Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: Even though everyone believes Dr. Henry Frankenstein's creature is dead; it survived the windmill fire and is being hunted by villagers. The disgraced Dr. Pretorius sees an opportunity to build on his own attempts to create life and forces Henry to help him create a mate for the monster by kidnapping Henry's wife, Elizabeth. Who's in it? The movie stars Colin Clive , Boris Karloff , Ernest Thesiger , Valerie Hobson , Dwight Frye and Elsa Lanchester . Review: Our Wisconsin summer of extreme weather resulted in yet another day of it being too hot and humid to take a walk at lunch so, once again, I filled the time by watching a movie. I noticed there is a remake of Bride of Frankenstein on one of my movie channels and, since I am still undecided about watching that, decided to go with the original. I've seen this film probably about a dozen times now and there are things about it that I'm not a huge fan of. However, as far as classic horror goes, it is a ...

Synopsis: A series of mysterious deaths in the village of  Kleinschloss cause the village leaders to suspect a vampire. Soon after, suspicions fall on an eccentric man by the name of Hermann Gleib because of his obsession with bats. However, the answer may not be as simple as that. Who's in it? The movie stars Lionel Atwill , Fay Wray , Dwight Frye , Melvyn Douglas and George E. Stone . Review: I picked out The Vampire Bat as my movie this morning for a pair of reasons. One of them was the number of recognizable Hollywood actors that starred in it, especially Hollywood's first scream queen, Wray and a horror movie icon, Frye. The other was the movie's description made it sound like a combination of my two favorite genres, horror and mystery. I think it ended up being a great choice. I think the thing I liked best about this film was the mystery surrounding the deaths. Everyone in the village seemed to be quick to believe it was the work of a vampire, likely one in the ...

Synopsis: The wealthy but unwell Silas Wayne summons both his heirs and two police officers to his den with the intention of having one of his family members arrested. He is somehow stabbed in front of all the witnesses, leaving behind an un-signed will. Everyone in the room is a suspect and Detective-Sergeant Mitchell must figure out who committed the murder and how. He has help from an ambitious female reporter, 'Nosey' Toodles. The movie is also known as The Wayne Murder Case . Who's in it? The movie stars Regis Toomey , June Clyde , Lucille La Verne , Dwight Frye and Fred "Snowflake" Toones. Review: I came across this movie a couple weeks ago and, despite not much information from the description, added it to my library for when I wanted to watch a movie and didn't have a lot of extra time (the film is only about an hour in length). I honestly didn't expect too much from the film, but it ended up being a halfway decent murder mystery. I think the t...