October 22: The Unholy Three (1925 & 1930)

 

Lon Chaney may not have lived long enough to reprise role from Tod Browning's London After Midnight, but he did reprise another Browning role in a speaking remake of the original. Regarded as one of Browning best films, his 1925 The Unholy Three starred Chaney as a ventriloquist (a feat of very expressive silent acting); Chaney reprised the role in an all sound version in 1930 just prior to his untimely death that year (it would be his only speaking role in a film).  Browning, however, did not direct the film: Jack Conway did. Conway was regarded as a "Jack of all trades" (literally) in terms of genres that he directed. He was not known for an particular specialty; which meant that his pictures, while technically good, were rather bland; it also meant that he was beloved by studio management, particularly Irving Thalberg. The talking remake suffers for it though. It's a competent enough film to be sure, but it is (like so many remakes after it) a poor imitation of the original. The only other principle actor to return from the original cast was German born actor Harry Earles (Kurt Schneider).  Earles was Tweedledee in the original; Conway and crowd merely credited him as "midget" in the remake (Earles was only 3'3"). Below are some production comparisons of the two films. 

October 21: His Brother's Keeper (1921)

 

His Brother's Keeper was principally a crime film with strong horror elements from 1921. It is yet another lost film with enough extant information and materials to know most of the action of the entire film. The plot was an odd combination of corporate fraud mixed with mesmerizism/hypnoisis.  The following description from on October 1921 print ad taken out in a Poughkeepsie newspaper gives a good description of how this, an early thriller, was marketed:

Can one man compel another, by the force of mental suggestion to murder a third man? It is upon this question that N. Brewster Morse has constructed that greatest drama since the days of "Trilby" and "The Corsican Brothers." [from the Poughkeepsie Eagle-News]

Principally the main plot behind the motivation to commit the murder is a bit beside the point. The point is that somehow a mere mortal man has the power to compel another innocent person to murder a man for him. Hypnotism was a popular "supernatural" trope in films of the time; it had strong connections to spiritualism, but it was also just as connected to the new science of psychology. It was both weird and wonderful; new, but possibly...just possibly, very old. It would also go on to be a popular vehicle in mad scientist films for the 1930's, 40's and 50's; so we find that concept in its infancy in films like this. Even today, we have vampire films and series that use hypnosis as a power that the creatures inherently possess in some form. What was truly frightening about His Brother's Keeper is that the mesmerized murderer is arrested; the audience knew that meant capital punishment. Pretty horrifying stuff. Of course, this is Hollywood, and we can't have the bad guy getting away with it. We have an investigation undertaken by a character named (I kid you not!) John Bonham and the culprit is exposed. As for justice, the film has him then promptly, and conveniently, doing away with himself.  Other than a complete plot description and a poster, there are no other materials on this film for now. 

October 20: One Glorious Day (1922)

 

One Glorious Day is a lost Paramount production directed by James Cruze starring Will Rogers and released in early 1922.  Judging from the surviving materials, it was probably quite the strange little comedy. Frankly most of the stills show that the "spirit" Ek, an entity featured in the film only briefly in his original form, look far scarier than the film likely intended, this was a comedy after all. 

Rogers plays Professor Ezra Botts a scientist, who dabbles in psychic experiments. Ek is a mischievous little spirit who is waiting his turn for a body to inhabit (is this a story of reincarnation??), but sneaks off to the earthly plane to find a vessel for himself. In other words, he skips the queue. Owed to his experiments, professor Botts makes himself vulnerable to "inhabitation" and Ek takes advantage of this. In the meantime, Botts' actual spirit finds itself wandering the astral plane, disembodied and confused. He must wait until the little spirit Ek has enough of it's antics in Botts' body and leaves, to re-inhabit his own body. Apparently all kinds of physical comedy ensues. From the descriptions that survive of the film, it sounds like a cross between the drunken nightmare in Dream of a Rarebit Fiend in Edwin S. Porter film from 1906 and a slapstick comedy from the 1910's such as one finds in an Arbuckle/St. John/Keaton film.

And, in fact, the film was actually intended to be a vehicle for Roscoe Arbuckle; Will Rogers only took his place as the protagonist after the Virginia Rappe scandal broke early in the film's production.  Arbuckle had been the main creative force behind the project; he had contributed the lion's share of the film's concept. The rest of the cast was little changed and included Lila Lee as the love interest, and Alan Hale Sr. Child actor John Fox was mocked up as Ek, who I am sure was thought to be silly by the make-up crew...but, really, come on, it comes off quite creepy today! Even by the standards of the day, Ek made an impression; and for a lost film, the image is pretty famous, making regular rounds on the social media sites every year around Halloween.  Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine founder Forrest J. Ackerman, who is a GIANT in the science fiction (and horror) community, and is credited the coining "Sci-Fi" as a phrase, claimed that this was the film that sparked is life long love of both the science fiction and horror/monster genres. Some sources have it as the first film that he actually ever saw as a child. 

Suviving photo from the set of the film (wikimedia commons)

As far as what the film might have been up to in regards to the supernatural, one of it's working titles, Souls Before Birth, gives a hint that Ek is indeed some sort of "pre-born" or even reiencarnated spirit. His incarnating within the body of the professor (taking temporary possession of) also seems to be a kind of precursor to "possession" films that we all so familiar with today; the most famous of which remains The Exorcist. 

Below are a couple of lobby cards from the film.

