For the month of March, we decided to spend some time with the supernatural and enjoy some ghost stories. Join us for MACABRE MARCH!
RODNEY BOWCOCK: Alex Gregor (or Gregor the Great, if you prefer to go by his stage name, played by Lon Chaney Jr.) is a mentalist whose act is to hypnotize his fiancée (Evelyn Ankers as Maura Daniel, "The Fascinating Maura," if you will), making her able to read the minds of people in their radio audience. A rowdy drunk audience member insists that the act is a fake and is "done with mirrors" (on the radio even!). Gregor invites him to the stage to hypnotize him, but the drunk promptly dies of a heart attack. Naturally, Gregor blames himself feeling that he willed him to death. Racked with guilt, Gregor retreats to a wax museum owned by Valerie Monet (Tala Birell) and her niece Nina Coudreau (Elena Verdugo), both of whom are passionately in love with Gregor.
Oh, wait. Don't forget Rudi (Martin Kosleck). See, Rudi is the disgraced plastic surgeon that has also found refuge in the wax museum crafting the sculptures. He quickly becomes jealous of Gregor's way of making every woman that he encounters swoon over him, especially Nina. For some reason, he enters a plot with Gregor's manager (Milburn Stone) to have Gregor committed to a facility for the mentally ill and take control of his fortune. If this doesn't makes sense to you, you aren't alone.
SAMANTHA GLASSER: The Frozen Ghost has nothing to do with ghosts, but instead with bodies being encased in wax. The world seemed to have a fascination with wax museums during the vintage movie era, especially as a vehicle for horror. Perhaps the obsession Hollywood has in modern times with evil dolls is our closest equivalent. My mind always goes to the 1933 color Mystery of the Wax Museum, but there two films set at Madame Tussaud's, one in 1936 and one in 1948, and of course Vincent Price in House of Wax. Charlie Chan and Santo the Mexican wrestler went in for this business too. Tussaud's is credited for being the first wax museum having opened in London in 1835. I was surprised to learn that there are several wax museums around the country with various themes, including one in Mansfield, Ohio with a Biblical theme.
RB: I swear I went to a wax museum, likely in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, when I was a kid. I had not really considered the possibility that these were things that had gone by the wayside in recent decades. I also seem to remember them being the setting for what seems like multiple episodes of Scooby Doo, of which I was a devoted follower as a young child.
SG: The theme of death on stage reminded me of several other films including The Last Warning and The Spider. I'm sure you can think of a few to add to the list.
RB: Yeah, pretty much the only unique thing about this movie is how many plots from other, better films were crammed into this one-hour time frame.
SG: Martin Kosleck was expert at playing villains; he went on to play Goebbels multiple times. When his character was introduced, I thought it was William Collier Jr. at first, but Collier's acting career was over by this time. The Film Bulletin's reviewer said, "Lon Chaney gives a generally competent performance, but Martin Kosleck is outstanding as a sadistic minded waxworks employee."
RB: Kosleck is probably the best thing about this movie. He's genuinely creepy. Evelyn Ankers also provides a capable performance. She had bigger worries, though, as she was pregnant during the filming of the movie and was desperately trying to keep the top brass at Universal from finding out, fearing that they'd fire her. When they eventually did find out (the baby kicked while she was doing a number in Bowery to Broadway, she gasped and they saw it in the dailies), they did indeed fire her. Ankers was well-liked before this though, and Vera West even helped her hide her increasing bump. The only person who wasn't in on the ruse was Tala Birell, who according to Ankers, couldn't figure out why they had hired such a fat woman to play the head of the film.
SG: It is sad how many actresses had to hide their pregnancies, either from the studio or from the audience, and continue grueling schedules as if they weren't tired or sick.
The cinematography by Paul Ivano is crisp and beautiful capturing the depth of the elaborately designed sets with the sinister wax figured looming in the background.
RB: Ivano had a knack for this kind of film. He also did the tests with Bela Lugosi for the 1931 Frankenstein. He lends a professional and spooky look to the proceedings. Absolutely better than the script deserves.
SG: Exhibitors were encouraged to order a blown-up image of Chaney's eyes for their theater window with the words "Is this the look of death?"
RB: They were also encouraged to partner with ice cream companies to have cardboard cutouts of Chaney's face frozen in ice in front of the theater.
SG: Oh, I wish there was photographic evidence that someone did this. That sounds hilarious!
RB: What they could not do was suggest that this film (or any of the Inner Sanctum films) had anything to do with the radio show that shared the same name. Both Hyman Brown (producer and director of the radio series) and Universal made independent deals with Simon and Schuster, the publisher of the series of Inner Sanctum books, for their respective projects. Neither had anything to do with the other, and mentioning things that were exclusive to the radio series like, for example, the creaking door would've set Universal up for a lawsuit.
SG: Motion Picture Daily's reviewer called the movie adequate, and said, "Directed by Harold Young, the action moves slowly toward its climax, realizing only short-lived suspense."
RB: Co-star Elena Verdugo didn't think much of the film. "It was one of those things they just slapped together and I guess I worked cheap so they put me in it." Her assessment of the film fits with many of the reviews that I found. The New York Herald Tribune felt that, "It is impossible to find anything favorable to say about The Frozen Ghost." Across town, the New York Daily News stated that, "There is no ghost, there is no mystery, there is no suspense."
SG: It was on a double bill with Jungle Captive.
RB: Yep, and that's arguably a better movie.
SG: The opulence of the photography kept my interest in this predictable but satisfying watch. Three stars.
RB: I enjoyed this movie because it was just so completely batty. Is it good? No, not really. But did I have a good time watching it? Sure did. Three stars.
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