Weird Woman

Last updated
Weird Woman
Weird Woman poster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Reginald Le Borg
Screenplay by Brenda Weisberg
Story by W. Scott Darling
Based on Conjure Wife
by Fritz Leiber
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Virgil Miller
Edited byMilton Carruth
Music by Paul Sawtell
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • March 1, 1944 (1944-03-01)(United States)
Running time
63 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Weird Woman is a 1944 noir-mystery horror film, and the second installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name. Directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Lon Chaney Jr., Anne Gwynne, and Evelyn Ankers. [1] [2] The movie is one of several films based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. Co-star Evelyn Ankers had previously worked with Chaney in Ghost of Frankenstein, where Chaney played the Frankenstein monster, and The Wolf Man , where Chaney played the title role.

Contents

Plot

Professor Norman Reed falls in love with and marries a woman named Paula while on vacation in the South Seas. When they return to his hometown, she is greeted coolly by much of the community, especially Ilona, who felt that Reed was hers. Strange things begin to happen, including the death of a colleague, which turns people against her even more, especially as she believes in voodoo and other supernatural phenomena. Reed must work hard to prove her innocence and find the real culprit behind the strange doings. [3] [4]

Cast

Cast notes

Evelyn Ankers: Ankers recalled shortly before her death in 1985, that she was uncomfortable with the role of sinister Liona for both professional and personal reasons. Ankers, a strikingly attractive blonde, was customarily cast in “good-girl” ingénue roles in many of her program pictures. Disappointed in her own performance, she felt she was miscast. When LeBorg would say "action" and Ankers would try to exact a menacing look, she and co-star Anne Gwynne would almost inevitably start laughing. Universal never hired her to play a villain again. [6] In addition, she and Anne Gwynne, who plays her nemesis, Paula, were best friends off-screen, contradicting their on-screen personas. [7] Film historian Wheeler W. Dixon reports that Anker’s characterization of the scheming Liona was “entirely convincing” and commensurate with the “uniformly excellent” supporting cast. [8]

Lon Chaney, Jr.: Chaney, who audiences identified with Universal’s The Wolf Man and The Mummy's Ghost “is a trifle hard to accept as an intellectual” in a university Sociology department setting. [9] Film critic Ken Hanke writes: “[Q]uite the scariest thing about Weird Woman may be the idea of Chaney as a brilliant professor of anthropology. That’s also what makes it fun.” [10]

Production

Director Reginald LeBorg recalls being given the script on a Friday and being told to begin shooting a week from Monday; the cast was filled out shortly before filming. This rushed production schedule was the norm at Universal. [11] The budget restraints placed by Universal on their “B” units were such that director LaBorg felt compelled to apply lighting techniques to obscure the “drab, pre-fab sets that he was obliged to use.” [12] Inner Sanctum films, as a rule, cost approximately $150,000 to produce, and shooting schedules were routinely 12 days. [13]

Reception

New York Times reviewer “B. C.” dismissed Weird Woman as a “weird” production released “in a fit of desperation” by Universal Pictures. Offering a thumbnail sketch of the film narrative, the reviewer concludes: “Weird, isn't it? And, boy, is it dull!” [14]

Retrospective appraisal

As in most of director LeBorg’s cinematic endeavors for Universal’s low-budget production unit, he “makes the most of the limited sets and day players he was forced to use by management.” Film historian Wheeler W. Dixon judges that, despite these limitations, “the film holds up extremely well.” [15]

Film critic Ken Hanke writes: “Overall, director Reginald LeBorg keeps Weird Woman pretty effective on the atmosphere front...This was only LeBorg’s third feature and you can tell that he was seriously trying to prove himself.” [16]

Notes

  1. ↑ Maddrey, Joseph (2012-02-15). Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film. McFarland. ISBN   9780786482740.
  2. ↑ Dixon, Wheeler W. (1998). The Transparency of Spectacle: Meditations on the Moving Image. SUNY Press. ISBN   9780791437810.
  3. ↑ Rowan, Terry (2016-10-14). Hollywood Monsters & Creepy Things. Lulu.com. ISBN   9781365461972.
  4. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 17: Plot synopsis
  5. ↑ Senn, Bryan (1998). Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema. Midnight Marquee & BearManor Media.
  6. ↑ Senn, Bryan (1998). Drums of Terror: Voodoo in the Cinema. Midnight Marquee & BearManor Media.
  7. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 17
  8. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 17
  9. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 17
  10. ↑ Hanke, 2011
  11. ↑ Weaver, Tom; Brunas, John (2011-12-20). Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931–1946, 2d ed. McFarland. ISBN   9780786491506.
  12. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 18: “...the crushing burden of “B” picture economy is everywhere present…”
  13. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 69: “...Inner Sanctum pictures were shot on a 12-day schedule, $150,000 each.”
  14. ↑ "B.C." (April 1, 1944). "THE SCREEN; A Woman Scorned". New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  15. ↑ Dixon, 1992 p. 17
  16. ↑ Hanke, 2011

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lon Chaney Jr.</span> American actor (1906–1974)

Creighton Tull Chaney, known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard in Son of Dracula, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s Inner Sanctum series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939) and played supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including High Noon (1952), The Defiant Ones (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas.

<i>The Black Sleep</i> 1956 film by Reginald Le Borg

The Black Sleep a 1956 American independent horror film directed by Reginald LeBorg, and written by John C. Higgins from a story by Gerald Drayson Adams. It stars Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Bela Lugosi, and Akim Tamiroff. Tor Johnson appears in a supporting role. The film was produced by Aubrey Schenck and Howard W. Koch, as part of a four-picture finance-for-distribution arrangement with United Artists.

