“The Devil's Messenger” is a classic cult movie better known for being a crude rescue of three episodes from a Swedish TV series called "13 Demon Street." The reedited episodes have intriguing premises: the first story, "The Photograph," involves a murderous photographer whose work is cursed by the ghost of the dead woman; the second, "The Girl in the Glacier," exploits a man's obsession with a woman found frozen in ice; and the final tale, "Condemned in Crystal," revisits the oft-told theme of evading one's doom-laden future after a fortune teller's ominous reading.

Curt Siodmak, a veteran novelist ("Donovan's Brain"), prolific screenwriter ("The Wold Man"), and sometime director ("The Magnetic Monster"), was the show's key talent, and only 13 of the supernatural horror show were produced between 1959-60. Using a mix of U.S. and local Swedish talent, the English language series was aired in Sweden (with Swedish subtitles), and all episodes were ultimately released on VHS during the late 1990s.

Chaney's original function in the TV episodes were purely as host, playing an acrimonious penitent, trapped in limbo until he finds a sinner far worse than himself to satisfy Satan. The stories neither affected Chaney's situation nor relate to the vague premise, and it's painfully obvious the wilting B movie star was hired for his name and novelty value.

For the cobbled feature film, Chaney was recast as the Devil in scenes directed by U.S. producer Herbert L. Strock, bridging the severely truncated TV segments using freshman messengers like "Satanya," and the doomed man from "Condemned in Crystal." At the time of writing, only 3 episodes (in English, but subtitled in Swedish) have appeared on DVD as filler on two Something Weird DVDs: two on the 2-disc set of Herbert L. Strock's own 1958 TV series "The Veil" (sporting episodes "The Vine of Death," and "The Black Hand"), and one on the Swedish horror double-bill of "Terror in the Midnight Sun"/"Invasion of the Animal People." The latter disc contains the complete version of "The Girl in the Glacier," with Chaney's original bookend segments, and scenes deemed either too talky or provocative for the U.S. feature film. (Note: "The Black Hand" is also included on Something Weird's double-bill "Thirsty Dead"/"Swamp of the Ravens" DVD.)

Alpha Video, another prolific budget label specializing in public domain titles, uses a worn but watchable TV print with pretty extreme contrast problems and bad framing; the Something Weird transfers in turn are murky, jiggle from lousy registration, and have the "SW" watermark. Alpha Video's digital compression is acceptable, with a muddy mono soundtrack being the most obvious flaw. The feature film source print also omits Curt Siodmak's name as director of all three episodes, and as writer, alongside Dory Langdon.

What's needed at this point is a proper release of all episodes, with the feature film remastered from decent 35mm elements. When set beside "The Twilight Zone" and "One Step Beyond," "13 Demon Street" is a pale, cheaply made, and badly acted footnote in TV horror, but some of the involved talent alone makes the show - at least for film buffs - worth more than a peek.

© 2005 Mark R. Hasan