I MET A MURDERER

James Mason

I MET A MURDERER (1939). Director: Roy Kellino.

Mark Warrow (James Mason) works hard on his small farm where he lives with his wife, Martha (Sylvia Coleridge). Martha is old before her time, embittered, disappointed with her lot in life and with Mark for not giving her an easier kind of existence. Mark seems to understand his wife's disillusionment to a certain degree, but he loses it when she shoots the family dog. Mark goes on the run, where he encounters another woman, Jo (Pamela Kellino, later Mason) on the road. Mark keeps his dark secret, but is completely unaware that Jo has a surprising secret of her own ... Mason and Pamela were talented actors, and Kellino is not a bad director, but if only they had decided to leave the writing chores to others. I Met a Murderer rambles along as if it were scripted on the run, and none of the characters are developed enough to make you really care about anyone. Mason is not perfect casting for a farmer (!), but he's quite good, as usual, making the most of his brooding intensity. Coleridge and Kellino are both on the mark. William Devlin is effective in what really amounts to a silent role as Martha's brother, Jay. There are interesting things in the movie, but they never quite jell into a good picture, and although the film only lasts a little over an hour, it seems twice as long. Kellino also photographed Murderer, and makes good use of its bucolic settings. Composer Eric Ansell over-scores the picture as if it were a silent movie -- the music is often nice but there's just too much of it.

Verdict: Minor entry in the Mason canon. **.

CHARADE (1954)

Pamela Mason and James Mason 

CHARADE (1954). Director: Roy Kellino. Produced by James Mason.

Actor James Mason had founded a film company with the director Roy Kellino and his wife, Pamela, in the thirties, and did so again with the same principals in the fifties. In the interim Roy and Pamela got divorced and Pamela then married James Mason, with whom she'd had an affair, and Mason produced this trio of stories co-starring his wife -- with the cuckolded ex-husband doing the directorial duties. Okay. The first story concerns a lonely lady artist whose neighbor, another woman, is strangled one night. The artist does a sketch of the man she sees coming out of the murdered woman's apartment. She sees the man (Mason) again when he moves into the now empty apartment, and the artist and the stranger become friends. The artist becomes mesmerized by the stranger and is not at all horrified by the fact that he's also a strangler. This can't lead into anything good and of course it doesn't. The premise is interesting but the people are too unpleasant to fully engage us, and as a story of erotic obsession it's too tepid. The second story, "Duel at Dawn," (from Dumas) concerns a Major Linden (Mason) who is engaged to the Baroness Tanslan (Pamela Mason of The Navy vs the Night Monsters). Captain Stamm (Scott Forbes, who appeared on Zane Grey Theater with Joan Crawford), whose proposal of marriage to the baroness had been rejected, so insults the major that the latter challenges him to a duel -- although the terms set by the captain are outrageous. This is the best of the three stories and is suspenseful and intriguing in equal measure. The last story, apparently scripted by the starring couple, is a dull mess about a wealthy man in New York who quits it all to become a butler back in England, where he meets the maid Lily, marries her, and winds up back in his office in New York. Meant to be funny, this segment is merely tedious. The Masons would have been better off if they had done a full-length version of "Duel at Dawn," which is terrific. James and Pamela are both excellent actors, and Mason is especially good as the major. Forbes, Paul Canavagh as Colonel Heisler. Bruce Lester as Captain van Buren, Sean McClory [Valley of the Dragons] as Jack Stuydevant, the wealthy man's friend in episode three, all give excellent support, as does the uncredited actor who plays Mason's employer in the final story. Pamela and James appear as themselves at the opening and ending and in introductions to each segment. They divorced ten years later.

Verdict: This vanity production is one third all right. **3/4.

THE UPTURNED GLASS

James Mason

THE UPTURNED GLASS (1947). Director: Lawrence Huntington.

Michael Joyce (James Mason) lectures to his class on the case of a murderer who was, he claims, perfectly sane and rational despite his homicidal actions, but it's no surprise that he's talking about himself -- only the murder has yet to occur. Joyce is in a loveless marriage when he meets Emma Wright (Rosamund John), whose daughter, Ann (Ann Stephens), requires an operation. Emma is married as well, but the two are drawn to one another. When a death occurs, Michael blames Kate Howard (Pamela Mason), Emma's hateful sister-in-law. Will Michael enact his scheme to do away with her? Few people have heard of The Upturned Glass despite Mason's starring role, and the reason is because it isn't very good. What might have worked for a half hour episode of, say, Suspense, doesn't work stretched out to full length, and the picture is padded with the character of a loathsome Dr. Farrell (Brefni O'Rorke) who is the very antithesis of the Hippocratic oath. At least the acting is good, with Mason [Caught] as excellent as ever, and the ladies and O'Rorke giving quite good performances. Billed as "Pamela Kellino," Pamela Mason was married to James Mason at the time. She later wound up in The Navy vs. the Night Monsters. One critic suggested that the forgettable Upturned Glass must have influenced Hitchcock's Vertigo because a woman with a fear of heights falls out of a window -- it's unlikely Hitch ever saw the film! Mason also co-produced the picture. Huntington also directed The Vulture, his final feature.

Verdict: Minor British suspense film distinguished by Mason's fine lead performance. **.

THE NAVY VS THE NIGHT MONSTERS

Anthony Eisley and Mamie Van Doren

THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS (1966). Director: Michael A. Hoey.

A plane carrying scientists and specimens from Antarctica crash lands on an island in the south seas where a Naval base is located. There is nothing inside the plane but the pilot, who is in shock. Lt. Brown (Anthony Eisley) is in conflict with civilian meteorologist Spaulding (the perpetually scowling Edward Faulkner) as the two are both interested in nurse Nora (Mamie Van Doren), while Ensign Chandler (Bobby Van) has a thing for another nurse, Diane (Kaye Elhardt), as CPO Twining (Billy Gray) kibitzes. People begin to disappear and a horribly decomposed corpse is discovered. A scientist named Marie (Pamela Mason) and the base doctor (Phillip Terry), among others, try to figure out what's going on. Apparently some acidic mobile vegetative creature is roaming the island, feeding upon anyone who is luckless enough to get in its path ... Talk about a strange cast: Here is a movie in which we combine a well-known hoofer; the teenage son from Father Knows Best;  James Mason's ex wife, Pamela; Joan Crawford's ex-husband, Terry; the doctor (Russ Bender) from War of the Colossal Beast; Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot as a commander); and the pouty breasts of Mamie Van Doren. Clearly inspired by Day of the Triffids (the poster for Night Monsters looks almost exactly like the one for Triffids) made four years earlier, while also channeling such films as From Hell It Came ( a cursed killer tree) and Voodoo Island (man-eating plants), Night Monsters is watchable and resembles a fifties creature feature. The monstrous trees in this picture remind one of the creature in Womaneater -- who knows? -- it may have been the same prop. The monsters emit eerie noises and the film is undeniably creepy at times. Pamela Mason gets eaten and Billy Gray has his arm torn off in the film's grisliest scene. The movie starts off like a dumb service comedy but quickly picks up. Gerald Zahler's musical score is effective and the acting is mostly competent.

Verdict: Remember to eat your vegetables! **1/2.