Maximus (Claude Rains) performs a mind-reading act with the assistance of his wife, Rene (Fay Wray). They travel with an aging partner (Ben Field) and Maximus’s mother (Mary Clare). When a performance falls apart, he receives an actual prophecy. Predicting the future casts him into the limelight, which brings money but starts to pull his
Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Grant), who is the definition of an Englishman, has discovered the tomb of Genghis Khan. This news worries the always-worried but also stiff upper-lipped Nayland Smith (Lewis Stone) of the British secret service. He knows that Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) wants the mask and sword of Genghis Khan to make
Journalists and romantic couple Carlos (Tomas Perrin Jr.) and Lola (Elena D’Orgaz) investigate the murder of a woman whose heart was cut out, implying she was a sacrifice. Their investigation leads them to the foremost expert on the Aztecs, Dr. Gallardo (Carlos Orellanda) of the museum. He’s also secretly a member of an Aztec cult
Forceful and obsessed Doctor Forti (Carlos Villarías ) carries out strange medical experiments in his home, aided by his weak-willed son, Pablo (Joaquín Busquets). Pablo wanted only to play the violin and marry Forti’s beautiful ward Angélica (Beatriz Ramos) but instead does what Forti commands. Both Pablo’s Aunt Doña Engracia (Natalia Ortiz) and the butler
In the castle of Robert von Helldorf (Lionel Atwill) they are celebrating the 21st birthday of his daughter Irene (Gloria Stuart). In attendance are her three suitors, Captain Walter Brink (Paul Lukas), reporter Frank Faber (Onslow Stevens), and brash Thomas Brandt (William Janney). The castle and grounds also contain a groups of extremely suspicious-acting servants.
Crooked Privy Councillor ten Brinken (Albert Bassermann) has had some success with his experiments with artificially inseminating rats, and wants to take it to the next level: inseminating a prostitute with the sperm from a dead murderer. Seems like that shouldn’t be the next level, but hey, I’m not a mad scientist, so what do
The mysterious Dr. Dienys (Carlos Villarías) is both feared and mocked by the medical scientific community. And why not, when he experiments with psychic powers with which he has kept himself from aging. He also can directly effect others and controls a monster (Raúl Urquijo) that he keeps in a cell, but no one knows
A maniac is killing people, and attaching news clipping to their bodies. Those news clipping must be an important plot point… Nope. Never mind. Anyway, the Maniac is of little interest to Professor Arthur Hornsby (George Meeker), who has discovered a secret formula which allows a person to survive in suspended animation. At his lab
Joe Valerie dies at Dr. Paul Cornelius’s (Warner Oland) clinic, trading knowledge of where he hid a million dollars in stolen loot for euthanasia. Soon after, Joe’s wife (Jane Darwell) falls to her death after seeing Joe’s ghost. The police, picking up fraudulent spiritualists, get one who’s real, Patricia Merrick (Dorothy Wilson). So on a
Within a sideshow, the Freaks live, carrying out romances, arguments, friendships, and betrayals. Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), the beautiful acrobat of the circus, plots to marry the midget Hans (Harry Earles) for his secret fortune, and then kill him, with the aid of her lover, the strongman Hercules (Henry Victor). Frieda (Daisy Earles), Hans’s ex-fiancée, knows
‘Deadlegs’ Flint (Walter Huston) is a paraplegic who rules over a small area of the African jungle with a combination of cruelty and magic tricks. From there he plans various illegal schemes which are executed by his cowed henchmen Hogan (Mitchell Lewis) and Cookie (Forrester Harvey). He also keeps around sex toy Tula (Lupe Velez).