Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Much loved and saintly doctor falls sick and near death. In desperation his wife looks into a fire and asks for some power to save him. A dark woman appears and the doctor is saved…but something seems different. Breezy tale of possession and of evil coming into the lives of the friends and family of a well respected man is good and well acted, but suffers in that once you know what the premise is there really isn't anywhere to go with it. In all honesty the film is similar to numerous other films, radio and TV shows so its easy to guess where its going. I hung with it during the course of it hour long running time in the hope that some new twist would add some spark to the tale, but it never happened, the film just started and went straight on to the end on its appointed course. Not bad, but far from unique or original.

Soul of a Monster, The (1944) * (out of 4) Forgotten horror film from Columbia about a doctor on his deathbed whose wife prays, to good or evil, that he lives. He gets better thanks to a mysterious woman but what they don't know is that this woman put the soul of a monster into the doctor's body. There's a very good reason Columbia hasn't released this sucker on any home video format and that's because it's pretty damn bad. I took me three viewings before I could watch the entire film without falling asleep. The film tries very hard to recapture the mood and feel of a Val Lewton film but it fails on all levels.

Try as it might, this Columbia programmer just can't quite get over the hump. Even with George Macready and Rose Hobart heading the cast, there are too few scares and far, far too much walking. Rose walks (and almost gets hit by a car). George walks with a knife in his hand. Rose walks some more. Bland co-lead Jim Bannon even goes for a stroll. In fact, there's so much shoe leather burned in this film that I humbly offer Sole of a Monster as a more suitable title. It's all shot well by Burnett Guffey, and there IS a modicum of Lewton-style atmosphere, but the stifling straitjacket of Christian spirituality (not to mention the cheat ending) ultimately undoes whatever good work went into this production. An intriguing but ultimately disappointing failure.

I wanted to like this movie, as it is a B-movie monster film--just the sort of entertaining bit of fluff I love to watch!! Unfortunately, despite a great premise and an excellent start, the movie was undone by lousy and very heavy-handed script writing.George Macready played a saintly doctor was on his deathbed. His distraught wife is angry that such a good and selfless man should die so young and she rejects assurances and platitudes from a friend that he's "going on to a better place". And, in a weak moment, she announces that she wants her husband well and could care less who could help--be it Heaven or Hell. Well, not unexpectedly, he DID recover--thanks to a strange woman who appears and magically heals him. Unfortunately, as the film progresses, she turns out to be evil (though exactly WHO she is working for is never revealed) and she is able to control Macready with her evil mind!!! Now all this seemed great except for two problems. Despite her voice appearing in his head with instructions to kill, Macready never really got around to doing that much evil--and he never did icepick victims like the voice commanded. However, much worse was the ultra-heavy-handed moralizing that accompanied this. It seemed like all the fun was missing from the script and it was just a very preachy message about good versus evil--and not in a good way. It was almost like combining "Davey and Goliath" with a 1940s horror film--with much more emphasis on the Davey and Goliath aspects. It was embarrassing bad--so bad I nearly turned off the film. A low budget does NOT mean that a film must be dull or poorly constructed. Don't let this film turn you off the genre!Also, I read through the mostly VERY favorable reviews for this film and this left me baffled. Sure, I could understand a person liking this film (we all have different tastes), but to say this small film deserves a rating of 9 or 10 is madness! Even the truly great films like THE BLACK CAT, THE MUMMY and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN have many reviews that were scored much lower than this!!! The overall IMDb score of 4.9 would NOT indicate that this is a 9 or 10. Such super-high scores should be reserved for only the great films--not run of the mill "cheapie" films like this.