Devil's Messenger (1962)

A Masterpiece Way Ahead of Its Time!

This may be a 60s Black and White Horror Movie, but it was way ahead of its time. One could easily call it a forerunner of the excellent "Devil's Advocate." The world will probably remember Lon Chaney Jr as a gentle and sympathetic Larry Talbot who (against his will) becomes a savage werewolf. But he is a GREAT devil. The movie starts with a young woman (Kadler) who killed herself over lost love confronting the devil, and he responds: "Love? Well, love is such a stupid emotion." Many people would say that of course the devil will say that. But think about it! Isn't it stupid to kill yourself over someone who doesn't love you? But moving on, out of seeing her potential, Chaney makes a deal with her that she may escape the worst parts of hell if she delivers some items up to earth. This leads to 3 seperate stories that eventually connect. (The 1st deals with a man sexually obsessed with multiple women. The 2nd deals with a man who betrays his profession, friends, and coworkers over a woman frozen in ice.) The signature moment in this movie is when Kadler rebukes the devil for ruining people's lives, and he smiles and says: "My dear...I thought you knew...people ruin their own lives." As someone who works in a church, I can say that any priest or nun would say that is a valid statement. The devil can tempt and persuade. But we make our own decisions. And if we watch this movie carefully, we see that Chaney did not just pick out random parties. The people he targets already have some flaw that would have caused their downfall anyway. In an especially chilling moment, Chaney manipulates Kadler's most vulnerable emotion. She is getting tired of her work, and Chaney offers her a chance to get even with the man who rejected her. Needless to say, her sorrow soon turns to enthusiasm. The 3rd and final story seems to deviate from the 1st 2, and focuses on revenge more than anything. (Kadler's x lover is not a bad person, and we really have no reason to dislike him. And one could even defend his act of murder, in that a reasonable person would have felt threatened.) But the 3rd story does compensate with fear, suspense, and tragic irony. Another reason I consider this movie so ahead of its time, is that while some movies glorify war, this movie emphasizes that war is in a sense hell on earth. And while suicide over lost love is a common thing, we have a chilling but funny conversation that could occur between the parties: "Look, I'm not in love with her, and I haven't been for a long time!" (In one brief moment, we see that suicide over love is such a dumb thing!) This movie has great acting by Lon Chaney Jr, Karen Kadler, and others, (especially Kadler's lost love John). The scenery is quite good for its time; the stories are suspenseful and frightening; there is a great sudden unity of the individual stories; and there are really memorable themes. (That we ruin our own lives...that war is hell on earth...suicide over love is dumb...etc) This movie was really ahead of its time, and is a true masterpiece of horror.
June 11, 2008

Sometimes, it should actually be OK to kill the messenger

If you have three lemons, you might as well try to make lemonade - but there's no guarantee it's going to taste very good. That pretty much sums up The Devil's Messenger. I'm a little iffy on the history here, but apparently Curt Siodmak (the man who wrote The Wolf Man and Donovan's Brain, as well as a string of complete flops) put together a horror show (filmed in Sweden) called 13 Demon Street around 1960 or so. Apparently, no one was the least bit interested in the show, so it died in relative obscurity. Having watched The Devil's Messenger, which incorporates three of the show's 13 episodes, it's not hard to see why no one wanted to take a chance on such drivel. The only interesting thing about this production is its host, Lon Chaney, Jr. (looking old before his time). Chaney is the gatekeeper of Hell; equipped with his infernal Rolodex, he sends all the new recruits through the door to get what they deserve (which seems to involve listening to silly evil laughter). Suicides are special cases, though, because they supposedly hurt only themselves and not others. When a third-time's-the-charm suicide victim by the name of Satanya arrives, he cuts her a deal. All she has to do is make three deliveries for him back up on Earth, and she might have a chance at getting her Hell Express ticket voided.

Satanya first delivers a camera to an obnoxious, womanizing photographer who is soon haunted by a photograph that seems to be very much alive. Satanya returns, whines about having to do such awful things as delivering cameras, and is sent back up with a pickaxe for a certain Swedish miner. That pickaxe soon leads to the discovery of a 50,000 year old woman encased in ice. An anthropologist with the buggiest eyes I've ever seen then goes completely cuckoo for Cocoa puffs over the young lass. This is really a stupid episode. Finally, Satanya gets an assignment that gives her a chance to get some revenge on the guy she killed herself over. Haunted by a recurring nightmare, this fellow goes to the location in his dream and watches everything he dreamed come true - yada yada yada. There's not an ounce of originality in this or either of the earlier little episodes - and the twist at the end isn't anything to write home about, either. If you're not a Lon Chaney, Jr., fan, I can assure you there's really no reason in the world for you to watch The Devil's Messenger. November 9, 2005

Two Outta Three Ain't Good

Lon Chaney jr. plays the devil in this 3 part horror anthology. He gives one of his female lost souls a chance to be his assistant on earth. Her name is "Satanya" and she delivers various key items to the main characters in each story. The first one involves a psycho photographer, who takes a picture of a strange girl before murdering her. Let's just say that she is not happy! She haunts the man in a unique way. In the second story (the weakest of the three), a girl is found underground, frozen in ice. An anthropologist falls in love with her and kills one of his colleagues for trying to study her. He then defrosts his "girlfriend" and a strange surprise awaits him. The final story is about a man who dreams of being on a dark street and entering a door. His psychologist convinces him to actually visit the place. When he does, he runs into a fortune teller who tells him that she will kill him by midnight. This is the best of the trilogy, and has a cool twist ending. All in all a fair production. Lon is wasted in my opinion. He defintely had better days... June 29, 2003

Finally, Alpha Video improves quality

It is hard to resist the Alpha Video titles with their great cover art and low prices even after buying some of their early releases that were of such poor quality. However, the quality of their recent releases is improving dramatically. The Devil's Messenger fits into that category.

The Devil's Messenger is actually just 3 episodes of an unreleased TV series filmed in Sweden called "13 Demon Street." Curt Siodmak wrote and directed the series but was unable to find a US distributer. No company ever wants to see their celluloid go to waste, so 3 of the best episodes of the series were linked together using Lon Chaney as the Devil to form the Devil's Messenger.

A woman has committed suicide and meets up with the Devil (Chaney) at the gates of Hades. He offers her a deal if she will deliver 3 messages to the surface. This is how the three episodes are introduced. I won't spoil the stories. While this is no classic, it is nice to see Chaney and the transfer is quite good. Plus, you just can't beat the price and DVD cover art. I hope Alpha continues to release these obscure titles for genre fans. May 10, 2003

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