I have not reviewed — or even viewed — a cheesy horror movie in a while. I sought to remedy the omission Wednesday with The Fatal Hour (1940) starring Boris Karloff, part of our DVD set of 50 Classic Horror Movies.
The main reason we picked that one is that one of Steven’s movie books said it was 68 minutes long. This would get me into bed in a timely fashion, as it is important to me to get my beauty rest (and I don’t need anyone to tell me that I clearly do not get enough).
The movie opened with a hot blonde walking into the Homicide Department. I perked up. Was it, could it be… it was! An intrepid girl reporter! I love intrepid girl reporters! Of course she was looking for a story. And naturally everything was quiet UNTIL…
Actually, things started rather slowly, with the off camera murder of a policeman working undercover. Soon we meet Detective Wong, played by Boris Karloff, working on the case unofficially. I only recognized Karloff by his voice, and not the “Friend! Good!” voice he used in Bride of Frankenstein. It was the gentle, comforting voice he used when he narrated How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I kept thinking about How the Grinch Stole Christmas every time Karloff talked. He really had a beautiful voice.
The main bad guy, less so. He had an accent that came and went, and he referred to Mr. Wong as The Chinese Copper. That was probably the cheesiest aspect of the picture. That, and the bad girl’s hat. When I found out she was the bad girl, I realized I should have known right away she was bad, based on the hat.
The movie as a whole, I’m afraid, was not very cheesy. It wasn’t a horror movie, either. It was a detective film. What was that all about? I suppose it made it into the collection because of Boris Karloff. Apparently the people that put these things together do not necessarily watch the movies first.
As a detective movie, it was actually pretty good. The solution was clever. I arrived at it just before Mr. Wong confronted the killer (I’ve seen a lot of detective movies). As usual, I missed a few clues along the way. I’ll need to watch it again to pick those up, as because I’m still not clear on how the killer got one victim.
I was disappointed at the lack of monsters and cheesiness, but I did enjoy the movie. Steven looked at his collection of 50 Mystery Classics and discovered another Mr. Wong movie with Karloff. We’ll have to check it out. For the next Mohawk Valley Girl Movie Review, however, I hope to have something more cheesy to report on. Stay tuned.
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