We have covered fright films that managed to provide the scares despite a low budget and have even covered horror flicks that are considered examples of actual cinematic art.  But what about low-budget scary moves that are also considered artistic by fans and highbrows alike?  Well, they're scarce on the (burial) ground, but they do exist.  Case in point is the following film starring our old fiend, John Carradine, a charming tale of romance and strangulation in old Paris, the perfect setting for...

By RAYMOND L. BLAKEY

Hello good HORROR-WOOD readers. I have returned with yet another look at films that didn’t cost much of anything to make, but look and feel like they did. I am of course talking about Creepy Cheapies. To get a better idea of what a Creepy Cheapie is, do make sure to read my last article on the subject.

Today I want to talk about the man I believe is the patron Saint of the Creepy Cheapie, John Carradine. Yes, there are a number of extremely notable actors that have made Creepy Cheapies. Roddy McDowell comes to mind as does Vincent Price, and those are just off the top of my head. Carradine, like the two gentlemen I just mentioned, was often cast in these sorts of films because of his amazing presence as an actor. So why does he get the title and they don’t?

Volume.

Throughout his long and illustrious career John Carradine did an unprecedented number of stage productions and films. The man never seemed to turn down any role he was ever offered. His films ranged from the absolute crap-fests like Billy The Kid Versus Dracula and Vampire Hookers to famous and beloved Hollywood classics like The Grapes Of Wrath and Bride Of Frankenstein. He also did a great many films that range somewhere between the completely worthless and the classics. The Creepy Cheapie I want to talk about today is one of those "in the middle" kind of films that John Carradine made great by simply being in it.

Bluebeard (1944) was a film that had no chance of ever having a major budget behind it. By this time, the film’s director, Edgar G. Ulmer had been blacklisted from most major studios and was forced to make films for Poverty Row. So he entered in to this production with only some leftover sets from other films, probably dating back to the silent era, and a friend’s puppet show that he borrowed for use in the picture. Obviously with this much working against it, Ulmer needed something or someone to make his film work. He got John Carradine and it’s certainly lucky for him that he did.

I have no doubt that if it wasn’t for Carradine’s rich performance and amazing abilities as an actor that this film would have been utterly forgotten and never seen again. He is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that one element of this movie that holds the entire project together. He infuses the lead character, who is also the lead villain, with such pathos and rich personality that you actually feel the sense of a very troubled soul on the screen. You have an understanding for a man who does horrible things, even if what he does repulses you.

Bluebeard is the story of Gaston Morrell (Carradine), who is a puppeteer in Paris and whom we learn dabbles in painting. At the beginning of the film we are witness to the police discovering one of many recently murdered women in the Paris sewer system. This is just another of a slew of recent victims, all young and attractive females, that have been strangled to death by the killer the police and newspapers have nicknamed Bluebeard. It should be noted that the origin of the nickname is never given in the movie. Morbidity leads me to guess he was named based on the black and blue bruises he leaves across his victims’ necks, thus loosely resembling a "blue beard."

This film is unique to most "killer" type films you might see, because there is little if no mystery as to the identity of the killer at any time in the movie. You pretty much know it’s Carradine from the start of the film and if you can’t easily guess that, it is certainly given away very quickly, since he kills his first victim 5 or 10 minutes into the movie. Mystery is not what this movie is ever trying to convey. No, this film was about tension.

An almost Hithcockian suspense fills the entire movie. This blatant murderer walks quietly amongst the main characters, most of them young, attractive, females and you are left wondering whom he will ensnare at any moment, because his psychosis demands it.

Now, it is established early on in the film that he must paint the women he kills, this being his major psychotic impulse. Essentially, when he paints portraits of his victims he feels he is like a god recreating them and thus allowed to destroy them as he pleases.

Carradine is most brilliant in the murder scenes as he goes form zero to psycho in seconds and seemingly at the drop of a hat. There is a look in his eyes, a sense of posture, and a complete character change that corresponds with his murders that is truly frightening to behold. This makes the murders seem truly brutal, even though you never actually see them occur on screen. There is also sadness and a sense that he understands very clearly that what he is doing is wrong, but he needs to do it anyway.

In fact the reason the character has turned from painting to the role of puppeteer is that fact that he cannot stand the guilt of what he is doing. The weight of the murders is weighing on his soul and he is looking to give them up to free himself from his sins. The puppets allow for a different kind of creativity. In fact the play he is performing in the puppet show that we see parts of throughout the film is the opera Faust.

It is at this point that I really should mention the puppets as they do play a huge role in the film. For just having borrowed the puppet show form a friend Ulmer really had something cool here. The puppets are so realistic looking and lifelike and the people operating them are so good that its easy to loose yourself in the long segments of the film that consists of the puppets performing songs from Faust.

