Curt Siodmak Movies
The younger brother of director Robert Siodmak, Dresden-born author, screenwriter, and director Curt Siodmak broke into the film business as an extra in Fritz Lang's classic Metropolis (1926). Siodmak was a newspaper reporter at the time and was mainly interested in writing a story about Lang and his film. But screen work appealed to Siodmak's sense of adventure and in 1929, he and Billy Wilder co-wrote Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) directed by brother Robert and the young Edgar C. Ulmer. Curt Siodmak enjoyed some success with the German science fiction thriller F.P. 1 Antwortet Nicht (Platform 1 Does Not Answer), but like so many of his contemporaries, he was forced to flee Nazi Germany in favor of first Great Britain and then Hollywood, where he finally arrived in 1937. Through a friend, German expatriate director Joe May, Siodmak landed with Universal where he wrote or co-wrote screenplays for a series of genre films that included The Invisible Man Returns (1940), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942), the intelligent Son of Dracula (1942), and I Walked With a Zombie (1944). The last, written for producer Val Lewton, contains perhaps Siodmak's most haunting work and remains a classic of the horror genre. In 1942, Siodmak published the influential science fiction novel Donovan's Brain in which a scientist manages to keep alive the brain of a tyrannical industrialist with unexpected and horrifying results. Based in part on Siodmak's screenplay for Black Friday (1940) in which benign college professor Boris Karloff turns into a vicious gangster after a brain transplant, Donovan's Brain itself was filmed in 1944 as The Monster and the Lady, in 1953 under its original title, and in England in 1965 as simply The Brain. In the 1950s, Siodmak began a brief directorial career that included the dreadful but still eminently watchable voodoo "epic" The Bride of the Gorilla (1951); The Magnetic Monster (1953), which had special effects "borrowed" from the 1934 German Gold; and The Devil's Messenger (1961) starring Lon Chaney Jr. The last was made on nearly no budget at all and was mostly recycled footage from a 1950s Swedish television series No. 13 Demon Street. Siodmak returned to Europe in the 1960s, but his work there was mediocre at best. His last assignment as a director was the German Liebesspiel im Schnee (1967) released in America in 1969 as Ski Fever and mainly of interest for the appearances of Dean Martin's daughter Claudia and European television stars Vivi Bach and Dietmar Schoenherr. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Universal Studios resurrects the classic lycanthrope with this tale of an American who experiences an unsettling transformation after returning to his ancestral home in Victorian-era Great Britain and being attacked by a rampaging werewolf. His brother having recently vanished without a trace, haunted nobleman Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) returns to his family estate to investigate. What he discovers upon reuniting with his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins), however, is a destiny far darker than his blackest nightmares. As a young boy, the untimely death of his mother caused Talbot to grow up before his time. Though Talbot would attempt to bury his pain in the past by leaving the quiet Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor behind, the past returns with a vengeance when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), convinces him to return home and aid the search for his missing brother. But something monstrous has been stalking the residents of Blackmoor from the nighttime shadows, something not quite human. Not even recently arrived Scotland Yard inspector Aberline (Hugo Weaving) can dream up a rational explanation for the gruesome spell that has been cast over Blackmoor, yet rumors of an ancient curse persist to this very day. According to legend, the afflicted will experience a horrific transformation by the light of the full moon, their animal rage becoming far too powerful for their human bodies to contain. Now, the woman Talbot loves is in mortal danger, and in order to protect her he must venture into the moonlit woods and destroy the beast before it destroys her. But this isn't your typical hunt, because before the beast can be slain, a simple man will uncover a primal side of himself that he never knew existed. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker pens a film directed by Joe Johnston and featuring creature effects by special-effects makeup legend Rick Baker. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, (more)
