The Lady and the Monster (1944)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I don't get into the "science" of these types of films or even begin to question things that might not make sense, but I simply found the movie not very engaging. It had a pretty good start, but after about half an hour it began to drag. The "hero" wasn't very appealing, and the less said about the leading lady, the better. (According to some of the comments she wasn't simply a terribly wooden actress with zero ability to deliver her lines with any conviction whatsoever, she was a non-English-speaker and reciting her lines phonetically... this perhaps explains her performance, but not why anyone would hire her in the first place.) By contrast, Erich Von Stroheim was very entertaining and perfectly filled the bill for a driven, slightly-demented German-esque scientist.The narration present throughout almost the entire film suggests to me that the screenwriters could have done a better job... to have a disembodied narrator explaining what's going on from start to finish is intrusive and didn't help me to engage with the picture. Exposition kills pacing, and a well-written script will eliminate the need for it.I would say "don't bother" unless you like Von Stroheim and would enjoy watching him chew a little scenery. He was easily the best thing about the film and I likely wouldn't have finished it if it weren't for him.

*Spoiler/plot- The Lady and the Monster, 1944. In a rural castle two medical men and a woman assistant are experimenting with brain chemistry and energy. After a airplane crash, they take a human brain of one of the victims to continue their work. The brain is of a criminal mind that gradually takes over the medical assistant's mind periodically to do more evil.*Special Stars- Vera Ralston, Richard Allen, Erich Von Strohiem.*Theme- Don't tamper with creation.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Film Noir.*Emotion- An interesting combination of science fiction and film noir detective features prominently here. The male cast members overshadow the female lead and the plot has little for her to do to engineer the dramatic situations of this film. The disembodied brain element becomes secondary to the crime plot for this film.

The Lady And The Monster is a misnomer of a title in that no other world or unearthly creatures will be found here. The monster in this film is the brain of a malignant and vicious millionaire who is killed in a plane crash and has his brain removed by scientist Erich Von Stroheim. Von Stroheim and his assistant Richard Arlen put the brain in a saline solution and keep it alive with electricity. Just the brain mind you, they're not reconstructing human beings as Dr. Frankenstein was.But Walter Donovan was a real piece of work even for a miser. He's got his assets carefully hidden so that wife Helen Vinson and her lawyer Sidney Blackmer don't know where they are. And he's got a son in William Henry in prison who doesn't know he's Donovan's kid. In fact everyone has an agenda here. Vera Hruba Ralston who is Von Stroheim's nurse wants Arlen. But Arlen is taken over by the brain which through Von Stroheim's experiments has developed tremendous telepathic powers and as it grows stronger controls Arlen more and more.This film is the first one based on Curt Siodmark's novel Donovan's Brain. It's been remade twice since. In the version with Lew Ayres in Arlen's part, the brain has a truly ambitious plan for world domination with stock and currency manipulation. Here the brain is just working on settling some old scores.Just the fact that Von Stroheim is cast as the evil scientist meant that audiences knew exactly what to expect when they bought their tickets. He's his usual hateful self as he always was except in Sunset Boulevard.The Lady And The Monster is one of Republic Pictures better products from the Forties, a real nice low budget thriller. By the way take note of Mary Nash as Von Stroheim's housekeeper. She's the one who saves the world from Donovan's Brain.

THE LADY AND THE MONSTER is the first version of Curt Siodmak's often filmed novel "Donovan's Brain". This first version is largely forgotten, and those that recall it usually dis-miss it as inferior to the 1953 version DONOVAN'S BRAIN with Lew Ayres. While the 1953 version is superior in almost every way, THE LADY AND THE MONSTER is still an entertaining, atmospheric 1940's thriller.The plot is basically the same, but in this version the living brain of Donovan possesses the mind of scientist Richard Arlen to clear his illegitimate son who has been wrongly convicted of murder. The brain also wants to get revenge on his daughter, whom is just as money hungry and ruthless as Donovan was in "life." Even though Donovan's goals are good, his disembodied brain is still ruthless; he orders the possessed Arlen to kill a girl who gave false testimony at his son's trial.We can always tell when Donovan is about to possess Arlen, the lighting and Arlen's make-up changes. The 1953 version employed no such tricks, and relied entirely on the acting skills of Lew Ayers. (See my entry on that version). Erich Von Stroheim plays the elder scientist, and as with any film he was in, he was always a commanding presence. There are hints of him having an unhealthy infatuation with Vera Ralston, but this doesn't lead anywhere.Overall, LADY AND THE MONSTER isn't as good as the later 1953 version, but it is still a decent 1940's horror thriller.