The Undying Monster (1942)

Director:  John Brahm

Writers:  Lillie Hayward, Michael Jacoby, Jessie Douglas Kerruish

Composers:  Emil Newman, David Raksin, Arthur Lange, Cyril J. Mockridge

Starring:  James Ellison, Heather Angel, John Howard, Bramwell Fletcher, Heather Thatcher, Aubrey Mather, Halliwell Hobbes

More info:  IMDb

Tagline:  Sinister! Savage! Supernatural!

Plot:  Surviving members of an aristocratic English family are threatened by a legendary monster when they venture out on chilly, foggy nights.

My rating:   6.5/10

Will I watch it again?   Nah.

 

If you're looking for some "undying monster" or werewolf action, you're going to find very little here and that's a shame.  However, what we've got is a great looking gothic mystery with a horror setting that delivers on atmosphere and a fast-paced, tight running time of just barely an hour.  It feels like a cross from a traditional werewolf movie and the Sherlock Holmes story, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, leaning heavily on the latter.  I was struck by how good the picture looked.  The pacing is brisk and I'd even say too fast because it felt like stretching it out more would've made it better and less rushed.  But they do pack an awful lot into those 63 minutes.  The performances are good and I just loved Heather Thatcher as Christy, a lady detective that works alongside Bob (James Ellison).  She's got a dark, gallows sense of humor and she gets giddy when grisly matters are discussed.  I wanted more of her.  She was a real treat.  

 

This picture looks and feels great, much better than other B-movies of the day.  And there's a reason.  It's got a bevy of talent in front of and behind the camera.  Director John Brahm would go on to make HANGOVER SQUARE (1945), a movie I've heard great things about for decades and I only know of because of Bernard Herrmann's great score from it, art director Richard Day who went on to work on some of Hollywood's biggest classics (with nearly 300 film credits!!!), plus there are the composers, specifically David Raksin and finally cinematographer Lucien Ballard who camerawork graced the screens of a lot of famous classics including THE WILD BUNCH (1969).

 

Having seen that image before watching the movie, I was waiting for it and never saw it, not even close.  I even went back and see if I blinked for too long and couldn't find it.  Maybe it was cut from the movie and only used as a publicity still.  It looks great, though.

There's a trial in the final act that felt unnecessary but it's the last five minutes that was too much to handle.  Bob and Christy solve the case but it's another character that confesses to them that they were in on it the whole time.  Everyone has a good laugh about it and Bob and Christy take it much too lightly.  If this person confessed all of this shit like that I would've been pissed and pressed formal charges.  It was a fucked up scene considering everything that everyone had just been through.  Just sayin'.  What little werewolf action there is occurs briefly in the beginning and almost as briefly near the end with everything in between a who-done-it.