The Strange Mr. Gregory

Edmund Lowe plays a magician, Mr. Gregory in "The Strange Mr. Gregory" from 1945. This is a programmer from Monogram Studios and also features Jean Rogers, Marjorie Hoshelle (Mrs. Jeff Chandler), Donald Douglas, and Jonathan Hale.

Mr. Gregory is a strange man, with hypnotic eyes, and he's a man cloaked in mystery. Upon meeting John Randall (Douglas) and his wife, Ellen (Rogers), he falls madly in love with her and decides he must have her.

He comes up with a neat trick - one of the things he can do as a magician is go into a "death state." After teaching Randall a garroting technique at a party, he begins to send Ellen flowers.

Finally, Randall becomes so angry that he goes to Mr. Gregory's house and kills him, using the rope garroting trick. Gregory of course doesn't die, just goes into his death state. Though they don't show it, I guess he opens the coffin after he's in the mausoleum and leaves.

Soon, Gregory's heir and brother, Lane, arrives in town. He looks suspiciously like Mr. Gregory. He attends John Randall's murder trial, and tells the court that his brother was a despicable man. Though John is found guilty, he's given a short sentence.

"Lane" starts dating Ellen's friend Sheila (Hoshelle) to get closer to Ellen. He finally declares his love for her, and she reluctantly admits that she loves him too. Sheila, however, is suspicious of Lane.

The best thing about this film was Lowe's characterization of the magician and his brother - he pulled off playing the same man with different personalities very well. The rest of the film was unremarkable.