OVERLOOKED FILM: THE MONKEY'S PAW (1948)

 Be careful what you wish for.

That's the moral of the classic 1902 horror story "The Monkey's Paw" by British writer W. W. Jacobs.  Often reprinted, the story has been adapted for the stage, film, radio, and television numerous times.  In 2017 it became an opera.   It's status as a cultural icon  was cemented when it was used as the basis of an episode of The Simpsons.  The story also provided the impetus of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary.

The story was first filmed in 1923, then in 1933, and in 1948.  A Mexican version was filmed in 1961 and a Nepali version in 2008.  Other films based on the tale were made in 1972. 2011, and 2017.  The story has been adapted for television at least four times and for radio at least six times.  The Fictionmags Index site lists over 100 anthologies that have reprinted "The Monkey's Paw."

The 1948 film was a British "B" feature directed by Norman Lee (Bulldog Drummond at Bay, Wanted by Scotland Yard, Murder in Soho) from a script written by Lee and Barbara Toy; Toy is the co-writer of plays based on Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage and James Hilton's Random Harvest.  The movie featured Milton Rosmer (whose acting career began in 1915 with The Mystery of a Hansom Cab and continued through 1954), Michael Martin Harvey (The Third Visitor, The Long Memory, The Case of Charles Peace), Joan Seton )The Lisbon Story, A Boy, a Girl and a Bike, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals), and Megs Jenkins (Green for Danger, The History of Mr. Polly, The Innocents)*.  rounding out the cast were Eric Micklewood, Brenda Hogan, Mackenzie Ward, Norman Shelley, Alfie Bass, Rose Howlett, Hay Petrie, Sydney Tafler, Patrick Ward, and Vincent Lawson.

I  won't rehash the well-known plot.  Instead I'll let you get right into the story by following the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaHI6CJ0kMQ