Warner Bros.
Directed by William C. McGann
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)
It seems every year in the October horror marathon a previously unseen film unexpectedly emerges as a favorite. Look no further than Sh! The Octopus, a late 30s mystery comedy starring Hugh Herbert and Allen Jenkins as an Abbott-and-Costello-style pair of detectives investigating a murder in a remote lighthouse. A body hangs upside down far atop the lighthouse, dripping blood on the people below. One of them cuts it loose and it lands hard on a table...obviously a dummy but still disturbing. Only it really is a dummy and the blood only ketchup. The remote lighthouse gradually becomes full of people, most of whom are not what they appear. A sea captain with a hook, the screaming girl who faints, the painter who just bought the place, an old woman. Identities are revealed in the finale, featuring a seamless transformation scene that I had to go back and watch in slow motion. This effect is simply stunning for 1937! Apparently it was done live on the set using filters over the lens, the same effect used in the 1932 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Even before this scene I was enjoying the film far more than it deserved, but this just sealed it. A must see!
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