Thanks to TCM for showing this film on a double-bill recently with Peter Lorre's earlier film MAD LOVE, which also involves a psycho and a piano player. It allowed me to savor Lorre's quite amazing talent for expressing character with his face and gestures.
I wonder why Robert Alda was billed over Peter Lorre, since this was only Alda's fourth film, and Lorre was already an established star. No matter how you cut it, Lorre's character is the focus of the plot, while Alda and the girl are just the necessary Hollywood window dressing. Just as MAD LOVE let us watch Lorre work out his obsession with a beautiful woman, BEAST shows him working out his obsession with ideas and arcane knowledge. The film's slick trick is to make us think we're watching a horror movie (severed hand, eerie mausoleum), when maybe it's not really one at all.
The score, using Bach's famous chaconne arranged for left hand, is inspired. The script, although weak in spots, contains a nice balance between light and dark material (except for the extremely lame "extra joke" at the end). Naish turns in another convincing ethnic performance, and the two greedy relatives are suitably slimy. The photography and special effects add extra doses of creepiness. Can you forget the scene with Lorre and the nail? P.S. As someone else has commented here, it was also fun to watch Robert Alda in a fairly extensive role, and see all the resemblances between him and his son. Voice, gesture, facial expressions...it's all there.
I wonder why Robert Alda was billed over Peter Lorre, since this was only Alda's fourth film, and Lorre was already an established star. No matter how you cut it, Lorre's character is the focus of the plot, while Alda and the girl are just the necessary Hollywood window dressing. Just as MAD LOVE let us watch Lorre work out his obsession with a beautiful woman, BEAST shows him working out his obsession with ideas and arcane knowledge. The film's slick trick is to make us think we're watching a horror movie (severed hand, eerie mausoleum), when maybe it's not really one at all.
The score, using Bach's famous chaconne arranged for left hand, is inspired. The script, although weak in spots, contains a nice balance between light and dark material (except for the extremely lame "extra joke" at the end). Naish turns in another convincing ethnic performance, and the two greedy relatives are suitably slimy. The photography and special effects add extra doses of creepiness. Can you forget the scene with Lorre and the nail? P.S. As someone else has commented here, it was also fun to watch Robert Alda in a fairly extensive role, and see all the resemblances between him and his son. Voice, gesture, facial expressions...it's all there.