The Devil's Messenger

1961
4.6| 1h12m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 January 1961 Released
Producted By: Herts-Lion International Corp.
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

In this feature version of the Swedish TV series "13 Demon Street," a 50,000-year-old woman is found frozen in an ice field, and a man's death is foretold in dreams.

Genre

Horror

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Director

Herbert L. Strock, Curt Siodmak

Production Companies

Herts-Lion International Corp.

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The Devil's Messenger Audience Reviews

Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch
Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
mark.waltz What on paper might have seemed like a good idea for a television series fortunately never made it that far, possibly playing in some second rate movie theater as part of a double bill with another piece of schlock. The premise has Satan himself (Lon Chaney Jr., that brilliant thespian of 1950's and 60's horror crap) sending the latest arrival in Hell back to earth to bring him more souls and ultimately go back one last time with the plan of obtaining more room, since hell is obviously running out. Looking like your local garbage man or mail deliverer, Chaney speaks his lines with an eternal grin, like the cat who swallowed tweetie bird with one gulp, seeming more like the prince of annoyance than the prince of darkness. The individual segments when Chaney isn't on actually rise this film's ratings up a bit and show a bit of creativity.First, there's a segment involving a camera man who is being stalked by a picture of a mysterious house with a woman he is having a strange affair with seemingly getting closer and closer. When she does appear, she's strangely obsessed, but as she realizes that he's getting nuttier and nuttier by her presence, she prepares to go. Why this premise would lead him to a life of damnation makes no sense, but the plot line surrounding her picture shows that at least someone was thinking simply beyond the shock value of having a film of people being damned.Next, is a tragic story, quite sad actually, concerning the discovery of a girl from millenniums in time found in a block of ice in a cave, and the efforts of a love-starved man to rescue her from her icy tomb. Finally, there's the story of a man who learns that he is to be murdered by a gypsy fortune teller at midnight and his efforts to prevent it from happening. Each incident has its own level of spookiness and certainly are better than any of the segments which feature Chaney at his most horrible. Chaney does of course get a twist at the end, and he overacts with relish. Filmed very cheaply, this has moments of gripping fear, but not everybody will be taken with the idea of Satan using an innocent woman (named Satana, no less...) to bring him more souls pretty much against her will.
kevin olzak "The Devil's Messenger" may have been issued in 1962, carrying a 1961 copyright, but served as a feature compilation of a 1959 TV series shot in Sweden by writer/director Curt Siodmak, titled 13 DEMON STREET. Lon Chaney was imported as host, his minimal footage seen at the opening and close of all 13 half hour episodes, none of which were picked up by US television, but did play in Sweden. Producer Kenneth Herts hired director Herbert L. Strock to do what he could in providing a way for Herts to recoup his losses, and thus this feature film was born, incorporating three episodes with new wraparound scenes promoting host Chaney to Satan himself. Karen Kadler (Mrs. Kenneth Herts) had already appeared as a model in the episode "Fever," but here plays an entirely new character, appropriately named Satanya, newest arrival in Hell after a wrist slashing suicide, called upon by Chaney's Devil to carry out a special mission as recruiter for three separate characters. A camera provides the link to the first tale, "The Photograph" (reduced to 19 minutes), with veteran John Crawford as a womanizing professional photographer with a habit of bedding his models, who rapes and murders an unresponsive woman whose house was his primary subject, its image reflecting his dead victim at closer and closer intervals, one that no one else but her killer can see. Satan offers Satanya a pick, leading into the second tale, "The Girl in the Glacier" (reduced to 16 minutes), in which a mining expedition uncovers the perfectly preserved body of a naked woman in an icy tomb, transported to a Swedish museum for closer examination. One anthropologist becomes obsessed with her enticing presence (he names her Angelica), resorting to murder to prevent a rival colleague from despoiling his beloved. A crystal ball is the natural connection for story three, "Condemned in the Crystal" (reduced to 21 minutes), as Chaney's Satan proclaims: "some people say they can see things in a crystal ball, others say they can foretell the future, others say they can reconstruct the past, but they only see what we down here let them see because the crystal ball is the toy of the Devil!" Michael Hinn's John Radian, the man responsible for Satanya's despondent suicide (no connection whatsoever to the episode in question), is consumed by fears for his uncertain future, until a psychiatrist advises him to confront them head on by returning to a childhood haunt with a room he had been too scared to enter as a boy. Inside is a fortune teller, Madame Germaine (Gunnel Brostrom), who claims to know nothing of Radian but predicts that she will be the instrument of his midnight death. The newly filmed conclusion features Hinn, the only actor who repeated his series role for the added footage, joining Satanya in Hell for one final task, to deliver the ultimate weapon that Satan could devise, one that man knows only too well how to use. Lon Chaney is relaxed and confident as a smiling Devil, bringing a great deal of energetic humor to his role of genial host for a Hell he compares to being an exclusive club, one that requires more room for new members. With 10 1/2 minutes screen time, Chaney probably gets more footage than he did in all 13 episodes combined of the little seen 13 DEMON STREET, more in line with Boris Karloff's unsold THE VEIL than any actual show broadcast at the time. Some, though not all, episodes have found their way to YouTube, the entire series available in certain gray market packages. As a feature film (the only way many viewers have experienced 13 DEMON STREET), it served its successful purpose at the box office, though Curt Siodmak's name was nowhere to be found on screen, Leo Guild sole credited writer, Herbert L. Strock sole credited director. When Satanya asks what his purpose is in ruining lives, Chaney's exuberant Devil sums it up nicely: "people ruin their own lives, all we do is help them a bit!"
Scarecrow-88 Lon Chaney as Satan—how could I not watch this movie?!? Well, he's the best thing about this anthology directed by Curt Siodmak regarding Beelzebub's using a suicide victim, Satanaya(Karen Kadler) to bring him souls from earth, and in return he'll see about giving her a tribunal to reward her for doing his bidding. Don(John Crawford), a fine photographer but lout to women, "kills a woman" while on vacation in Massachusetts, his psyche slowly unraveling as the guilt begins to overcome him. Essentially, the first tale is about a man coming apart at the seams, his frailties as a misogynist getting the better of him as a photograph he took of the "murder victim" torments him. The second tale concerns a scientist, Dr. Siestrom(Frank Taylor), who becomes obsessed with an "anthropological find", basically a woman encased in ice, found in a mine, even murdering an anthropologist in charge of *studying* her, so he can have her all to himself. It will prove to be his undoing when attempts to melt the ice and release her from the icy tomb. The third tale follows a man who has been suffering nightmares about a building, visits a psychic informing him that she sees in her crystal ball that he will be dead by midnight. He wants to know the one who will commit this deed and she tells him it will be her! So he rushes out telling her she'll have to find him first! John Rainer(Michael Hinn) and the fortuneteller spend most of this tale discussing the murder that is supposed to occur in a manner of time, the supposed victim deliberating on how he'll survive (contemplating killing her in order to live). The final scene, after Satanya is successful in "luring" her former lover to hell, has Satan unveiling his plan to give us the atomic bomb to destroy ourselves so he can have more space (since hell is becoming crowded!). Chaney is a delight as a gleeful Satan, seemingly having a ball in the role, but this collection of Swedish television shows, edited into a movie format, barely linked together, are mostly dull, cheap, with a lack of real thrills. The third tale, involving Rainer's trying to escape a tragic fate foretold to him by a spooky psychic, is the most atmospheric while the second tale, regarding the scientist and the frozen girl he has become infatuated with, is the silliest. My favorite sequence of events comes in the first tale where every time John looks at a photograph, the girl he killed seems closer and closer; it's a simple but affective way of symbolizing death's drawing nearer and nearer. Before each tale, Satan gives Satanya an object (camera, crystal ball, etc) to take back to earth as a means to kick-start the proceedings. Chaney's eyes light up when his Prince of Darkness addresses Satanya's comments on having to return to participate in bringing him new victims as he mentions that they contribute to their own demise--he just assists them!
Red-Barracuda This cheapo horror omnibus features Lon Chaney Jr. as the devil. He sends a young female suicide victim back to Earth on a series of interventions involving men destined for purgatory. The film is split up into three short stories within this framework.The first story about an amoral photographer and a ghost has a reasonable premise but it isn't executed very well. The idea of the ghostly woman in the photograph advancing ever nearer is a little reminiscent of the central idea in Ring. And it's a good idea but there isn't enough time for the story to develop and the ending feels rushed.Story two about the discovery of a prehistoric woman found in-cased in a block of ice is a complete washout. The lead character has an obsession with the ice lady that is never explained. He kills his colleague, the ice melts and the lady vanishes. It all seems a bit pointless.The third story about the man who encounters the fortune-teller is probably the best, as it has more time to develop. However, despite an intriguing set up, the pay-off is distinctly uninteresting.The Devil's Messenger is not terribly good but, as it contains three stories within a 75 minute film, it does at least move along at a brisk pace.