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Reviews
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Still chilling after all these years
I first saw this film on a late-night horror program in my pre-teens. Back then it scared the living daylights out of me and started a life-long love of the work of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. I'm pleased to say so many years on, it still has the power to grab me.
Admittedly, its dated in some ways. The obviously American actors trying to get their tongues around the Scottish-style dialogue is pretty laughable at times but the gothic atmosphere of RL Stevenson's book is captured admirably. The love-interest between Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) & Mrs Marsh (Rita Corday) seems like something that should've been developed properly or cut - it goes nowhere. The character of Meg Camden (Edith Atwater) is beautiful played but never given a chance to really fly. Likewise with Bela Lugosi's Joseph, but his big scene with Karloff is just great.
In this low-budget film, Val Lewton & Robert Wise still manage to pull out all the stops, using superb lighting (esp of Karloff's cadaverous face), echoing sound (Cabman Grey's horse "clip-clopping" on the cobblestones) and the wonderful scene where the cat sitting on the mantlepiece witnesses "Toddy" MacFarlane (the wonderfully imperious Henry Daniell) grappling with Karloff's Cabman Grey. All we see are macarbe shadows dancing on the wall. As with many great movies of the period & genre, its the implication of violence that makes us sit up and take notice. (For the last word in this technique, check out the shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho).
Tame compared to contemporary horror but the final scene especially is still chilling after all these years.
Bachelor of Hearts (1958)
Cute, harmless comedy when there's nothing better to do
This is a pleasant little film, jam-packed with amusing stereotypes of the English and university life as seen through the eyes of exchange student Wolf Hauser (very young and good-looking Kruger) If this movie had been made even 10 years later I wonder if there would have been a deeper exploration of Hauser's attempts to fit in with his surroundings and his very German presence in a still anti-German post-war England?
As it is, the movie is memorable for the glorious footage of Cambridge (undoubtedly one of the most photogenic places in England) and the lovely Sylvia Sims, who manages to sweetly steal every scene she appears in. She is very reminiscent of Kristen Scott Thomas at times, with her terribly english loveliness. Strong supporting cast including Ronald Lewis and Eric Barker help a lot.
Cute, harmless comedy when there's nothing better to do.