Taking a look at a box set that a fellow ImDber had kindly sent me as a gift,I spotted a fun-looking anthology Horror movie starring Lon Chaney Jr.,which led to me getting ready to read the devils messages.The plot: (Note-due to there being 3 stories the plot will be split up.)Killing herself over her husband, Satan tells Satanya that due to her having died from a suicide,he will give her a chance to not end up in hell,if Satanya completes 3 tasks.Story 1:Burnt out with life, photographer Donald Powell goes to New England for a much needed holiday.Arriving in New England,Powell spots a women leaving a house that he has taken a photo of. Overcome by a strange urge,Powell chases after the women and kills her.Trying to keep things under wraps,Powell soon discovers the true meaning of photographic memory.Story 2:Working on Arctic research, Dr. Sistrum discovers a 50,000 year old block of ice containing a beautiful woman inside. Beginning to imagine that they were lovers in a past life,Sistrum ignores the advice from his fellow scientists,and starts to break the icy woman out of the ice.Story 3:Given the chance to get revenge on the man who drove her to suicide, Satanya sets her sights on giving ex-flame John Radian a deadly fortune telling.View on the film:Before I get to the title,I have to mention that Mill Creek gave the film a disappointing transfer,with a hiss sound being noticeable in the background,and the picture looking like it is covered in dust.Despite these challenges, directors Herbert L. Strock & Curt Siodmak still deliver a rather creepy chiller.Giving hell a unique mundane appearance,Strock and Siodmak hook each of the 3 tales with a strikingly haunted image,which goes from the dead girl haunting Powell's photos,to Radian seeing fear in a crystal ball,and Sistrum seeing his dream girl come out of the ice.Taking the 3 stories from the TV show 13 Demon Street,the screenplay by Leo Guild/Dory Previn & Curt Siodmak makes each of the stories feel like a smooth fit for the film,with the wraparound story of Satan (played by a gruff Lon Chaney Jr.) waiting in the wings giving each story a good atmosphere of impending doom.Whilst each of the stories were filmed for separate TV eps,the themes of being haunted by misdeeds and a desire for revenge leads to each section being a clever progression of the one before it,as Satanya delivers the devils messages.

Yes, Lon Chaney does look old and worn out in this picture, but he's one of my all time favorites so I'm willing to cut him some slack. I've almost completed watching all the stories in my Twilight Zone Definitive Edition, and it struck me that the ones presented here could all have been reworked as part of the Serling legacy. They have just the right amount of irony with classic twist endings to justify consideration as TZ appropriate stories. My favorite was probably the ice block girl and the professor - come on, you just knew she was going to open her eyes at some point, didn't you? But gee, since when does an iceberg melt from the inside out? Good concept, but it just doesn't hold water.Nor does the idea that the picture of the house in the first episode was the World Magazine guy's favorite, one of the best he's ever seen! What??!! IT WAS A PICTURE OF A HOUSE!!! I'm no expert, but I bet I've seen a dozen pictures today that looked better, and I'm not even trying hard.OK, since I'm at it, I might as well mention the final story, probably the most Twilight Zonish if you will. Guy sees a fortune teller and her crystal ball and becomes convinced he's doomed. He would have been a lot better off if he hadn't stabbed the gypsy. Things like that never end well.Well you don't expect much from these bargain bin flicks, but I have to say, this was better than what I was expecting. Chaney as Satan was the bonus no doubt, looking for a way to annex Earth for his domain to make room for more souls. On that note I'll finish up, I think it's starting to get hot in here.

This feature film is taken from three episodes of a Swedish TV series "13 Demon Street". Oddly, the show was made in the US in English and was then subtitled for Sweden! An odd pedigree, to say the least! While I have never seen the actual show (there's not a whole lot of Swedish television being shown here at the present time), it appears to have been a rather low-budget horror series. Whether or not it was all connected together by a demon (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) in the show or just this movie is anyone's guess.The show begins with Chaney on his throne in Hell--enjoying his job immensely! He summons a young suicide victim and gives her some assignments back on Earth. These assignments are the three segments taken from three separate TV episodes.The first involves a sex pervert photographer. At first, he just seems really creepy but later when he commits a meaningless murder, you realize what sort of sick, twisted freak he really is. The woman, then, is the means of passing judgment on the guy--making him see visions in one of his photographs that literally ends up scaring him to death. Afterwords, the woman regrets her involvement in this, but considering how sick the man was, the viewer is left celebrating the death--and thinking perhaps this demon isn't such a bad fellow after all! Next is a tale about the discovery of a prehistoric woman who is discovered frozen in ice. Naturally, this woman is the agent sent by old Mr. Diabolical himself and it is imbued with strange powers. Despite being in suspended animation, when men see her naked and encased in ice, there is a strange reaction within them--they are transfixed by her beauty and must possess her. As one of the workers talks to her and imagines a weird past-life relationship with her, you realize just how strange this particular segment is! And, by the end, the guy is a raving nut! The third segment has this female agent of evil bringing a crystal ball to a fortune teller. It begins with a guy talking to a psychiatrist about some recurring dreams. The doctor gives a rather tenuous interpretation that the guy is dying to know the future--though the guy says he has no desire at all to know! But, following the doctor's advice, he seeks out a fortune teller. Looking into this evil crystal, she tells him he's about to die! And, it seems, she is fated to kill him! She says she has nothing against him and has no desire to kill him, but it WILL happen because the crystal ball says it must!Despite the high 'cheese-factor' and low budget, I did enjoy the film. One reason in particular was due to Chaney. While he certainly was no thespian, here he is quite enjoyable because he gets into the part--laughing and playing it up quite a bit. He was very entertaining and it's among his better work. Plus, the stories were pretty good--and quite different from the stuff you'd see on "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". I'd sure like to be able to see the rest of the series to find out if they're all as good as these selected episodes.

"Three macabre tales of terror are featured in this frightful thriller hosted by the incomparable 'Mr. D' (Lon Chaney Jr.). A psychotic photographer is faced with a beauty that haunts his pictures and dreams in one tale. A scientist becomes obsessed with a frozen 'Ice Princess' that leads to an unfortunate ending in another tale. Finally, a man fears his own death after a visit with a fortuneteller in the last of these horrifying stories," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Although possessing three individual stories, "The Devil's Messenger" does have a unifying plot strand, featuring the character portrayed by Karen Kadler ("Satanya"). She has committed suicide, and is sent back to Earth, by Lon Chaney Jr. (as Satan), on various missions. Other than that, the stories don't have much to do with each other. Unfortunately, Mr. Chaney is an uninteresting devil. The first story, featuring John Crawford (as Donald Powell) is the best, with good photography and "A Most Unusual Camera" (Twilight Zone) worthy plot.*** The Devil's Messenger (1961) Herbert L. Strock ~ Karen Kadler, John Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr.