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The Haunted Strangler / Fiend without a Face; June, 1958
Topic Started: Jun 11 2017, 04:12 PM (243 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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The Haunted Strangler (1958) Dir. Robert Day
Amalgamated Productions released by MGM
78 min. / B&W / 1.66:1

ITB Shock Theatre #203

Fiend without a Face (1958) Dir. Arthur Crabtree
Amalgamated Productions released by MGM
74 min. / B&W / 1.66:1

ITB Strange Science Cinema #129

Both films available on DVD from Criterion.

Yep, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, only a few short years past its prime with huge, Technicolor musicals gives us one of the most fondly-recalled horror double features of the year - and apparently, a big hit for the studio, too. Funny world, no?

First up, Boris Karloff makes a long-awaited return to Shock Theatre - oh, sure, he'd done Voodoo Island and a couple of crappy things like that in between Broadway stints, but this was his first major horror release in years - in The Haunted Strangler (Brit title: Grip of the Strangler).

Karloff is a novelist working on a sensational reopening of the Haymarket Strangler case: a horrendous serial killer, hung for his crimes, whom Boris believes to be innocent. The key is located the strangler's knife (it's complicated), but once he's done that, whoa Nelly: Boris HIMSELF becomes the new Strangler, pawing and slashing his way through a bevy of showgirls! (Or, as Michael J. Weldon put it in his quintessential Psychotronic Video Guide: "He simply shuts one eye, bites his lower lip and stalks around as if it were the '30s again.")

Anthony Dawson is the detective trying to stop the new wave of killings (and is that guy the Byron Foulger of England? He seems to be in EVERY British movie of his era) and Jean Kent and Vera Day are either victims or would-be victims.

Boris was 70 at this point, and check him out in the last 25 minutes of the film -- it seems impossible that this old man could summon up the strength to do what we see him doing onscreen. It's a wonderful performance, and left me with even more admiration for his abilities as an actor. As for the film itself, it's slow in spots, but heck, aren't we all? And don't miss the trailer, which REALLY pours on the hoopla!

Million-dollar Trailer Narration:
"This was a man so gentle and kindly that the sight of cruelty and violence cut him like a whip! Transformed in one fantastic night into the graveyard ghoul whose claws were clenched with the wild uncontrollable urge to kill!

Following a trip to the snack bar, we were back in our seats for another Paramount Modern Madcap cartoon, The Shoe Must Go On, as a blacksmith's anvil interferes with the orchestra playing at the theatre next door in a cartoon not nearly as good or clever as it sounds (but then, it IS Famous Studios). Then, we caught the trailers for next week's double feature, How to Make a Monster and Teenage Caveman, and naturally, we felt like nailing ourselves to our seats so that we don't miss a single second of THAT. Wow-de-wowzers! And so it was on to Fiend without a Face.

Marshall Thompson is investigating mysterious deaths around a secret scientific Army base in Canada, with the help of the lovely sister of one of the murdered soldiers. Well, one thing leads to another (as happens in movies) and we discover a herd of MENTAL VAMPIRES, flying brains with tentacles! They drop out of the trees, soar through your window, and attach themselves to the back of your neck, sucking out your BRAIN as well as your SPINAL CORD! Way! And heck, since I still have the Psychotronic Guide right here, let's go back to Mr. Weldon: "The scenes of these partially animated creatures choking their screaming victims with their cords while sucking their brains out are the most nightmarish and shocking you'll ever see." He got THAT right. And when the brains amass to attack in the film's climax, and our cast holes up in a house, nail blanks over the windows, and try to keep the creatures out, you'll know that George Romero must've loved this film. Oh, and when you shoot the brains, they EXPLODE in gurgling blood! And the sister of the dead guy parades around in a TOWEL and WET HAIR! I LOVE THIS MOVIE!

It's gross, though. Weird for 1958.

Million-dollar Dialog:
Scientist: "We're facing a new form of life that nobody understands. I believe it FEEDS on the radiation from your atomic plant, and that it's EVIL!"

More polished than the AIP or Allied Artists double-features of the era and with higher production values and therefore less fun, but as "classy" monster double features go, this is one of the best. The Criterion DVD of Fiends is wonderful but Strangler is presented in 1.33:1 format, a no-no. Both discs are naturally stuffed with bonus material, though. Another fun '50s double feature.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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