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Strange Illusion [VHS]

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"Strange Illusion" was directed by the great B-movie director Edgar G. Ulmer, sometimes called "The Poet of Poverty Row" -meaning independent film and small studios, who is perhaps best known for making the famous and famously low-budget film noir "Detour" in 1946. "Strange Illusion" is more a conventional thriller than film noir, as it lacks film noir's introversion, alienation, and cynicism. It's a creepy but optimistic crime film that's well-conceived despite its shoestring budget and overstated acting. Ulmer's background in production design is evident in the thoughtful set design.

Paul Cartwright (James Lyndon) is a college student haunted by a dream in which an impostor, posing as Paul's deceased father, fools his mother and sister into accepting him into the family. Paul's father, an eminent criminologist, was killed in an unexplained car accident 2 years before, and left letters with his estate to be sent to Paul every few months. When Paul receives a letter from his father asking that he guard his mother and sister against unscrupulous associates, shortly after his troubling dream, Paul heads for home anxious as to what he might find. Paul's mother (Sally Eilers) is being romanced by a slick middle-aged bachelor named Brett Curtis (Warren William). When Curtis' words and actions recall his dream, and Curtis resembles a notorious criminal in his father's files, Paul becomes intent on finding out more about his mother's suitor.

"Strange Illusion" isn't subtle or multi-layered. It pretty much hits you over the head with these characters and their story. But this is a B-picture, probably part of a double bill, and it works as enjoyable, creepy, occasionally licentious entertainment. The film's flaw, looking at it from 60 years hence, is the character of Paul. He's an 18-20 year old man who has the speech and manners of a 12-year-old. In other words, he's annoying. Audiences at the time may have liked his boyish...um...charm. And he does contrast sharply with Curtis. As for me, I got used to Paul's demeanor and enjoyed the film in spite of it.

The DVD (This refers to the 2001 Roan Group DVD only.): During the opening titles, the picture quivers, and the sound quality is poor. Once the film starts, the picture is steady and sound is ok. About an hour into the film, the volume drops off, though, and I had to turn it up. The picture is watchable but has some white specks and scratches. Bonus features are a "film background" essay about director Edgar Ulmer and a list of credits for the DVD. No subtitles on the Roan Group DVD.

My never-ending search for Warren William movies eventually led me to "Strange Illusion", one of the last films of his career, in which he plays an honest to God creep!

Teenage Jimmy Lydon has been plagued by nightmares since his father's unsolved murder--and the latest one seems to suggest danger surrounding his mother. The next thing you know, mom announces she has a suitor, Warren William. Guess what? Uh huh, that's right. So this is partly David Copperfield/Mr. Murdstone and partly Hamlet/Claudius, as one reviewer made note. An unsavory twist is that Warren William has a fancy for underage girls, which doesn't bode well for Jimmy's girlfriend.

Still and all, I liked "Strange Illusion" because it is major camp on top of everything else--others in my family hated it, though. Ergo, I guess it's just one of those movies you have to make up your own mind about.

Review of the Alpha Video release.
Young Paul (James Lydon) isn't having a good time of it. His father has recently died, and, while on a fishing trip with avuncular family friend Dr. Martin Vincent (Regis Toomey), he dreams of his father's death. The dream convinces him that the death wasn't an accident, after all. Worried enough to cut their vacation short, they return home to find Paul's mother (Sally Eilers) engaged to the outwardly charming stranger, Brett Curtis (Warren William.) Before they leave Paul receives a letter from the grave. It seems the old man instructed his estate to send his son these epistles from beyond. The latest one warns against `unscrupulous imposters.' Cue a few bars from Schumann's Concerto (the score of the boy's premonitory dreams.)
Cross-cut to the manor - Paul's father was a judge and a `famed criminologist,' and if they sold the young man's house they'd probably be able to finance ten STRANGE ILLUSIONS. Famed criminologists did well for themselves back then, and the fatted calf he left for his young family sets oily wolf Brett Curtis off on the chase. Mother seems deeply in love, Paul is hesitant and then secretly opposed when Curtis repeats not only complete lines of dialogue from his dream but also tinkles a bar or two of Schumann's Concerto.
STRANGE ILLUSION borrows heavily from Shakespeare's Hamlet early on. The dead father communicating from the grave, the unavenged murder, the mother with the murderous beau. Being a big fan of suspense thrillers from the 40s I was salivating by the time Paul and the Doc stowed the rods and tackle and made for home. This was going to get weird.
Then, I believe, the movie remembered James Lydon, or Jimmy Lydon, was Henry Aldrich, Paramount's response to MGM's Andy Hardy. Oh, Warren's homme fatale was sinister enough, and Mother (distractingly referred to by her children as `Princess') was blind enough to his wicked, wicked ways, but our dauntless young hero is immune to corruption. The bad stuff stays Out There. STRANGE ILLUSION is a distressingly affirmative movie.
Director Edgar Ulmer may have borrowed a plot point or two from Hamlet, but his young hero is anything but a young man who cannot act. In place of a melancholy Dane our intrepid young hero embodies the soul and spirit of can-do Americanism. Rather than brooding over his beautiful young mother, for instance, he's mixin' with his vixen girlfriend - in a chaste, Judge Hardy approved manner, I hasten to add.
So, instead (alas) than a cast full of characters shaking their fragile libidos we have one deviant nutcase (Warren) and the Eagle Scout (Lydon, star of HENRY ALDRICH, BOY SCOUT, 1944), who is alone in seeing through Warren's veneer of normalcy and certainly seems more than capable of bringing him to justice.
You'll likely find STRANGE ILLUSION satisfying if you're a fan of Andy Hardy, or Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys mysteries, or any tale that features blunt-witted adults and clever adolescents. The film quality is choppy in spots, but overall quite acceptable.

