La messaggera del diavolo

This cheapo horror omnibus features Lon Chaney Jr. as the devil. He sends a young female suicide victim back to Earth on a series of interventions involving men destined for purgatory. The film is split up into three short stories within this framework.

The first story about an amoral photographer and a ghost has a reasonable premise but it isn't executed very well. The idea of the ghostly woman in the photograph advancing ever nearer is a little reminiscent of the central idea in Ring. And it's a good idea but there isn't enough time for the story to develop and the ending feels rushed.

Story two about the discovery of a prehistoric woman found in-cased in a block of ice is a complete washout. The lead character has an obsession with the ice lady that is never explained. He kills his colleague, the ice melts and the lady vanishes. It all seems a bit pointless.

The third story about the man who encounters the fortune-teller is probably the best, as it has more time to develop. However, despite an intriguing set up, the pay-off is distinctly uninteresting.

The Devil's Messenger is not terribly good but, as it contains three stories within a 75 minute film, it does at least move along at a brisk pace.

"Three macabre tales of terror are featured in this frightful thriller hosted by the incomparable 'Mr. D' (Lon Chaney Jr.). A psychotic photographer is faced with a beauty that haunts his pictures and dreams in one tale. A scientist becomes obsessed with a frozen 'Ice Princess' that leads to an unfortunate ending in another tale. Finally, a man fears his own death after a visit with a fortuneteller in the last of these horrifying stories," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Although possessing three individual stories, "The Devil's Messenger" does have a unifying plot strand, featuring the character portrayed by Karen Kadler ("Satanya"). She has committed suicide, and is sent back to Earth, by Lon Chaney Jr. (as Satan), on various missions. Other than that, the stories don't have much to do with each other. Unfortunately, Mr. Chaney is an uninteresting devil. The first story, featuring John Crawford (as Donald Powell) is the best, with good photography and "A Most Unusual Camera" (Twilight Zone) worthy plot.

*** The Devil's Messenger (1961) Herbert L. Strock ~ Karen Kadler, John Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr.

"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.

Lon Chaney Jr plays Satan - the devil himself - in this fun, often funny, little film. There are 3 segments and in-between them you will see Satan (Chaney) giving Satanya (Kadler) her next assignment which leads to the next segment.

The first segment is about a photographer who is a sex pervert. He commits murder and a woman that helped him regrets helping him. There is a photograph that will "haunt" the photographer... he becomes literally scared to death.

The seconded segment is of some miners that discovers a whole and well preserved prehistoric woman frozen in ice. They get her out with ice still surrounding her. One man falls in love with frozen woman, he believes he was with her in a past life... he becomes crazy. (An excellent segment).

The third segment is of a man who keeps having a reoccurring dream, tells his psychiatrist and the doctor has the man to sorta play out the dream. The man ends up at a fortuneteller who sees his fate in her crystal ball - he will die at midnight by her.

The film is not scary but it is fun to watch in it's way.

8/10

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.