Directed by James Young
Starring Lionel Barrymore, Caroline Frances Cooke, and Gustav von Seyffertitz
Produced by Chadwick Pictures Corporation
Mathias and his wife Catharine run an inn and a mill together. They both have their ambitions. Catharine wants to succeed as an innkeeper and is mindful of ensuring that their patrons pay for the drink. Mathias however wants to be the town Burgomaster and if he needs to ply the townspeople with alcohol on credit that never gets paid, so be it.
The problem with Mathias' approach is that they owe the local banker for the money they used to purchase their businesses. And Mathias' approach to the balance sheet has had an unfortunate impact on the balance sheet.
Enter a traveling merchant. Not just any merchant, but one with a heavy money belt. He relaxes at the inn for an hour, but Mathias sees an opportunity. He sets off after the man and with a swing of an axe, the innkeeper's money troubles are over.
He pays off the inn and the mill. He even has a nice dowry for his daughter to marry the local lawman. And Mathias becomes the Burgomaster.
If only that were the end of things. The murder has been discovered and the merchant's brother arrives in town demanding justice. For help, the victim's kin has hired a mesmerist to ascertain the guilty party. As Burgomaster, Mathias must lead an investigation. Meanwhile, he is haunted by the ghost of his victim and the sounds of the man's sleigh bells.
Will Mathias be discovered? Or will the madness of his crime consume him?
The Bells has a fantastic central concept in an ambitious innkeeper being haunted by his crime. It also has actors that make one prepare for greatness: Lionel Barrymore and Boris Karloff.
If only the script was worthy of the effort.
There is certainly some good stuff here. For most of the film, Barrymore plays Mathias' descent into madness in a relatively understated way. He never really flies off the handle. It's all wild-eyed stares and disheveled hair. He both has the weight of his guilt hanging over him and conceals his crime from the town. Barrymore is certainly up to the task of playing a virtuous man whose ambition leads him into some bad choices.
But the way this plays out is baffling. A merchant is murdered and the next day Mathias is rich. The local constable points out that the victim's body can't be found and that it was likely burned in a lime kiln; Mathias points out that he has lime kilns. He tries to put off the investigation by pointing out the scandal that a murder would bring to the town. It does not take a Law & Order junkie to figure out the murderer.
Karloff gets top billing today, but in truth he is barely in it. He glowers menacingly and smiles menacingly and performs all other manner of human movement menacingly, but he exists only to provide Mathias the threat of being discovered.
There is some interesting effects work here. The way the bells hover over Mathias. The ghostly hand that appears and then reveals a full ghost. But the tone is never right. It never feels dark or foreboding enough. There's no real terror at the hauntings and the plot depends on those moments being dreadful.
SPOILERS AHEAD. And then there is the ending. Mathias is visited by the ghost again, but the murderer repents his sin and is forgiven by the dead man. At peace at last, Mathias sees a halo develop around the religious shrine in his room and he dies. It feels like the movie just ends. Like it lost all of its steam and petered out. The buildup of the movie was the threat the mesmerist posed to Mathias world order and that never really comes to fruition.
In the end, The Bells is a tale we have seen a million times. It may be one of the first, but it's only a half-baked attempt. It never decides what story it's telling and elements flit in and out without resolution. There are great moments, but they do not add up to a whole film.
** out of *****
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