Hamlet, Freud and Edgar Ulmer may seem like an unnatural group of pals, but among them they have come up with a tidy little psychological thriller. In fact, with a bigger budget and stronger actors, Ulmer might have had a classic on his hands. As it is, Strange Illusion can't escape its Poverty Row heritage. Even so, it's a well-paced movie that keeps a person's interest. Even if the best-acted roles are the bad guys, that's not necessarily a drawback in a B movie.

Paul Cartwright's father, an older man and a respected judge, died two year ago in a train accident...at least it appeared to be an accident. Paul's not so sure. Paul (James Lydon) is a young man from a good family. He has a younger sister and an attractive mother, Virginia Cartwright (Sally Eilers). The family is well off. Paul lately has been having dreams, disturbing dreams, of his father telling him to take care of his mother, to be wary of a shadowy someone who is coming into her life. Paul confides in an old friend of the family, Dr. Martin Vincent (Regis Toomey), who tries to calm Paul but who also respects Paul's intelligence. Paul is, in fact, smart and resourceful. Then one day Paul's mother introduces him to Brett Curtis (Warren William), a smooth, gracious man Paul feels he's met before. Curtis and his mother announce that they plan to wed.

Paul becomes suspicious of Curtis and Curtis' association with Professor Muhlbach (Charles Arnt), a psychologist who runs an exclusive and very private sanitarium. Before long, Paul becomes a "guest" in the place so that he can investigate Muhlbach and Curtis. But things begin to go wrong. It becomes a race to see if Paul can break away, if Dr. Vincent can convince the police that there may be a link between the death of Paul's father and the team of Curtis and Muhlbach, and if Paul and some of his friends can get to the lake cottage where Curtis has gone with Paul's sister.

James Lydon had a great success as a child actor, especially playing in the Henry Aldrich films. He was typecast as a gawky, friendly, well-intentioned kid. Strange Illusion was an attempt by him to break out of those roles as he grew older. He's not a gifted enough actor to carry the weight of the movie, but he certainly gives the role all he's got. He's no embarrassment. The acting interest, however, comes from Charles Arnt and, especially, Warren William. Arnt gives the professor a great gloss of smiling insincerity. He's unethical down to his polished fingernails.

Warren William really shines. William was a tall, broad-shoulder man with a profile that out-Barrymored Barrymore's. He had a creamy baritone voice and a smooth manner. Although he was in private life a shy man long-married to one woman, in movies he became typed as a charming rotter. He was big stuff in the early Thirties, but by the late Thirties had slowly moved down to B movies. In Strange Illusion, at 51, his profile was still as sharp as a crease, but his face was beginning to look its age. His eyes were a little puffy and pouched, the jaw line not quite so firm. With the Curtis character, William's face looks like dissipation. As soon as we see Brett Curtis walk into Virginia Cartwright's parlor to be introduced to Paul, we know this man is as insincere as a head waiter. Later, while we watch him try to sweet-talk Virginia into to an early marriage, all the while subtly looking over the daughter, we know the ghost in Paul's dream was right on. William does a fine job showing us a creepy, dangerous charmer.

Ulmer starts the movie with the dream sequence. It's B movie special effects but it serves the purpose of getting us into Paul's mind and preparing us to believe in Paul. Be forewarned. There's a brief dream sequence at the end which verges on the icky. I've seen this movie on DVD and on VHS tape. The transfers are watchable but nothing special for either one. Both bear all the poor quality hallmarks of a public domain movie: Soft images, specks, too contrasty in places and impenetrable night scenes.

The film opens with a strange fog or mist surrounding Paul Cartwright (Jimmy Lydon) as he talks about his dead father, a criminologist who he idealized and emulates...soon his mother joins him in the shadowy dreamworld, and then a man....his father? but no, it's not, it's an imposter! there's a locket, given to mother, and a train crash, a truck...

