Classic Horror & Turner Classic Movies; 30s flicks then Karloff, Psycho, Zaat & more October 29 & 30 2009 Review

Turner Classic Movies Tonight  October 29, 2009;  7 films in the TCM prime time spotlight called:  Life During the Depression.  Then movies for Halloween with some good Karloff movies, psychological suspense thrillers, Psycho and a couple of baaaaad movies late night. BOO!

I haven't seen most of the films screening tonight but they are showing the dated Frank Capra gem, American Madness from 1932 which stars Walter Huston, and Pat Obrien in which a banker fighting to keep his independence fights to protect his customers.  A great fantasy film..hero banker!!!!  Populism and Capra Corn which premiered during the depression and seemed almost like propaganda for the then young Bank of America (who built their reputation on a willingness to loan money to small businesses).   Pure schmaltz...but fun.  It airs at 6:30 p.m. 

 Other films shown tonight include (5 p.m. on the West coast) Faithless from 1932 that was supposed to make a star out of Tallulah Bankhead (she had a reputation for being promiscuous and too glib at press interviews so she didn't get an MGM contract-she really didn't want one, though);  1932's Prosperity airing at 8 p.m. pst is a somewhat comic tale about dueling mothers in law and was the last pairing of Marie Dressler and Polly Moran. Story concerns the banking crisis of the Great Depression!  This is followed at 9:30 p.m. by the 1932 drama  The Crash starring Ruth Chatterton as a wealthy socialite affected by the stock market crash.  In 1933's  Looking Forward,  it's a drama about the struggles to keep a family owned department store open during the Depression.  It stars Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone.  The at 12 midnight it's the Match King from 1932 followed by  a 1937 crime drama I Promise to Pay.   I haven't seen most of them, but it promises to be a very interesting line up of once very topical films.

Halloween comes early on TCM   Tomorrow  October 30th during the day several  old horror movie gems featuring Boris Karloff are on the schedule.  1933's The Ghoul is similar to The Mummy  but perhaps a little creepier as Boris is an Ancient Egyptian who returns to punish those who violated his tomb. 

 Also showing are several films with almost the same plot  beginning at 8 15 in the morning with one of the best of this lot;  1936's The Walking Dead  a man who was wrongly framed and put to death, comes back from the grave to get his revenge.  It's followed by 1939's The Man They Could Not Hang in which Boris plays a mad scientist who uses the artificial heart pump he invented to come back from the dead after he is executed and get some revenge.  1940's  The Man with Nine Lives  is part of the Karloff mad scientist series he did at Columbia.  He is trying to cure cancer by putting patients into a deep suspended animation.  He's accused of killing one of his patients, and before he can be killed he puts himself in suspended animation.  Waking up after a few years his noble intentions are now not so noble as he seeks revenge against those who ruined him.  At Noon  Karloff plays John Garth in 1940's Before I Hang, the first of his 5 pictures deal at Columbia Pictures.   Garth is found guilty of a mercy killing involving an elderly patient but is allowed to continue his experiments as he awaits execution.  Just before he is executed he injects himself with a serum made from the blood of a convicted psychopath.  Then the death sentence is commuted to life in prison, but Garth finds that he has uncontrollable homicidal rages.  It's got some similarities to the modern classic  ReAnimator and worth a look.   At 1:15 p.m. is the too silly The Ape from 1940 in which Karloff is a mad doctor who dresses up as an Ape to kill  folks to their spinal fluid which he needs for his experiments.   Then it is 1941's  The Devil Commands  is an interesting macabre film that despite its age is still compelling and very entertaining.  Karloff plays Julian Blair a once well respected doctor who insists on conducting strange experiments to communicate with the dead.  Then when his wife is killed he becomes more obsessed with his experiments.  It gets very strange in a unique improbable way, but stick with it.   It's a one of kind memorable film and probably Karloff's best from his Columbia picture contract.  It airs at 2:30 p.m. on the West Coast.   At 3:45 p.m. Mark Robson directs Karloff in the moody Isle of the Dead from 1945.   Karloff plays a Greek general who is quarantined during a World War 1 plague with a group of people on a small island.  The people he's stuck with believe they are haunted by an evil demon called vorvolakas.  It's a slow moving, odd subtle horror film, but stick around for the very effective set piece towards the end that is still effective and might send a few chills up your spine.

The Primetime offerings beigin with the psychological suspense thriller classic  Gaslight from 1944 with Charles Boyer , Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton about a newlywed who thinks she is going mad when odd things start happening at the family mansion.  But is someone trying to drive her crazy?  The best known version of this oft told tale wonderfully directed by George Cukor.  It airs at 5 p.m. on the West Coast.

Night Must Fall at 7 p.m. is one of the slow building suspense films that they don't make anymore.  It takes a little a patience I suppose, but the build to a very satisfying climax is worth it if you are in the mood.  A very charming young man makes himself almost invaluable to a wealthy woman but there's something not quite right about the man....it stars  Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

At 9 p.m. it's everyone's favorite Momma's boy, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Alfred Hitchcock's classic; Psycho with Janet Leigh as Marion Crane  and that great Bernard Herrman's score that makes everything including the classic shower scene work perfectly (and isn't it interesting that Norman's hobby is stuffing birds and Marion's last name is Crane?  And a couple years later Hitch makes The Birds...? I'm just saying....).

At 11 p.m. I don't think you will ever be prepared for the 1972 low budget PG rated creature feature known as ZAAT.  A mad scientist has been working 7 years to transform himself into an Aquatic creature. He'll spread his formula of ZAAT to hopefully create more mutations and he'll get revenge on the people who called him mad and he'll also try to get himself a mate that he will transform into being an odd aquatic creature like he is.   If this is beginning to sound like a really baaaad movie that might just be funny and campy enough to right.. you would be correct.  Unfortunately after the first 60 minutes the movie creeps along for about 30 minutes where very little happens and then gives us the almost expected climax.  Still... this is a very an enjoyable enough, good for groups, little seen bad bad movie to laugh at and enjoy. 

The opening sequence of this movie with a low rent Vincent Price kind of narration as a mad scientist tells us about the weird creepy fish he admires and chuckles mad scientist google ZAAT in the next few days for some clips at the TCM site.  Start with the opening scene, then possibly watch the transformation scene.  (27406 clip then 274608 clip).  Have fun.   (I couldn't link them from here or I would have...)

You will wonder what the heck is Zaat?

The Zaat creature looks quite a bit like the Swamp Thing so TCM wisely follows this feature up with Wes Craven's adaptation of the Marvel comic anti-hero  Swamp Thing.   It's a decent medium budget comic book movie-though it's pretty much by the book stuff with few surprises and nothing that will scare you even a little bit... except perhaps some of the over-acting.  Fun if you've nothing better to do.  It airs at 12:45 in the a.m. on the West Coast.