The Devil's Messenger

This feature film is taken from three episodes of a Swedish TV series "13 Demon Street". Oddly, the show was made in the US in English and was then subtitled for Sweden! An odd pedigree, to say the least! While I have never seen the actual show (there's not a whole lot of Swedish television being shown here at the present time), it appears to have been a rather low-budget horror series. Whether or not it was all connected together by a demon (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) in the show or just this movie is anyone's guess.

The show begins with Chaney on his throne in Hell--enjoying his job immensely! He summons a young suicide victim and gives her some assignments back on Earth. These assignments are the three segments taken from three separate TV episodes.

The first involves a sex pervert photographer. At first, he just seems really creepy but later when he commits a meaningless murder, you realize what sort of sick, twisted freak he really is. The woman, then, is the means of passing judgment on the guy--making him see visions in one of his photographs that literally ends up scaring him to death. Afterwords, the woman regrets her involvement in this, but considering how sick the man was, the viewer is left celebrating the death--and thinking perhaps this demon isn't such a bad fellow after all!

Next is a tale about the discovery of a prehistoric woman who is discovered frozen in ice. Naturally, this woman is the agent sent by old Mr. Diabolical himself and it is imbued with strange powers. Despite being in suspended animation, when men see her naked and encased in ice, there is a strange reaction within them--they are transfixed by her beauty and must possess her. As one of the workers talks to her and imagines a weird past-life relationship with her, you realize just how strange this particular segment is! And, by the end, the guy is a raving nut!

The third segment has this female agent of evil bringing a crystal ball to a fortune teller. It begins with a guy talking to a psychiatrist about some recurring dreams. The doctor gives a rather tenuous interpretation that the guy is dying to know the future--though the guy says he has no desire at all to know! But, following the doctor's advice, he seeks out a fortune teller. Looking into this evil crystal, she tells him he's about to die! And, it seems, she is fated to kill him! She says she has nothing against him and has no desire to kill him, but it WILL happen because the crystal ball says it must!

Despite the high 'cheese-factor' and low budget, I did enjoy the film. One reason in particular was due to Chaney. While he certainly was no thespian, here he is quite enjoyable because he gets into the part--laughing and playing it up quite a bit. He was very entertaining and it's among his better work. Plus, the stories were pretty good--and quite different from the stuff you'd see on "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". I'd sure like to be able to see the rest of the series to find out if they're all as good as these selected episodes.

I don't know why some people just don't like this film, i thought Lon Chaney Jr. was great in it; as the Devil, he sends a woman, Satanya to Earth to deliver objects to people he wants to see in hell, This movie was very creepy and entertaining, as well as engrossing. some people say they didn't like Chaney's face all bloated, so what, the acting was good, and he was very conniving as the Devil, I really didn't find too much wrong with the film except a couple of noticeable scenery that was obviously fake, but hey if that's all that's wrong with it then i have no problem with it. as far as taking the 3 installments from 13 demon st. i couldn't really tell. if they did it , then it was done very seamlessly. the movie reminds me of the old TV shows. Alfred Hitcock Presents. and Rod Sterling's .. The Twilight Zone.

The Devil's Messenger was a feature film cobbled together from three episodes of a failed TV series, "13 Demon Street" and later shot footage featuring Lon Chaney as Satan. Chaney offers a woman who committed suicide a chance to escape the horrors of hell if she agrees to run a few errands for him. That is how they tie everything in the film together, as she delivers items that are used in each story and is really the catalyst for the stories.

Story number one deals with a stressed out photographer in need of a break. He takes a vacation to the mountains, but lets his lustful ways get the better of him as he murders a woman he tries to make advances on. After he returns to the city, the woman suddenly appears in a photo he took. Every time he looks at the picture, the woman appears closer in the picture, as she is making her way towards him to take her revenge.

The next story is about a group of scientists who discover a woman frozen in a block of ice deep in a cave. One scientist becomes obsessed with the woman and will go to any length to free her and make her his own.

The final story concerns a man who has a series of dreams concerning his death. His doctor advises him to go to the building that is in his dreams, in hopes that this will bring him some sort of relief. Instead he finds a gypsy woman who has a vision regarding his death as well.

The series this movie derives from was another in a long list of Twilight Zone imitators that just didn't make it. Each story itself was solid and made with good production qualities. The performances were fine, and Chaney seemed to be having a good time in his role. Pick this title up if you happen upon it, as its a fine old horror film with a lot to offer.

