The Lady and the Monster
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
The film is about the attempts to keep alive the brain of a multimillionaire after his death, only to create a telepathic monster. The man then takes over the medical assistant's mind, and the "lady" of the title has to fight it.
Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) is the proud owner of his self-built advanced scientific laboratory set in an old castle in the middle of the dry Arizona desert. Mueller specializes in research on the human brain and is quite obsessed conducts experiments on brain tissue, believing that a human brain can be maintained even after a man's death. He also believes that the knowledge contained in a deceased person's brain can be transferred to another person.
Mueller is assisted in his attempts to prove his theory by another scientist, Patrick Cory (Richard Arlen), and his young Czechoslovakian-American ward, Janice Farrell (Vera Ralston).
Mueller is painfully aware of the fact that his assistants Cory and Janice are attracted to each other, but since Mueller himself is in love with Janice he does everything in his power, including abusing his powers as a boss to assign Cory to additional late night work and use the fact that the young man is far too devoted to his work, to keep the two love-birds apart and improve his own chances. When a plane crashes in the desert close to the laboratory one night, Mueller is asked by the rangers investigating the crash cause to take care of the only surviving man until a physician arrives. The man dies before the doctor gets there and is declared dead. The physician, Dr. Martin, reassures Mueller that someone will come to take care of the body the next day, but while waiting for that person, Mueller decides to test his theory about brain maintenance. With the help of his instruments Mueller is able to decide that the man's brain is still alive enough to use. Before the body is reclaimed he and Cory removes the brain. They are also able to determine, from searching through the dead man's clothes, that the body belongs to an infamous investment banker named William H. Donovan.
In the morning the wife of the late banker, Mrs. Chloe Donovan (Helen Vinson), arrives with the family lawyer, Eugene Fulton (Sidney Blackmer), to transport the remains from the castle. Upon arrival the lawyer inquires Mueller about the late Donovan's last words and Mueller tells him that there were none, since the man died without regaining his conscience after the crash. Not believing that Mueller is entirely truthful, Fulton remains in the nearby area to further investigate the last hours of Donovan's life before he was declared dead. Despite Janice's pleading Cory insists on staying at the castle to finish the experiment with the brain. Through spying on the castle Fulton finds out that Donovan's brain is still intact in a container, but he doesn't act to retrieve it from the scientists, but lets them continue the experiment, well aware of that Donovan didn't leave a penny for his wife in his will. Fulton has his own interest in the matter, since he is Mrs. Donovan's lover, and he secretly hopes that the scientist succeed in making the brain work, so he can extract information about where Mr. Donovan has hidden away his fortune.
When Mueller and Cory treat the brain with plasma, it gains the ability to communicate with the world through telepathy. The brain tells Cory that he must go to the Los Angeles Federal Prison. The plasma stimulation continues with higher and higher doses, even though Janice tries to interrupt the treatment, and soon Cory's brain is hijacked by late Mr. Donovan's brain entirely. Completely under the influence of Mr. Donovan's brain, Cory leaves for Los Angeles Federal Prison and manages to withdraw cash from one of Donovan's hidden accounts. He also manages to convince the police to re-open the investigation against a convicted murderer by the name of Roger Collins (William Henry). Still under the influence of Mr. Donovan, Cory visits Roger Collins in the prison.
Donovan's brain continues to keep complete influence over Cory. Through Cory it tries to force Fulton to help release Collins from prison, but Fulton refuses, claiming that there is too overwhelming evidence against him. A teenager named Mary Lou (Juanita Quigley) has witnessed the crime and as long as she sticks to her story the case is too strong. In an attempt to free Cory from the influence of Donovan's brain, Janice finds out from an investigator named Grimes (Charles Cane), hired by Mrs. Donovan and Fulton, that Cory is trying to bribe the witnesses to withdraw their statements. Grimes has knowledge of Donovan's dirty business and believes that there might be a connection between Collins and Donovan's earlier attempts to get rid of reluctant business counterparts. He also suspects that Donovan will try to get rid of Mary Lou in the same way, using Cory's body. It turns out he is right in his suspicion, as Cory forces Janice to go with him in the car when he tries to run Mary Lou over. When she stops him he tries to kill her instead.
In a sting of jealousy, Mueller's housekeeper and mistress-wannabe (Mary Nash) feeds sedarives to the brain and it loses its control over Cory, who regains his consciousness. The awakened Cory tells Janice that Collins in fact is Donovan's unknown son, and that Donovan was the one who committed the murder that Collins was convicted for. Having returned to the castle in Arizona Cory tries to abort the experiment, but is hindered by Mueller. They struggle and Mueller end up being shot by the housekeeper, and the brain is smashed to the floor. Cory goes on to help free Collins, and Janice waits for him to complete a short prison sentence for his involvement in the brain experiment.

Review: THE LADY AND THE MONSTER is the first version of Curt Siodmak's often filmed novel "Donovan's Brain".
This first version is largely forgotten, and those that recall it usually dis-miss it as inferior to the 1953 version DONOVAN'S BRAIN with Lew Ayres.
While the 1953 version is superior in almost every way, THE LADY AND THE MONSTER is still an entertaining, atmospheric 1940's thriller.The plot is basically the same, but in this version the living brain of Donovan possesses the mind of scientist Richard Arlen to clear his illegitimate son who has been wrongly convicted of murder.
The brain also wants to get revenge on his daughter, whom is just as money hungry and ruthless as Donovan was in "life." Even though Donovan's goals are good, his disembodied brain is still ruthless; he orders the possessed Arlen to kill a girl who gave false testimony at his son's trial.We can always tell when Donovan is about to possess Arlen, the lighting and Arlen's  make-up changes.
Erich Von Stroheim plays the elder scientist, and as with any film he was in, he was always a commanding presence.
There are hints of him having an unhealthy infatuation with Vera Ralston, but this doesn't lead anywhere.Overall, LADY AND THE MONSTER isn't as good as the later 1953 version, but it is still a decent 1940's horror thriller..
Feist's 1953 film version of Curt Siodmak's DONOVAN'S BRAIN (with Lew Ayres and Gene Evans), somehow I have yet to acquire it for my home video collection; besides, I am also familiar (from an age-old Italian TV screening) with the later Freddie Francis version entitled VENGEANCE aka THE BRAIN (1962) where Peter Van Eyck and Anne Heywood had the leading roles.
What I did acquire very recently, however, is the even rarer original version directed by the reliable George Sherman and starring the great Erich von Stroheim, Contrary to expectations, the latter is neither the monster of the title nor (for the initiated) the man taken over by the dead financial wizard's brain; that unlucky guy is Richard Arlen – the hero of ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) no less – who, as Stroheim's unlikely assistant in his underground experiments, gets to become even more obsessed with their celebrated cerebral specimen than his crazed mentor!
Yates (when she married the head of Republic Pictures, the studio behind this film) but, frankly, she brought very little to this particular film; on the other hand, it was nice to see Sidney Blackmer – best-known for portraying Adrian Marcato in Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) – albeit in a supporting role of the suspicious attorney.
Incidentally, the sequences depicting the blooming romance between Arlen and Ralston and those between Blackmer and Donovan's wife can mostly be written off as mere padding; small wonder, therefore, that the film was shorn of 19 whole minutes (cut down from 86 to 67!) for a later re-releasenot to mention being saddled with the highly ludicrous (and utterly misleading) alternate titles of TIGER MAN and MONSTER AND TIGER MAN!!
Speaking of titles, despite the sheer similarity to the earlier Paramount horror entry THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL (1941), as can be gleaned from my own reviews of both films, they have nothing whatsoever in content (other than being of the same era and genre).
Despite these flaws, I generally liked the film more than I was expecting to and that fact is mostly down to two simple factors: the presence of Erich von Stroheim in front of the cameras and that of celebrated cinematographer John Alton behind them!
