The Human Monster [1939] Bela Lugosi

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The Human Monster (1939)
The Dark Eyes of London (original title)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031208/

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Scotland Yard inspector Larry Holt is asked to investigate the case of five bodies that have been found in The Thames during the last eight months, all apparently drowned. The investigation takes Holt to the Greenwich Insurance Co with whom many of the dead held policies. This is run by Feodor Orloff, a former doctor who was driven out of his profession and deemed insane by his colleagues. Clues lead Holt to DearbornΓΓé¼Γäós Home for the Destitute Blind where each of the policy holders have made charitable donations at OrloffΓΓé¼Γäós request. There Holt comes to believe that each policy holder is being murdered for their money.

Bela Lugosi ... Dr. Feodor Orloff / Prof. John Dearborn
Hugh Williams ... Det. Insp. Larry Holt
Greta Gynt ... Diana Stuart
Edmon Ryan ... Lieutenant Patrick O'Reilly
Wilfred Walter ... Jake
Alexander Field ... Fred Grogan

THE HUMAN MONSTER has no monster, nor much of what one associates with the horror genre. LugosiΓΓé¼Γäós doctor is given a few lines implying that he is a ΓΓé¼┼ômad doctorΓΓé¼┬¥ (not merely a criminal one), and in one excruciatingly cruel scene, he uses some electrical gizmo to destroy the hearing of a blind-mute violinist ΓΓé¼ΓÇ¥ in order to prevent him from overhearing anything he could write about to the police. The blind residents at DearbornΓΓé¼Γäós home shuffle about like zombies, staring into space. The most prominent of these, OrloffΓΓé¼Γäós hulking homicidal assistant named Jake, wears a bulked up Frankenstein-type costume and has pointed bat-like ears (along with blind eyes) to make him look monstrous as he carries out OrloffΓΓé¼Γäós fiendish schemes (which, it eventually turns out, include drowning people in a vat and then dumping them into the Thames, located conveniently close to DearbornΓΓé¼Γäós building).

Still, the foggy atmosphere and moody photography lend a darkly horrific air to the proceedings, and JakeΓΓé¼Γäós stalking of his victims (particularly the leading lady) still conveys an authentic chill. The plot is a bit creaky, but there is a certain charm to the film: it hits the obvious notes but hits them well. For example, the brash American cop is not as bright as his English counterpart, but he is good to have around when it comes time to break down doors and start shooting.

Typically, Lugosi does a fine job as a two-faced villain, seemingly innocent to the world at large while indulging in some first-class mugging when showing his sinister side. Sometimes, he goes over the top (e.g., he overreacts way too much when learning that his next intended victim has a next of kin who presumably could lay claim to the insurance policy), but overall he does an excellent job.

Though far from a masterpiece, THE HUMAN MONSTER is worthwhile viewing for anyone interested in old-time mystery-thrillers. For Lugosi fans, it is a chance to see the talented actor given a starring role that stretches his talent, in a film that (while far from lavish) boasts a stronger script and better production values than most of the films he would appear in for the rest of his (mostly disappointing) career.

This was the first film to receive the British CensorΓΓé¼Γäós relatively new ΓΓé¼┼ôH for HorrificΓΓé¼┬¥ certificate, which limited the filmΓΓé¼Γäós audience to adults.

This Bela Lugosi vehicle is almost perceived as a horror vehicle. But it isnΓΓé¼Γäót. The film is adapted from The Dark Eyes of London (1924), a novel by Edgar Wallace, a popular and extremely prolific writer of crime thrillers during the 1910s-30s, and rests solidly in the detective thriller genre no matter how hard it tries to sell itself as a horror film. However, the very act of casting Bela Lugosi as the swindling blind man (a vicar in WallaceΓΓé¼Γäós novel) seems to have by association turned The Dark Eyes of London into a horror film. It certainly tries to be a horror film ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ Bela Lugosi gets a hulking assistant who predictably goes out of control and take his creator down at the climax. And director Walter Summers tries to build the few killings into horrific set pieces. There are also bizarre attempts are made to make the blind institute look like a mad scientistΓΓé¼Γäós laboratory with steep 75-degree angle stairs, high walls and shots showing the blind at work on bizarre cane weavings on strangely mounted boards.

As a policier, The Dark Eyes of London is passable. There are a couple of okay twists ΓΓé¼ΓÇ£ the best surprise in the film is the scene where Bela Lugosi as Dearborn (whose thick accent has been dubbed over) inadvertently reveals himself as being able to see. The routine plot is enhanced by the likeable pairing of the handsome and decisive Hugh Williams and Edmond Ryan playing a loudmouth, jocular American. The sets are interesting, the dockland scenes convincing, leaving one unsure whether they are sets or real locations.

The Edgar Wallace story was later remade in West Germany, among a host of German Wallace adaptations during the 1960s, as The Dark Eyes of London/Dead Eyes of London (1961). Other Edgar Wallace adaptations that fall into genre material include The Terror (1928), Before Dawn (1933), Mystery Liner (1934), The Terror (1938), Chamber of Horrors (1940), The Avenger (1960), The Gang of Terror/Hand of the Gallows (1960), The Door with the Seven Locks (1962), The Inn on the River Thames (1962), The Black Abbott (1963), The Curse of the Yellow Snake (1963), The Indian Scarf (1963), The Squeaker (1963), Room 13 (1964), The Sinister Monk (1965), The Phantom of Soho (1966), The College-Girl Murders (1967), Creature with the Blue Hand (1967), The Gorilla of Soho (1968), The Hand of Power (1968), The Horror of Blackwood Castle (1968), The Devil Came from Akasava (1971), Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972) and What Have They Done to Solange? (1972). Wallace also worked as a screenwriter, turning out an adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1932), with his most famous being the original story for King Kong (1933).