Strange Illusion

Rating:
Summary: The Creepy Warren William Film
Review: My never-ending search for Warren William movies eventually led me to "Strange Illusion", one of the last films of his career, in which he plays an honest to God creep!

Teenage Jimmy Lydon has been plagued by nightmares since his father's unsolved murder--and the latest one seems to suggest danger surrounding his mother. The next thing you know, mom announces she has a suitor, Warren William. Guess what? Uh huh, that's right. So this is partly David Copperfield/Mr. Murdstone and partly Hamlet/Claudius, as one reviewer made note. An unsavory twist is that Warren William has a fancy for underage girls, which doesn't bode well for Jimmy's girlfriend.

Still and all, I liked "Strange Illusion" because it is major camp on top of everything else--others in my family hated it, though. Ergo, I guess it's just one of those movies you have to make up your own mind about.

Rating:
Summary: The Creepy Warren William Film
Review: My never-ending search for Warren William movies eventually led me to "Strange Illusion", one of the last films of his career, in which he plays an honest to God creep!

Teenage Jimmy Lydon has been plagued by nightmares since his father's unsolved murder--and the latest one seems to suggest danger surrounding his mother. The next thing you know, mom announces she has a suitor, Warren William. Guess what? Uh huh, that's right. So this is partly David Copperfield/Mr. Murdstone and partly Hamlet/Claudius, as one reviewer made note. An unsavory twist is that Warren William has a fancy for underage girls, which doesn't bode well for Jimmy's girlfriend.

Still and all, I liked "Strange Illusion" because it is major camp on top of everything else--others in my family hated it, though. Ergo, I guess it's just one of those movies you have to make up your own mind about.

Rating:
Summary: What's the trouble? Nightmare?
Review: Review of the Alpha Video release.
Young Paul (James Lydon) isn't having a good time of it. His father has recently died, and, while on a fishing trip with avuncular family friend Dr. Martin Vincent (Regis Toomey), he dreams of his father's death. The dream convinces him that the death wasn't an accident, after all. Worried enough to cut their vacation short, they return home to find Paul's mother (Sally Eilers) engaged to the outwardly charming stranger, Brett Curtis (Warren William.) Before they leave Paul receives a letter from the grave. It seems the old man instructed his estate to send his son these epistles from beyond. The latest one warns against `unscrupulous imposters.' Cue a few bars from Schumann's Concerto (the score of the boy's premonitory dreams.)
Cross-cut to the manor - Paul's father was a judge and a `famed criminologist,' and if they sold the young man's house they'd probably be able to finance ten STRANGE ILLUSIONS. Famed criminologists did well for themselves back then, and the fatted calf he left for his young family sets oily wolf Brett Curtis off on the chase. Mother seems deeply in love, Paul is hesitant and then secretly opposed when Curtis repeats not only complete lines of dialogue from his dream but also tinkles a bar or two of Schumann's Concerto.
STRANGE ILLUSION borrows heavily from Shakespeare's Hamlet early on. The dead father communicating from the grave, the unavenged murder, the mother with the murderous beau. Being a big fan of suspense thrillers from the 40s I was salivating by the time Paul and the Doc stowed the rods and tackle and made for home. This was going to get weird.
Then, I believe, the movie remembered James Lydon, or Jimmy Lydon, was Henry Aldrich, Paramount's response to MGM's Andy Hardy. Oh, Warren's homme fatale was sinister enough, and Mother (distractingly referred to by her children as `Princess') was blind enough to his wicked, wicked ways, but our dauntless young hero is immune to corruption. The bad stuff stays Out There. STRANGE ILLUSION is a distressingly affirmative movie.
Director Edgar Ulmer may have borrowed a plot point or two from Hamlet, but his young hero is anything but a young man who cannot act. In place of a melancholy Dane our intrepid young hero embodies the soul and spirit of can-do Americanism. Rather than brooding over his beautiful young mother, for instance, he's mixin' with his vixen girlfriend - in a chaste, Judge Hardy approved manner, I hasten to add.
So, instead (alas) than a cast full of characters shaking their fragile libidos we have one deviant nutcase (Warren) and the Eagle Scout (Lydon, star of HENRY ALDRICH, BOY SCOUT, 1944), who is alone in seeing through Warren's veneer of normalcy and certainly seems more than capable of bringing him to justice.
You'll likely find STRANGE ILLUSION satisfying if you're a fan of Andy Hardy, or Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys mysteries, or any tale that features blunt-witted adults and clever adolescents. The film quality is choppy in spots, but overall quite acceptable.


Rating:
Summary: Ulmer's best beside Detour and Ruthless
Review: Sometimes Mr. Maltin fails with his comments, and to compare this thrilling fantasy movie with Shakespeare's Hamlet is laughable. O.K., there are the usual cheesy sets on PRC's small backlot, but otherwise the dreamy programmer is one of the best in its class. Ulmer again showed his ability to make the best of his extremely low budget. Within this, photography is very good, whereas the music score with its "adaptation" of Schumann's piano concerto gives you the possiblity to cry or laugh. Fine opening, indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Low budget, high style
Review: Ulmer's ambitious, cockeyed update of "Hamlet" is one of his best Poverty Row films. Cheesy sets, half-baked scripts, and overwrought acting are to be expected from these ultra low-budget productions, and they're all in abundance here. But because Ulmer brought his screwy artistry to even the seamiest Z-grade projects, this film is shot through with a grimy gutter poetry. _Strange Illusion_ isn't a cult masterpiece like _Detour_, but it's still worth seeing.

For my money, this film's treatment of psychoanalysis, exploitative though it may be, is still superior to Hitchcock's _Spellbound_.