An unemployed New York doctor with a suspended license and few prospects for the future travels to Jamaica to care for the ailing brother of a wealthy landowner, only to make a horrifying discovery regarding the ailing man in director Avi Nesher's contemporary re-imagining of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie. Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey) is an open-minded oncologist whose experiments with an unapproved drug have just cost her patient his life and found her license to practice medicine promptly revoked. Subsequently summoned to Jamaica by affluent American Paul Claybourne (Craig Sheffer), Dr. Dodgson is assigned the duty of caring for Claybourne's cancer-stricken brother, Wesley (Daniel Lapaine). Though Dr. Dodgson at first dismisses the local tales of zombies and possession as mere superstition while she cares for the increasingly despondent Wesley, her growing feelings for her patient soon bring her to the realization that Wesley is not suffering from cancer after all, but the powerful curse of a local witch doctor. Now, in order to save the man that she has come to love, Dr. Dodgson must uncover the secret behind the potentially fatal curse while facing off against a vicious voodoo queen with the power to destroy anyone and anything in her path. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jennifer Grey, Craig Sheffer, (more)
- 1998
Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went into full gear in the early '30s, launching such valuable properties as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, and (in the 1940s) The Wolf Man, and making stars of the "twin titans of terror," Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The studio maintained its horror quota well into the 1950s with its Creature From the Black Lagoon series, but the emphasis in this special is on the pre-1948 scare fests. Highlights include interviews with surviving Universal actors and technicians (Gloria Stuart is particularly amusing), and rare clips from Dracula [Spanish-language version]. Universal Horror made its American TV debut on the Turner Classic Movies cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Branagh, Forrest J. Ackerman, (more)
- 1965
- R
The beautiful slopes of the Austrian Alps provide the setting for this lively romantic comedy that centers on an American music student who earns money by working as a ski instructor at a popular resort. He is dismayed to learn that part of his job involves entertaining certain guests after hours. Fortunately, most of his nighttime clients are beautiful young girls. Still, unlike the other instructors, the American tries to avoid the romantic shenanigans until he meets a pretty new guest who is equally unimpressed by the mandatory wooing of the others. At first she and the Yankee do not hit it off, but later, after he wins an exciting ski-jumping contest, she falls in love with him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Milner, Claudia Martin, (more)
- 1964
Vengeance is a low-key American "B" western with a largely unknown cast. William Thourlby plays ex-Confederate officer, who seeks revenge for his brother's death. Only after much blood is shed does Thourlby discover that the man he seeks is not the genuine culprit. Wrestlers Tiger Joe Marsh and the Great John L show up in bit roles. Vengeance attained a bit of regional drive-in play before being consigned to the Late Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Holmes and Watson are again after Moriarty but this time Scotland Yard for some reason does not even suspect that he's the one who wants to get the necklace stolen from Cleopatra's tomb. Doesn't really hold together like most of the Holmes/Watson movies and is a rather odd interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee
- 1962
This third film version of the Curt Siodmak scare piece Donovan's Brain stars Peter Van Eyck as an overly dedicated scientist. When a powerful and ruthless financier dies in a plane crash, Van Eyck keeps the tycoon's brain alive in his laboratory. Gradually, the brain takes over the doctor's mind, forcing him into all sorts of evil chicanery. In a twist not found in the Siodmak original, the brain compels Van Eyck to seek out the financier's murderer. Anne Heywood costars as the dead man's daughter. A strong mulinational supporting cast distinguishes this Anglo-German coproduction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Satan sends his newest most seductive minion back to the earthly plane to search for new recruits in this horror compilation from an unsold Swedish television series No. 13 Demon Street that stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Devil. Each of the beautiful hellcat's victims dies in interesting ways, including the one who sent her to hell in the first place. He too becomes a worker for the big-D, who gives the couple the formula for nuclear weapons with the instructions that they are to pass it around. They do so and soon Hell is filled to the brimstone with tormented souls. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
You knew what you were in for when you saw the title, so don't grouse. Don Taylor stars as a doctor/adventurer who ventures into the South America jungle with explorer Eduardo Cianelli. Taylor and Cianelli stumble upon a race of green-skinned Amazon women, all of whom look suspiciously like unemployed startlets. The Amazons are hold white woman Gianna Segale captive as a good-luck fetish (shades of Trader Horn). Some nice Brazilian location photography by Mario Page lifts this nonsense above the usual perils-in-the-jungle syndrome. Love Slaves of the Amazons was produced, directed and written by Curt Siodmak, who in happier days penned the scripts for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942), Son of Dracula (1943) and Beast With Five Fingers (1946). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Taylor, Gianna Segale, (more)
