Bluebeard
Tags: cult, murder

Plot synopsis:
The film is based on the fairy tale of Bluebeard written by Charles Perrault who also wrote Cinderella.
A sinister aristocrat known as Lord Bluebeard is looking for a beautiful woman to become his wife. Lured by his great riches, many noble families bring their most eligible daughters to meet him, but none of the young women want to marry him, both due to his ghastly appearance and because he has already had seven previous wives - all of whom have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Bluebeard's great wealth, however, persuades one father to give his daughter's hand to him. She has no choice but to marry him, and after a lavish wedding feast she begins her new life in his castle.
One day as Bluebeard is going away on a journey, he entrusts the keys to his castle to her, and warns his wife never to go into a certain room. Caught between the fear of her husband's wrath and her own curiosity, she is unsure of what to do regarding the forbidden chamber. Her curiosity manifests itself in the form of an imp who taunts and mocks her with potential promises that the room might contain, whereas her better judgement comes in the form of a guardian angel, who attempts to dissuade her from entering the locked door.
When her curiosity finally gets the best of her, she realizes that she has placed herself in great danger. She enters the room, Melies at this point builds the suspense by keeping the lighting levels low, making out strange bag shapes. The room is revealed to be a torture chamber and these bags are revealed to be dead bodies; the seven past wives of the murderous Bluebeard hanging on hooks, dripping stale blood on to the floor. The new wife drops the key in her horror, and is stained with dead wives' blood which the wife relentlessly tries to wash off. Later that night she has a dream of seven giant keys haunting her with a sense of Freudian guilt from the dominating presence of Bluebeard. On Bluebeard's arrival he discovers his wife's untamable curiosity and violently shakes her. She runs to the top of the tower, and calls to her sister and brothers. Her relatives save her from death and pin Bluebeard with a sword to the castle walls. The angel appears to restore the murdered wives to life and they are married to seven great lords.

Review: Then he falls in love with beautiful Lucille (Jean Parker) and tries to fight his desire...John Carradine said this was his best performance--he's right!
This telling of French serial killer Bluebeard (why was he called Bluebeard?) is notable for two reasons - one is John Carradine's haunting yet believable portrayal of a madman's psyche, and the other is for Edgar G.
Paris ,France , a tormented painter and puppeteer called Gaston Morrell (one of John Carradine's best vehicles) has a psychopatic urge to strangle gorgeous women .
And film debut of actress Sonia Sorel -Mrs. John Carradine- , who went on to do several more titles for director Edgar G.
Once I found out why John Carradine's character, a Paris portrait artist of young women, strangles them after the paintings are finished, the reason didn't seem to make much sense.
But it didn't matter anyway because this picture is full of great scenes and camera angles, and extraordinary acting by everyone, especially Carradine and the beautiful Jean Parker.
Parker plays a dressmaker who attends Carradine's operatic outdoor puppet show production one night in one of the film's best scenes.
Nils Asther has a marvelous part as the suave police inspector as does Ludwig Stossel as the murderous artist's agent who knows the truth and blackmails him to paint women because the portraits bring a nice price.
He is unfortunately not directed with any subtlety, and it is clear that he is the villain from the beginning, so this becomes more a story of "will the villain be redeemed by love?" That makes this film more interesting than a standard thriller.Jean Parker is really luminous and lovely, and is the only young female in the cast that captures the feeling of the time period.
they must all have come from the local bar.The movie has elements that make it interesting and artistic, the focus on painting style, the accomplished and beautiful puppet show.
John Carradine had always considered his role as Gaston Morrell in Bluebeard as his favorite and since it's one of his few starring ones it's easy to see why.
Ulmer makes the most of the low budget he had working for poverty row studio PRC in making one of the most atmospheric horror films of the '40s.
Bluebeard is probably most notable for the fact that its lead star, John Carradine, famously named his role here as his favourite across his lengthy list of film credits.
It's easy to see why the man himself enjoyed playing this part so much too - Carradine's role in Bluebeard allows him to act at his most sinister, and the film really depends on him as this is very much a one-man story.
The man himself is famous for two completely different lives; in one, he is the notorious serial killer 'Bluebeard', who prays on beautiful young women - and in the other he's Gaston Morrell, a dapper up and coming young painter.
