The Soul of a Monster (1944) User Reviews

When you wish upon a fire...

[the_mysteriousx · 5/10 · 18 January 2005]

This little-seen Colombia horror film from 1944 is a pretentious, but still interesting film.

It stars George Macready, in one of his first films, as a good doctor who is on his deathbed. His wife, played by a solid Jeanne Bates, wishes at the family fireplace for any force from heaven or hell to save him as she has lost faith with her god. Her wish is instantly granted by an unseen Satan as Rose Hobart plays a sort of 'Soul Master' who coldly arrives on the scene and saves Macready. Her action, of course, has a price.

Without revealing too much, this seems to have tried to copy the Val Lewton formula, which was popular at the time. The film opens and closes with a narrative quote. The direction is adequate. There is a long "chase" scene in the middle that seems to go on forever. The two characters walk as if elderly people on prozac. It is meant to be suspenseful, but it's just too darned long to keep up the suspense.

The film has very few "horror" moments, but some nice cinematic ones. There are shadows aplenty, but the best touch is the arrival and departure of Rose Hobart's character. The film changes to a negative image and then back to positive. I hadn't seen that technique used before in a classic horror film and there were some effective dutch angles that did a good job of building the suspense.

A decent film that unfortunately is just never too interesting, it's worth viewing for hard core classic horror buffs only. 5/10

THE SOUL OF A MONSTER (Will Jason, 1944) **

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 23 January 2010]

What little reputation this film has is very mixed, so it is no surprise my own reaction proved likewise. Revolving around an intriguing concept, yet the script (by genre regular Edward Dein) is seemingly at a loss about what to do with it: an eminent and much beloved physician (George Macready) lies dying and, in desperation at the unfairness of it all, his wife (lovely Jeanne Bates – who, late in life, somehow got to appear in two David Lynch movies!) renounces God and asks the Devil for help; immediately afterwards, a mysterious woman (Rose Hobart – from the 1931 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE) turns up, restores Macready to health and basically starts running his life. While happy to see her husband get better, Bates soon notices that his personality has changed – becoming distant, aggressive and even loses interest in his work: in short, alienating everyone around him – so that she actually wishes he had died back then! All of this sends her running into the arms of Macready's best friend, Erik Rolf (looking like a cross between Glenn Ford and the young Orson Welles...or, for that matter a local film-buff friend of mine, Robert!!): his character and relationship to the couple is pretty ambiguous – he acts almost as their spiritual adviser (thus being instantly and openly averse to Hobart's machinations), yet is a constant presence even at social engagements, hardly deigning to keep the 'love triangle' situation in check! Anyway, Macready's negligence costs a colleague's life and the once-respected doctor is put on trial…only this takes us back to the very beginning, so that all that went on in the interim turns out to have been nothing more than a death-bed hallucination – the moral being that one must face up to death with dignity and resignation, apparently after having done one's bit for the good of mankind (which should have especially resonated with wartime audiences)! The film offers more than adequate atmosphere (courtesy of future double Oscar-winning cinematographer Burnett Guffey) and Hobart (with an icy demeanor and a devilish coiffure to boot) is quite good – the combination of which leads to its eeriest moment, the very first appearance of the Devil's envoy in which she is unperturbed by a car running her over and then, after following her in a tilted camera angle shot, no less, she is seen literally electrifying her surroundings! However, as I said at the start, the plot is insufficient as Macready is not seen doing much of anything after he is revived (what was the point, then?) and Hobart actually has to prod him towards committing murder (naturally because it constitutes the extremity of an evil deed)! That said, the choice of target (the 'pastor'/rival) would benefit each of them – only he flubs it and, so does the film, since this clearly Lewtonesque sequence is kept on going much longer than necessary!; consequently, the inherent suspense in having the 'sleepwalking' Macready (armed with an ice pick long before BASIC INSTINCT [1992]!!) stalk Rolf by night out on the streets is gradually diffused…particularly with the unintentionally comic off-screen effect of the sudden opening of a rising street elevator's hatch sounding like Macready had bumped into some dustbin or a mailbox around the corner! Mind you, I am glad I acquired the film also because, as it happens, this viewing actually urged me to get back to work on my unfinished review of the slightly similar but far superior ALIAS NICK BEAL (1949; which I had originally watched on my birthday back in August) – in which Macready now actually (and atypically) takes on the role of the Minister Of God who strikes fear into (and eventually brings down) the Agent Of Hell.

