Boris Karloff was such a marvel in villainous roles — like what a screen presence. I'm glad we no longer (as frequently) lock up the mentally ill — and women — like animals whenever we feel like it. That being said, I'm not entirely sure we've progressed a whole lot past that.
It's almost a shame how relevant a 1946s horror/thriller movie still is... but at least I can still enjoy it.
If every historical drama was constructed like this, I'd be a fucking encyclopaedia.
I'm gonna be honest here — they meet Dracula a whole lot more. Either way, this would've been a banging crossover 1948. A cinematic event.
The recent B&W 4k for this was stunning — easily preferable over the standard colour edition.
Somehow even more disturbing on rewatch (especially one incredibly key part of the ending I entirely missed on first viewing). A strange, nihilistic parable about the consequences of our desire to self preserve and a testament to the stubbornly human reflex of creating conflict and fanning its flames — waiting until it engulfs us all.
Despite all love and connection, despite our resilience and our valour, ultimately our acts will be repaid. None are forgotten.
I don't care how much praise this one gets... somehow it's still underrated.
Now, I really couldn't find any other horror movie from 1949 — so I guess under ten minutes of mild terror from a Disney animated anthology flick will need to do the trick.
They were a fire ten minutes though! Children's horror rules — especially when terrorising some irritating nice guy figure.
From The Black Cat to The Cat O' Nine Tails to The Cat and the Canary to this... I've seen a lot of cat-related horror this year.
It's quite long (perhaps even annoyingly so) but the strange and somewhat over-the-top horror visuals do make up for some of that. Occasionally some eerie moments too, although I'm not sure I'd recommend seeking it out.
Certainly some of the most impactful moments I've seen in silent horror thus far... the jacket scene?? Also the titular carriage itself? — spellbinding to watch as it glides across the environment.
Very Christmas-carol-esque tale of selfishness and its consequences with some genuinely interesting (if frustrating) characters.
If you're going to make any man invisible, let it not be a young Vincent Price. Anyways, the final scenes have some really cool effects but overall this isn't anything particularly new.
Phenomenal picture. Irena deserved so much better — believe women instead of, you know, trying to institutionalise them????? (Why was that a running theme of the time).
I don't usually do this shit, but seriously fuck this movie. No one should lose their job for standing up against genocide and ethnic cleansing.
And on that note, many of us live in democratic countries. Please, use your voices and pressure your governments to permanently stop Israel's occupation of Palestine. Every minute, innocent civilians are being slaughtered. Every minute we do nothing, we're complicit.
Man, I'm still struggling to wrap my head around some of the older silent films. This one was genuinely pretty fun, but somewhat difficult to follow.
Loved the ending though!