1944 horror pic The Soul of a Monster opens with this unusual statement: “You may have lived or, perhaps, dreamed the story you are about to see.” How did the makers of this know I once dreamed of surgeon George Macready dying of a staph infection after a tear in his surgical glove during an operation, only for a deal with the devil to save his life but turn him into a cruel, parallel-universe version of himself?
Macready used to be a stand-up guy, and I assume the one-legged guy who thanks him for saving his life used to be one, too. Most doctors would have charged an arm and a leg for the operation, but Macready only charged a leg. Unfortunately for all of us, I could go on like this all day. Fortunately, I have a movie to dissect.
There is no shortage of films where somebody makes a deal with the dark one. One of the elements of this I found odd is somebody other than Macready seeks that assistance, that being wife Jeanne Bates. She’s in the company of sanctimonious preacher Erik Rolf when she says, “I call upon the power of good or evil, whatever you are. Save him.” Rolf is appalled she would accept the assistance of the devil but, hey, it doesn’t look like God was interceding.
That assistance arrives in the form of Rose Hobart. It seems just like the old trickster to make her appear and across town and walk to Macready’s house. A car hits her as she crosses the street and just gets back up and continues. I like this exchange between her and Rolf when she confidently strides into the house: “I was told to come here.” “Who are you?” “Does it matter?”
As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, Macready has a complete personality flip after being delivered from the cusp of death. He’s now cruel and short-tempered. The family dog is afraid of him and, rightly so, as the man will chuck a pair of garden shears at it. Storms bring him pleasure, and I never cease to be amused when movies like this associate weather with morality, as if they could be evil. He finds himself confused by his sudden disinterest in his career: “I used to love medicine. Now I don’t care?” I assume the next step will be to become a plastic surgeon, as the practitioners of that seem especially evil to me.
Hobart and the new Macready make for quite the couple. She is surprised he wants her around: “The others I’ve helped seem to resent me. I give them a sort of life and you’d think they want to kill me.” Not Macready, who is all in: “If they tried to take your life, I’d kill them.”
There is a moment with these two in a darkened apartment which is an example of great noir lighting. It is also creepy, with these two seemingly just standing there silently in the dark, and that’s even before she subliminally nudges him into getting an icepick and stalking his old friend Jim Bannon. This long, slow pursuit doesn’t really go anywhere, as he doesn’t kill Bannon in the end. The only reason why I like this sequence is for the police officer Bannon encounters who complains about walking his beat on nights like that, which weird out even “a law-abiding officer” like him.
I found it odd the script has similar characters for Bannon and Rolf. Honestly, they don’t have much to do with the plot, and it isn’t hard to confuse one for the other. Both guys also pretty weird. Macready grabs Bannon by the lapels at one point and, if that were me, I doubt the first thing I would notice the man doesn’t have a pulse. Rolf spends his Friday nights have choir practice with young boys in his apartment, which isn’t a great look. That the lads can hit the high notes of “Ave Maria” has me wondering if there’s something to this recent outcry about falling testosterone levels. And yet, one of those boys has a black eye, so at least one will grow up to be a real man who commits reckless acts of violence.
There is an odd morality in the world of this movie. Consider this exchange between Rolf and an old woman selling flowers: “How much? “For you, a dollar.” “For anybody else?” “A dollar. I’m always lying”. How is that lying? That’s just conducting business, though I don’t know how much of that she expects to do on an abandoned street at night. Then there’s Bates, who has this unusual prerogative she expresses to Hobart as concerns Macready: “I’d rather see him dead than you possess him.” But she made this deal to keep him from dying. Also, Bates is the one who made the pact with Satan, and without Macready’s knowledge, so I find it strange her soul isn’t the payment.
Even with Macready playing a possessed man, Hobart is the one who owns The Soul of a Monster. She relishes the part, and manages to steal every scene by underplaying. Her character is especially interesting when doing mundane things. It is quite peculiar to see an agent of the devil doing yard work. Frankly, she doesn’t do much to even try to hurt anybody except send Macready to kill Bannon, which he fails to do. I suspect the men in this movie aren’t as scared of Satan as they are of headstrong women.
Dir: Will Jason
Starring Rose Hobart, George Macready, Jim Bannon, Jeanne Bates
Watched as part of the Powerhouse/Indicator UK (region B) blu-ray box set Columbia Horror