#Lew Landers

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The Return of the Vampire (1943)

[marypickfords]

The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935)

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

The Return of the Vampire | 1943

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935).

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: The Return of the Vampire

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★★½

Plot: During WWII, a vampire believed to have been defeated returns to terrorize a doctor and her family.

Review: Unique ideas are left by the wayside in favor of familiar cliches, with any potential mystery being given little time to breathe.

Year: 1943 Genre: Vampires, Werewolves Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 9 minutes

Director: Lew Landers Writers: Randall Faye, Griffin Jay Cinematographer: L. William O'Connell Editor: Paul Borofsky Composer: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Cast: Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch, Miles Mander, Roland Varno, Bela Lugosi, Matt Willis, Gilbert Emery

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Story: 2/5 - There are fun concepts—such as German blitzkriegs disturbing interred monsters—but everything is comically rushed, with characters reaching ridiculous conclusions in mere seconds just to forward the plot.

Performances: 2/5 - Lugosi seems to be phoning it in and Willis is outright rough to watch at points.

Cinematography: 4/5 - The film's most memorable feature. Very striking use of shadow.

Editing: 3/5

Music: 3/5 - Sometimes overbearing.

Choreography & Stunts 2/5 - Very stage-esque.

Effects & Props: 3.5/5 - Heavy fog lends a great deal to the atmosphere.

Sets: 3.5/5 - The cemetery sets are standouts.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 3/5 - Willis' werewolf make-up is quite decent.

Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Classist portrayal of working class British people

Child harm (off-screen)

[gatutor]

Tom Neal-Martha Tilton "Crime, inc." 1945, de Lew Landers.

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The Power of the Whistler (1945) Lew Landers

September 28th 2024

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On April 22, 2009, The Raven was released on DVD in France.

Here's some new Bela Lugosi art!

[oldshowbiz]

Condemned Women (1938)

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Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935)

Cast: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lester Matthews, Irene Ware, Samuel S. Hinds, Spencer Charters, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe, Maidel Turner. Screenplay: David Boehm. Cinematography: Charles J. Stumar. Art direction: Albert S. D'Agostino. Film editing: Albert Akst. Music: Clifford Vaughan. 

The Criterion Channel includes The Raven in its collection of pre-Code horror movies, but in fact the movie started filming after the Production Code was introduced, and director Lew Landers had to negotiate over details in the script. The enforcers were nervous about "excess horror," and in particular wanted the film not to show any details of the operation that Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi) performs on Bateman's (Boris Karloff) face. Even so, censors took aim at what they called "horror for horror's sake," and The Raven was banned in several countries. The defense from Universal Studios that the movie was a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe impressed nobody. It's still a fairly creepy movie, largely because the filmmakers managed to include some torture devices from Poe's stories like "The Pit and the Pendulum." The poem "The Raven" mainly gives Dr. Vollin an excuse to explain to everyone that the bird is a symbol of death, but it also prompts a rather silly dance recital by the object of Vollin's obsession, Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware). Vollin is a neurosurgeon who saves Jean's life after she's injured in an automobile accident. She's engaged to another surgeon, Dr. Halden (Lester Matthews), and when her father, Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds), stymies Vollin's interest in Jean, Vollin takes his revenge. He has a collection of torture devices and an old house outfitted with gimmicks like a bedroom on an elevator and a secret room whose walls close in on people trapped in it. Karloff's Bateman is a bank robber who escaped from San Quentin and is on the run, so in the guise of giving him plastic surgery to change his identity, Vollin instead disfigures him, and then makes him play servant at a house party to which Halden, the Thatchers, and various other guests are invited. Madness ensues. The movie's chief virtue is brevity -- it runs 61 minutes -- so it never gets tedious even though it also never gets either scary or plausible.   

[hibiscusbabyboy]

[weirdlookindog]

The Return of the Vampire (1943)

Bela Lugosi as Dr. Armand Tesla

[marypickfords]

The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935)

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Movie Review | The Return of the Vampire (Landers, 1943)

He's back... and up to his old tricks!

Who? Dracula!

No! "Armand Tesla." A completely different, legally distinct character!

How dare you suggest we ripped off Dracula and made the bare minimum number of changes to avoid getting sued for copyright infringement!

Anyway, this one actually is distinguished from Tod Browning's Dracula by the gender flipping of Dr. Van Helsing, the WWII setting, and the fact that it's both a Dracula and a Wolfman movie.

Not that you'll necessarily care about all that stuff. You're just here for the shadows, and the fog, and the wind, and the cemeteries, and the crypts, and for Bela Lugosi enunciating every syllable to cast an aura of mystery while being lit from below, and for Nina Foch looking radiant even under the vampiric affliction. And I can report that it does deliver on all those fronts.

*stamps foggy movie punchcard*

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: The Raven

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★★★

Plot: A doctor becomes violently obsessed with a young dancer after saving her life.

Review: Despite some issues with uneven tone and characterization, this film's solid performances and dynamic sets make it a fun, campy ride.

Year: 1935 Genre: Psychological Horror, Gothic Country: United States Language: English Runtime: 1 hour 1 minute

Director: Lew Landers Writer: David Boehm Cinematographer: Charles Stumar Editor: Albert Akst Composer: Clifford Vaughan Cast: Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Samuel S. Hinds, Boris Karloff, Lester Matthews, Inez Courtney, Ian Wolfe

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Story: 3/5 - This standard tale of obsession is elevated some by the almost meta way in which the villain tries to steer it into gothic territory.

Performances: 3/5 - Ware, Hinds, and Karloff are all quite good and likable. Meanwhile, Lugosi fluctuates between maniacal and a bit too campy.

Cinematography: 3.5/5 - Not as stunning as some of its gothic contemporaries, but still engaging.

Editing: 3.5/5 - A few memorable dissolves.

Music: 2.5/5

Effects: 3.5/5

Sets: 4/5 - Really fun sets, including a gothic torture chamber, shrinking space, and room that turns into an elevator.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 2.5/5 - Mostly standard but solid. Karloff's make-up, though, is a bit cheap.

Trigger Warnings:

Moderate but brief violence

Attempted torture

Ableism

Medical scenes