ellenirishellen-62962 I know George Macready is the guy people love to trash,but he was a well-educated,classy person in real life,and that seems to draw criticism from those who can't differentiate between characters and the actors who play them.Many rave of how athletic Errol Flynn was,attractive Ty Powers was,but they rank on Macready's stage training and his perfect diction-all part of that stage training.He's perfect here,walking in a trance with an ice pick to kill a friend,drinking when he awakens from his stupor after almost killing his friend until he sees the crucifix.The wife is given little to do,but she's as brilliant as Rose Hobart as the mysterious Lilyan,who controls "George" or tries to in every facet of his life.The ending seems to ensure this was a dream as quoted in the prologue-glad it ended on that note.Bannon co-starred with Macready in the "I Love A Mystery" movies,and his death,to me,was caused by negligence,and couldn't understand putting George on trial murder!

John Seal Try as it might, this Columbia programmer just can't quite get over the hump. Even with George Macready and Rose Hobart heading the cast, there are too few scares and far, far too much walking. Rose walks (and almost gets hit by a car). George walks with a knife in his hand. Rose walks some more. Bland co-lead Jim Bannon even goes for a stroll. In fact, there's so much shoe leather burned in this film that I humbly offer Sole of a Monster as a more suitable title. It's all shot well by Burnett Guffey, and there IS a modicum of Lewton-style atmosphere, but the stifling straitjacket of Christian spirituality (not to mention the cheat ending) ultimately undoes whatever good work went into this production. An intriguing but ultimately disappointing failure.

MartinHafer I wanted to like this movie, as it is a B-movie monster film--just the sort of entertaining bit of fluff I love to watch!! Unfortunately, despite a great premise and an excellent start, the movie was undone by lousy and very heavy-handed script writing.George Macready played a saintly doctor was on his deathbed. His distraught wife is angry that such a good and selfless man should die so young and she rejects assurances and platitudes from a friend that he's "going on to a better place". And, in a weak moment, she announces that she wants her husband well and could care less who could help--be it Heaven or Hell. Well, not unexpectedly, he DID recover--thanks to a strange woman who appears and magically heals him. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, she turns out to be evil (though exactly WHO she is working for is never revealed) and she is able to control Macready with her evil mind!!! Now all this seemed great except for two problems. Despite her voice appearing in his head with instructions to kill, Macready never really got around to doing that much evil--and he never did icepick victims like the voice commanded. However, much worse was the ultra-heavy-handed moralizing that accompanied this. It seemed like all the fun was missing from the script and it was just a very preachy message about good versus evil--and not in a good way. It was almost like combining "Davey and Goliath" with a 1940s horror film--with much more emphasis on the Davey and Goliath aspects. It was embarrassing bad--so bad I nearly turned off the film. A low budget does NOT mean that a film must be dull or poorly constructed. Don't let this film turn you off the genre!Also, I read through the mostly VERY favorable reviews for this film and this left me baffled. Sure, I could understand a person liking this film (we all have different tastes), but to say this small film deserves a rating of 9 or 10 is madness! Even the truly great films like THE BLACK CAT, THE MUMMY and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN have many reviews that were scored much lower than this!!! The overall IMDb score of 4.9 would NOT indicate that this is a 9 or 10. Such super-high scores should be reserved for only the great films--not run of the mill "cheapie" films like this.

howdymax If I hadn't seen the opening credits, I would have sworn this was a Val Lewton classic. It has all the fascinating earmarks as well as much of the weirdness. The story is simple enough. A doctor about to die is saved by an evil spirit in the guise of a mysterious woman, but as we know, there is always a price to pay for undeserved immortality.This was, without question, a "B" movie dressed up to be more stylistic than most. As in those Val Lewton movies, all the performances are understated. The principals drift into indecipherable monologues that leave you numb. Many of the scenes are shot in shadow and the whole atmosphere is spooky. There is no bloody violence to speak of, but there is enough heart stopping shock to satisfy the blood-lust in most of us.George MacReady leads the cast. This should tell us something. He was a fine character actor, but only in a low budget thriller would he ever be given the lead. His evil muse is played by Rose Hobart. I have to admit I never heard of her until I saw this movie, but she did a more than adequate job. In fact, she was downright frightening. The rest of the cast is nameless, although I may have seen one or two of them in an old Dragnet episode, but not one of them let the story down.This production is well worth watching - if you can find it. My only complaint is that it comes with a prologue and an epilogue. In fact, it comes with a testament to good over evil. I don't know, it was made in 1944. Maybe they had no choice.