Edgar G. Ulmer

In 19th-century Paris, puppeteer and portrait painter Gaston Morrell strangles the models who pose for him, while police hunt the killer the newspapers call Bluebeard. John Carradine gives one of his finest performances as the tormented Morrell, with Jean Parker as the dressmaker who loves him and Nils Asther as the inspector on his trail. Made on a five-day PRC schedule, it's poverty-row stylist Edgar G. Ulmer's most admired film — moody, literate, and shot with genuine atmosphere. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Crime · Horror · Noir

Al Roberts is a piano player hitchhiking from New York to Los Angeles to find his girlfriend, a singer who left to try her luck on the coast. He is picked up by a man who dies, and Al takes the man's identity and his car to avoid being blamed. Then he picks up Vera, a woman who knew the dead man and who decides to use what she knows against him. The film was shot in under a week on a tiny budget, and it is one of the bleakest films noir ever made. Edgar G. Ulmer uses voiceover, rear projection, and obvious sets to make the world feel closed in, and the story Al tells is so unreliable that the truth of what happened is never clear. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.

Noir · Drama

Haunted by a recurring dream in which a suave stranger seduces his widowed mother, teenager Paul Cartwright (Jimmy Lydon) becomes convinced that the man — Brett Curtis (Warren William) — murdered his father. Edgar G. Ulmer's poverty-row Hamlet, made on PRC's tiny budgets with his signature hallucinatory style, proves atmosphere doesn't require money. Curtis's oily charm does the rest. One of the most admired of Ulmer's "stylish cheapies," the film is in the public domain.

Noir · Mystery · Thriller

A 1960 American science fiction thriller directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, starring Marguerite Chapman in her final feature film. Ex-Army major Paul Krenner forces scientist Dr. Peter Ulof to develop a radiation-based invisibility machine, planning to create an invisible army to sell to the highest bidder. He busts safecracker Joey Faust (Douglas Kennedy) out of prison and forces him to undergo the invisibility treatment to steal more radium. But Faust discovers an unexpected side effect of the treatment and begins to pursue his own agenda. Shot back-to-back with Beyond the Time Barrier in Dallas, Texas on a combined two-week schedule with a budget of approximately $100,000.

Sci-Fi · Crime · Thriller

In 1820s Bangor, Maine, the beautiful and ruthless Jenny Hager schemes her way from poverty to power, marrying a rich lumber baron and seducing his son along the way. Hedy Lamarr gives one of her best performances opposite George Sanders in this adaptation of Ben Ames Williams' novel — a prestige production for B-movie master Edgar G. Ulmer, who brings his usual moody economy to a story of ambition and desire. It is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Drama · Thriller