Finishing off the Karloff at Columbia set, therefore, with the satyr play after the serious business, to use a thoroughly overblown analogy… having made a string of straight SF/horrors, Karloff’s next film nearly two years later (during which time he was treading the boards in the original Arsenic and Old Lace) was a kind of parody of those films; with it being wartime by now, Karloff’s working on a race of supermen with which to fight the Nazis, and doing it from the basement of an 18th century tavern in the process of being sold and restored. Peter Lorre is the town sheriff (and everything else) investigating Karloff’s activities, but soon decides to get involved himself. But is murder afoot? Well, the ghost of a fictional character seems to be… This is thoroughly delightful stuff, possibly the most purely fun thing in this whole set, and probably a lot better than it had any right to be. The real star of the show, of course, is Lorre’s crime-detecting kitten, though obviously both Karloff and Lorre are having the time of their lives; notably, this film has probably the best nice young romantic couple of the series (the others mostly having been comparatively minor), being (Miss) Jeff Donnell and Larry Parks (speaking yet again of blacklist victims), the former as the new owner of the old inn and the latter as her ex-husband who gets suckered into assisting with her perhaps mad scheme to make the old tavern new and viable again. And former boxer Max Rosenbloom plays the sort of charming thickhead I gather he specialised in playing after boxing ended for him, as the powder puff salesman who gets involved with Karloff and Lorre for the apparent hell of it. The reminders that the US had finally deigned to join in a certain war are laid on a bit thick, and you can definitely accuse the plotting of being a bit loose, but there’s just something winning about the whole thing. Enjoyed this greatly.
Month: October 2025
The Devil Commands (1941)
This one immediately feels different to the three others we’ve seen so far; for one thing, it’s directed not by Nick Grinde but by Edward Dmytryk, for whom this was an early directorial effort before the Hollywood Ten unpleasantness and his subsequent ratting to HUAC… Also there’s a scene-setting narration that you don’t get in the others, and this one’s adapted from a novel by William Sloane, The Edge of Running Water; this is a book for which I actually have some fondness, and it has, perhaps inevitably, been somewhat bastardised for Hollywood B-movie purposes. And the other difference is that Karloff may not be entirely in charge of the mad science going on here… Dr. Blair is working on gear that will not only record people’s brainwaves, but it turns out it might just be able to communicate with the dead. He attracts the interest and cooperation of a fake spiritualist, played by Anne Revere (talking of the blacklist), who’s kind of the titular devil cos she gets even more interested in the power possibilities of this equipment and really drives Blair to work on it. The problem is, well, talking to the dead somehow requires actually dead people to drive the equipment, and that eventually draws outside attention… I don’t think this is quite as good as Everson says in his book (nor quite as visually threadbare as his pissing and moaning about Dmytryk overusing darkness and shadows might make you think), but it certainly is a good one; great basic idea, amazing pseudoscience (the scene where the housekeeper breaks into the lab and inadvertently sets the equipment off is a damned good one), Karloff is obviously fine and Revere is probably the best secondary performer in this whole series. Plus I think it’s quite bold to actually leave the end a little obscure, rather than explicitly rationalise what happens to Blair at the end; I think trying to actually show whatever he summons forth and what it perhaps does to him would’ve been unwise (and probably beyond Harry Cohn’s famous budgetary tight-fistedness), and suggesting something bleak for the viewer to imagine was a better idea.
RIP Space Ace
Ace Frehley’s comet has gone back to the stars. Really, it’s kind of surprising in some respects that he lasted this long, given his propensity for substance abuse when he was in Kiss, but all credit to him for finally getting off the shit and managing fine without those other two guys. People are sorry to see Ace go. I don’t think they’ll miss Paul or Gene the same way (especially not the latter).
