DR. RENAULT'S SECRET

J. Carrol Naish (center) and cast 

DR. RENAULT'S SECRET (1942). Director: Harry Lachman.

Dr. Larry Forbes (John Shepperd aka Shepperd Strudwick of All the King's Men) has come to a small European village to meet up with his fiancee, Madelon (Lynne Roberts) and her Uncle Robert (George Zucco), who is also a scientist. Others on Robert's large estate include the strange Noel (J. Carrol Naish of The Kissing Bandit), who is a manservant; the butler Henri (Jean Del Val); and the gardener, Rogell (Mike Mazurki). These last two have criminal pasts, but neither of them is as weird as Noel, who is hiding a dreadful secret along with the doctor. Then the brutal strangulation murders begin ... Dr. Renault's Secret was clearly inspired in part by H. G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (itself filmed as Island of Lost Souls) just as both properties inspired Captive Wild Woman and its sequels. While Renault hardly gets points for originality, it is distinguished by brisk and adroit direction, a good score (Emil Newman and David Raksin), excellent cinematography (Virgil Miller), and a terrific lead performance by Naish, who is both pitiable and menacing. The other cast members are all more than adequate, and Zucco is, as usual, perfect. Arthur Shields [South Sea Woman] plays a police inspector and Ray Corrigan is seen in flashbacks as a gorilla. 20th Century-Fox gave the pic a handsome production, and despite its inadequacies and unacknowledged debt to Wells, it is an entertaining horror flick. Harry Lachman also directed the Laurel and Hardy masterpiece Our Relations.

Verdict: One more ape-man never hurts. ***.

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL

Vanessa Brown and Lex Barker

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1950). Director: Lee Sholem.

When people start dropping from an unknown sickness, Tarzan (Lex Barker) leads an expedition headed by Dr. Campbell (Arthur Shields of Daughter of Dr. Jekyll) to find its origins. Meanwhile Jane (Vanessa Brown) and Campbell's nurse, a saucy lady named Lola (Denise Darcel) who is lustful for the ape man, wind up kidnapped with other women by the cult of the Lionians. The women are placed in a harem for their prince (Hurd Hatfield of The Picture of Dorian Gray), whose young son is also dying of the illness. Will Tarzan and party be able to rescue Jane and Lola, save the little boy, and keep everyone from being thrown to the lions? What do you think?  The Lionians camouflage themselves with foliage to sneak up on their enemies, and use blow guns with poisoned darts. As Jane, Vanessa Brown is cute and almost child-like; she has an amusing, if brief, cat fight with Lola over Tarzan. Denise Darcel is a little too plump in this and in some shots resembles a man in drag, although her performance is spirited. Tarzan and Jane rub noses like Eskimos, and the adorable Cheetah gets several good scenes, such as when he (or she?) gets drunk on hooch. Tarzan can put up with a lot of things, but he doesn't like it when Lola picks up a needle and tries to give him an injection. In a thankless role, Robert Alda [The Beast with Five Fingers] plays a colleague of Dr. Campbell's. This was Brown's only appearance as Jane.

Verdict: Kind of ho hum Tarzan adventure, even if Tarzan meets Dorian Gray -- sort of. **.

THE QUIET MAN

John Wayne in Technicolor

THE QUIET MAN (1952). Director: John Ford.

Sean Thornton (John Wayne), an ex-boxer who killed a man in the ring, returns to Inisfree, Ireland where he was born, for a fresh start. He falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara) and the two get married after outwitting her brother, Will (Victor McLaglen), who refuses to give his sister her dowry. Until her husband gets it for her, he has to spend each night by himself in a sleeping bag. It all leads up to a supposedly big, highly over-rated fight scene that isn't half as entertaining, long or well-done as the fisticuffs in the average Republic serial. (Someone mentions that Will has 20 lb on Sean, but no one seems to notice that he also has twenty years on the younger man; Wayne was 45 and McLaglen 66 at the time of filming.) Well, the photography is beautiful and there are some fine performances from the supporting cast, but while the film certainly has its admirers, for the rest of us it hasn't worn well with time. Wayne and O'Hara make acceptable leads, but neither is well-cast (despite O'Hara's fiery red hair) nor especially memorable. Wayne was already becoming the familiar bull-necked ossified performer of his later years. Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields (Fitzgerald's younger brother) and Mildred Natwick are more on the mark. But the main problem with the movie is that the characters are just types; they never really emerge as fully-dimensional people. There are some amusing moments to be fair, and the picture begins well and has some well-directed scenes (Wayne first spotting O'Hara, for instance), but it's also too "cutesy" by far, and thick with Hollywood-Irish cliches. A scene that is hilarious for the wrong reasons has the capon priest (Ward Bond), of all people, becoming furious when he learns Kate makes her husband sleep in a sleeping bag. One of Republic Pictures' rare "A" movies.

Verdict: You want to like it but ... **1/2.

DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL

DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL (1957). Director: Edgar G. Ulmer.

On her 21st birthday Janet Smith (Gloria Talbott) brings her fiance George (John Agar) to meet her guardian Dr. Lomas (Arthur Shields) on the latter's spooky estate. There Lomas tells the woman that she is not only a wealthy heiress, but that her father was the notorious Dr. Jekyll (the film takes place in the early part of the 20th century). The film, via Dr. Lomas, posits the theory that Mr. Hyde was actually a werewolf. Does the tendency for lycanthropy exist in Jekyll's daughter? Soon she's having dreams of attacking young women in the woods, waking up bloodied and dirty only to discover that the maid or somebody else got slaughtered. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll seems to have borrowed its basic premise from She-Wolf of London, but on its own terms it's creepy and atmospheric, bolstered by very good performances from Talbott and Shields, who strikes just the right note as the doctor. Even stalwart John Agar isn't bad and Martha Wentworth is memorable as the housekeeper, Mrs. Merchant. One of the murder scenes, of a sexy blond in her home, is inventively staged.

Verdict: Good, absorbing fun. ***.