Mis-titled

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 15 November 2007]

Try as it might, this Columbia programmer just can't quite get over the hump. Even with George Macready and Rose Hobart heading the cast, there are too few scares and far, far too much walking. Rose walks (and almost gets hit by a car). George walks with a knife in his hand. Rose walks some more. Bland co-lead Jim Bannon even goes for a stroll. In fact, there's so much shoe leather burned in this film that I humbly offer Sole of a Monster as a more suitable title. It's all shot well by Burnett Guffey, and there IS a modicum of Lewton-style atmosphere, but the stifling straitjacket of Christian spirituality (not to mention the cheat ending) ultimately undoes whatever good work went into this production. An intriguing but ultimately disappointing failure.

Despite a good start, this film was hopelessly ruined by a lousy script

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 7 November 2007]

I wanted to like this movie, as it is a B-movie monster film--just the sort of entertaining bit of fluff I love to watch!! Unfortunately, despite a great premise and an excellent start, the movie was undone by lousy and very heavy-handed script writing.

George Macready played a saintly doctor was on his deathbed. His distraught wife is angry that such a good and selfless man should die so young and she rejects assurances and platitudes from a friend that he's "going on to a better place". And, in a weak moment, she announces that she wants her husband well and could care less who could help--be it Heaven or Hell. Well, not unexpectedly, he DID recover--thanks to a strange woman who appears and magically heals him. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, she turns out to be evil (though exactly WHO she is working for is never revealed) and she is able to control Macready with her evil mind!!! Now all this seemed great except for two problems. Despite her voice appearing in his head with instructions to kill, Macready never really got around to doing that much evil--and he never did icepick victims like the voice commanded. However, much worse was the ultra-heavy-handed moralizing that accompanied this. It seemed like all the fun was missing from the script and it was just a very preachy message about good versus evil--and not in a good way. It was almost like combining "Davey and Goliath" with a 1940s horror film--with much more emphasis on the Davey and Goliath aspects. It was embarrassing bad--so bad I nearly turned off the film.

A low budget does NOT mean that a film must be dull or poorly constructed. Don't let this film turn you off the genre!

Also, I read through the mostly VERY favorable reviews for this film and this left me baffled. Sure, I could understand a person liking this film (we all have different tastes), but to say this small film deserves a rating of 9 or 10 is madness! Even the truly great films like THE BLACK CAT, THE MUMMY and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN have many reviews that were scored much lower than this!!! The overall IMDb score of 4.9 would NOT indicate that this is a 9 or 10. Such super-high scores should be reserved for only the great films--not run of the mill "cheapie" films like this.

Poor Movie

[Michael_Elliott · 28 February 2008]

Soul of a Monster, The (1944)

* (out of 4)

Forgotten horror film from Columbia about a doctor on his deathbed whose wife prays, to good or evil, that he lives. He gets better thanks to a mysterious woman but what they don't know is that this woman put the soul of a monster into the doctor's body. There's a very good reason Columbia hasn't released this sucker on any home video format and that's because it's pretty damn bad. I took me three viewings before I could watch the entire film without falling asleep. The film tries very hard to recapture the mood and feel of a Val Lewton film but it fails on all levels.

Well made movie suffers because the story has been used way too many times before and since

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 17 June 2009]

Much loved and saintly doctor falls sick and near death. In desperation his wife looks into a fire and asks for some power to save him. A dark woman appears and the doctor is saved…but something seems different. Breezy tale of possession and of evil coming into the lives of the friends and family of a well respected man is good and well acted, but suffers in that once you know what the premise is there really isn't anywhere to go with it. In all honesty the film is similar to numerous other films, radio and TV shows so its easy to guess where its going. I hung with it during the course of it hour long running time in the hope that some new twist would add some spark to the tale, but it never happened, the film just started and went straight on to the end on its appointed course. Not bad, but far from unique or original.

Dark shadows, sinister forces and far too much talk.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 30 January 2017]

This well intentioned horror drama tries to go down the dark streets of the human mind, and in trying to become the type of thriller made Val Lewton a cult figure fails miserably in this unfortunate misfire. Beloved scientist and doctor George Macready is dying but suddenly given a second chance at life, and starts to behave very strangely. It seems to have started with an encounter with the strange Rose Hobart, a meeting set up by his worried wife (Jeanne Bates). It's up to Macready's colleague (Jim Bannon) to get an answer, and it doesn't seem to be one that Bannon will care to try to comprehend.

While there are some extremely tense moments, the script drags out the mystery and the intrigue a little bit too far. The photography is moody, semi film noir in nature, but too bizarre and convoluted to really work overall. It's a noble experiment to try something different, and the performances are intriguing. But this seems to be trying to be as profound, spooky and mysterious as "The Seventh Victim", but ends up being a dark misfire, a pretentious piece of art that strived too hard and didn't quite meets its goal.