Paul awakens, suddenly. Just a dream. He's in a bed, and above his is an old family friend, Dr. Vincent (Regis Toomey), who doesn't seem all that worried about the very powerful and realistic dream. The two go fishing. Paul is home for a visit from college, and though Dr. Vincent manages to calm him down, the dream never seems to go completely away, recurring in parts and seeming ever more real, especially when he meets his mother's new boyfriend, Brett Curtis (Warren William), a mysterious businessman with a clouded past. Soon Paul is following in his father's footsteps, convinced not only that Curtis is dangerous and not who he says he is, but that he may in fact be the man responsible for his father's death years ago.

This very low budget PRC production directed by Poverty Row master Edgar Ulmer is notable for the psychological angle that dominates the film - eventually Paul goes so far as to check himself into a sanitarium run by the shady Dr. Muhlbach (Charles Arnt), a friend of Curtis', to try to discover the link between the two and to keep his mother from making a terrible mistake. William is his usualy creepy, oily and shmoozing self and pretty well dominates the film, and Arnt is pretty solid in a sinister role as well. But Lydon, best known now for his role as Henry Aldrich in a dozen or so films in the 40s, comes off as too much of a Hardy Boys type earnest young detective, and it's hard to ever feel like he's too much in danger - or that he could realistically solve the ancient murder case that the police have failed to for years.

Still it's a fun little cheapie, and some of Ulmer's trademark expressionistic touches turn up, such as in the way he photographs cars outside the window of the sanitarium as Paul looks out, obviously matted in, too large and distorted; the same effect is present in a couple of scenes involving binoculars. And the sleaziness of William's behavior towards Paul's sister, even while he's romancing her mother, seems rather daring for a film from this period, and casts him as an even more unwholesome villain than he seems at first.

This Alpha Video disc isn't very good - but the copy on the Edgar Ulmer Archive box set isn't either, and I suspect that we'll have to wait a while for a first-class print to show up, if it ever does. Then again, the scratches and poor sound seem entirely appropriate in many respects...

I haven't found a DVD of Strange Illusion I can really recommend yet. This Roan edition has a pretty decent picture quality, but about half-way through the film there is a dramatic drop in the audio for the rest of it. There is also one bad splice. The Image/All Day Ent. disc in the Ulmer Archive set is even worse. The print itself is better, but darker, missing the splice in the Roan edition. But early in the film everything goes out-of-sync for a few minutes and then back into sync(obviously poor quality control). I get exhausted wading through the garbage people that don't know what they are doing keep putting out. This is a super film. It would be so easy to just make one good print out of two. I expect more from Roan and Image.

Ulmer's ambitious, cockeyed update of "Hamlet" is one of his best Poverty Row films. Cheesy sets, half-baked scripts, and overwrought acting are to be expected from these ultra low-budget productions, and they're all in abundance here. But because Ulmer brought his screwy artistry to even the seamiest Z-grade projects, this film is shot through with a grimy gutter poetry. _Strange Illusion_ isn't a cult masterpiece like _Detour_, but it's still worth seeing.

For my money, this film's treatment of psychoanalysis, exploitative though it may be, is still superior to Hitchcock's _Spellbound_.

Sometimes Mr. Maltin fails with his comments, and to compare this thrilling fantasy movie with Shakespeare's Hamlet is laughable. O.K., there are the usual cheesy sets on PRC's small backlot, but otherwise the dreamy programmer is one of the best in its class. Ulmer again showed his ability to make the best of his extremely low budget. Within this, photography is very good, whereas the music score with its "adaptation" of Schumann's piano concerto gives you the possiblity to cry or laugh. Fine opening, indeed.

I watched this because it was supposedly a noir, and Edgar Ulmer certainly is a noir director, but this one fell short in a lot of areas. The first hint that this movie's budget was bare-bones was in the scene where Jim Bob or whatever the kid's name is goes fishing with the doc and you can hear oars banging around in the boat and all kinds of stuff...I actually found myself laughing. Also, you don't see people fishing in noirs unless they are doing it in the rain and/or they are going to find a body.

SPOILER: Along with the little shortcuts like the noisy boat scene, there is a serious plot problem with the whole movie revolving around a dream that Jim Bob has at the very beginning--it's a premonition dream and it all comes true with no explanation. Willing suspension of disbelief comes hard in this one.

Now that I think about it, there are more plot problems, too. For instance, the story unfolds like a story told by someone who just can't tell a story--it goes along and then it's like that bad storyteller ("OH WAIT! I forgot to mention that Jim Bob thinks his father was murdered!" "OH WAIT! I forgot to mention that Jim Bob's father was involved in Curtis's being exposed!").

But all in all, it was a fairly entertaining movie. The acting was pretty good, considering, and it had some exciting moments.

My Illusion is shattered. After scores of orders from Amazon, I got a real dud. Looks like this is VCRd from televison (maybe even French television). This is such a poor recording that it is not really viewable. If I could give it less than 1 star it would get it. And yes, it was returned. That was the only good thing about this transaction.