Even though the quality of the copy I acquired was fairly fuzzy at best, Alton's atmospheric lighting came through just the same – particularly during the atmospheric laboratory sequences and the eerie scenes showing Arlen's 'possession'..
A short way into this film I realized that it is the same film that remade as "Donovan's Brain" (with Lew Ayers)--a very good movie.
"The Lady and the Monster" is the original version of this story but based on the title you'd never know it--after all, there really is no monster in the film and it's not exactly a horror film...not exactly.Erich Von Stroheim of all people plays the lead in this film.
He's a not exactly mad scientist who has weird theories about keeping a brain alive after death--on the other hand, he sure ain't normal!
He is a guardian for a rather hysterical young lady who is a bad actress (Vera Ralston--who was apparently sleeping with the head of the studio).
And, he has an assistant (Richard Arlen) who can't make up his mind about the ethics of Von Stroheim's work.One day, an actual human subject falls into Von Stroheim's lap, so to speak.
He and Arlen 'borrow' the brain when Donovan dies--unethical, sure, but probably not a bad thing...or is it?!
The experiment turns out to be a great success--the brain is kept alive for many days.
However, something weird happens--the brain begins to show amazing powers--powers to control Arlen and Von Stroheim!
While it has some elements, the story is a but more understated and the scientists aren't quite mad enough to qualify it as a horror film.
Throughout much of the early part of the film she seemed really high-strung and went on and on about how horrible Von Stroheim was---even though he hadn't really done anything yet!
As a result, and I RARELY say this, I really think the remake was a better film--and with a much more appropriate title..
Erich Von Stroheim is awesome at what he does, but certainly no one will ever praise him for his versatile range as an actor.Yes, much less effective and respectable than the 1953 version, "Donovan's Brain." Check that one out first if you haven't seen it.
The Lady And The Monster is a misnomer of a title in that no other world or unearthly creatures will be found here.
The monster in this film is the brain of a malignant and vicious millionaire who is killed in a plane crash and has his brain removed by scientist Erich Von Stroheim.
Von Stroheim and his assistant Richard Arlen put the brain in a saline solution and keep it alive with electricity.
Just the brain mind you, they're not reconstructing human beings as Dr. Frankenstein was.But Walter Donovan was a real piece of work even for a miser.
Vera Hruba Ralston who is Von Stroheim's nurse wants Arlen.
But Arlen is taken over by the brain which through Von Stroheim's experiments has developed tremendous telepathic powers and as it grows stronger controls Arlen more and more.This film is the first one based on Curt Siodmark's novel Donovan's Brain.
In the version with Lew Ayres in Arlen's part, the brain has a truly ambitious plan for world domination with stock and currency manipulation.
Here the brain is just working on settling some old scores.Just the fact that Von Stroheim is cast as the evil scientist meant that audiences knew exactly what to expect when they bought their tickets.
He's his usual hateful self as he always was except in Sunset Boulevard.The Lady And The Monster is one of Republic Pictures better products from the Forties, a real nice low budget thriller.
She's the one who saves the world from Donovan's Brain..
After four nights of trying to decipher a transfer from actual film to a home-made DVD, with dark lighting and noir-styled settings, my adventure into the world of "The Lady and the Monster" was finally complete.
Continuing my horror/mystery binge, the basis of this 1944 sleeper begins very simply with a mad scientist and a plan, but then, as the paranormal begins our story goes from the strange to the confusing.
"The Lady and the Monster" then transforms from an original sci-fi storyline, to a chaotic mess, leaving you eager to see how the 1953 remake "Donovan's Brain" may have learned from these mistakes.Perhaps it was the way films in the 40s were made, or maybe it was just the filmmaker's way of attempting to move the plot forward, but instances occurred in this film that seemed to carry no consequences.
Easily our limpy mad scientist and his assistance were able to find a brain, confuse the local medical practitioner, keep the brain alive, hear thoughts, and perhaps solve a five year crime.
