Watch The Lady and the Monster For Free

You won't be disappointed!

Wow! Such a good movie.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

...And she still has the worst line delivery in screen history!Perhaps it was the melodramatic performance of Erich Von Stroheim or the strange set or the way this "A" feature from a "B-" studio was filmed. Perhaps it is because it is a more detailed film of "Donovan's Brain" with excellent character development and even better story telling than the good United Artists remake from just nine years later. So somewhere in the Arizona desert is a gloomy looking mansion where doctors Erich Von Stroheim and Richard Arlen are doing experiments on animals to see if their brains continue to work after the animal's heart has stopped beating and they have been pronounced dead. A monkey dying of lymphoma is experimented on, and the brain continues to thrive for an hour after the poor cute little creature has passed on. This inspires the bellowing Von Stroheim to take the step further: to try it on a human! He has his hands full, being domineering to his nurse (Ralston) who is in love with Von Stroheim's assistant (Richard Arlen) whom Von Stroheim considers unworthy of her. A convenient plane crash gives Von Stroheim an excuse to interrupt Arlen and Ralston's date, sending them to the sight of the crash to retrieve the dead body of a passenger (named Donovan, an alleged financial wizard) for an autopsy. Realizing that while Donovan is dead, his brain is still functioning makes Von Stroheim decided to remove the brain for further experimentation in hopefully using this for the good of society to keep the great deeds and words of great men going. But was Donovan really the great man they believe? A visit from his widow opens up that can of worms, and Arlen is soon used as a vessel to bring Donovan's spirit back to life, not necessarily a good thing.It's easy to see why Herbert J. Yates, the head of Republic Studios, thought he could make a silk purse actress out of a sow's ear non-actress, as Ralston is very photogenic here, but unfortunately, that never transfers onto the screen as either great acting or star quality. She's very hesitant in taking chances, and as a result, comes off bland and unsure of herself. Making matters worse is pairing her opposite two film veterans from the silent era. Arlen, still handsome, is very good in going between his noble assistant and the increasingly evil Donovan, while Von Stroheim blasts his lines as if he was Harry James or Glenn Miller leading their bands. Mary Nash, as Von Stroheim's Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper, gives a slow volcanic rising performance, initially cool and dark, and as she begins to see the sinister things rising around her, daring to stand up to Von Stroheim in some shocking ways. Helen Vinson, as Donovan's widow, and Sidney Blackmer, as her attorney lover, are also memorable in their smaller roles, but the screaming Juanita Quigley as a young girl involved in a plot twist involving Donovan, is majorly annoying.Aided by excellent photography, lighting and the genuinely ghoulish atmosphere, this thriller has enough of an edge to keep you hooked, and for that reason, I rate it two stars higher than its better known 1950's remake. Von Stroheim keeps in character throughout, manages to emote over dramatically without somehow becoming too campy or over-the-top, and Arlen gives it a true touch of class. Even with the complete non-acting of Vera Hruba Ralston, the film stays devoted to its theme of how mankind should not interfere in extending life beyond its expiration date, and how when they do, it turns out to be a complete disaster for everybody involved.

*Spoiler/plot- The Lady and the Monster, 1944. In a rural castle two medical men and a woman assistant are experimenting with brain chemistry and energy. After a airplane crash, they take a human brain of one of the victims to continue their work. The brain is of a criminal mind that gradually takes over the medical assistant's mind periodically to do more evil.*Special Stars- Vera Ralston, Richard Allen, Erich Von Strohiem.*Theme- Don't tamper with creation.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. Film Noir.*Emotion- An interesting combination of science fiction and film noir detective features prominently here. The male cast members overshadow the female lead and the plot has little for her to do to engineer the dramatic situations of this film. The disembodied brain element becomes secondary to the crime plot for this film.

The Lady And The Monster is a misnomer of a title in that no other world or unearthly creatures will be found here. The monster in this film is the brain of a malignant and vicious millionaire who is killed in a plane crash and has his brain removed by scientist Erich Von Stroheim. Von Stroheim and his assistant Richard Arlen put the brain in a saline solution and keep it alive with electricity. Just the brain mind you, they're not reconstructing human beings as Dr. Frankenstein was.But Walter Donovan was a real piece of work even for a miser. He's got his assets carefully hidden so that wife Helen Vinson and her lawyer Sidney Blackmer don't know where they are. And he's got a son in William Henry in prison who doesn't know he's Donovan's kid. In fact everyone has an agenda here. Vera Hruba Ralston who is Von Stroheim's nurse wants Arlen. But Arlen is taken over by the brain which through Von Stroheim's experiments has developed tremendous telepathic powers and as it grows stronger controls Arlen more and more.This film is the first one based on Curt Siodmark's novel Donovan's Brain. It's been remade twice since. In the version with Lew Ayres in Arlen's part, the brain has a truly ambitious plan for world domination with stock and currency manipulation. Here the brain is just working on settling some old scores.Just the fact that Von Stroheim is cast as the evil scientist meant that audiences knew exactly what to expect when they bought their tickets. He's his usual hateful self as he always was except in Sunset Boulevard.The Lady And The Monster is one of Republic Pictures better products from the Forties, a real nice low budget thriller. By the way take note of Mary Nash as Von Stroheim's housekeeper. She's the one who saves the world from Donovan's Brain.

Lady and the Monster, The (1944) ** (out of 4) Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) and his assistant Dr. Cory (Richard Arlen) are doing experiments on keeping the brain of an animal alive but they get their chance at a human one after a rich man named Donovan dies. They end up saving Donovan's brain but soon it begins to take control of Cory and sends him out to finish his bad deeds. Curt Siodmak's novel "Donovan's Brain" has been filmed countless times over the years and there have been even more rip-offs. I've never been a huge fan of the story because none of the film versions have really worked. This includes the first version, which is this Republic chiller that has a few good performances but sadly the end result just isn't all that good. One of the biggest problems is the incredibly slow pace by director George Sherman who never gets anything going. The entire movie runs 86-minutes but it feels nearly twice as long because we just get one boring sequence after another. A lot of the problems are long dialogue sequences that really don't add up to anything. This includes just about everything dealing with the dead man's widow who is trying to figure out where he late husband hid all of his money. The stuff dealing with Cory trying to close out various deals of Donovan's just don't work. Even worse is the silly love connection between Cory and another assistant (Vera Ralston), which really slows the movie down. It's funny to see that the movie would be re-released in 1949 but with nearly nineteen-minutes worth of footage cut out. I'm not one who supports studios cutting down movies but there have been many times where a shorter version helped and I'm going to guess that this is such a case. There are some good elements here and they're mainly the performances. I was really surprised to see how effective Arlen (ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) was. Not only was he very believable as the scientist but his turn as the bad guy was also well handled. The actor did a very good job at mixing the good and the bad and he certainly made the film much better. von Stroheim is also fun in his part, although at the same time you can't help but shake your head when seeing such a great talent playing in a film like this. Ralston is quite annoying in her part but perhaps that was on purpose. THE LADY AND THE MONSTER hasn't had a wide release since it first came out and after finally seeing it I can't say that it was worth the wait.