Ulmer's previous experience helps him with Bluebeard, as the film is constantly atmospheric, and the director makes best use of his simple sets by way of his use of the camera and the murky black and white cinematography.
It is centered on Gaston Morrell (John Carradine), an eccentric visual artist and owner of a marionette show.Although I remained perplexed as to why Morrell was referred to as Bluebeard, I can't say it bothered me much, as this is an excellent, captivating horror/thriller with fine performances, great direction, cinematography and set design, and a well written, taut script.
It enhanced the tension and atmosphere of the film, and the programmatic aspect of Mussorgsky's piece is appropriate.Also worth noting are the countless references to the German expressionistic style in Bluebeard's set design and cinematography.
This is a decent little film but more importantly it's a chance for the star (John Carradine) to show he COULD be a leading man and not just a cheesy supporting actor.
Always enjoyed the films of John Carradine and in this film you will see his great acting abilities as a painter who loves to paint beautiful women and gets a thrill out of killing them.
Bluebead meets up with a very attractive girl named Lucille, (Jean Parker) who seems to make him change his ways and he actually falls in love with her and she has no idea just what type of man he is, except that he paints a good picture.
This is a great John Carradine Classic which is worth watching after his many horror films over the years of his career..
Indeed, this film was so boring that I had a hard time believing that director Ulmer had given us his excellent 1934 masterpiece, THE BLACK CAT (and that goes double when I watch his AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN, but that's best saved for another review).There was a lost opportunity in that there was never anything really developed in the area of Carradine's psychotic persona, and that silly musical score went on and on continuously, getting in the way..
Ulmer, although Hollywood didn't have a chance to making A-movies, always a low budge, second class casting as well, but even so he made a remarkable career under such conditions, he took expressionist style from germany and end up making several valuable Science fictions on the 50', this picture was made by PRC studios which Ulmer was a high status, this picture maybe could be a proto-noir style mixing with thriller, John Carradine still young as main character played perfectly a serial killer, anyway a movie that really deserves to be known by new generation of movie fans due their roots on your director's skills as Edgar G.
Gaston Morel (Carradine) is a starving artist (painter and puppeteer) who kills the women he paints.
There are no terrifying monsters to see but there is a murderous human killing young innocent women.If you like horror crime-thrillers you might want to make "Bluebeard" a double feature with a movie like "Invisible Ghost (1941)".
No other Bluebeard commanded the screen like Carradine's, and none came off as more sympathetic either, not even George Sanders in 1960's "Bluebeards Ten Honeymoons." The most notable cast member is 23 year old Sonia Sorel, future bride of John Carradine (divorced by 1957), mother of Christopher (the architect), Keith, and Robert Carradine; a prominent member of John's Shakespeare company, her undistinguished screen career included two more efforts for director Ulmer, "Strange Illusion" and "Club Havana." It's no surprise that John Carradine favored this performance as his personal favorite, while "Captains Courageous" remained his favorite film, opposite screen legends Spencer Tracy and Lionel Barrymore.
There's also a good supporting cast, including Nils Asther as the inspector on Bluebeard's trail, Ludwig Stossel as the disreputable accomplice of Bluebeard, and the beautiful Teala Loring as the sister of Jean Parker's character.
The French legend of Bluebeard the famed wife killer serves as the background for this film about an artist who paints strikingly realistic female portraits only to kill the models he uses for them.
John Carradine who did not get to star in too many good films creates a great Gothic character.
Emerging from PRC (Producer's Releasing Corporation), the same poverty row studio responsible for DETOUR (as well as several other Ulmer classics) it tells the haunting story of Gaston Morrell, a Parisian artist and puppeteer (magnificently played by John Carradine) who, after painting the portraits of beautiful women, finishes the job by strangling his models to death.
And finally, it has often been noted that John Carradine cited BLUEBEARD as his favorite role in a long and prolific career.
Failed painter turned puppeteer John Carradine (as Gaston Morrell) is secretly terrorizing 19th century Paris, as the serial killer nicknamed "Bluebeard" (since nobody knows who he is, the name is moderately appropriate).
Ulmer ~ John Carradine, Jean Parker, Nils Asther.