What begins as a film based on science fiction and horror, easily changes to this CSI-style of storytelling.
"The Lady and the Monster" teeters on the border of noir and B-grade film-making.
To begin, the hints given by Donovan's brain to help Patrick Cory (played devilishly by Richard Arlen) are executed well, making the viewer strain to hear what or where these planted words may take Cory.
Perhaps Ralston couldn't control her character, discover her true-self, or maybe she just didn't feel like memorizing her lines, but each scene she walked into was dry and emotionless.
Stringing together several different ideas, none of which were developed at all, to give us a climax that was more based on the first half of the film than the second seemed random.Despite my gruff nature towards Ralston and the repetitive nature of the film, the science behind this feature was actuallyquite fun.
The idea that a brain could be kept alive has been used in dozens of sci-fi films over the ages, and this was a uniquely new way to see it.
I also liked the cliché mad scientist known as Franz Mueller (played diabolically by Erich Von Stroheim), who fit into every mold created since this film.
There were fun parts to this film, elements that were conceived as a good idea, but failed because ill-development and lack of detailed story forced it to go south.
Parts were enjoyable, but "The Lady and the Monster" as a whole seemed to fail.Overall, I liked certain elements to this film, but others just failed completely.
Lady and the Monster, The (1944) ** (out of 4) Professor Franz Mueller (Erich von Stroheim) and his assistant Dr. Cory (Richard Arlen) are doing experiments on keeping the brain of an animal alive but they get their chance at a human one after a rich man named Donovan dies.
They end up saving Donovan's brain but soon it begins to take control of Cory and sends him out to finish his bad deeds.
Curt Siodmak's novel "Donovan's Brain" has been filmed countless times over the years and there have been even more rip-offs.
I've never been a huge fan of the story because none of the film versions have really worked.
Even worse is the silly love connection between Cory and another assistant (Vera Ralston), which really slows the movie down.
I'm not one who supports studios cutting down movies but there have been many times where a shorter version helped and I'm going to guess that this is such a case.
von Stroheim is also fun in his part, although at the same time you can't help but shake your head when seeing such a great talent playing in a film like this.
THE LADY AND THE MONSTER hasn't had a wide release since it first came out and after finally seeing it I can't say that it was worth the wait..
I don't get into the "science" of these types of films or even begin to question things that might not make sense, but I simply found the movie not very engaging.
The "hero" wasn't very appealing, and the less said about the leading lady, the better.
this perhaps explains her performance, but not why anyone would hire her in the first place.) By contrast, Erich Von Stroheim was very entertaining and perfectly filled the bill for a driven, slightly-demented German-esque scientist.The narration present throughout almost the entire film suggests to me that the screenwriters could have done a better job...
Exposition kills pacing, and a well-written script will eliminate the need for it.I would say "don't bother" unless you like Von Stroheim and would enjoy watching him chew a little scenery.
He was easily the best thing about the film and I likely wouldn't have finished it if it weren't for him..
The Lady and The Monster is a fairly watchable version of Curt Siodmak's novel Donovan's Brain.
Siodmak himself, who authored or co-authored such films as Black Friday, The Wolf Man, I Walked With A Zombie and Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man was never much taken with this version of his story from Republic Pictures.
True, it takes quite a while to get going, but it's a pretty good movie overall.Richard Arlen is quite convincing as the research assistant taken over by the mind of a ruthless financier, at times glacial and on other occasions domineering and aggressive.
Eric Von Stroheim plays the scientist who keeps Donovan's brain alive after the businessman's body dies in a plane crash.
He's a pretty obvious villain from the start without an ounce of sympathy; and headlining is Vera Hruba Ralston as his assistant.
Controlled by Donovan, he will stop at nothing to get his unacknowledged son off a murder conviction (it was the financier himself who did the killing), including attempting to run down a school girl witness in the street.This is not really a horror movie despite the title but it does have some of the trappings of the genre - a laboratory sequence slightly patterned after the Frankenstein movies, the mad scientist, Arlen as a sort of monster etc.
