Fri 30 Dec 2016
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE BLACK CASTLE (1952).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[10] Comments
THE BLACK CASTLE. Universal, 1952. Richard Greene, Boris Karloff, Stephen McNally, Rita Corday, Lon Chaney Jr. and Michael Pate. Written by Jerry Sackheim. Directed by Nathan Juran.
A ripping yarn from producer William (Tarantula, Creature from the Black Lagoon…) Alland, this was marketed as a horror film, but it’s more like a swashbuckler with a few creepy elements.
Richard Greene, who will always be Robin Hood to me, stars as an English aristocrat going undercover as a guest of Count Von Bruno (Stephen McNally) the tyrannical lord of a castle in the Black Forest, who had a somewhat checkered past in Africa (he still keeps an alligator pit to remind him of the good old days) and may have murdered two of Greene’s friends.
And that’s pretty much all the plot there is here: Greene sneaks around trying to get the goods on McNally, romances his countess (Rita Corday) crosses blades with his toady (Michael Pate) and generally plays the doughty swordsman to the hilt (see what I did there?) as he exposes McNally’s villainy…. and gets coffined alive in the process.
Boris Karloff has a supporting part here, but it’s an interesting one: the Castle Physician, whose loyalty (or disloyalty?) to the Count forms the linchpin of the story, as sundry poisonings, mysterious deaths and other nonsense peppers the plot. But it’s rather sad to see Lon Chaney Jr. lumbering around fat, drunk and grunting, particularly when I recall him playing so effectively off Karloff in House of Frankenstein (1944) a memory more poignant because most of the background music in Black Castle was lifted from the earlier film.
But the show here really belongs to Stephen McNally, one of the best bad guys of his day, and he carries it off wonderfully, alternately baleful and leering, laughing maniacally when the occasion demands, and generally carrying on in the best Lugosi tradition. It’s the sort of part that’s hard to take seriously unless you’re a little kid (or a kid at heart) but McNally plays it without a trace of condescension, aided enormously by director Nathan Juran (7th Voyage of Sinbad, Attack of the 50′ Woman…) who keeps things moving and puts the action scenes across with inventive camera angles and an infectious sense of fun.
December 30th, 2016 at 10:07 pm
In addition it’s a costume version of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, with McNally as Zarhoff. Not horror, but an atmospheric swashbuckler enhanced by a hero worthy of the villainy.
December 30th, 2016 at 10:37 pm
When I went to Amazon to see if the movie was available on DVD, I saw that it’s part of an inexpensive set of five Boris Karloff films.
Not only that, but I was informed that:
“You purchased this item on December 31, 2009.”
Seven years ago, almost to the day. How abut that?
December 31st, 2016 at 11:44 am
So it must be lurking somewhere there in your vast, well-organized files…
December 31st, 2016 at 3:41 pm
You seem to know me very well, Dan.
December 31st, 2016 at 11:56 am
This was my first time seeing McNally and I didn’t like him. Since then, I’ve come to admire his rough exterior and sneering smile.
December 31st, 2016 at 4:04 pm
Other movies that McNally was in that have been reviewed on this blog:
APACHE DRUMS https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=35238
JOHNNY ROCCO https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=34855
IRON MAN https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32791
DIPLOMATIC COURIER https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=23367
VIOLENT SATURDAY https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=23044
ROGUES’ REGIMENT https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=12397
THE FIEND WHO WALKED THE WEST https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=2088
SPLIT SECOND https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1901
Plus a couple of TV shows:
SCHLITZ PLAYHOUSE “Rabbit Foot” https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32295
McMILLAN AND WIFE “The Man without a Face” https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32176
December 31st, 2016 at 9:16 pm
Throwing in a mention of Stephen McNally’s TV series from 1961, Target: The Corruptors, in which he played an investigative reporter.
This was ahead of its time, in its subject matter (political/economic/social corruption), and in giving the lead role to McNally, who, as noted, was usually villainous (or at least unsympathetic).
Corruptors was a Four Star show; Dick Powell often thought “outside the box” like this.
Corruptors only ran one season, Friday nights on ABC, and apparently did fairly well, at least in the cities; why exactly it was cancelled is something I’ve never seen satisfactorily explained – controversial subject matter may have played a part (I recall an episode in which Jack Warden played a thinly-disguised Jimmy Hoffa, for one example).
December 31st, 2016 at 11:44 pm
I remember looking for TARGET: THE CORRUPTORS on DVD a few years ago, without success. I now see someone on ioffer with a set of 27 episodes up for sale. That’s a pretty chunk of the 35 episodes that IMDb says the series had.
January 1st, 2017 at 12:44 am
Re McNally
I think you will find that throughout the fifties he was cast in quite a few films leads. Never made the top tier, but was always welcome. and absolutely marvelous in sympathetic supporting part, with Dana Andrews and Jeff Chandler, in Sword In The Desert.
January 1st, 2017 at 1:01 am
I think watching SWORD IN THE DESERT was the first time I managed to put Stephen McNally’s name to his face. As you say, he had a great role in that movie, which I enjoyed very much.