Most actors get better with age. In the case of Lon Chaney Jr., he started off promising but proceeded to get more mannered and melodramatic as he aged. Changing his name from Creighton to Lon Jr. with this low budget adventure, he actually played two completely opposite characters, and did a decent job. As a young man, he was quite handsome, but by the time he played the wolf man, he had put on a lot of weight and seemed to be older than he really was.
Playing a detective and an Igor like cripple who is obviously up to no good, Chaney even gets to act opposite himself. The plot deals with kidnapping and a stolen ruby, attacks on innocent tourists, and the jealousy of a native girl towards the blonde kidnapping victim. It's cheaply made and often creaky, but some sudden ingenious camera shots give this a larger element of mystery. Stereotypical middle eastern villains are total clichés, while the Americans are presented as noble and heroic, victims of the darkly presented criminals.
Exotic native girl Zarah Tazil is the most one dimensional of the vindictive characters, jealous over blonde beauty Sheila Terry, and desperate to scar her pretty face. But Terry is no Barbie doll blonde, able to take care of herself opposite the hot tempered Tazil. Chaney's pathetic Butch Curtain is given several dimensions, so he is spared the defensiveness of the other middle eastern, but what's up with that ridiculous name? The script is filled fortune cookie like prophecies that just get sillier and sillier. Almost serial like in its format, it manages to be interesting cheap entertainment that gets more ridiculous but gives off some laughs which ultimately makes it likable while wretched dreck at the same time.
Playing a detective and an Igor like cripple who is obviously up to no good, Chaney even gets to act opposite himself. The plot deals with kidnapping and a stolen ruby, attacks on innocent tourists, and the jealousy of a native girl towards the blonde kidnapping victim. It's cheaply made and often creaky, but some sudden ingenious camera shots give this a larger element of mystery. Stereotypical middle eastern villains are total clichés, while the Americans are presented as noble and heroic, victims of the darkly presented criminals.
Exotic native girl Zarah Tazil is the most one dimensional of the vindictive characters, jealous over blonde beauty Sheila Terry, and desperate to scar her pretty face. But Terry is no Barbie doll blonde, able to take care of herself opposite the hot tempered Tazil. Chaney's pathetic Butch Curtain is given several dimensions, so he is spared the defensiveness of the other middle eastern, but what's up with that ridiculous name? The script is filled fortune cookie like prophecies that just get sillier and sillier. Almost serial like in its format, it manages to be interesting cheap entertainment that gets more ridiculous but gives off some laughs which ultimately makes it likable while wretched dreck at the same time.