<i>The Mummys Ghost</i> 1944 horror film by Reginald Le Borg

The Mummy's Ghost is a 1944 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg for Universal. It is the second of three sequels to The Mummy's Hand (1940), following The Mummy's Tomb (1942) and preceding The Mummy's Curse (1944). Lon Chaney Jr. again takes on the role of Kharis the mummy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Ankers</span> British-American actress (1918–1985)

Evelyn Felisa Ankers was a British-American actress who often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) opposite Lon Chaney Jr., a frequent screen partner.

<i>Diary of a Madman</i> (film) 1963 film by Reginald Le Borg

Diary of a Madman is a 1963 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield.

<i>The Frozen Ghost</i> 1945 film by Harold Young

The Frozen Ghost is a 1945 American noir-mystery film and the fourth installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name. The movie stars Lon Chaney Jr., Elena Verdugo, Evelyn Ankers, Tala Birell, and Martin Kosleck, and was directed by Harold Young.

<i>Calling Dr. Death</i> 1943 film by Reginald Le Borg

Calling Dr. Death is a 1943 mystery film, and the first installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name, the film stars Chaney Jr. and Patricia Morison, and was directed by Reginald Le Borg. Chaney Jr. plays a neurologist, Dr. Mark Steele, who loses memory of the past few days after learning that his wife has been brutally murdered. Aware of his wife's infidelity and believing he could be the killer, Steele asks his office nurse Stella Madden to help him recover his lost memories.

<i>Dead Mans Eyes</i> 1944 film by Reginald Le Borg

Dead Man's Eyes is a 1944 noir-mystery film, and the second installment in The Inner Sanctum Mysteries anthological film series, which was based on the popular radio series of the same name. Directed by Reginald Le Borg, and starring Lon Chaney Jr. and Jean Parker, the movie was distributed by Universal Pictures.

<i>Jungle Woman</i> 1944 film by Reginald Le Borg

Jungle Woman is a 1944 American horror film directed by Reginald LeBorg. The film stars Evelyn Ankers, J. Carrol Naish, Samuel S. Hinds, Lois Collier and Acquanetta. Jungle Woman was the second film in Universal's Cheela, the Ape Woman series, preceded by Captive Wild Woman.

Reginald LeBorg was an Austrian-American film director. He directed 68 films between 1936 and 1974.

<i>Voodoo Island</i> 1957 film by Reginald Le Borg

Voodoo Island is a 1957 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and written by Richard H. Landau. The film stars Boris Karloff, with a cast including Elisha Cook Jr., Beverly Tyler and Rhodes Reason. It is set in the South Pacific and was filmed on Kauai, Hawaii back to back with Jungle Heat. Adam West appears in a small pre-"Batman" uncredited role.

<i>The Eyes of Annie Jones</i> 1964 American-British film by Reginald Le Borg

The Eyes of Annie Jones is a 1964 American-British drama film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Richard Conte, Francesca Annis and Joyce Carey. It was written by Louis Vittes. The film tells the story of a sleepwalking young woman involved with a murder.

<i>House of the Black Death</i> 1965 American film

House of the Black Death is a 1965 American horror film directed by Harold Daniels, Reginald LeBorg and Jerry Warren. The film was written by Richard Mahoney, based on a novel titled The Widderburn Horror by Lora Crozetti. The movie starred Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine, although the two actors shared no scenes in the film.

<i>Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch</i> 1949 film directed by Reginald Le Borg

Joe Palooka in the Counterpunch is a 1949 American film directed by Reginald Le Borg. It was one in the series of Joe Palooka films for Monogram starring Leon Errol. It was co-written by Cy Endfield.

<i>Destiny</i> (1944 film) 1944 film by Reginald Le Borg

Destiny is a 1944 American drama film noir directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Gloria Jean, Alan Curtis, Frank Craven, and Grace McDonald.

<i>Little Iodine</i> (film) 1946 film by Reginald Le Borg

Little Iodine is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Reginald Le Borg and written by Richard H. Landau. The film is based on the comic strip Little Iodine by Jimmy Hatlo. The film stars Jo Ann Marlowe, Marc Cramer, Eve Whitney, Irene Ryan, and Hobart Cavanaugh. Little Iodine was produced by Comet Productions and released on October 20, 1946, by United Artists. All prints of the film were believed to be destroyed after 10 years, effectively making it a lost film.

<i>Susie Steps Out</i> 1946 film by Reginald Le Borg

Susie Steps Out is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Reginald Le Borg, written by Elwood Ullman and Fred Freiberger, and starring David Bruce, Cleatus Caldwell, Nita Hunter, Howard Freeman, Grady Sutton and Margaret Dumont. It was released on December 13, 1946 by United Artists.

<i>Joe Palooka in Triple Cross</i> 1951 film directed by Reginald Le Borg

Joe Palooka in Triple Cross is a 1951 American film. It was part of the Joe Palooka series and was directed by Reginald Le Borg.

<i>Shes for Me</i> 1943 film by Reginald Le Borg

She's for Me is a 1943 American musical film directed by Reginald LeBorg and starring Grace McDonald and David Bruce.

<i>The Inner Sanctum Mysteries</i> (film series) American film series

The Inner Sanctum Mysteries film series consists of American classic-horror mystery films, based on and inspired by the works of Himan Brown, and the stories printed by Simon & Schuster.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.