- 1956
In this jungle adventure, two explorers travel deep within the mysterious, dangerous Amazon in search of medicinal herbs, used for head-shrinking by the natives, that could used in the treatment of cancer patients. During their arduous trek, the two slowly fall in love. Meanwhile a plantation owner tries to figure out why his workers are leaving in droves and going back to the jungles. He learns that they are being terrorized by a gigantic, hungry bird. Fortunately, things are not as they seem as the explorers soon find out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Bromfield, Beverly Garland, (more)
Anyone who's seen the 1996 science-fiction lampoon Mars Attacks may have trouble watching Earth vs. the Flying Saucers with a straight face. Hugh Marlowe plays scientist Russell Marvin, who is on-hand when an alien spacecraft lands on earth. The saucermen at first insist that they've come in peace, but Marvin suspects otherwise. Sure enough, the visitors eventually declare their intention to take over the earth within the next 60 days, adding that the military's weapons are useless against them. The two-month window gives Marvin and his cohorts plenty of time to build-up superweapon, and thus stave off the seven-saucer invasion force. Special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen does a nice job laying waste to Washington DC in the film's memorable finale. The supporting cast of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers includes those two sci-fi flick stalwarts of the 1950s, Morris Ankrum and Thomas Browne Henry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, (more)
- 1955
A gangster is killed by a big man who pays no attention to bullets, and who leaves glowing fingerprints. Police scientist Chet Walker (Richard Denning) discovers that the fingerprints are radioactive -- as well as those of a dead man. We soon learn that this walking corpse was created by Dr. Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye); he's allowing secretly-returned deported gangster Buchanan (Michael Granger) to get revenge on those who were responsible for his conviction. Steigg removes part of the brains of recently-dead men, and replaces them with a device that allows them to control the body from a distance, like a robot; they can even see through the creature's eyes via television. Another atomic zombie kills the district attorney who convicted Buchanan, which leads Chet and his homicide detective friend Dave Harris (S. John Launer) to deduce that the killings are connected to the Buchanan case. Warnings are issued to other possible targets, but they're unable to prevent another death. The last two go into hiding. The movie concludes with a headline: "Creatures with the Atomic Brains Destroyed." This entertaining but cheesy little movie is completely unpretentious. Broad, surprisingly gruesome and well-paced, it's obviously aimed straight at the juvenile market -- and it hits it, too. A sterling artifact of its time: brisk, efficient and entertaining, even if it is awfully silly. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Denning, Angela Stevens, (more)
- 1954
In this vintage sci-fi adventure, a team of scientists is studying meteors and is baffled by how and why they are often destroyed when they enter the Earth's atmosphere. In a desire to better understand this process, three astronauts with a background in research -- Richard Stanton (William Lundigan), Jerry Lockwood (Richard Carlson), and Walter Gordon (Robert Karnes) -- are sent into space in a specially designed spaceship to capture a meteor and bring it back safe and sound. Richard Carlson, who played Lockwood, also directed Riders to the Stars; noted sci-fi scribe Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Lundigan, Herbert Marshall, (more)
Felix E. Feist directed this second adaptation of the novel by Curt Siodmak (filmed previously in 1944 as The Lady and the Monster and later in 1963 as The Brain), which tells the story of a brilliant brain specialist (Lew Ayres) whose attempts to save the life of an accident victim result in the extraction of the dying patient's brain, kept alive via electrodes and a special solution. Before long, the disembodied gray-matter -- which previously belonged to sinister, wealthy industrialist Donovan -- begins to exert a supernatural influence over the doctor, until the once-kindly scientist begins taking on Donovan's aggressive, paranoid personality traits and is compelled to carry out the brain's nefarious commands. This is by far the most effective and intelligent treatment of its source material, building a creepy, suspenseful mood while avoiding lapses into pulp-novel camp. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, (more)
- 1953