"The Devil's Messenger" may have been issued in 1962, carrying a 1961 copyright, but served as a feature compilation of a 1959 TV series shot in Sweden by writer/director Curt Siodmak, titled 13 DEMON STREET. Lon Chaney was imported as host, his minimal footage seen at the opening and close of all 13 half hour episodes, none of which were picked up by US television, but did play in Sweden. Producer Kenneth Herts hired director Herbert L. Strock to do what he could in providing a way for Herts to recoup his losses, and thus this feature film was born, incorporating three episodes with new wraparound scenes promoting host Chaney to Satan himself. Karen Kadler (Mrs. Kenneth Herts) had already appeared as a model in the episode "Fever," but here plays an entirely new character, appropriately named Satanya, newest arrival in Hell after a wrist slashing suicide, called upon by Chaney's Devil to carry out a special mission as recruiter for three separate characters. A camera provides the link to the first tale, "The Photograph" (reduced to 19 minutes), with veteran John Crawford as a womanizing professional photographer with a habit of bedding his models, who rapes and murders an unresponsive woman whose house was his primary subject, its image reflecting his dead victim at closer and closer intervals, one that no one else but her killer can see. Satan offers Satanya a pick, leading into the second tale, "The Girl in the Glacier" (reduced to 16 minutes), in which a mining expedition uncovers the perfectly preserved body of a naked woman in an icy tomb, transported to a Swedish museum for closer examination. One anthropologist becomes obsessed with her enticing presence (he names her Angelica), resorting to murder to prevent a rival colleague from despoiling his beloved. A crystal ball is the natural connection for story three, "Condemned in the Crystal" (reduced to 21 minutes), as Chaney's Satan proclaims: "some people say they can see things in a crystal ball, others say they can foretell the future, others say they can reconstruct the past, but they only see what we down here let them see because the crystal ball is the toy of the Devil!" Michael Hinn's John Radian, the man responsible for Satanya's despondent suicide (no connection whatsoever to the episode in question), is consumed by fears for his uncertain future, until a psychiatrist advises him to confront them head on by returning to a childhood haunt with a room he had been too scared to enter as a boy. Inside is a fortune teller, Madame Germaine (Gunnel Brostrom), who claims to know nothing of Radian but predicts that she will be the instrument of his midnight death. The newly filmed conclusion features Hinn, the only actor who repeated his series role for the added footage, joining Satanya in Hell for one final task, to deliver the ultimate weapon that Satan could devise, one that man knows only too well how to use. Lon Chaney is relaxed and confident as a smiling Devil, bringing a great deal of energetic humor to his role of genial host for a Hell he compares to being an exclusive club, one that requires more room for new members. With 10 1/2 minutes screen time, Chaney probably gets more footage than he did in all 13 episodes combined of the little seen 13 DEMON STREET, more in line with Boris Karloff's unsold THE VEIL than any actual show broadcast at the time. Some, though not all, episodes have found their way to YouTube, the entire series available in certain gray market packages. As a feature film (the only way many viewers have experienced 13 DEMON STREET), it served its successful purpose at the box office, though Curt Siodmak's name was nowhere to be found on screen, Leo Guild sole credited writer, Herbert L. Strock sole credited director. When Satanya asks what his purpose is in ruining lives, Chaney's exuberant Devil sums it up nicely: "people ruin their own lives, all we do is help them a bit!"

"The Devil's Messenger" is an obscure and low-budgeted horror omnibus that recycles three short stories from an even more obscure 50s TV-series named "13, Demon Street". The series was rapidly produced to cash in on the tremendous success of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone", but already got canceled after one season. In an ultimate attempt to gain profit out of the investment, the three best (?) stories were bundled into an anthology movie.

Undoubtedly the best thing about this curious little film is the presence of Lon Chaney Jr., as the Devil himself, in the wraparound story. He sends a recent suicide victim - aptly named Satanya - back to the earthly surface to collect new souls for Hell. You guessed it; - the people whom Satanya are sent after are also the protagonists of the individual segments. Fallen horror icon Chaney ("The Wolf Man") was appearing in all sorts of inferior Z-grade movies and TV-series at the time. In this role, he at least visibly enjoys himself.

The first story is more than adequate, while numbers two and three are utterly weak and forgettable. The influence of "The Twilight Zone" is clearly noticeable in all three segments, but only the "The Photograph" comes somewhat close to copying the uncanny atmosphere and surreal mystery of Serling's landmark series. In this story, an arrogant photographer, who committed rape and murder whilst on an assignment in snowy Maine, sees his nameless victim inexplicably appear in the photos that he makes and slowly loses his mind. The other two are hardly even worth summarizing.