Two women struggle for a man's soul

[snicewanger · 6/10 · 23 September 2015]

Despite its lurid title, Soul of a Monster is much less of a horror film and much more of a religious allegory. A saintly doctor, George Winston, nationally famous for his humanitarianism is dying and no power on earth is able to save him.Because of this his wife Ann has lost her faith in God. She calls on the dark powers to save him. A rather severe and intimidating women appears out of nowhere to save his life. Her entrance into the story is the eeriest and most mysterious part of the film. She arrives at the doctors deathbed with the claim that she can help him and takes over the situation . The woman calls herself Lilyan Gregg and she does bring about Winston's recovery. The doctor has recovered but he is a changed man. He seems to have lost his humanity. He no longer has any empathy with those whom he formerly cared for.He is now cold, aloft and unsympathetic. He comes to reject his wife and friends for a relationship with Lilyan.His wife Ann regrets her plea to the dark side to save her husbands from death for now she must battle Lilyan for his very soul.

Anybody who watches Soul of a Monster to see a horror film is really going to be disappointed. It's a cleverly done fantasy film but hardly horrific.Rose Hobart was a talented actress and here she is quite effective as the Devils messenger. She is someone that seems to invite confrontation and she can intimidate just about anybody.Lilyan is the movies most watchable character.George Macready made a career out of playing egotistical, unscrupulous, slightly feminine men who played at being mentally superior but are actually weak and cowardly. I buy him as the soulless George Winston. It's him as the noble and saintly Dr Winston that I just can't picture.

Soul of a Monster has a bit of the Devil and Daniel Webster and Cat People and even a bit of Frankenstein written into it's story.As I said Rose Hobart stands out and its her performance that makes the picture worth viewing. Erik Rolf plays Fred Stevens a family friend who is the conscience of the film. He is the Christian voice in the movie. Rolf always reminded me of Nils Asther. Soul of a Monster is really trying to sermonize about keeping faith in God and not losing morality in times of stress. It's not a terrible film but it ain't great either.

Look Into My Empty Eyes

[howdymax · 9/10 · 20 October 2007]

If I hadn't seen the opening credits, I would have sworn this was a Val Lewton classic. It has all the fascinating earmarks as well as much of the weirdness. The story is simple enough. A doctor about to die is saved by an evil spirit in the guise of a mysterious woman, but as we know, there is always a price to pay for undeserved immortality.

This was, without question, a "B" movie dressed up to be more stylistic than most. As in those Val Lewton movies, all the performances are understated. The principals drift into indecipherable monologues that leave you numb. Many of the scenes are shot in shadow and the whole atmosphere is spooky. There is no bloody violence to speak of, but there is enough heart stopping shock to satisfy the blood-lust in most of us.

George MacReady leads the cast. This should tell us something. He was a fine character actor, but only in a low budget thriller would he ever be given the lead. His evil muse is played by Rose Hobart. I have to admit I never heard of her until I saw this movie, but she did a more than adequate job. In fact, she was downright frightening. The rest of the cast is nameless, although I may have seen one or two of them in an old Dragnet episode, but not one of them let the story down.

This production is well worth watching - if you can find it. My only complaint is that it comes with a prologue and an epilogue. In fact, it comes with a testament to good over evil. I don't know, it was made in 1944. Maybe they had no choice.

He who walks with "Evil" lives a life without faith. And without faith there is no life.

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 21 October 2007]

**SPOILERS** Very esoteric and little know film about "Good" an "Evil" that has to do with a man on his deathbed within moment of leaving the world that he gave, in saving the lives of hundreds of people, so much of himself to.

Dr. George Winson,George Macready, has done so much and asked so little in helping those who needed his help as a brilliant surgeon and psychologist. Infected by an incurable disease, from one of the patients that he saved, George is now in the hands of the Almighty waiting for his final curtain call. It's then that George's bereaved wife Ann, Jeanne Bates, goes a bit off her noodle, mind, begging for anyone, in this world or the next, to please save her husband from the faith, death, that's now waiting for him.

Ann should have known better and left things the way they were but her love for George and wanting him to live turned the man into a monster. Not the kind and caring saint that he was before he fell into the deadly coma that's slowly taking his life away from him. It turns out that Ann summoned this "Evil Spirit" in the form of Lilyan Gregg, Rose Hobart, who despite giving her husband back his life forgot, on purpose of course, to give him his soul back with it.