Before I Hang (1940)
Continuing with the Karloff at Columbia series, Karloff’s been working on a “cure” for old age, but in the course of doing so he’s managed to kill someone (much like in the first film). This time, however, he manages to dodge the death sentence, and he perfects his age-reversing serum… but, in a Hands of Orlac-esque twist (or “blood of Orlac” at any rate?), the serum uses the blood of an executed murderer, which provides an obvious complication. This one’s my least favourite so far of Karloff’s “mad doctor” films (the doctor being not especially mad in this one); apparently the original title was The Wizard of Death which I think I like more cos it makes more sense, really. Think the main problem is that I just didn’t buy the film’s basic situation, i.e. that the doctor gets to actually continue his work in jail, first while on death row and then after he commuted to life before being pardoned (this latter part struck me as a particularly unlikely detail). Director Nick Grinde dresses it up again in some nice, effective shadows, but generally I felt it lacking a bit of overall energy. Still, obviously good to have Karloff leading things, and nice also to have Edward Van Sloan on board too.
In other news, frogs still gay
I was always furious that The Onion‘s glorious purchase of Infowars a year ago wound up getting overturned, so I’ll take this as a consolation prize:
US supreme court rejects Alex Jones appeal over $1.4bn defamation penalty
The US supreme court has refused an appeal from Alex Jones and left in place his $1.4bn defamation penalty that was awarded to the families of victims from the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.
The Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist had sought to overturn the judgment, which he was ordered to pay after he made false claims about the massacre.
Jones had previously claimed the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to promote stricter gun control. The Sandy Hook victims’ survivors reported that Jones’s lies spurred threats and harassment from his followers, making it impossible for them to heal from the mass murder.
The supreme court did not provide a reason for its decision, according to its orders list released on Tuesday.
As part of his appeal filed in September, Jones argued that a judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial. Jones maintained that the $1.4bn judgment “is an amount that can never be paid”, adding that “the result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcast reaches millions”.
Therein lies Alex’s problem, of course; his broadcast does reach millions, consequently so do the lies he spreads through it. It’s not like some guy with a blog no one reads. Sandy Hook was an obscenity that you only made worse and you got what you deserved; what we need now is a court that’ll actually do something to punish him for dicking around and refusing to even start paying up…
Gonna keep on dancing at… some other place?
A Sydney nightclub whose name was inspired by a lesbian artist despite “predominantly” targeting gay men has been forced to change its name after attracting a swift and “passionate” backlash.
Pink Pony was set to open on Oxford Street in Sydney’s LGBTQ+ heartland in early December. Kevin Du-Val, the owner of Palms on Oxford nightclub, and its manager, Michael Lewis, announced via social media their new venture was “unashamedly inspired by its namesake song that resonates so profoundly within our community”.
Pink Pony Club is a song by lesbian singer-songwriter, Chappell Roan, who said she co-wrote the piece after visiting The Abbey gay bar in West Hollywood, which welcomes all genders and sexual orientations.
But news of the Sydney club was met with criticism when it emerged its “preferred clientele” was young gay men.
“In line with our experience and our passion PINK PONY is being created specifically for 18-35 (state of mind) Gay men who love to dance and get sweaty to high powered dance music in a safe space that is theirs to enjoy,” the club’s operators said via social media.
Lewis told Gay Sydney News on Sunday – which reported that Du-Val is aged 80 – that “girls will be welcome, but it would certainly be our desire that it is predominantly gay boys, and when I say predominantly, I’m sort of talking 90% plus”.
“Obviously we’ve got legal hurdles … in terms of how much we can vet the crowd while still complying with the law,” he said.
I can’t place why that last bit feels so much like the quiet part being said out loud and they’d really rather not comply with the law if they could get away with it. But they’re going with a different name now, as if that’ll make any difference:
Lewis confirmed the venue’s name was to be changed.
“We acknowledge and respect the very passionate feedback from the wider community and it is clear that it’s best to move forward with a different name for the new venue,” he told Guardian Australia.
That development, too, was criticised, with one Instagram user summing up the mood: “lol imagine renaming ur club instead of being more inclusive.”
Yeah. I mean, I can understand the queer community wanting queer clubs with as few as possible non-queer people in attendance; everyone wants a safe space where they can be, you know, themselves and not get harrassed, and Lewis says in that other article that he gets a lot of feedback from gay dudes about Oxford Street being less “gay” than it used to be, it’s pitched more at straight folks so the queer crowd don’t come out (as it were) so much, and I understand clubs etc having a target crowd and all that… but I think it might have been a bit foolish to have invoked “legal hurdles” like that, it’s like saying you’ll accept people other than 18-35 gay boys but only grudgingly and you won’t make them feel welcome. I have a feeling the erstwhile PPC won’t last long under its new name either…
They still die the old way
Some years ago, can’t remember quite when, I read a news report about Ian Watkins getting murdered in prison. I remember being furious to discover the report was false, having come from a website that did fake death reports of this sort.
