If you ever watched TNT's MonsterVision back in the day, you likely saw clips of this film in its promos. In those promos, they sometimes had random bits of color added to black-and-white images and, with this movie, they showed Lon Chaney with a head of platinum blonde hair, pulling back a sheet on a wrapped figure that was given a green color, and then a shot of him glaring right at the camera (his teeth were also yellow there). However, while I grew up in the 90's, I didn't watch MonsterVision hardly at all, mainly because I wasn't allowed to watch the types of movies they often showed, so I didn't see these promos until I started watching YouTube, specifically in compilation videos and when James Rolfe talked about his memories of MonsterVision. I instantly recognized Chaney, but I had no idea what movie these clips were from until I watched Dark Corners Reviews' video, Lon Chaney Shall Not Die! The Story of The Man With a 1000 Faces (if you're a fan of classic horror, I highly recommend both that video and that channel overall, as they do great work; they proved invaluable when I did my Hammer-Thon reviews). They described
The Monster as a horror-comedy, which I felt made it a prime starting point for this year's October Fest, as well as one of the few horror films Chaney actually appeared in, despite his reputation as the genre's first superstar. They also said it wasn't one of his best movies but, regardless, it was interesting enough for me to check it out. Having now watched it three times, I can say that the movie isn't really bad, so much as it's very average and prototypical. Regarding the latter, it has a place in history for being both one of the first mad scientist and "old dark house" movies, preceding better known films in the latter subgenre like
The Cat and the Canary and James Whale's
The Old Dark House, but, as you'll see, when viewed nowadays, it can come off as cliched, even though this was before the elements in question were cliches. Also, the story is predictable, the characters aren't much to write home about, with even Chaney unable to do much more than ham it up rather than give his role the depth he was known for, and the humor is very old-fashioned and rather hit and miss.
While on his way home one night, farmer John Bowman falls into a trap set by a strange man in a dark hood and cloak. News of his disappearance prompts the insurance company to send an inspector, Jennings, to the small town of Danburg, Indiana, while at the site of the wreckage, Johnny Goodlittle, a wannabe detective, finds some evidence that points to the answer likely being found at the nearby Edwards Sanitarium. However, no one, including the town constable, takes him seriously, as the sanitarium has been closed for two months, not that it dissuades Johnny, who just so happens to have received his diploma from the Correspondence School of Detectives. Another issue with Johnny is that both he and Amos Rugg, the manager of the general store he works at, have eyes for Betty Watson, daughter of the owner. When he attends a party she throws that night, Johnny is almost able to court her, when Amos shows up and steals her away. Bummed out, Johnny leaves and walks off into the woods, where he meets a strange man who mentions Bowman. Following the man, Johnny witnesses him and the hooded figure from before causing Amos and Betty, who are out for an evening drive, to wreck in the same manner as Bowman. He tries to intervene, but falls into a hidden tunnel that transports him straight into the Edwards Sanitarium. Meanwhile, Amos and Betty, unharmed from the crash, seek shelter inside the sanitarium, where they meet up with Johnny. The three of them then meet Dr. Ziska, who introduces himself as being in charge of the sanitarium in Dr. Edwards' absence. Telling them he has no telephone, and insisting they not go back out into the storm raging outside, Ziska offers to allow them to stay the night. None of them get particularly good vibes from Ziska, his minions, and the place overall, but they have no alternative but to stay. When they do, they find the place is full of deadly traps, confirming their suspicions about Ziska and his men, and they try to escape, only to eventually learn that the mad doctor has monstrous plans involving Betty.
Based on a popular stage play, the film version of The Monster was directed Roland West, who started out as a vaudeville actor before switching to writing and directing, first for the stage and then in Hollywood. His first film as director was 1916's A Woman's Honor, and by the time he made The Monster, he'd directed a handful of films like Lost Souls, The Siren, The Silver Lining, Nobody, and The Unknown Purple. While The Monster was his first foray into the horror genre, a couple of West's previous films were mysteries and, the following year, he directed a similar movie in The Bat. He also directed The Bat Whispers, a sound remake of that film, and 1929's Alibi, which got star Chester Morris an Oscar nomination, as well as a Best Picture nomination for West himself. However, because of his erratic behavior, which included an insistence on shooting largely at night and barring producers from his sets, his 1931 film, Corsair, proved to be his last. Only a few years later, West's career as a filmmaker was completely overshadowed by his possible connection to the death of his mistress, actor Thelma Todd, and while he was never arrested, many believe that West did murder her. Regardless, West lived on until 1952, when he died of heart disease at the age of 67.