Now fully recovered and in excellent health George was not exactly the person that his friends family and patients knew him as. Stuck up and irritable as well as rude to everyone, including his loving wife Ann, he came in contact with it's obvious that George just isn't himself. It's George's best friend Fred Stevens, Eric Rolf, who soon sees the metamorphose that he went through and in an effort to save George's soul tries to get the poor and confused man help. It's then that Lilyan trying to keep George under her evil control turns George,like a guided missile, on Fred only to be stymied when Fred who happened to find a crucifix, lying there in front of him on the sidewalk, in just the nick of time to stop the crazed and icepick waving George in his tracks.

It soon become a struggle between George who's Godly goodness, despite him having no soul, is slowly getting the upper hand over the evil Lilyan. It's then when Lilyan really goes all out to get George to murder his loyal and admiring assistant Dr. Vance,Jim Bannon, and then have him sent straight to the hot seat, the electric chair, for it. It's this way that Lilyan can have George by being sent to the place where the sun don't shine, and where it's hot as blazes all the time, all for herself for eternity.

*****MAJOR SPOILERS****The surprise ending is a bit uneven in that it left you up in the air to just what exactly it's trying to tell you. Not in George's mental state but in the condition he finds himself in as the movie ends. Still "Soul of a Monster" is by far one of the best, as well as one of the most unknown, movies about the struggle between "Good" and "Evil" ever to come out of Hollywood. The film is surprisingly nowhere as corny or predictable as you would have imagined, before you saw it knowing it's storyline, it to be and that by far is the biggest surprise, together with the surprise ending, in the movie.

"The most innocent thing can be treacherous."

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 21 April 2020]

This one's a hidden gem. Not perfect by any means but very different and interesting. It's a great B movie from Columbia starring the always reliable George Macready as a respected doctor saved from death's door by a mysterious possibly supernatural woman (Rose Hobart). The rest of the story involves an attempt by his wife and friends to save his soul as he descends into darkness. Five years later in Alias Nick Beal, Macready would play the friend out to save the soul of Thomas Mitchell in a similar situation. This is unlike anything else out in 1944 or before. It's easy to dismiss it as talky and yes the ending is a cheat but I was entertained the whole time. It's got nice atmosphere, a good cast, and cinematography from future Oscar winner Burnett Guffey.

Beautiful little Lewtonesque "B" horror film

[dcole-2 · 10/10 · 23 January 2005]

This movie is a treat: a beautifully-shot, well-acted little horror film in the tradition of Val Lewton. Admittedly, it's very preachy and didactic with a load of pretentious spiritual dialogue, but it's far more advanced than any of the "Monsters jumping out at you" brand of horror that most studios were doing in the 40's. George Macready (always great) is a dying surgeon whose wife pleads with the forces of darkness, or any forces, to save him. Enter Rose Hobart, a mysterious woman who somehow brings him back from death's door. But Macready is now a changed man: moody, vicious, mean, distracted. He eventually leaves his wife and goes to live with Hobart. His friends try to save him, but he nearly kills one of them, then allows another to die when he could easily have saved him. This is all shot in a dreamlike style that takes place in a nightmarish night-world where every action seems to be a choice between life and death, every thought is about salvation and damnation. It's not perfect, but it's very unusual and very worth catching. Wish it were out on DVD.

Get out the popcorn, and turn off the lights

[sterlingramone · 8/10 · 16 February 2020]

Some reviewers automatically hate on every lower budget B movie.But if you know what you're in for, a slow burning atmospheric Lewtonesque 40s creeper, you'll be delighted. Great acting from the leads, eerie camerawork and music, hypnotic dialogue interrupted by jump scares. This would have fit in perfectly with the Shock TV movie package, and would now be regarded as a classic of the "creepy" genre.

Faust Is A Saintly Doctor

[ellenirishellen-62962 · 8/10 · 26 March 2017]

I know George Macready is the guy people love to trash,but he was a well-educated,classy person in real life,and that seems to draw criticism from those who can't differentiate between characters and the actors who play them.Many rave of how athletic Errol Flynn was,attractive Ty Powers was,but they rank on Macready's stage training and his perfect diction-all part of that stage training.He's perfect here,walking in a trance with an ice pick to kill a friend,drinking when he awakens from his stupor after almost killing his friend until he sees the crucifix.The wife is given little to do,but she's as brilliant as Rose Hobart as the mysterious Lilyan,who controls "George" or tries to in every facet of his life.The ending seems to ensure this was a dream as quoted in the prologue-glad it ended on that note.Bannon co-starred with Macready in the "I Love A Mystery" movies,and his death,to me,was caused by negligence,and couldn't understand putting George on trial murder!