[Images in public domain, from Wikimedia and IMDb film photos]

October 19: The Mysterious Mirror [Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel] (1928)

 

Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel (or The Mysterious Mirror/Mystic Mirror) was a 1928 German silent fantasy set in a Bavarian schloss (castle). It was principally directed by Carl Hoffmann, who had been a prolific cinematographer since 1913 (Richard Tescher is credited as a co-director, it is his only known direction credit). Though the story is based on recognizable from fairy tales--such as magic mirrors found in tales from the Brothers Grimm--the script is credited solely to writer Robert Reinert, who had previously been a script writer for fantasy serials in German cinema. The story revolves around a mirror that is supposed to allow the gazer to see their future if they stare into on nights of a full moon (or, alternatively, when the moon is up).  Usually what they see drives them into insanity and some into self-destruction. The protagonist of the film--a man who wishes to know his future for romantic reasons--is played by Fritz Rasp.  Released the year after Fritz Lang's Metropolis, where Rasp was "The Thin Man;" there is little doubt that the film makers thought they could capitalize on casting Rasp and using his name for promotion.  The story is rather simple, Rasp's "mann" steals into the old edifice where the mirror "resides" on a bright moonlit night, gazes into it, hates what he sees, smashes the mirror and then kills himself. After his death, the mirror reassembles itself, like it has likely done on countless occasions before. The description would lead one to believe that the film was a short, but it was in fact a feature and ran for nearly an hour and ten minutes. It was padded out with a story of gothic romance, featuring actress Fay Wall (aka Felicitas "Fee" Malten) in the part of Anna, the love interest. 

October 18: Go And Get It (1920)

 

Go And Get It is a relatively unknown feature length horror spoof from 1920. It's plot, like so many involving science fiction plots in the 1910's and 1920's, involves a gorilla or ape man.  It was from Marshall Neilan Productions and Neilan was a co-director, along with Henry Robert Symonds. Agnes Ayers and Pat O'Malley are essentially the leads in the film, one as Helen Allen who has inherited a troubled newspaper from her father, and as Kirk Connelly an investigative reporter. There is a strong mystery element in the plot that involves both a string of unsolved murders and an attempt to ruin the Allen family business by person or persons unknown. The two team up to investigate and find that a mad scientist Dr. Ord (Noah Beery) has transplanted the brain of a criminal into the head of an ape (as one does). The hybrid creature then goes on rampage spree in much the same fashion as the killer in Poe's Rue Morgue. Former wrestler Bull Montana donned the gorilla/ape suit for shoot. The film ran/runs for an hour and ten minutes, and was remade in 1941 as The Monster and the Girl starring Ellen Drew and Robert Paige. For decades Go and Get It was listed as lost, when the Cineteca Italiana in Milan announced that they are a discovered a copy in their archive. 

Print ad from the August 14, 1920 edition of Exhibitors Herald (Public Domain, retrieved from Wikipedia)

(Wikimedia Commons)

October 17: An Evil Power (1911)

 

A flier poster for the 1911 Selig release An Evil Power from Moving Picture World.  It's plot revolves around a fake spiritualist/hypnotist who sets out to part a young rich and newly engaged woman from her friends, family, and ultimately, her wealth (possibly also her life?).  The film, which was written and directed by Francis (Frank) Boggs, seeks to throw light on con artists plying their trade via the world of spiritualism, which by the 1910's was an old story. The film, which is presumed lost, was by no means supernatural, or even mysterious; but did apparently include tropes like hypnotism that would later be the bread and butter of horror monsters (like vampires) far and wide. It also contained (judging by descriptions in surviving materials) elements that would show up in plays and films like Gaslight.  [A side note: Frank Boggs would himself die by homicide later in the year of 1911 on the 27th of October at the age of 41]

October 16: Lotta Coin's Ghost (1915)

 

Lotta Coin's Gold (alternatively Lotta Coin's Ghost) was a short supernatural spoof released 1915 from Kalem.  This was one of the studio's Ham and Bud comedies. The Ham and Bud duo was made up of Lloyd Hamilton and Bud Duncan. The comic pair lasted for 3 years at the company from 1914 to 1917; almost none of the films are known to have survived.  This little comedy at least has a number of very detailed descriptions that describe the action from start to finish. It had Ham and Bud attempting to steal a nearly priceless necklace from a safe, and in the process getting spoofed by the heiress to whom the necklace belongs. Upon realizing that there are intruders in her home, she decides to don an all white sheet and scare the bejeezus out of them. The plan works so well that they flee the house in chaotic fright, and in doing so, Bud accidently gets himself entangled in another white sheet on a clothesline. Ham sees this and gets terrified all over again. As soon as he realizes the ghost is actually his side-kick, he chases after him and the film ends. Ham and Bud were early versions of comic duos that appeared in horror like comedies all the way up through the 1960's. Good examples can be found in the Abbott and Costello Universal monsters films of the 1950's. 

October 15: Juxtaposing London After Midnight with The Mark Of The Vampire

 

Director Tod Browning remade his London After Midnight (1927) as The Mark of the Vampire in 1935. His original intent was to have Lon Chaney reprise his role of the professor, but Chaney died at the age of 47 in 1930. The next logical choice was Bela Lugosi whom Browning had directed in Dracula in 1931. Today a full print of the London is one of the most sought after films in the world.  Mark of the Vampire however, is very much intact and available for viewing. Just a few still comparisons follow.