Despite Lon Chaney's top billing, the film's true protagonist is Johnny Goodlittle (Johnny Arthur), the young grocery clerk who's also an aspiring detective, taking correspondence classes on the subject and reading from a book titled,
How to Become a Detective. He's the only one who comes up with any real leads on the fate of John Bowman, as he finds a piece of paper near the crash site that points to the Edwards Sanitarium and also finds, on the back of it, a word that's actually "help" spelled backwards. Unfortunately, neither the local constable nor Detective Jennings takes him seriously, seeing him as an overeager young fool who doesn't know what he's talking about, with the constable telling him to stop talking nonsense, as the Edwards Sanitarium is closed. Regardless, once his diploma comes in, Johnny is determined to prove himself as a capable sleuth. However, his search for clues gets sidetracked when he attends Betty Watson's party, managing to dance with her, only for his rival, Amos Rugg, to take her away when he shows up. Dejected, Johnny wanders out of the house and into the woods, only to run into a very odd fellow who mentions the missing Bowman. This gets his attention and he follows the man, only to witness Amos and Betty falling into the same trap as Bowman, before he himself ends up falling into a secret tunnel that leads him into the sanitarium. Coming across some strange things in the place's sitting room, like a skeleton hanging behind a door and a large, muscular man emerging from a hatch in the floor and opening the front door for Amos and Betty before disappearing, Johnny tries to warn them they need to get out, only to quickly find they're trapped. After they meet Dr. Ziska and are shown to their room by his big, muscular servant, Caliban, they try to find a way out, with Johnny getting into various shenanigans, such as finding his way down into the cellar and entering Ziska's dungeon/laboratory, getting completely drunk when he drinks from a water jug that's actually filled with liquor, and he and Amos getting captured and thrown down into the dungeon, with Johnny tied up inside a bag. While down there, the two of them find a hatch in the floor they find they can remove with a hook and pulley, and when he climbs down into the tunnel below, Johnny finds Bowman, as well as Dr. Edwards, the man who actually runs the place, and learns that Ziska and the inmates have taken over.
While Amos is captured afterward to be used in Ziska's mad experiments, Johnny manages to escape his minions, who chase him all about the place, including onto the roof and the nearby power lines, until he knocks out Rigo, one of the deadlier cronies, and takes his cloak and hood. He sneaks back inside and down into Ziska's lab, frees Amos, and the two of them then manage to overpower Ziska, trick Caliban into unintentionally killing him, and save Betty, before Johnny literally strings Caliban up, leaving him hanging from the ceiling by his feet. He also managed to use a set of roman candles he keeps with him as a means of signaling the authorities, an idea he was mocked for earlier. When Jennings, the constable, Betty's parents, and everyone else arrives, Johnny is immediately seen as a hero and gains respect as an amateur detective, with Jennings telling him that he can do work for his insurance company any time. Most importantly, Johnny manages to win Betty's heart and, in the epilogue, it's revealed they're now married.
While Johnny can hardly be called a well-rounded character, the other two main characters are similarly shallow, especially Betty Watson (Gertrude Olmstead). There is literally nothing to her whatsoever, and her role is little more than to act as the object of both Johnny and Amos' desires and the unwitting participant in Dr. Ziska's experiment where he plans to put a man's soul into her body (implying that women don't already have a soul). Also, while she's ostensibly Amos' girlfriend, she
tends to go back and forth between him and Johnny, acting all nice to Johnny at the store and at the party she throws, only to dump him and go to Amos as soon as she sees him. Speaking of Amos Rugg (Hallam Cooley), he's a blowhard who works with Johnny at the general store, where he acts as manager. Not nearly as smart or sophisticated as he thinks he is, he doesn't think much of Johnny or his aspirations to become a detective, mocking him at every turn. After he and Betty skid off the road due to the trap set by Ziska's minions and make their way to the Edwards Sanitarium, Amos initially continues to act condescending towards Johnny, even labeling him as a murderer at one point when they first find Rigo sitting entranced in a chair, but when they meet Ziska and realize there's no escape from the place, Amos joins Johnny in trying to find a way out. Granted, he sends Johnny down to inspect the place's cellar by himself, but he and Betty do have enough sense not to drink some liquor Ziska had sent up to their room, and when the room starts filling up with a gas that threatens to knock them out, he and Johnny try desperately to let some fresh air in. Eventually, they're all captured and taken down to the dungeon, and while trying to find Betty, Johnny and Amos come upon the secret hatch in the floor under which Dr. Edwards and the others are being held captive. Amos himself is then recaptured, with Ziska planning to put his soul into Betty's body, but with Johnny's help, he manages to get free and the two of them defeat Ziska and save Betty.