Curt Siodmak's The Magnetic Monster (1953) is a truly novel science fiction film, in terms of its rather cerebral plot and low-key, quietly intense execution. As much a mystery and, in its first half, a manhunt, as it is a sci-fi-thriller, the movie pushed lots of suspense buttons for viewers in 1953 and still holds up more than a half century later. Richard Carlson (who also co-produced) plays Dr. Jeff Stewart, an agent for the Office of Scientific Investigation. Stewart and his colleague, Dr. Dan Forbes (King Donovan), begin searching for a dangerously radioactive element, which they have good reason to believe is somewhere in the Los Angeles area. They soon learn that this is no ordinary investigation -- among its other attributes, the unknown element generates enough radiation to kill, and also manifests a powerful magnetic field. The trail leads them to Dr. Howard Denker (Leonard Mudie), a rogue scientist who, working on his own, has created a new isotope of an element called serranium, which proves to be not only highly radioactive, but dangerously unstable in ways that science has never seen before. Every 11 hours, the serranium mass enters a growth cycle requiring massive amounts of energy, which it obtains by absorbing the energy from the atomic structure of any matter around it, releasing huge amounts of radiation in the process. The serranium mass doubles in size with each cycle, doubling its energy needs in the process, as well as the potential destructiveness of the next cycle. The danger lies not only in the potential for destruction in the serranium's rapidly increasing energy absorbtion, but its ever-increasing mass, which, at some point, will threaten to unbalance the Earth itself, in its rotation and orbit. Long before that, however, the resulting radiation is going to start killing large numbers of people, and the destructive force accompanying it will threaten to split the Earth's surface apart. Stewart and Forbes soon recognize that the only hope they have of stopping the process is to get ahead of it, by bombarding the serranium with enough energy to force it to divide into two relatively stable elements. The only possible source of sufficient energy is the world's largest cyclotron, which has been built by the Canadian government in Nove Scotia -- but is even it powerful enough to do the job, and can they get the deadly isotope there in time? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Carlson, King Donovan, (more)
This silly, stagebound but entertaining little monster-mash from Universal horror writer/director Curt Siodmak stars burly Raymond Burr as a steward on a rubber plantation whose romantic tryst with the boss' wife (Barbara Payton) eventually leads to the employer's murder. When one of the voodoo-practicing servants of the ex-boss learns of this, he concocts a magic potion which transforms Burr (apparently) into a "sukaras" -- a kind of were-ape which roams the village by night, savaging the locals and sparking a plodding investigation by the local constable (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Enjoyable if only for its relentless goofiness, with an ending that will have most viewers wondering if Siodmak forgot to include a reel or two in his final edit. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Payton, Lon Chaney, Jr., (more)
- 1950
Cornell Wilde serves as "box office insurance" in this Swiss-filmed romantic comedy. Wilde plays American sailor Stanley Robin, who while vacationing in Switzerland falls in love with Suzanne (Josette Day), the daughter of a local watchmaker. Their romance is threatened by the arrival of French femme fatale Yvonne (Simone Signoret). Those not interested in the amorous entanglements will be amused by Cornel Wilde's antic attempts at learning to ski. Wilde's navy buddies include such TV stars-to-be as Alan Hale Jr. (of Gilligan's Island) and George Petrie (of Dallas). Among the screenwriters for Swiss Tour was Curt Siodmak, who adapts to comedy as well as he did to Gothic horror in the 1940s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Josette Day, (more)
- 1949
Lex Barker first stepped into the loincloth of the Lord of the Jungle in Tarzan's Magic Fountain. The story gets under way when Tarzan rescues a long-lost aviatrix named Gloria (Evelyn Ankers), who has been kept youthful by the magic fountain of the title. Bad guys Trask (Albert Dekker) and Dodd (Charles Drake) try to exploit the recuperative waters for mercenary purposes. They accompany the rapidly aging Gloria on an expedition back to the secluded valley where the magic waters flow. When the villains make their evil intentions known, Tarzan swings into action. Brenda Joyce plays Jane, just as she had in the last of the Johnny Weissmuller "Tarzan" entries. Tarzan's Magic Fountain was co-scripted by horror-film vet Curt Siodmak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lex Barker, Brenda Joyce, (more)
- 1948
On a trip from France to Allied-occupied Berlin, a group of travelers -- a mysterious and very secretive European woman (Merle Oberon), an American agricultural expert (Robert Ryan), a British educator (Robert Coote), a Soviet Army officer (Roman Toporow), and a French official (Charles Korvin) -- all cross paths in the cramped quarters of a military train. They discover that the notion of the "Allied forces" is breaking down amid their victory in the war; they neither like nor trust each other, nor each other's countries, except where the Germans are concerned, where they share a distrust. And then they cross paths with a German VIP who makes them wonder if they've got all of the Germans pegged right. A bomb goes off, killing their newfound acquaintance, and the suspicions start anew. The mystery surrounding the victim only deepens when they