Menace - What's the Plot in Golden Age Horror Forum

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Menace - What's the Plot

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JoeDoakes	Menace - What's the Plot	Lead	[-]
Jul 19 11 11:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	This is a precode terror often listed here, but I cannot even find a brief plot summation on imdb. If anyone has seen it, what's the plot (spoilers not needed)?
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TomWeaver999		#1	[-]
Jul 19 11 11:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	1932 or 1934 MENACE? Either way, you can go to the TCM website and read the AFI's synopsis for either. Or both. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/index.html
PhantomXCI		#2	[-]
Jul 19 11 11:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	MENACE isn't really a horror film. It's essentially a drawing-room who-dunnit, in which the (unknown) killer is a psychopath out for revenge. It's interesting enough to be attractive to horror fans, but it's strictly a borderline entry in the genre.
Badfinger		#3	[-]
Jul 31 11 1:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A maniac seeks revenge on a group of people he blames for his brother's death. I don't know what most consider the criteria to be classified as a horror film, but I consider it a horror film or thriller akin to THIRTEEN WOMEN, THE NINTH GUEST, and TERROR ABOARD. All of these films have a group of people being terrorized throughout the film by a killer. A 'who done it' is where the bulk of the film is a detective working to solve a mystery such as MURDER BY TELEVISION or the Philo Vance films. There is little terror in those. I'm a big fan of MENACE (1934). The 1932 THE MENACE with Bette Davis is much more pedestrian.
Rick		#4	[-]
Apr 18 12 11:47 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Finally saw this just this evening. Gotta agree with Phantom XCI here. This just ain't no horror film. You could call it an Old Dark House film, I guess, except that the house doesn't seem that old, and it's far from dark. It's just a simple murder mystery. The victims are stuck in a mansion with an unknown killer, but, while no one cares to be murdered, no one seems especially frightened and there's just nothing creepy going on. When the killer is finally captured he does manage to rant maniacally for a few seconds as he's dragged away, but, again, nothin' spooky about it. If this had been made pre-DRACULA, maybe I could give it a little more horror cred. Even then, however, it just doesn't pass muster. But it is kinda fun for what it is, just don't expect anything like a horror film. Not even borderline.
atkalu		#5	[-]
Apr 20 12 9:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	MENACE 1934 definitely qualifies as a borderline horror film. It ain't no DRACULA, but the shocking style of some of the murders (that mysterious, shocking flying knife!) fits the horror bill. Ken Hanke wrote a good article years ago on the borderline horrors from Paramount. THE NINTH GUEST and TERROR ABOARD are certainly in the same company. He even included THE WITCHING HOUR and DOUBLE DOOR in that piece and I think even those two regard some mention in the horror conversation.
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Rick		#6	[-]
Apr 20 12 10:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, it's just that old unanswerable question, "What is a horror film?" And it's always a personal, individual answer. Personally, THE WITCHING HOUR -- a horror film THE NINTH GUEST -- borderline horror TERROR ABOARD -- borderline horror THE DOUBLE DOOR --borderline horror, maybe just below the borderline MENACE -- nope. Not even that close.
dcwillis9		#7	[-]
Apr 21 12 1:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	In one of his books, William K Everson treated Menace as a horror movie.... Disappointments (genre-wise) for me recently have included The Sphinx and The Mad Doctor. Not even borderline....
Badfinger		#8	[-]
May 4 12 3:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rick wrote: Well, it's just that old unanswerable question, "What is a horror film?" And it's always a personal, individual answer. Personally, THE WITCHING HOUR -- a horror film THE NINTH GUEST -- borderline horror TERROR ABOARD -- borderline horror THE DOUBLE DOOR --borderline horror, maybe just below the borderline MENACE -- nope. Not even that close. How is THE WITCHING HOUR a horror film. It has some slight fantasy elements but there is nothing horrific about it. DOUBLE DOOR is more of a melodrama. MENACE, TERROR ABOARD and THE NINTH GUEST are all horror films in my book; and darn good ones.
Rick		#9	[-]
May 4 12 3:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's those slight fantasy elements that, for me, tip it into the horror fold. It helps if you think of them as supernatural elements rather than fantasy. DOUBLE DOOR is definitely more of a melodrama, but I did call it borderline or less than even that. I still maintain that THE NINTH GUEST and TERROR ABOARD are borderline horror. Like this -- if MAD LOVE, THE BLACK ROOM, MARK OF THE VAMPIRE are genuine horror films, and if THE THIN MAN, CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON, THE BISHOP MURDER CASE are "just" mysteries, then that elusive "border" lies somewhere between those camps. I call THE NINTH GUEST, etc, borderline horrors simply because they're obviously not the same as a genuine, full-blooded horror. They're mysteries or thrillers or suspense films (you pick 'em) which have strayed over the border. Even DOUBLE DOOR lies somewhere between those two camps. My problem with MENACE is that it simply has no horror feel. There's a murderer, yes, and he gets a few seconds just before fade-out to play nutty. But nobody in the movie is scared in that horror film sort of way. They're a little nervous about the danger, but not horror movie scared. And there's no darkness, there are no creepy shadows. That old dark house seems awfully well-illuminated. If you say "it's about a psycho killer stalking and stabbing his victims in a lonely mansion" then, yeah, it sounds like a horror movie. Just doesn't play like one, doesn't feel like one. I just don't think it's even very close. There is one surprisingly (for the time) graphic murder and at that moment I thought maybe we were gonna take a nice hard turn into something spooky. But we didn't. Right back to the lights up, everybody sitting around the drawing room mystery. But, as always when this subject comes up, it's "eye of the beholder". If you or anyone else chooses to call MENACE a horror film, that's just fine with me. I'm not the arbiter of such things, no one is. On my mental list, however, MENACE will remain a pretty standard '30s mystery.
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Menace - What's the Plot

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