The Horror!? 56: Bluebeard (1944)

Napoleonic Paris is in an uproar. A killer dubbed "Bluebeard" stalks the streets, killing pretty women. What the public doesn't know, but the viewer learns quite early, is that the killer is the puppeteer and painter Gaston Morell. The man just can't seem to help it - every woman he paints has to die. But after he meets (and falls in love with) the modiste Lucille, he tries to change his life. If he can't stop killing the women he paints, he has to stop painting. Unfortunately this is easier said than done, especially thanks to his business partner, a greedy art dealer who never saw a coin he didn't want. And did I mention that Lucille's sister Francine works for the police?
For the means with which PRC (the company that made Monogram look like Warner Brothers) had to produce their films, Bluebeard looks genuinely lavish. Expensive seeming sets and high quality matte painting as can be seen here were of course typical of the work of director Edgar G. Ulmer at that time. As typical as the slightly greater psychological depth found here, certainly helped a lot by Ulmer's ability to drive bad and mediocre actors to surprisingly good performances. Even better is John Carradine's performance as Morell, one of the best of his career and much more understated than expected.
Having said all that I have to confess I found the film really not all that great. All elements of a very good movie are there, but they never unite to form a good movie. The whole venture just seems a little too conservative, a little too timid to be really good.