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[TRAILER] Gen. Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) takes leave from the 1912 Balkan War to visit a small island in Greece, where his wife is buried. While there, a plague breaks out -- and along with an American reporter (Marc Cramer) and several other travelers, Pherides is forced to stay when quarantine is declared. Soon, locals and foreigners alike succumb to the influence of Madame Kyra (Helene Thimig), who accuses a nurse (Ellen Drew) of being a vorvolaka, a malevolent vampiric demon. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Dec 17, 2024 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] In this ostensible sequel to "Cat People," Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) is married to the lovely Alice Moore (Jane Randolph). The couple has a daughter, Amy (Ann Carter), a withdrawn young girl with a vivid imagination who soon begins talking to visions of her father's deceased former wife, the cursed Irena (Simone Simon). When Amy unintentionally incurs the wrath of a mentally unstable woman (Elizabeth Russell), the girl's relationship with Irena's apparition comes into play. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Dec 11, 2024 - 9 comments

Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) boards the freighter Altair in San Pedro, where he meets Capt. Will Stone (Richard Dix). During that first voyage, Tom begins to suspect that Stone is becoming unhinged, but he also learns that the crew is fiercely protective of him. When fellow sailor Louie (Lawrence Tierney) is killed in a freak accident, Merriam suspects Stone, but has no proof. As the killings continue, Tom decides to leave the ship, but the captain has other plans. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 25, 2024 - 4 comments

London, 1761. After getting a glimpse of the conditions at the St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum, known as "Bedlam," Nell Bowen (Anna Lee) is concerned that the patients are being mistreated. When she seeks to better the situation, the head of St. Mary's, George Sims (Boris Karloff), uses his political savvy to have Nell committed. Being within St. Mary's does not deter Nell, however, and she starts to turn the patients against Sims in a bid to violently oust him from power. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 25, 2024 - 1 comment

In occupied France during the Franco-Prussian War, a young French laundress (Simone Simon) shares a coach ride with several of her condescending social superiors. But when a Prussian officer (derisively nicknamed "Mademoiselle Fifi") holds the coach over, social standings are leveled and integrity and spirit are put to the test. A Val Lewton production, based on two short stories by Guy de Maupassant, "Mademoiselle Fifi" and "Boule de Suif." [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 23, 2024 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war. One of just two films produced by Val Lewton for RKO that was not horror. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 22, 2024 - 3 comments

Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a Serbian-born NYC fashion designer, begins a romance with marine engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith). Oliver becomes concerned about Irena's notion that she is cursed and may transform into a large cat in the heat of passion. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 20, 2024 - 9 comments

[TRAILER] Dr. Toddy MacFarlane (Henry Daniell) needs cadavers for his medical experiments, ultimately intended to treat a young disabled girl. However, they are not easy to come by, so he enlists the help of taxi driver John Gray (Boris Karloff) and his assistant, Joseph (Bela Lugosi), to unearth bodies from the cemetery. When Donald (Russell Wade), Dr. MacFarlane's assistant, recognizes one of the corpses Gray delivers, the true source of the bodies is called into question. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 9, 2024 - 4 comments

A young woman (Kim Hunter) in search of her missing sister (Jean Brooks) uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village and finds that they could have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 8, 2024 - 4 comments

Young and lovely Canadian nurse Betsy takes a job tending to the wife of the owner of a sugar plantation on an unnamed Caribbean island. She soon finds that what is wrong with her charge is outside her medical expertise. Directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. [more inside]
posted by Sheydem-tants on Oct 31, 2014 - 5 comments