Those who seek this movie out purely for Lon Chaney are going to be very disappointed, as he doesn't appear until almost half an hour in, doesn't have that much screentime anyway, and his character of Dr. Ziska is one-note, to say the least. He does manage to be fairly menacing in his first couple of scenes, putting on the veneer of a gracious and welcoming host when he introduces himself to Johnny, Betty, and Amos, but that veneer is so thin and obvious, with his telling them he has no telephone, that he can't allow them to go back out into the storm, introducing them to his unnerving cronies Rigo and Caliban, and telling the latter, "See that the guests have the USUAL attention," that you see right through it immediately. His very look in these early scenes, with his robe over a nice suit and his constantly smoking cigarette holder, are also indications that he's not to be trusted, as they tend to be pretty standard villain attire. And, as if he couldn't be any more obvious, when Amos asks him if they'll see him in the morning, he answers, "Who knows if one will EVER see the morning?" Again, not a very nuanced character, but Chaney, as he always did, makes the most of it. In a later scene where he looks in on Amos and Betty in their room, while Johnny is investigating the cellar, he manages to make Ziska come off as both quite sly, surreptitiously taking the gun Johnny left for them, and intimidating, as when Amos and Betty are reluctant about the room he says he's prepared for the latter, he sternly says, "I insist that you at least do me the courtesy to look at it!" When they ultimately insist to stay in the room they were already in, Ziska sees to it that they're made "comfortable," having Caliban light up the fireplace. But, after he does, it's revealed that fumes from the fireplace fill the room up with a gas that threatens to knock them out and that the room itself is full of traps.
During the film's third act, when the characters are all truly taken prisoner, Ziska drops all pretenses and reveals the mad scientist he truly is, having taken control of the sanitarium from Dr. Edwards, whom he's imprisoned in the cellar, and with the help of the inmates under his control (whether he himself was once an inmate or part of the staff is never made clear), has filled both it and the nearby countryside with traps in order to abduct people for use in his experiments. It's said that he was once a
well-known surgeon but now, he's advanced to soul transference, as he plans to use an electric chair in conjunction with a special transducer to put a soul into a completely different body. Up until now, he's never had a woman, which he says is the only specimen through which he can learn the secret of life, and now that he has Betty, he intends to put Amos' soul into her body. Here, even for a silent film, Chaney gets really theatrical and chews up the scenery, melodramatically telling Amos how the two of them shall witness the greatest experiment ever, becoming very excited at how he finally has a woman to experiment with, and getting extremely angry when Amos calls him mad, glaring at him and snarling, "Don't you dare call ME mad!" But, as entertaining as he does manage to be, knowing that Chaney was capable of so much more makes this performance come off as something of a comedown. In any case, Ziska is overpowered by Johnny and Amos, strapped into the electric chair, and is accidentally killed by Caliban when he comes downstairs and flips the switch on the chair, thinking the figure sitting in it is still Amos.
