Shock: Weird Woman

The flaw, for me at least, in working my way through the Shock Theater package, isn't seeing "new" movies- it's the realizing that I've got more stuff to get. 


First, I need to get my hands on the Inner Sanctum collection, seven movies Universal did based on the radio show of the same name.

Second, I need to read Fritz Leiber's classic novel, Conjure Wife, which today's movie, Weird Woman was based on.

Weird Woman, part of the Inner Sanctum series, is about Norman, an anthropology professor, played by Lon Chaney, a firm believer in rational thought without any room in his life for superstition, who has married Paula,  a witch, more accurately a practitioner of strange south seas Voodoo.  Their mysterious rituals and rites are pretty peppy- it reminded me of the bit from MST3K:  "You know, liturgical dance is weird. " "Yeah, but it brings in the parishioners."

There's lots of college intrigue, the whole publish or perish thing, as he vies the position of department chair.   Paula uses her charms to help him, and when he discovers this, he's annoyed, since it's the sort of primitive superstition he's trying to eradicate.   Paula has also fallen afoul of Ilona, a colleague of Norman who'd had designs on the professor. 

Anne Gwynne, Paula, and Evelyn Ankers, Ilona, are in several other Universal movies, like The Wolfman and House Of Frankenstein.  Since I've already seen the core movies of the Universal Horror collection, they weren't unknown to me.

And of course, Lon Chaney is Lon Chaney.  I have some problems with him that I'll address when I watch The Wolfman.