John Carradine has called his role as "bluebeard" one of his favorite characters to play and it shows.
John Carradine as a dashing young puppeteer and artist comes off very nicely.
John Carradine is the clean shaven Bluebeard in this movie as the lady killer of Paris.
John Carradine looking like a very handsome and young Abraham Lincoln is the clean-shaven lady-killer Gaston Morrell known only as Bluebeard to the police and people of the city.Gaston was a promising Parisian artist who had a very bad experience as a young and upcoming painter that had him quit that profession.
It turns out that the killer is actually Gaston Morrell (John Carradine), a supposed kind puppeteer who has many secrets including an issue with women that leads to all the killings.
In Tom Weaver's book on John Carradine he goes over many trims that had to be made due to the Production Code and perhaps the original screenplay would have made for a better movie but as it stands I think there are just way too many problems with the film.
Yes, he made "Z" productions look like "B" or "C" films but that doesn't always make them good movies to watch.
BLUEBEARD is still worth watching for Carradine's performance but I'm still quite cold on the film itself..
John Carradine did an excellent job in the lead role,, painter by day, and killer by night,, he likes to paint his victims first before killing them.
I guess the title kinda thru me for a minutes I was expecting pirates to jump out at me and onto the big screen any minute but I guess that wasn't gonna happen it really didn't disappoint me either,, this movie is kinda sorta like Jack the Ripper in a way but in this one you know who the killer is from the beginning, the comparison is that they both have day jobs and do their killing at night..
Young women in Paris are being pulled out of the Seine, strangled by a modern BLUEBEARD who has no trouble in eluding the police.John Carradine gives a most effective performance as the deranged murderer in this little shocker from Hollywood's so-called Poverty Row. Dignified, cultured, almost romantic, this is a villain quite different from the knaves & brutes he portrayed on screen in the 1930's.
Released in 1944, "Bluebeard" stars John Carradine as a puppeteer in Paris who, apparently, kills young women on the side.This is one of the dullest 'horror' movies I have ever seen.
This movie spends more time wrapped around the investigation of a painting, clothing for puppets, and droll dialogue than anything interesting."Bluebeard" was shot in B&W and is old as dirt, but this wouldn't matter if the story were actually entertaining.
The Bluebeard of the title is played by John Carradine as a slimy but somehow charming killer of women- strangling them after inviting them in to paint their portraits or sketch them for his puppets and then dumping them in the river- who finds a woman who he wants to design the costumes for his show.
Despite this, it's probably the best performance I've seen from horror veteran John Carradine.Carradine plays a 19th century artist in Paris who paints pictures of women and then strangles them to death and disposes of the bodies into the River Sein.
John Carradine is on record as stating "Bluebeard" was his favorite film role out of well over two hundred movie appearances.
Truthfully, I was surprised by the rather intriguing tale coming out of this Publishers Releasing film, rising a few notches above it's humble Poverty Row origins.The film opens with a woman's body being retrieved from the Paris River Seine by uniformed French State Police, quickly cutting to a poster warning of a "Bluebeard" who strangles women, and putting all citizens on notice that it's not safe to travel the city streets alone, especially at night.
Lamarte knows of Morrell's deadly artistic passion, and in an attempt to secure one more generous payday, unwittingly plays into the hands of the local gendarme who sets a trap for the painter.Some rather lovely young ladies offer supporting roles in this edgy and atmospheric thriller; Jean Parker portrays socialite Lucille who becomes enchanted with Morrell and agrees to make costumes for his puppets.
Had this picture been filmed the same way today, the ending fairly screams "sequel".If there is a flaw to be found in the film, it would be the total disconnect between the story and Gaston Morrell's title as the Parisian "Bluebeard".
Come to find out, the serial killer is a tormented artist, a master puppeteer who orchestrates street puppet operas, named Gaston Morrell(John Carradine).
Lucille, who stitched a specific cravat, used to strangle someone she loved so dear, will possibly lead to Morrell's downfall.I've been awaiting an opportunity to see Carradine in a role such as the one he has in Edgar G Ulmer's BLUEBEARD.
My favorite scene in the film comes right at the end when we get an understanding at why Morrell is committing such violence towards "innocent" women..how painting truly creates a monster.
