Lon Chaney wasn't the greatest actor ever, and these movies show his limits, but they also give him chance to do more than growl. He does okay from time to time too.

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Dojo Classics - The Thing That Couldn't Die!

The word that comes to mind when I think of the 1958 Universal horror flick The Thing That Couldn't Die is "creepy". It's not especially lurid nor gross, none of the Universal pictures of this era were those things, with their slick studio patina, but it was unrelentingly creepy. It's a movie with scary ideas, if the folks in charge here don't necessarily do the most with them.

The story begins benignly enough on a quiet California ranch where the owner Flavia (Peggy Converse) and her ranch hands Mike (Charles Horvath) and Boyd (James Anderson) dig up a four hundred year old chest found by budding witch Jessica (Carolyn Kearney). Along for the expedition are ranch guests Gordon (William Reynolds), Linda (Andra Martin), and Hank (Jeff Stone). It turns out when the two ranch hands, the weak-minded Mike and naughty greedy Boyd, open the chest without permission, it contains the severed head of executed warlock Gideon Drew (Robin Hughes).
 

The disembodied head exerts control over Mike and causes him to slay Boyd beginning a tiny reign of terror as the head connives to uncovers its body hidden elsewhere on the ranch centuries before. Standing in the way is the naive morality of  Jessica who at one point sees Drew's execution in a vision. The movie winds to a reasonably crisp if a bit too quick finale. But along the way there are some very unsettling scenes.

The movie's best moments are when the severed head of Drew, often carried around by the zombie-like Mike is held aloft and its magnetic eyes lock onto its victim. The mouth then soundlessly mutters instructions which are understood by its new servant. It's creepy stuff, the kind of images which populate nightmares.

This movie hasn't been widely released, in fact appears to be available only on a questionable print from Warner's on-demand library. I'm not sure it's worth the price, but I do know that seeing it again on TCM was a real treat and transported me back to some rousing Saturday afternoons when it didn't take much to chill a ten year old's heart.

Creepy it was, creepy it remains.

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Dojo Classics - It Came From Outer Space!

It Came from Outer Space from 1953 is memorable for a host of reasons. It's Universal's first big sci-fi flick of the 1950's, a genre they came to dominate with gusto during the decade. It is the brainchild largely of Ray Bradbury, who wrote an extensive treatment which came to serve with some added dialogue as the script for the movie. And it was filmed in rockin' 3-D. The movie hit screens and was a reasonable success, sufficient to for the template for most sci-fi alien-threat movies which would follow.

The story is simple enough. Aliens called "Xenomorphs" crash on Earth and need time and some supplies to rebuild their ship so they can leave. But they didn't arrive unnoticed as stargazer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) saw them through his trusty telescope and along for the ride is his girlfriend Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush). Putnam finds the ship moments before it is buried under tons of rock. His story of spaceships is rejected by the  local populace then strange things start to happen and people start to disappear. Among them are telephone linemen Frank (Joe Sawyer) and George (Russell Johnson) who have their bodies appropriated by the aliens to get needed materials.

The aliens ask Putnam to help them by buying them time to repair their ship and he agrees, working at odds with local sheriff Matt Warren (Charles Drake) who at first disbelieves but then feels compelled to face the threat. The aliens keep kidnapping people, including Ellen who attempts to kill Putnam. The aliens have decided they cannot stop mankind before they leave so they will destroy the Earth, but Putnam buys them a few more minutes which prove sufficient as everyone who has been kidnapped is freed. The aliens at long last leave.

Rush and Carlson Get a Grip

There's actually very little plot here. The aliens are creepy and lots of atmosphere is created with the eerie music which cues their presence and the wonderful point-of-view shots which are the best look we get of them. There was some debate that the aliens should never been shown, and that would've been a neat choice. But Universal wanted it different and after principal production was done they re-shot some scenes adding a one-eyed creature to give the aliens a bit more shape and form. It works okay, but does diminish the creepy tone of the movie just a bit.

The most annoying thing about watching this movie is Richard Carlson's character. He starts out as the usual above-average hero-scientist type, but then performs such a cavalcade of stupid things it becomes difficult to root for him. He tells the sheriff about the aliens then demands he do nothing, a problem he created by telling him in the first place. Maybe he just wanted to share the responsibility, but he seems at different points to create his own problems. The aliens try to kill him, with gusto in fact, and he seems all to willing to believe their story afterwards. It all seems a bit much after a while. Carlson is good in the role, it's just the role is annoying.

This is a well-made movie though, that's for sure. The Universal monster movies have a real big-screen gloss which elevates them, even those with the most dim-witted premises.

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