The Monster Walks

"The Monster Walks" is a very old and very cheap haunted-house mystery thriller without much mystery. Yet, considering the budget and the experience cast & crew members disposed of, this probably isn't such a bad movie after all. I'm sure that fans of early horror films will definitely detect a lot of charm and goodwill in this typical story about a wealthy daughter that is targeted for murder upon returning to her parental house for the regulation of her dead father's inheritance. Ruth has always been petrified by her father's pet-ape and, although safely caged in the basement, some malicious persons uses the animal to scare her senseless. Rex Lease is her all-knowing doctor/boyfriend who investigates the strange nightly events and eventually reveals the true culprit. Maybe the plot-twists would have intrigued me more if the actual climax wasn't stupidly mentioned on the DVD-box, but I still can't say the script is very complex or effectively misleading. There are one or two decent suspense-moments but overall this is a dull and unexciting poverty row movie. All the lovely clichés of 30's horror cinema are there, though, like the exaggeratedly polite servants, the seemly endless thunderstorm outside the castle and the black chauffeur-guy who simultaneously serves as the comic relief. This is an okay film as long as you don't expect to see another "The Old Dark House".

This would be a decent creaky old dark house movie if it wasn't for the acting and over acting. Basically a prodigal daughter returns to her home when her father dies for the reading of the will. The servants are weird, the uncle is in a wheel chair, an abused chimp is in a cage in the basement and there are secret passages through the house. This is low budget film from the early days of sound and it seem like it. There is little background noise and no music which more times than not slows things down. Worse is the acting which seems to have been done in some odd experimental style. Misha Auer, seen in later films with a pronounced accent seems almost not to have one. His performance is very odd, especially when compared to later films. Interesting here you get to see just how big and imposing man he was. The movie is painfully slow and probably would have put me to sleep had I been just sitting and watching the film. This is not a film to recommend unless you have insomnia. Its an interesting film as a curio but isn't remarkable and the plotting is truly run of the mill. There are better ways to spend your time.

The owner dies and leaves his fortune to his daughter (Vera Reynolds), but the brother (Sheldon Lewis) wants it for himself and the son (Oscar nominee Mischa Auer) he is hiding. He plans to have the son eliminate everyone so he can grab the riches.

The plan goes awry when the son kills his mother (Martha Mattox) by mistake. He turns on his father and tries to kill the daughter.

It was a weird little film, just out of the silent era, and there was more talking than anything.

Of course, they have the stereotypical black chauffeur (Willie Best, who was listed in the credits as Sleep 'n' Eat). I kid you not! I last remember Best from High Sierra. He has a long career with numerous roles, probably many of them doing that stereotypical frightened black man.

Not very scary for a haunted house.

Treating this horror film as anything but camp and you will agree it's one of the worst films ever made. The acting is wooden, the writing amateurish (with leading lady, Vera Reynolds, saying to her fiancé, Rex Lease, "Oh Ted, take me away" at least five times, whenever something disturbing happens), and the production values poor. As a horror film by today's standards it's totally laughable, but in 1932 it was intended to scare audiences. You see a wall picture move, revealing a hole (gasp! someone is watching). You see a furry arm come through the headboard and threaten an unsuspecting sleeper. And there's a caged ape in the basement that may or may not know how to get out of his cage. (He's called an ape but is obviously a chimpanzee.) Willie Best, annoying billed as "Sleep N' Eat," provides the intended comedy relief and is as good as usual, but don't expect too much from anyone else. See it with a group and you'll all have some fun.

Forgetful Filmmakers Dept.: Lawyer Sidney Bracy is billed onscreen as "Herbert Wilkes." But in the will he reads, he is referred to as "William Wilkes."

The Monster Walks (1932)

** (out of 4)

It's rather amazing at how many films would follow after The Bat was released in 1926 and kicked off the "old dark house" genre. This time a daughter returns to her father's house after his death so that she can hear the will being read. Everything starts off okay but soon a killer is stalking everyone with the help of a gorilla. I'm still rather curious why every "old dark house" from this period featured a gorilla. I'm going to guess that movie crowds back then were scared of them as I don't see why they should play such an important part in these films. Nothing really stands out in this film, although the running time is just over 60-minutes. The performances are decent but nothing special and the story itself doesn't offer enough twists to be entertaining. God knows there are far worse than this out there but then again there are much better ones. The racial humor from a servant (named Sleep 'N Eat) is off base and doesn't really help matters.