Among Ziska's henchmen, Caliban (Walter James), a big, Oriental-looking brute is the most prominent. Unable to speak, he believes himself to be Ziska's servant and does his every bidding, such as showing the "guests" to their room, lighting up the fireplace in order to gas them, and takes the unconscious group down to the cellar. But, like I said, he's the one who ultimately kills Ziska and is quite devastated when he realizes what he's done. He then attempts to kill the trio for
this but Johnny uses a hook and pulley to string him upside down by his feet. Rigo (George Austin), a pale-faced, cloaked and hooded inmate whom Ziska says he keeps entranced at all times, is the one who rigs the trap at the crossroads that causes potential prisoners to wreck, after which they're abducted and taken to the sanitarium. He's the one whom Johnny has a real confrontation with, as he chases him onto the roof and then cuts the power line he tries to escape across. In the end, the two of them get into a fight and Johnny manages to overpower
Rigo, tie him up, and use his cloak and hood to sneak back inside the sanitarium and free Amos so the two of them can overpower Ziska and save Betty. Finally, there's Dan (Knute Erickson), a really goofy-looking guy who prompts Johnny to follow him when he mentions "shaving Bowman." Though Dan takes part in Rigo's abducting people for Ziska, he's harmless for the most part, often just asking anybody he comes across for a light before rolling his own cigarette. He takes part in Rigo's chasing of Johnny around the sanitarium and up to the roof in a manner that seems to be him mindlessly going along with it, happily laughs and claps when he watches Johnny and Rigo's confrontation on the power lines, and ultimately ends up trapped on the roof as a result.
Two other memorable characters are the local constable (Charles Sellon) and Detective Jennings (Matthew Betz). The constable is a crusty old man who, like everyone else, doesn't take Johnny Goodlittle seriously as an aspiring detective and mocks him even more than Amos Rugg, calling him a "durn fool," telling him to stop bothering people with his ideas and theories, and does nothing to investigate John Bowman's disappearance, ignoring Johnny's idea about the
sanitarium, as it's been closed for a couple of months. Some of the humor comes from his inability to say certain words like "sanitarium" and "ingenuity," and his coming off as a country bumpkin who's well past his prime. Jennings also doesn't take Johnny seriously after the constable and Amos encourage him not to, and when he talks with him at Betty's party, he gives him bogus advice about what to do when confronted by a powerful man and he and the constable have a laugh about his using roman candles to signal for help at night. But, Jennings' advice of using a derrick to string up the aforementioned powerful man is what inspires Johnny to defeat Caliban the way he does, and when everyone sees how well he did in capturing the whole gang, Jennings tells him he can work for his insurance company any time.
The Monster can hardly be called the very first mad scientist movie, as up to this point, there had already been two film versions of
Frankenstein (counting the lost 1915 film,
Life Without Soul), several of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the 1920 film with John Barrymore, as well as two lesser known versions, one of which is lost), and
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but it's one of, if not the absolute first, to depict the iconic image of the mad scientist in his white surgeon's smock, raving about his experiments, with one or more minions to help
him. Also, while it's not as big as Henry Frankenstein's laboratory in the 1931 film, nor does it have the memorable electrical equipment seen there and in all of the Universal Frankenstein films, Dr. Ziska's lab in the cellar/dungeon of the sanitarium is also prototypical of the genre, with an electric control panel on the wall, a modified electric chair, and a gurney that Betty is strapped to for the experiment. Also, the removable section of floor that hides the underground tunnel where Ziska keeps Dr. Edwards and other prisoners, which can be opened with a hook and pulley, is somewhat similar to the opening of the crypt where the Frankenstein monster is kept in
Son of Frankenstein.
Like I said in the introduction, the movie is also definitely a prototype of the old dark house subgenre, featuring a cast of characters trapped in a creepy, rundown building as a storm rages outside (the latter is often an ingredient). While the main setting here is supposed to a sanitarium, it does feel more like an old mansion complete with all the trappings, especially in its large sitting room, which is complete with an old sofa, a fireplace, candelabras all around, and a long, curving staircase that leads to the second floor. The place is also filled with creepy rooms
one of which has a skeleton hanging in it, something you'd expect to see in a Scooby-Doo episode, as well as trapdoors and secret passages, panels in the walls from which hands often reach out, a dungeon-like cellar that houses Ziska's laboratory, a tunnel beneath the lab where Dr. Edwards, John Bowman, and another man are held captive, a dumbwaiter-like lift they use to quickly get from one floor to another, and traps like metal seals for the windows, a bed in the guestroom below a big metal bar that slowly comes down to crush anyone sleeping in it,
a fireplace laced with a drug that fills the room via the fumes, and a couch that Ziska's cronies can reach through from below and pull someone down. And, of course, nearby in the woods, they have a trap set up to cause cars to skid off the road using a mirror to make them think another vehicle is coming right at them, and a hidden, underground tunnel that leads straight to the sanitarium's sitting room (which makes no sense whatsoever, as the person comes out into that room from behind a painting above the fireplace). There may be more well-known examples of this genre, and there were probably some more obscures ones made before The Monster, but there's no denying this has virtually every element that has since become Saturday morning cartoon stuff, and because of that, it can be hard for modern audiences to take it seriously.
