A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

"The Undying Monster" is basically a very routine and derivative '40s horror flick, but there are a couple of aspects that undeniably bring this film to a much higher league. The delightfully sinister title, for one, but more importantly - of course - the skillful directing talents of John Brahm and a couple of extremely progressive footnotes in the script! This was one of 20th Century Fox' first attempts to imitate the tremendously successful horror movies from Universal and it more specifically became a combination between a typical old-dark-house chiller and a classic monster fable. For centuries already, the rich aristocratic Hammond family is plagued by a curse and far too many ancestors died in the claws of a hideous lycanthrope monster. The horror returns to the final heirs, siblings Helga and Oliver, when a young girl is found ripped to pieces on the large Hammond estate. The plot, set-up and particularly the denouement may be clichéd and predictable, but the power of "The Undying Monster" lies in minor plot details and stylistic highlights. The opening sequence, for example, is brilliantly misleading as the camera soberly ventures through the dark interior of the mansion and passes next to a seemingly lifeless dog and motionless female hand. But then the doorbell rings and both the dog and the female rudely awake. What an incredibly imaginative and unexpected scene to feature in a routine horror low-budgeter like this! John Brahm, a director who emigrated from Germany before WWII, here demonstrates a lot of his visionary talents and he would later make a couple of shamefully underrated horror classics like "The Lodger", "Hangover Square" (both starring George Sanders and Laird Cregar) and "The Mad Magician (starring the almighty Vincent Price). Little moments of brilliance in the script include some very progressive theories about lycanthropy AND a very early but powerful manifestation of girl-power and feminism! Female lead Helga Hammond is one feisty lady, to say the least. When she hears fearful screams from within the dark woods surrounding her estate, she unhesitatingly jumps into a carriage and forays into the night to investigate. What a woman! Helga is depicted by an actress named Heather Angel, which is an artist name that would only be chosen by adult film stars nowadays. "The Undying Monster" definitely isn't fundamental viewing, but warmly recommended to fans of spooky black- and-white horror. With a running time of barely 63 minutes, it won't even cost you too much precious time.

"The Undying Monster" was an attempt by Darryl F. Zanuck to replicate the success that Universal Studios was having with horror movies for his studio 20th Century Fox. What we get here is a sort of horror/mystery mix with a tip of the hat to Sherlock Holmes and "The Hound of the Baskervilles".The story surrounds the Hammond family who have lived in a drafty old house for centuries just outside of London England. The current owners are a brother, Oliver Hammond (John Howard) and his sister Helga (Heather Angel). Also in residence are a creepy old butler Walton (Halliwell Hobbes) and his sinister wife (Elly Malyon). It seems that a family curse has befallen the Hammonds once again.When Oliver and a local girl are found savagely attacked in the foggy old moors, fear spreads throughout the house. When the girl dies a murder investigation is begun by Scotland Yard. Heading up the investigation are the Holmes/Watson like team of Bob Curtis (James Ellison) and his assistant "Christy" (Heather Thatcher). The family doctor, Doctor Jeff Colbert (Bramwell Fletcher) seems to know more than he is telling and the Waltons are lurking about in the shadows.I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that the culprit turns out to be a werewolf whose identity is not revealed until the end.The film was directed by John Brahm a German who fled his country in the 1930s and had made mostly "B" movies (of which this is one) to date. He injects mystery and horror into his "B" budget in an imaginative way both through his direction and the atmospheric photography of no less than the legendary Lucien Ballard. I was disappointed though at a couple of tacky rear projection shots involving characters riding in a coach.It's odd that everyone in the cast has a British accent except for the "star" James Ellison. Ellison had recently graduated from being second banana to Hopalong Cassidy but never progressed beyond a "B" picture leading man. Heather Angel and John Howard had starred together in the "Bulldog Drummond" series from 1937 to 1939. And yes that was Charles McGraw playing Studwick who battles Curtis in the basement tombs.Brahm would soon be rewarded for his efforts with a pair of "A" budget films with "A" list casts in "The Lodger" (1944) and "Hangover Square" (1945) both starring Laird Cregar.

While the monster here is an unseen creature, rumored to have haunted this part of the English country side for centuries, it is very apparent that it is some sort of predatory monster of remarkable strength and fierce cunning. Wolves haven't lived in England for ions, someone points out, but it is very obvious that somebody knows more than they are revealing.Obviously made in the wake of the recent return of several famous Universal monsters, this ain't no rip-off. It has a lavish look, albeit on a B budget, and is as chilling as the Val Lewton thrillers being made over at RKO. The murders are nothing short of shocking and the murky atmosphere perfect for the grand guignole shakes and shivers it may produce going up and down your spine.The intelligent screenplay is perfectly aided by the fog-laden photography, eerie music and fast-paced editing. As directed by the under-rated John Brahms, James Ellison, Heather Angel and John Howard deliver believable performances with Halliwell Hobbes and Eily Malyon memorable as the butler and housekeeper who seem to be guilty of something.

Lykanthropia or the werewolf-syndrome is one of the most seldom diseases which is considered belonging to schizophrenia by a part of psychiatry. However, in the legendary versions, the werewolf-motive is often combined with other forms of splitting of personality - like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-Syndrome. Originally, the werewolf-syndrome is just the believe that the biological border between human and animal can be transgressed. However, the one person who is split at once in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, is not transgressing any biological borders, but the ethical border between Good and Evil. For mythological (as well as most common) thinking it is impossible to assume that two exclusive and contradictory logical categories can apply in one and the same individual. If this would be possible, than one person would either split into two different persons, or the two categories would neutralize one another. Since the latter is obviously (according to everyday's experience) not the case, but since the former is neither the case, because we know that one and the same person is either himself and a werewolf or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a horror complex of first rate is born: For the mythological thinking it is completely unacceptable that one body can be the house of two exclusive categories like human and beast or good and evil - like a logical sentence cannot be true and false at the same time."The undying monster" is according to my knowledge the first horror movie that treats the werewolf-motive as a disease. We hear about a "neurological pain" and that the physician and friend of the sick lord tried to treat him with a special "poison". However, Hans Brahm's movie is insofar also indebted to the legendary tradition as it sticks with the idea that the disease breaks out only under specific atmospheric constellations and that is shows the inner change from human to werewolf as an outer change from animal to beast (and back).