Fans of Ulmer understand that this film, despite gorgeous uses of shadow and candle-light(..and matte paintings as handsome backgrounds), is yet another poverty row production shot on low quality film, but his style still shines through...and, for such budget, I think he's rather successful at recreating Paris at that time.
Ulmer directs a very nice piece of Film-Noir starring John Carradine as a serial killer.
Gaston Morrell (John Carradine) is a painter and puppet master in turn-of-the-century Paris.
Inspector Lefevre (Nils Asther) has discovered a painting by an artist no one seems to know and the woman in the painting looks exactly like the fourth victim of the murderer the people of Paris now call Bluebeard.
The movie looks just fine with all those classy costumes, dark Parisian streets and, especially, the puppet show of Faust with which Ulmer starts things off.
Meanwhile a seamstress named Lucille (Jean Parker) has befriended a puppeteer named Gaston Morrell (John Carradine) who has a few dark secrets including once being a painter of women...This PRC cheapie was directed by Edgar G.
The acting is better than one might expect from a film of this budget & of this vintage, apparently this was John Carradine's favourite performance that he gave in a rare starring role.Bluebeard is an OK time waster if your not too demanding, it's lapsed into public domain I believe so it's available all over the net for free if you want to see it.
In '44, Carradine had leading roles in two PRC movies, 'Bluebeard' and 'Waterfront', both by European directors, i.e. a movie by Ulmer and one by Sekely.
In both movies, he's a cereal killer: a very chilling one, in Sekely's espionage movie.'Bluebeard', directed by Ulmer, has a not very good script, with anachronistic music and painting (Francine traveled by train, but the uniforms were from the beginning of the 19th century), but the cast can boast Jean Parker (as usually, she upstages her colleagues, and has a very assured understanding of her role's possibilities), and Henry Kolker, here aged; Erdody's score enamels the storyline with a layer of schmaltz.
This 72 minute, black and white film is filled with such moments, including a very good performance by John Carradine, an actor second to only the great Vincent Price in B film excellence in his art form.Unfortunately, the film also has many moments that truly define it as a B film, in the sense that it is a second rate film- this includes some poor acting from many of the female characters that end up being murdered by Carradine's character.
Also, while the film is ostensibly set in Paris, a poster is put up about town that is written in English, not French.There is, as example, an excellent performance by Nils Asther, as Inspector Lefevre, best seen in the courtroom scene where models and prostitutes are brought in to see if they recognize the painting style of the Duke's painting.
Also, despite being filmed entirely on sets that do not resemble Paris, and having mostly mediocre actors, Ulmer does a very good job of creating an effective German Expressionistic type mood, resembling mostly The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari.
Too bad, because he has a quality, at least in this role, that few actors exhibit: the ability to both inhabit and transcend a character.For these three reasons, Bluebeard is a film that, while not great, and, really, not even a classic B film in the sense that schlock like Robot Monster is, is still a film that cineastes should watch, and Edgar Ulmer is a film director whose canon I will definitely be exploring in the future.
Like many studios on poverty row it ground out cheap black-and-white B features, mostly mysteries and detective stories, with B list actors and hurried craftsmen behind the camera.This "Bluebeard" is set in Paris in the late 1800s, this is pretty typical except for a few points.
He falls in love with the sister of his last victim, is pursued by the police, and falls from a rooftop into the river.John Carradine is the painter, Gaston Morel.
John Carradine appears in a rare leading role in this bargain-basement PRC production helmed by legendary B movie director Edgar Ulmer.
John Carradine, as Gaston Morrell (the puppet master) is fantastic.
Remember his wonderful performance as the radical former preacher man in "The Grapes of Wrath?"  (Way overdue for a good quality video reissue, by the way.)  In this 19th century period piece he plays a puppeteer and artist who strangles women after having painted their portraits.
John Carradine repeatedly claimed that Bluebeard was his favorite role to play (out of a repertoire of over 250 films, that has got to mean something!) and I can only confirm that his ghoulish performance is the film's biggest strength.
"Bluebeard" is set in the beautiful city of Paris where the handsome Gaston Morell (Carradine) tries to earn a living by painting and street theater with self-made puppets.