SUPERNATURAL (1933)

After we see some quotations about evil spirits from various scriptures, we learn that convicted strangler Ruth Rogen has been sentenced to death, but Dr. Houston (H.B. Warner), convinced that Rogen's evil spirit could possess someone after her death, gets permission to take delivery of her to try and stop it. Meanwhile, another plotline develops involving Roma Courtney (Carole Lombard) trying to contact the spirit of her murdered brother John through medium Paul Bavian (Alan Dinehart). We know Bavian is a fake because we've seen him sneak into a funeral parlor and take a plaster cast of John's face to use in his phony séance. He hopes to weasel his way into getting a chunk of the Courtney fortune, and when his landlady tries to blackmail Bavian, he kills her by stabbing her with a poison ring. At the séance, Roma is convinced by Bavian's trickery, but her boyfriend Grant (Randolph Scott) is skeptical. When they go visit Dr. Houston to see what he thinks, he's in the middle of trying to trap Rogen's soul, but the evil spirit actually does inhabit Roma and then tries to drive Roma to kill Bavian. This seems like one of the earliest talkies to assume that the supernatural is, in fact, real. Where most other movies of the time would ultimately explain everything as fakery, this one takes the presence of undead spirits as a given. Director Victor Halperin was fresh off of WHITE ZOMBIE, a low-budget but very effective horror film with Bela Lugosi which has gone on to develop a cult following. This one does have some stylish effects now and then, but its big city setting doesn't lend itself as much to atmosphere. For a movie that's roughly an hour long, it zips quickly through a lot of plot. It's got an unusual feel—part horror, part sci-fi, with some dry comic relief humor and even romance thrown in. I've never found Carole Lombard appealing, and she's no different here, though she does do a nice job of acting evil after she's possessed. Vivienne Osborne is fine as Rogen. Interesting mostly as a novelty. Pictured is Lombard getting possessed by Osborne. [DVD]