A promising young classical composer suffers violent dissociative episodes when subjected to discordant sounds.
20th Century Fox’s follow-up to 1944’s The Lodger, with the same killer (Laird Cregar), detective (George Sanders), scriptwriter (Barré Lyndon), director and a similar period setting. Reportedly, a very unfaithful adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s novel, but still a very good film in its own right. Cregar, in his last role before his untimely death, does a great job as the lead, who keeps audience sympathy by not realizing what he does during his blackouts. Linda Darnell almost outshines him as the music hall singer who seduces and betrays him. (This horror/thriller has got more than a bit of noir in it.)
Marvelous bits include Guy Fawkes Night and the even more fiery Grand Guignol climax, which features excellent use of Bernard Herrmann’s Concerto Macabre, written especially for the film.
I loved it as a subversion of the atomic-age monster movie - “what if, instead of becoming giant, they got their shit together in a way we can’t and started cooperating?”
For the complete psychedelic experience it’s worth finding a version with the restored original ending. Four minutes on-par with the end of 2001.
Dimwitted busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) stumbles into artistic success by converting the bodies of his victims into statues.
Probably the best version of House of Wax, Corman made this right before Little Shop of Horrors. Nearly as great as its more famous follow-up. Perhaps a tad less funny, but this is a satire rather than a freewheeling farce, taking on the Beats, the art world, and Corman’s own creative ambitions. Great work from that guy Dick Miller, who never again got to play such a developed character. Do not fail to dig that crazy beatnik poetry!
A New York reporter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) returns to her long-ago abandoned hometown after her mother (Kathy Bates) is accused of killing her employer. Many flashbacks ensue. Based on a Stephen King novel.
Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh do battle against a string of cliches. The cast, also including Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, and John C. Reilly, does good enough work to make it watchable.
It’s been a long time since I read the book or saw the movie, but I seem to remember thinking the movie was actually better than the book, which is rare.
Never read the book. Don’t recall previously knowing anything about the plot other than there was an abusive husband, but I still managed to predict almost all of it as it went along.
Never read the book. Don’t recall previously knowing anything about the plot other than there was an abusive husband, but I still managed to predict almost all of it as it went along.