Monday, March 2, 2009

The Great Unwatched: The Undying Monster (1942)

Part of: The Fox Horror Classics Collection Vol. 1

Director: John Brahm

Runtime: 63 minutes.

A fuller review will likely appear at Classic-Horror.com in the near future, but here's my summary in brief: this is one misguided horror film. It takes the "suggestion rather than spectacle" approach to horror entirely wrong -- "suggestion" does not mean "talk about it endlessly." The first five minutes are entirely given over to banal expository dialogue. And the acting... there is some terrible, terrible acting in this movie. I'm talking, like, community theater reject acting. Everyone is just so broad and unsubtle. *shakes head* It almost hurts.

Still, the restoration is amazing and the supplements are fascinating (I love promotional art galleries). Once I've had a chance to digest The Lodger and Hangover Square (the other two films in the set), I'll come back and watch the Brahm documentary featured here.

Worth the Purchase: Well, the included booklet is very helpful and I hear the other two movies are better by a couple orders of magnitude.

Stats: 8/403 movies watched in six days.
Currently Projected Completion Date: December 23, 2009
Completion Date Goal: February 25, 2010

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