discover that he wasn't who he claimed to be -- and that the army isn't saying who he was. Ryan, Oberon, et al. soon find themselves up to their necks in unrepentant Nazis and militant German nationalists who have banded together against the occupiers to destroy any chance of success for a peace plan being put forward by a visionary German (Paul Lukas). They find Frankfurt a hotbed of sabotage and armed underground resistance, with the occupying armies seemingly caught flat-footed by the plotting in their midst, which includes murder and blackmail. Berlin Express is a spellbinding mix of action, suspense, and topical political intrigue, laced with idealism and a surprising degree of sophistication, a level a wit almost worthy of Graham Greene, and an eye for suspense worthy of Hitchcock. Indeed, the film could almost be considered director Jacques Tourneur's postwar equivalent to Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). It also represents a fascinating cultural snapshot, depicting the very last moments of hope for peaceful relations with the Soviets that could be seen in American movies for decades. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1946
This movie is an early horror film classic and certainly one that a well-rounded horror movie aficionado should not miss. An invalid concert pianist dies, leaving a will that does not include his personal secretary Hilary Cummins (Peter Lorre) as a beneficiary. Furious, the left-out yes-man cuts off a hand from the corpse and plots revenge. Unfortunately for Hilary, the hand inherits a life of its own and relentlessly stalks the wild-eyed Lorre as he flees in vain. Special effects keep the audience jumping as they dread the next appearance of this gruesome walking hand. The film is directed by Robert Florey, who also directed Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Alda, Andrea King, (more)
- 1946
Louis Hayward, star of 1940's Son of Monte Cristo, returns to Alexandre Dumas territory in Columbia's Return of Monte Cristo. This time, Hayward plays the grandson of his namesake Edmond Dantes, who, it will be recalled, was cheated out of his fortune and falsely imprisoned, only to escape and wreak vengeance on his betrayers by assuming the guise of the Count of Monte Cristo. Just like grandpa, the younger Dantes is framed by a trio of connivers and shipped off to Devil's Island. Escaping with a fellow convict, political radical Bombelles (Steven Geray), Dantes adopts the bearded guise of an elderly man in order to destroy his enemies and reclaim his birthright. One of his principal antagonists -- at least during the first half of the film -- is haughty aristocrat Angele Picard (Barbara Britton), who because she wasn't a part of the original conspiracy genuinely believes that Dantes is a criminal (This is the sort of pre-Political Correctness film in which the hero robs and ties up the heroine, but she falls in love with him anyway). After orchestrating the ruin of two of his tormentors, Dantes settles accounts with main villain Henri de la Roche (George Macready) in a darkened theater, a climax that invokes memories of Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Barbara Britton, (more)
- 1945
In this costume drama, a woman travels from New England to California's Barbary coast to avenge her brother's death. There she becomes a saloon singer in a sleazy bar, the bar frequented by the killer. The bar's owner, and the local crime lord begin fighting over control of coastal operations. The woman falls for the bar owner until she learns that he may have been involved in her brother's demise. Happiness ensues when it is discovered that the brother is not dead at all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susanna Foster, Turhan Bey, (more)
- 1945
In this crime drama, a former card shark finally gets paroled and decides to take his singing niece to Chicago to make a new start. Unfortunately, the musical niece ends up working at a gangster's nightclub and the gambler, unable to resist the lure of easy money, returns to card playing. Later an investigating attorney falls in love with the singer whose boss he has been assigned to ultimately prosecute. Songs include: "In Love with Love," "Mam'selle Is on Her Way" (George Waggner, Milton Rosen), "Tango" (Edgar Fairchild), and "Cuddle Up a Little Closer" (Karl Hoschna, Otto Harbach). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Coburn, Robert Paige, (more)
- 1944
The Climax was hurriedly and economically filmed on leftover sets from Universal's super-production The Phantom of the Opera. In his Technicolor debut, Boris Karloff plays Dr. Hohner, a brilliant but unstable theatrical physician who murders a beautiful opera star when she rejects him. Ten year later, a beautiful young opera singer named Angela (Susannah Foster) makes her debut at the Royal Opera House. Convinced that Angela is the reincarnation of his murdered sweetheart, Dr. Hohner fiendishly hypnotizes the girl so that she will be unable to sing. The spell is broken by the combined efforts of Angela's boyfriend Franz (Turhan Bey) and an opera-loving "boy king" (Scotty Beckett). As for Hohner, well, what usually happens to Boris Karloff in films of this nature? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Susanna Foster, (more)
