The Dark Eyes of London [The Human Monster] *** (1939, Bela Lugosi, Greta Gynt, Hugh Williams) – Classic Movie Review 3,765

Bela Lugosi stars in the 1939 British horror film The Dark Eyes of London as the mysterious monstrous maniac Dr Orloff who commits a series of murders for insurance money.

Director Walter Summers’s 1939 British black and white horror film The Dark Eyes of London, retitled The Human Monster in the US, brings the great horror star Bela Lugosi to Britain to make this encouragingly daft horror picture based on Edgar Wallace’s 1924 novel. It is notable as the first film in Britain to receive the H certificate for horror, or horrific.

Lugosi plays Dr Feodor Orloff, a mysterious monstrous maniac who, as Dearborn, runs a home for blind people whom he embroils in a hideous death plot. Though strange deaths are taking place all over London, they all appear to be accidents.

Enterprisingly, Dr Orloff is also a loopy life insurance company agent, who gets his dumb giant servant (Arthur E Owen as Dumb Lou) to murder the chosen victims, unlucky single men with no family who carry the insurance that he has sold them, so he can get his hands on their money. Dr Orloff is also periodically disguising himself as Professor John Dearborn, the blind manager, sponsor and medical advisor of a charity, the Dearborn Home for the Blind, to further his evil scheme.

Orloff obtains employment at the home for Diana Stuart (Greta Gynt) the daughter of one of the dead men, as Dearborn’s secretary, who is soon in trouble when she finds out too much.

If often just silly, this is still an eerie, entertaining and suspenseful movie that occasionally provides a real shiver or two, and a fired-up Lugosi is great value, even though apparently his voice is dubbed by O B Clarence when he is portraying Dearborn. It also stars Hugh Williams as Detective Inspector Larry Holt and Greta Gynt as Diana Stuart.

The cinema release poster with its US title The Human Monster.

Also in the cast are Wilfred Walter, Edmon Ryan, Julie Suedo, Alexander Field, Arthur E Owen, O B Clarence, Mary Hallatt, Brian Herbert, Charles Penrose and Gerald Pring.

It was shot in 11 days in early April 1939 at Welwyn Studios, in Hertfordshire.

The film was released in the UK on 19 October 1939 (London) and finally in the US by Monogram Pictures as The Human Monster on 9 March 1940.

The British Board of Film Censors introduced the H rating in 1933 for films for any films likely to frighten or horrify children under 16 after the appearance of early 1930s Universal horrors.

When re-released in UK cinemas in 1949, the BBFC made cuts for a A rating. The cuts were restored in 1953 when the film was re-released in UK cinemas with a X certificate and in 1993 when released with a PG certificate for home video. Times change.

But there were real horrors in the world: World War Two had just recently broken out (1 September 1939) when the film was released.

The cast

The cast are Bela Lugosi as Dr Feodor Orloff/ Professor John Dearborn, Hugh Williams as Detective Inspector Larry Holt, Greta Gynt as Diana Stuart, Edmon Ryan as Lieutenant Patrick O’Reilly, Wilfred Walter as Jake, Arthur E. Owen as Dumb Lou, Alexander Field as Fred Grogan, May Hallatt as Police Constable Griggs, Bryan Herbert as Police Sgt Walsh Charles Penrose as undercover detective Morrison,  Gerald Pring as Henry Stuart, Philip Stewart as Scotland Yard Detective George Street as Scotland Yard Commissioner, Julie Suedo as Orloff’s secretary, and O B Clarence as Professor John Dearborn (voice).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,765

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