Late last night, I again read a news report about Ian Watkins getting murdered in prison. But this time it was true:
Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has died after being attacked in jail, prison sources have confirmed.
West Yorkshire Police said two men aged 25 and 43 had been arrested on suspicion of murder.
The disgraced rock star from Pontypridd was serving a 29-year sentence at HMP Wakefield for child sex offences.
Watkins, 48, was jailed in December 2013 for a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.
Police said they were called to the prison on Saturday morning to reports of a serious assault on a prisoner, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A Prison Service spokesperson said it was aware of an incident at the prison.
“We are unable to comment further while the police investigate.”
I feel like the only thing needing investigation here is how it took so long for this to happen; someone did have a go at him a couple of years ago, but he survived that. Otherwise, though, Watkins got away apparently unharmed for all that time and I’ve never understood how… Anyway, nothing of value etc.
The Man With Nine Lives (1940)
I can’t find an actual reference to this film’s budget anywhere, but it was a Columbia film so I’m guessing “not high”; Harry Cohn never liked spending money even on his big films that merited the cost, so for something I imagine he would’ve considered a piece of shit I can’t see him being lavish… but Nick Grinde did get enough to work up a pretty good laboratory set, which is good cos most of the film will take place there. Everson reckons all the Karloff “mad doctor” films were fairly similar, and in this case that extends to his character name (Dr. Krevaal) being oddly like his previous one, and in this case he’s also been working on an experiment involving reanimating frozen (though not technically dead) bodies… but this time round, he’s become the unwitting subject of his own work, having become frozen in his own ice chamber ten years ago along with the men he was demonstrating it to; he’s thawed out by a doctor searching for him, and now he needs to find out why they didn’t die and rediscover his own work… if the other men will let him, of course. I had a lot of fun with this film, which runs at some 74 minutes which is about ten minutes longer than the rest of the films in this series, so the story has a bit more room to breathe; Karloff, obviously, is having a blast as Krevaal who’s less bothered by the fact he’s been “dead” for ten years than that he’s still alive now, and the rest of the cast is good too. Plus it’s rather more judicious with using music than the previous film, which didn’t use it enough. Only serious problem was the noticeable slump in picture quality in the last ten minutes or so, but I gather that’s a problem on the older DVD release so maybe it’s an issue with the existing print? Whatever, otherwise this was great fun.
Maybe, maybe not?
White House slams Trump’s perceived Nobel peace prize snub as ‘politics over peace’
The White House has denounced the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel peace prize to someone other than Donald Trump.
Following Friday’s announcement that the Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado had been awarded the prize, senior aides to the US president attacked the Norwegian committee as politicised while Norway braced itself for a potential diplomatic response from the White House.
“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” wrote Steven Cheung, a Trump aide and the White House’s director of communications.
Trump will “continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives”, he wrote. “He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
What confuses me is that Mushroom Cock himself posted on Truth.Social Machado’s Twitter post in which she specifically mentions him thusly:
I’m going to assume the phrase “to conquer Freedom” is an unfortunate AI translation rather than her meaning that she’s going to overcome freedom so that she wins against it. But that’s beside the point. Drumpf doesn’t post shit like this unless he thinks it makes him look good, which suggests he actually is OK with Machado winning…? Maybe he’s seething behind the scenes? But he seethes so much publicly and has so little self-control I feel that’s unlikely. Are the minions just getting outraged to keep in his favour? Almost certainly:
Donald Trump did not win the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, so his GOP allies in the House are working to slap together the next best thing: a resolution to get him one.
Speaking with Fox Business Friday morning, Representative Buddy Carter said that (instead of working to end the government shutdown) he and his colleagues were going to file a resolution “today” to honor the president with the Nobel Prize.