Clearly what started as a way to fill big chunks of film time on Ulmer’s part became integral to the surreal feeling that surrounds the entire production. The life-like puppets perform at Morrell’s command in a way that humans never do. He desperately desires the humans he puts under his "power" to behave as he commands and when they don’t he finds his rage overwhelms him to the point where he must strangle and wretch the life from them.

Love finally seems to begin conquering Morrell’s lustful killing desires, but even it is to no ultimate avail. He meets and falls in love with a woman named Lucille (Jean Parker), who plays quite nicely off of Carradine and makes for a very believable love interest to this very complex character. He only tells her that he is a painter and she greatly desires that he paint her. But, he refuses because he is in love with her and wants no part of murdering her.

All seems to be going well and Morrell appears on the very verge of giving up his former life forever, until we meet his landlord. The man that allows him a place to stay is also the man that sells Morrell’s paintings, which are very popular in places outside of Paris. The paintings cannot be sold around Paris, because the likenesses in the paintings would point to the artist as the murderer. Because, the landlord allows Morrell to live in the apartment rent-free he demands that Morrell paint so he might make back the rent money. In fact he has been cheating Morrell from the beginning by selling the paintings for 3 or 4 times what he claims they sell for and giving Morrell very little in the way of profits for his work.

As it turns out Lucille’s roommate is a special, female, police officer that has been on assignment. Her name is Francine (Teala Loring), and she is brought back to Paris to work specifically on the Bluebeard case. The only time she meets Morrell following her return to town is when he comes to visit Lucille and she is in the bath behind a screen. He only sees the top of her head, but she sees him completely, which of course works against him later.

When one of the paintings is discovered just outside of Paris the police put two and two together and arrange a crazy scheme to capture Bluebeard. Francine and another Police officer are to act as father and daughter millionaires who wish to have the man who did the other painting capture the daughter’s likeness. After a great deal of haggling and set up, Morrell agrees to make the girl his final painting provided the landlord agrees to leave him in peace once and for all. For safety reasons, though he will only do the job if it is at the landlord’s office and not his own studio.

The attempt is made to trap him and goes all wrong when Francine recognizes Morrell and breaks into tears, heartbroken over the fact that her best friend’s new boyfriend is a mass murderer, which I suppose makes sense. Morrell kills Francine, then kills the landlord whom he is convinced has betrayed him and makes a daring escape from the police. Never once is he seen by anyone other than the now deceased Francine.

At the funeral a young, dashing, police friend of Francine’s consoles Lucille. He also explains that she was killed like all the others via a garrote made from a man’s 19^th style necktie. As it turns out, the policeman has found it at the scene of the crime and it turns out to be a necktie that Lucille had mended for Morrell, not realizing he had initially ripped it while strangling someone.

Her love for Morrell keeps her from confessing the truth to the police, or we are lead to believe so anyway. She confronts Morrell, who does explain why he kills these women in an origin story that is best left seen in the movie. Because it is a very visual flashback and frankly, I don’t believe I have the words to convey its power properly.

Needless to say it still does not excuse his obvious insanity, which he then turns on Lucille. However, before he can kill his most cherished victim the police arrive and chase him to his death. The second he dies the film ends.

It is the weakest point of the entire movie. It is so abrupt that you are almost left thinking they cut off the rest of the ending. Its almost as if Ulmer simply ran out of money and that was all he could shoot. So a great film leaves you feeling just a pinch unsatisfied by a lack of finality.

As can clearly be noted from my review, Carradine carries this entire film on his back like a pack mule. But, that was very often the case with his Creepy Cheapie work. How do you make a film that cost only a few thousand dollars feel like a million or more dollar production? You get a million dollar actor to be in it.

This is what Carradine was all about. He made small movies great by being great in them. So, even if it seems that Carradine would be in your home movies if you paid him a couple of dollars, consider what he brought to anything he was in, the sheer power and abilities of a great actor and a remarkable stage presence. That, my friends, is why I have chosen John Carradine as The Patron Saint of the Creepy Cheapies.

Thanks, Ray.  We also applaud Carradine's superb performance in Bluebeard and have more than a smidge of admiration for Edgar C. Ulmer for accomplishing such a good-looking production on such a paltry budget.  But, considering how many God-awful flicks Carradine graced--flicks that truly strangle the viewer's psyche like Bluebeard strangled his victim's throats--we may add that John Carradine was also the Patron Sinner of the Creepy Cheapies.   No matter.  His place in low-budget shock cinema is assured for all time.

Article copyright © Raymond L. Blakey

Return To Archives