Supernatural

This pre-Code offering packs a lot of story into its typically brisk running time, with several plot threads weaving together a (not always successful) tapestry of spooky and criminal doings. The opening image of the Manhattan skyline establishes the backdrop for the action, while three superimposed quotes (from Confucius, Mohammed, and St. Matthew) tell us that the story is about supernatural beings, the dead rising from their graves, and unclean spirits… in case the movie’s title left anything to the imagination.

Artist Ruth Rogen (Vivienne Osborne) has confessed to strangling her three lovers and is headed for the electric chair when psychologist Dr. Houston (H.B. Warner) seeks permission to conduct tests on her corpse; she agrees in the hopes that her spirit will find another body so she may exact revenge on the man who betrayed her to the police. That man happens to be the faux-spiritualist Paul Bavian (Alan Dinehart), who has his eye on heiress Roma Courtney (Carole Lombard) and her significant fortune, which is now even greater since her twin brother’s death. In her grief, Roma agrees to a séance with Paul, and the film neatly reveals the tricks of his trade as he prepares to welcome her and her distrusting boyfriend Grant Wilson (Randolph Scott) to his abode. While Paul ruthlessly disposes of people in his way, Ruth’s spirit finds itself inside Roma’s body, and the inevitable clash sets up a very rapid third act, with Grant arriving to save the day, or at least Roma.

In 1933 alone, Scott appeared in nine films and Lombard in five, and while they are the main reason the film hasn’t been lost to the dusty archives, the compelling supporting cast of Paramount pros (Dinehart in particular) is what makes Victor Halperin’s Supernatural enjoyable enough to qualify as a B+ movie. Following the modest success of their Bela Lugosi–starring voodoo film White Zombie the previous year, the director and his producer brother Edward Halperin might have hoped that this project would reach a wider audience, but the response was generally lackluster. Despite being pre-Code, the film’s only slightly racy scene finds Paul feeling up a fully dressed Roma, while the most provocative thing in the movie is a newspaper article describing the Rogen trial: Ruth Rogen yesterday confessed she killed each of her three lovers after a riotous orgy in her sensuous Greenwich Village apartment. Has anyone made that film? 🩸