...Seriously! This girl (Fay Wray) needs some heavy duty nerve tonic! Dad on a ladder in the library frightens her but a stranger found ransacking her bedroom is subject to catty teasing remarks? Somebody lecture this woman on stranger danger. But I'll get back to that later. First some background on the film.
This and "Mystery of the Wax Museum" were made as horror movies because Warner Brothers was on the hook to the Technicolor corporation to make two more two strip technicolor films. These were planned to be musicals, but with musicals out of favor, they decided to make them horror films instead. Wax Museum was pretty good, but this film turned out neither scary nor suspenseful.
The "moon killer" is killing somebody by the light of the full moon every full moon. The victims have all been strangled and had a surgical instrument inserted at the base of the skull. The latest victim has been cannibalized. Apparently, after the sixth victim six months into this, the police decide to get serious about this spree. Why now? Why not after the third victim three months ago? Question never asked or answered. The police have traced the surgical instrument involved in the murders down as something only sold to and used at Dr. Xavier's (Lionel Atwill's) research institute, thus somebody at the institute must be the murderer. Dr. Xavier doesn't want any publicity, so he gets the police to...agree to let him do the investigation??? And why did they let somebody who they already suspect - Dr. Xavier - autopsy the sixth victim? What kind of police department is this? But I digress.
Meanwhile there is a fast talking reporter (Lee Tracy) investigating this without Tracy's trademark finesse and rapid fire delivery which he develops later in his career. He actually goofs up quite a bit and isn't the wily fellow he is in "Blessed Event" or "Bombshell". And what is his obsession with that hand buzzer of his?
The good things about this film - Lionel Atwill is always scary and ambiguous in these old horror films even if the film itself is not. The art design is very good considering Warner Brothers was just a poverty row outfit five years before. Michael Curtiz' crisp direction goes a long way given the mediocre plot line he is given to work with. But maybe a plot where looking into the night sky lit up by the moon is a key part of several scenes was a bad idea when that sky can only look slimy green given the technology of the time.
Probably worth a look for Lee Tracy fans, and who isn't one?
This and "Mystery of the Wax Museum" were made as horror movies because Warner Brothers was on the hook to the Technicolor corporation to make two more two strip technicolor films. These were planned to be musicals, but with musicals out of favor, they decided to make them horror films instead. Wax Museum was pretty good, but this film turned out neither scary nor suspenseful.
The "moon killer" is killing somebody by the light of the full moon every full moon. The victims have all been strangled and had a surgical instrument inserted at the base of the skull. The latest victim has been cannibalized. Apparently, after the sixth victim six months into this, the police decide to get serious about this spree. Why now? Why not after the third victim three months ago? Question never asked or answered. The police have traced the surgical instrument involved in the murders down as something only sold to and used at Dr. Xavier's (Lionel Atwill's) research institute, thus somebody at the institute must be the murderer. Dr. Xavier doesn't want any publicity, so he gets the police to...agree to let him do the investigation??? And why did they let somebody who they already suspect - Dr. Xavier - autopsy the sixth victim? What kind of police department is this? But I digress.
Meanwhile there is a fast talking reporter (Lee Tracy) investigating this without Tracy's trademark finesse and rapid fire delivery which he develops later in his career. He actually goofs up quite a bit and isn't the wily fellow he is in "Blessed Event" or "Bombshell". And what is his obsession with that hand buzzer of his?
The good things about this film - Lionel Atwill is always scary and ambiguous in these old horror films even if the film itself is not. The art design is very good considering Warner Brothers was just a poverty row outfit five years before. Michael Curtiz' crisp direction goes a long way given the mediocre plot line he is given to work with. But maybe a plot where looking into the night sky lit up by the moon is a key part of several scenes was a bad idea when that sky can only look slimy green given the technology of the time.
Probably worth a look for Lee Tracy fans, and who isn't one?