Let's just call it one of those little gems that flew out of the gears of the studio era Hollywood machine while it was manufacturing more important things.The radio adaptation of Curt Siodmak's "Donovan's Brain" starring Orson Welles is still the best of the many versions and ripoffs of that perennial brain-in-a-vat story, mainly because it had Orson Welles in it, but this is the best film version I've seen, probably because it had Erich von Stroheim.
I think in both cases the production may well have taken advantage of having a great director in the cast to add some uncredited fine tuning.The eccentric beauty of the Southwestern Gothic "castle" where the mad scientist keeps his lab, the lush shadowy textures of the lab with its glowing tank and simple but effective light bulb signaling the electrical activity of Donovan's brain, Stroheim's quietly hilarious choice of giving his character a pronounced limp (maybe to address the lack of a traditional deformed lab assistant) are all details I love.
And though Stroheim naturally makes the most of his screen time, Richard Arlen is the one who really carries the film by making Donovan's takeover of Cory's mind convincing.
One of Republic's best; Definitely the only Vera Hruba Ralston classic!.
...And she still has the worst line delivery in screen history!Perhaps it was the melodramatic performance of Erich Von Stroheim or the strange set or the way this "A" feature from a "B-" studio was filmed.
Perhaps it is because it is a more detailed film of "Donovan's Brain" with excellent character development and even better story telling than the good United Artists remake from just nine years later.
So somewhere in the Arizona desert is a gloomy looking mansion where doctors Erich Von Stroheim and Richard Arlen are doing experiments on animals to see if their brains continue to work after the animal's heart has stopped beating and they have been pronounced dead.
This inspires the bellowing Von Stroheim to take the step further: to try it on a human!
He has his hands full, being domineering to his nurse (Ralston) who is in love with Von Stroheim's assistant (Richard Arlen) whom Von Stroheim considers unworthy of her.
A convenient plane crash gives Von Stroheim an excuse to interrupt Arlen and Ralston's date, sending them to the sight of the crash to retrieve the dead body of a passenger (named Donovan, an alleged financial wizard) for an autopsy.
Realizing that while Donovan is dead, his brain is still functioning makes Von Stroheim decided to remove the brain for further experimentation in hopefully using this for the good of society to keep the great deeds and words of great men going.
But was Donovan really the great man they believe?
A visit from his widow opens up that can of worms, and Arlen is soon used as a vessel to bring Donovan's spirit back to life, not necessarily a good thing.It's easy to see why Herbert J.
Yates, the head of Republic Studios, thought he could make a silk purse actress out of a sow's ear non-actress, as Ralston is very photogenic here, but unfortunately, that never transfers onto the screen as either great acting or star quality.
Arlen, still handsome, is very good in going between his noble assistant and the increasingly evil Donovan, while Von Stroheim blasts his lines as if he was Harry James or Glenn Miller leading their bands.
Von Stroheim keeps in character throughout, manages to emote over dramatically without somehow becoming too campy or over-the-top, and Arlen gives it a true touch of class.
Even with the complete non-acting of Vera Hruba Ralston, the film stays devoted to its theme of how mankind should not interfere in extending life beyond its expiration date, and how when they do, it turns out to be a complete disaster for everybody involved..
combination of science fiction and film noir.
*Spoiler/plot- The Lady and the Monster, 1944.
In a rural castle two medical men and a woman assistant are experimenting with brain chemistry and energy.
After a airplane crash, they take a human brain of one of the victims to continue their work.
The brain is of a criminal mind that gradually takes over the medical assistant's mind periodically to do more evil.*Special Stars- Vera Ralston, Richard Allen, Erich Von Strohiem.*Theme- Don't tamper with creation.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W.
The male cast members overshadow the female lead and the plot has little for her to do to engineer the dramatic situations of this film.
The disembodied brain element becomes secondary to the crime plot for this film.