If you manage to find a good-looking print, you will see that the film is fairly well shot. Granted, the nighttime exterior scenes, such as when Johnny Goodlittle follows after Dan and witnesses Amos Rugg and Betty Watson skidding off the road, are a little hard to make out, compounded by flashing lightning effects (although, you have to give them credit for actually shooting outside and doing so at night), but the shots of the sanitarium illuminated by the lightning are classic, as is the nicely dark and moody way in which the interiors are photographed, especially in the early scenes down in Ziska's
laboratory before the lights are all turned on and when Johnny goes down into the tunnel below it and finds Ziska's prisoners. There also some nice moments of shadow play that look right out of German Expressionism on the walls, such as when they see a pair of hands on the wall near the sitting room fireplace right before they meet Ziska for the first time (both the wide shot of them watching the shadow and the closeup are eerie, although where it's coming from and who's making it is never explained), and when you see Ziska's shadow when Caliban accidentally kills him. And I must admit that the overall setting of a sleepy little town in Indiana, populated mostly by a bunch of country bumpkins and blowhards, is an appealing one to me.
While the opening scene, depicting John Bowman's abduction at the hands of Rigo, is played totally seriously, as is everything concerning Dr. Ziska and his minions (save for how goofy and weird Dan is), much of the movie's first act is dominated by a sense of humor regarding the dim-witted nature of several of the people in Danburg. The movie itself pokes fun at this, with title cards introducing the characters with such descriptions as, "While at the scene of the wreck, Danburg's daring detectives deduce a few
deductions," "Amos Rugg: blew into town one day and has been blowing ever since," and, "Johnny Goodlittle: he has ambition, which in Danburg is as bad as having eczema." The characters also hang themselves with their own dialogue, with Amos being very observant at the site of the wreck, declaring, "I'll bet a new spark plug that Bowman met with some kind of accident," and the constable constantly slipping on a couple of words, saying "sanitar-rariam" and "engine-ooity." The latter also ties
into an ironic bit in that a lot of the mocking towards Johnny comes as a result of his often quoting the instructional book he reads about becoming a detective, which often tells him to use his ingenuity, and yet, he does exactly that when he has to confront Ziska and his cronies during the movie's latter half (it also comes back at the very end when he tells Betty to use her ingenuity when she asks him if she's deserving of someone like
him following their marriage). It's akin to the roman candles Johnny keeps on his person for signaling for help at help, as the constable and Detective Jennings don't take him seriously when he introduces the concept to them and yet, at the end of the movie, he lights up a number in order to let the authorities know there's trouble at the sanitarium. In addition, in the first scene between him and Betty Watson in the store, Johnny is so smitten with her that he can barely talk or function, at one point offering her a can of peaches when she asks for pansy seeds.
Once they enter the sanitarium, the comedy comes from how freaked out both Johnny and Amos are, with the former hiding behind a window curtain with his feet clearly visible, Amos initially accusing Johnny of murder when they find Rigo "dead" in a chair in the living room and Johnny's dialogue card showing his stuttering when he tries to defend himself, and Amos later insisting that Johnny go downstairs and investigate the dark cellar, saying he's the would-be detective. While he's down there, Amos and Betty opt not to drink the liquor
Ziska has sent up to them, fearing it might be poisoned, and pour it into a water jug in the room in order to make him think they drunk it. Then, while the two of them are looking at the room Ziska says he's had prepared for Betty, Johnny comes back upstairs and, extremely thirsty, continuously drinks from the water jug, even though his facial expressions show that he knows there's something not right about this "water." He goes back down into the cellar and hides again when Ziska walks Amos and Betty back to the
room they've been staying in, and when he leaves, Johnny comes back up, now completely dead drunk, and still holding the jug, which he does for the remainder of the scene. The two of them try to explain to him the danger they're in, but he's too plastered to take it seriously, telling them to "yoosh" their ingenuity, before hiccuping, which the dialogue card indicates with "hic!" Then, when the room starts filling up with the fumes of the drug in the fireplace, Amos comments, "Something's the matter with me. I'm dizzy! My head's going
'round!", and Johnny responds, "I'm dizzy too! But's cause th' room's goin' round!!!", adding, "I got the strangest sort of courage. I can lick anybody in America... Europe... Jerusalem!" He sits in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth drunkenly, and when Amos realizes what's going on and tries to let in some fresh air how ever he can, Johnny follows him around, half-heartedly doing copying he does, and when he smashes a window, Johnny slurs, "Thash right! Smash everything...
