"Bluebeard" by Edgar G. Ulmer (1944)

Masquerading as a period piece, costume drama, this is actually a charming little thriller with relatively simple production values that usually one sees in many movies created during previous decade. The title is unfortunately misleading - this is nothing to do with famous French Gothic tale and besides the fact that story is conveniently set in Paris and the characters are supposedly all French, it could easily be called anything else. Producers probably thought it would be great idea to write "Bluebeard" on the poster to attract audiences, but in reality its just another detective story with some nice costumes and fluffy wigs.

While the whole Paris is paralysed with fear caused by appearances of murdered women in river Seine, pretty modiste Jean Parker goes for a stroll in the evening and when asked by her girlfriends is she not afraid, she twirls her umbrella exclaiming in all innocence "oh, I forgot!" - this was supposedly to show her absolute innocence and gullibility, but right than and there I hoped that whoever this Parisian Jack the Ripper is, he might stick that umbrella down her throat and sooner the better. Unfortunately the scriptwriters decide to acquaint viewers with identity of serial killer in the next five minutes so basically for the rest of the movie the only suspense comes from waiting for the rest of characters to come to same conclusion. From police detectives to judge at the court or art dealers, every single Pierre, Jean and Francine are here just as overdressed caricatures, and search for the owner of particular, torn necktie (in French: cravat which mind you, comes from being invented in my own Croatia to my biggest regret) seems a bit ridiculous as we clearly see murderer always using his hands to strangle his victims. True, he takes of the necktie and than drops it off, so once you become aware of this it makes everything even more funny.

The only saving grace of this movie is magnetic John Carradine who at that time was in his late thirties - tall and gaunt, he had very charismatic screen presence and something in his poise and manner of talking reminds me very much on Bela Lugosi - it is a very memorable, sonorous voice and matched with  such unusual looks, he could have been perfect contender to play in any screen adaptations from literary classics. Its perfectly easy to imagine him in "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights" and in fact it seems he did a lot of work in serious theatre, not surprisingly he toured with Shakespearean company.