Retrospektive 2018

Weird Woman

Reginald Le Borg
USA 1944
63 min
V'18

The long-running mystery and suspense radio serial Inner Sanctum Mystery (1941—1952) inspired six Universal films, all starring Lon Chaney Jr. and featuring eerie stories of supernatural terror. The best in the series is WEIRD WOMAN which finds Chaney as an anthropology professor married to the exotic island native he met while conducting field research for a book on voodoo religions. Austrian émigré Reginald Le Borg lends an ironically anthropological eye to his cutting study of a small-minded American town destabilized by the incestuous rivalries and unspoken xenophobia that ignite when Chaney unexpectedly returns from his expedition with his comely bride in tow. Remaining true to its radio origins, WEIRD WOMAN makes effective use of voice-overs to place the viewer squarely in the troubled mind-set of Chaney as he struggles to understand the many weird women who whisper suggestively into his ear, including the original Cat Woman and always uncanny Val Lewton regular Elizabeth Russel as a wrathfully vengeful wife desperate to blame someone for her husband’s suicide. (Haden Guest)

With CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN

Credits
  • Elisabeth Risdon - Mrs. Raskolnikov
  • Ralph Morgan
  • Evelyn Ankers
  • Lon Chaney Jr.
  • Anne Gwynne
  • Lois Collier
  • Brenda Weisberg
  • Scott Darling
  • based on the novel by Fritz Leiber Jr.
  • Virgil Miller
  • Paul Sawtell
Universal Pictures
35 mm
bw
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