then I'll begin!" He's so drunk that it takes him a long time to realize that Betty, who's passed out on the bed, is about to be crushed by an iron bar slowly descending from the canopy, and when he and Amos just manage to pull her out, he proclaims, "Thash an insult! Now I AM mad!" Then, when Amos can't find the gun he gave him, Johnny tells him he's going to pay for it, and after both him and Betty are abducted in front of him, Johnny freaks out, covers his eyes, and appears to start counting, before Rigo sneaks up behind him and knocks him out.
The third act is where it becomes rather slapsticky and, again, a source for many of the classic Scooby-Doo routines. For instance, when Amos awakens tied up in the cellar, he gets momentarily spooked by a figure in a bag that rises up beside him, only to then learn it's Johnny (instead of cutting to a dialogue card when he yells this at him, the words, "It's me, Johnny!", come up as captions on the shot of him struggling in the bag). After he's let loose, while Amos tries to find Betty, Johnny flips through his book on how to be a detective, trying
to figure out how to solve the case, unaware he's sitting in an electric chair and that someone has flipped a switch on the wall that's lowering the helmet down towards his noggin. Amos tries to warn him of what's happening but he swallows his chewing gum and chokes, which prompts Johnny to jump out of the chair in order to help him get his breath back. Following Johnny's discovery of Dr. Edwards and the others imprisoned below the floor, there's a moment where, when he climbs back up and finds that Amos has been captured by
Ziska and his cronies, the mad doctor examines his head with his hands and refers to him as an interesting specimen, a very classic moment that we've now seen countless times. And the sequence that follows is very much a chase scene straight out of Scooby-Doo, with Rigo and Dan pursuing Johnny up and down the sanitarium. Johnny uses the lift to escape them, cuts its rope and sends it tumbling down to make them think he fled back down to the cellar, climbs up onto the roof in the
wind and rain, tries to make his way across a power line (somewhere along the way, he found a balancing pole), only for Rigo to climb up the pole on the other side and cut the line. This sends Johnny swinging back towards the building and crashing through a window, after which he slides down the stairway banister and flies right out the front door, slamming into a discombobulated Rigo, who also fell from the line above (during the latter part, you can see the zip-line the actor's traveling
on). After their fight, Johnny, offscreen, puts on Rigo's cloak and hood, sneaks back into the sanitarium, heads down to the lab, unties Amos, and the two of them overpower Ziska and strap him to the electric chair, which kills him when Caliban accidentally flips the switch. While Caliban is distraught over what he's done to his master, Johnny sneaks up behind him, chains his feet together, and uses the hook and pulley machine to string him upside down.
At the end of the movie, when Jennings, the constable, Betty's parents, and everyone else arrives thanks to Johnny's roman candle signal, Johnny also tells Jennings the tip he gave him about using a derrick to string someone up came in handy for stopping Caliban. Complimented on and now respected by everybody for his detecting skills, Johnny, in a very brief shot, puffs up his chest in pride so much that the buttons on his shirt pop open. The movie ends on a "Sunday in June," where Johnny is now married to Betty, and they speed through the town of Danburg, after which the constable chases them on a motorcycle. He ends up slamming into the back of their car after they park and angrily yells and shakes his fist at them, while they just laugh and drive off.
As you can see,
The Monster is a film of some note, given its significance in film history as an early entry in the traditional mad scientist and old dark house subgenres, the legendary Lon Chaney giving an entertaining, if melodramatic, performance as the lead villain, a group of memorable minions working under Chaney's character, and a nice, classic setting that's often shot in a shadowy, moody manner, but there's not much else to recommend it. The three main characters are rather bland, Dr. Ziska is such a one-note villain that it feels like a waste of Chaney's talent, the movie's prototypical nature makes it come off as rather creaky and predictable, and while it varies, the humor is old-hat and is rarely laugh out loud funny. While it definitely can't be called a bad movie, I would only recommend it to the most diehard old film and Chaney fans.
