I Saw What You Did To My Black Cat!

To keep up with my Vacation movie marathon last night was time to clean up my Tivo a little bit and watch a few Svengoolie's from the past month. First up

Black Cat (1934)

Bela Lugosi and Bori Karloff teamed up for the first of six pairings, this time in a story about a young couple traveling by train through Hungary (always a bad idea in the movies). They meet Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi) on the train, a psychiatrist who’s going to visit his Austrian friend, Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), who’s spent the last 15 years in a notorious prison camp. But the train crashes, the young woman is injured, and the trio ends up journeying to the forboding home of Poelzig. Bad things happen after that. Poelzig, by the way, was based in part on infamous British occultist Aleister Crowley.

There is a lot to like here. The custom where iconic the musical score was spot on and the first to run an entire movie. Of course the cast was wonderful. But two things really stuck out in my mind for a 1934 movie. The house and its interior where just as much a character in the movie as the two stars. The metallic look the hard angles made for a fun watch.

But the thing I enjoyed the most was the camera work. John J. Mescall who was the Cinematographer on more than 90 movies really shined in this one. He really got down to different levels for his abstract angles and off center movement that you can see in the works of today's greats like Sam Rami. His use of shadow and light where brilliant at times. This added to the film in such a wonderful way.

If you have not seen Black Cat yet you owe it to your self. Karloff's outfit is amazing and Lugosi is fantastic as always. This is a great team with a fun package from camera angles to music that make this a fun watch.

Black Cat I give you 

4 Bloody Brains out of 5

Bazinga!

Next up the William Castle Joan Crawford vehicle...

I Saw What You Did (1965)

When two teenagers make prank phone calls to strangers, they become the target for terror when they whisper "I Saw What You Did, And I Know Who You Are!" to psychopath Steve Marek who has just murdered his wife. But somebody else knows of the terrible crime that was committed that night, the killer's desperately amorous neighbor Amy Nelson.

One thing I will say about Sven is that he has turned me on to William Castle. This guy is so under rated and I'm not sure why. Sure he did some silly gags for his movies but that is one of the things I love about the guy. Until Sven the only Castle movie I had seen was 13 Ghost's. But now The Tinglier is one of my go to movies. As well as I Saw What You Did and Straight-Jacket.

This is a fun little movie that captures the '60's pretty well with its sleepover fun make prank calls what could go wrong if we do movie. I have one gripe though and it is the ending so SPOILER ALERT!

OK so Kit and her sister run out of the house and the chase is on right OK fine. But they run to the car the killer is inside grabs Kit the struggle cop shoots through the window killing the bad guy. But what odd thing happens next, the two girls hug then cry, when the cop asks if they are OK they start to laugh and walk back into the house like nothing happened. Hello a guy was just shot in the back seat of your car people are around and your going back to bed like nothing happened?? What is with the very odd happy ending?? Maybe it was just me I don't know. 

The Sven bit's in this movie where funny tonight with some new and old Christmas bits. All in all I Saw What You Did was one of Castle straight none gimmick movies and well worth a look. All the the end was bad.

Joan I give you...

3 Bloody Brains out of 5

I saw what you did, and I know who you are.