Bluebeard

1944 serial killer movie

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A puppeteer/artist won't stop murdering the women he paints, and giving him a cool but inexplicable nickname like Bluebeard probably doesn't help. I mean, I might even turn to a life of crime if I knew I could get a cool nickname.

I'm a sucker for these psychotic artist movies anyway, but John Carradine's performance, a great shot of puppet shadows behind our titular villain while he leans on a bannister, and a cool flashback sequence with all these tilted shots probably make the whole thing worth it. There's a relentless score that really adds nothing at all to the experience, and the story is filled with holes. The murders are all that typical 1940's style where Carradine gets wide-eyed and reaches at his victims' throats with Nosferatu's hands, and a rooftop chase sequence that should have been great ended up a little too jumpy and dizzying.

The puppets in this, by the way, were very underwhelming.

This was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. I've got _____ of his movies on the blog--The Amazing Transparent Man (watched during the famous "man" streak), Detour (one I really loved), and The Black Cat (which I also liked).