“[Donald Trump] deserves the Nobel Peace Prize,” Carter told the network. “That’s why I’m introducing a resolution today for a sense of Congress today that will honor him with the Nobel Peace Prize.
“If need be, we’ll call for a discharge petition on that. I hope we can work with the speaker though and get it on the floor for a vote,” Carter added.
Needless to say this is not how the Nobel process works, or anything else for that matter… but I feel this will actually come off, cos it’s the sort of thing the Republicans would support, and the bigger-league Democrats are too craven to resist. Will the participation trophy be enough to keep Krasnov quiet, though? He won’t say no, obviously, but I don’t think he’ll be happy until he gets the real thing…
Oh, he’s not going to like this… or is he?
Yeah, the Nobel Peace Prize for this year has just been announced and… Trump didn’t get it. For all his insistence that he deserves it for the work he’s apparently done in “seven unendable wars”—the phrase he used at the UN general assembly recently—including at least one that hadn’t actually started, and others where the countries involved have disputed his role in whatever happened between them, for all his insistence, I say, that he deserves one, he missed out. Part of that, it should be said, is because nominations for the prize actually closed in February so he couldn’t actually have won for anything he did this year. And part of that is because, well, this Guardian article just says it:
Pakistan has said it will recommend Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.
The move, announced on Saturday, came as the US president mulls joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Yeah. The NPP kind of depends upon you actually promoting peace, and I don’t know if acts of aggression against a sovereign nation count as that, even if it’s to stop that nation making war against you. Anyway, to give him some credit, he does seem, or at least claims, to have had some hand in getting the current Israel/Hamas ceasefire going (I was wrong about that a couple of weeks ago, and I’m happy to have been wrong, of course; forgive me if I’m still a bit cynical about it actually lasting long, though), but it’s hard to say how much of that is down to him versus how much might be due to other countries putting potential economic pressure on Israel (e.g. Spain’s recent decision to criminalise selling them weapons).
There’s also a certain irony in this year’s recipient being Venezuelan, too, given recent rumours that Mushroom Cock might be looking at moving in there militarily to do some regime change, and given the regime’s recent propensity for blowing Venezuelan boats out of the water on the pretext that they were carrying drugs without offering any proof that they were, of course. (Again, not quite a peaceful act.) But apparently him and Maria Machado actually get on to some degree, and there may be at least some ideological overlap; her party apparently likes to think of it as neither left nor right as such but others seem to consider it centre-right at best. Granting that Nicolas Maduro is undeniable scum, I still wonder how much better the opposition might be.
So Krasnov might not actually be too bothered by losing this year? I don’t know. He still wants one, cos he can’t accept not having one when that darkie did, and Obama’s prize was, let’s face it, about as questionable as Trump getting one would be. Norway—which, for reasons no one really understands, is the country that gives out the NPP while Sweden gives out all the others—has been wondering how he might react, though:
Kirsti Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, said Oslo must be “prepared for anything.”
“Donald Trump is taking the US in an extreme direction, attacking freedom of speech, having masked secret police kidnapping people in broad daylight and cracking down on institutions and the courts. When the president is this volatile and authoritarian, of course we have to be prepared for anything,” Bergstø told the Guardian.
“The Nobel Committee is an independent body and the Norwegian government has no involvement in determining the prizes. But I’m not sure Trump knows that. We have to be prepared for anything from him.” […]
The newspaper columnist and analyst Harald Stanghelle speculated that retribution from Trump – if it were to come – could take the form of tariffs, demands for higher Nato contributions or even declaring Norway an enemy.
“He [Trump] is so unpredictable. I don’t want to use the word ‘fear’ but there is a feeling that it could be a challenging situation,” he said. “It’s very very difficult to explain to Donald Trump or to many other countries in the world that it is a totally independent committee because they do not respect this kind of independence.”
He said if Trump were to win, it would be the “biggest surprise in the history of the Nobel peace prize”.
I don’t think anyone will dispute that. So far I see no comment from him on the NPP, but as I said he might be willing to tolerate losing it this time. Next year, though, if this Gaza ceasefire actually does hold somehow, I fear they’ll feel obliged to let him have it then, if only to shut him up for a while…
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