Reviews

Bride of the Monster is the best of Ed Wood's films. Frankly compared with Scared to Death and the Devil Bat-- the film truly looks like a masterpiece -- and truth be told it isn't that bad. In fact, it is rather enjoyable. Okay, I am gonna admit it -- I like it! If you look past the cheesy octopus (no worse than the hysterical devil bat), the cheap sets and the lame acting (better than Scared to Death!), if you suspend a little disbelief and realize this movie was made for a song -- then actually it is pretty darned good. One reason for this is that Bela Lugosi gets ample screen time. If Ed Wood was a bit unimaginative, he at least knew what it was that made Lugosi a legend and reprises little details, from the mad scientific leering of the Devil Bat to the idiosyncratic hand gestures of White Zombie. Bela is given a chance to shine in his final starring performance and shine he does. The movie has its flaws, but Bela is not one of them. He is old and looks weak, but he carries the movie like a true champion. He makes empty dialog sound meaningful and implausible scenarios seem poignant (well almost poignant).

Lugosi's "I have no home" monolog is beautiful. He could make dialog such as "I have proven that I am alright!" sound good. Lugosi gives his all in his last performance, and it is a great performance, even if he does have to wrestle with a fake octopus.

Scared To Death has the unfortunate distinction of being my least favorite Bela Lugosi movie. To say the movie is bad is an understatement. It features a plot so lame that you don't care that you don't understand it. If you don't want this horrible film ruined for you, don't read any further! In a nutshell someone is scaring a woman to death and it turns out not to be any of the characters in the movie. It features the absolute worst character acting I have ever seen including a half-witted rentacop and a sadistic male chauvinist reporter and his dingy girlfriend.

Of course, when Bela Lugosi is on camera the movie becomes interesting. Bela is in good form as a hypnotist/magician and of course he gives it his all in this dismal movie that is too long at 59 minutes. Some of the problem lies in the fact that as a Bela Lugosi movie, Lugosi gets far too little screen time. The script gives too much stage time to these very egregious and tedious characters and seems to feature the Lugosi character only because they *had* to fit him in somewhere.

Bela Lugosi gives a great performance as always, I am not sure if even that is capable of redeeming this movie -- especially when the nagging thought kept running through my head that surely someone could have found something better for this great actor to do than this drek. Bela is healthy and strong and powerful and I daresay still sexy here -- why was he being wasted? What great talents are being wasted in such a fashion today? But I digress.

I don't recommend this film to any but the die-hard Lugosi fan or the connoisseur of truly bad cinema. It is almost painful to watch Bela Lugosi a skilled artist playing on such a taudry canvas.

As a side note Scared to Death was Bela Lugosi's only movie filmed in color. (Which actually gives one a reason to watch it, I suppose). I'm going to have to look again more closely, but apparently Bela Lugosi had . . . green eyes! Or are they blue?

Tod Browning directed one of the most visually eerie films ever made. It is so visually eerie that it wasn't given a score. I always felt that the bleak silence added to the powerful visuals and disturbing mood of the movie. I feared a score would detract from Bela Lugosi's sublime and sexually charged performance. I bought a CD of the new film score by the genius composer Phillip Glass and the brilliant Kronos Quartet some months ago and found the music to be understated and moody. So I decided to give the new scored version of Dracula a try. And While there is much to be said for the stark bareness of the unscored original -- I have to say that the full background that music gives a film is probably essential for making this classic more accessible to modern audiences. Glass does a wonderful job of complimenting the atmosphere of each scene and I did not find the score to be detracting in any way. I enjoyed this viewing of Dracula as much as I ever have. I should have realized that a little music could not steal a scene from the hypnotic tour de force of Bela Lugosi, the enigmatic performance by Dwight Frye or Browning's lusciously decaying sets of sugary webs and crumbling vermin infested stones. Dracula (1931) is one of the moodiest and most unsettling films ever made-- despite the fact that there is virtually no on-camera violence-- only threat and menace-- which comes exclusively from Lugosi's rich presence. Each frame is like a work of art -- meticulously painted by Browning. Lugosi moves through that painting as if he were artwork as well. It's probably been too long since you watched this movie and the new scored version is as good an excuse as any. "Children of the night. . . what music they make."

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff & Peter Lorre in their only on-screen appearance together should be enough to make anyone want to see this film. Karloff plays a family friend who is secretly plotting to steal the family fortune. To this end he has allied himself with a bogus medium, Bela Lugosi as Price Saliano, and a fradulent paranormal investigator, Peter Lorre as Professor Fenniger. Together they try to pull a fast one on the Belacrest family. Peter Lorre steals the show with his quiet understated manner. All three are excellent, however, and makes you wish there were more of the three together.

Kay Keyser is a comic musician from the forties and his zany antics seem a bit corny, but he lets the three horror stars have the spotlight when they are on, so it really isn't too distracting and can actually be viewed as an historical curiosity.

The seance scenes are really impressive and genuinely scary!

Bela Lugosi gives a stellar performance as the zombie master, Murder Legendre. This is one of Lugosi's strongest performances and one of his strongest films. White Zombie is consistently entertaining from beginning to end. And that entertainment rises and falls on Lugosi's wonderful ability to breathe life into even the "deadest" of roles.

The movie begins with an engaging yet eerie "Haitian" funeral song and it is revealed that a burial ceremony is taking place in the middle of the road because so many bodies have been stolen -- no sooner do we learn this than Bela appears with a entourage of zombies. He steals a scarf from the film's ingenue. It seems he has been contracted by a wealthy plantation owner to secure the love of this fair maiden for him. Of course it isn't long before Bela turns on the wealthy scoundrel and makes him a zombie too.

Of course true love wins in the end and Lugosi is pushed off a cliff by the new zombified plantation owner and the young woman and her handsome beau are free to go get married. . .

But through it all Bela Lugosi makes you believe he is truly capable of controlling the wills of others with his magnificent eyes and powerful imminence. This is the movie that Bela and Ed are watching in the movie Ed Wood -- and he uses the famous interlocking hand gesture that he would later repeat in Bride of the Monster.

White Zombie is my favorite zombie movie -- I realize it doesn't provide the visceral thrills and claustrophobic intensity that Night of the Living Dead does -- but it is a more subtle kind of film that focuses on the zombie master rather than his minions. The film's director, Edward Halperin, knew Bela's strengths as a silent actor and utilized him to the fullest.

I highly recommend White Zombie to the Bela Lugosi and horror movie fan. It is practically a textbook example of the genre.

This is a perfect comedy. Abbott & Costello are at the peak of their powers and are able to spoof the monster stars without humiliating them. Bela Lugosi is the true star of the film and plays it straight against the comedy for wonderful effect. This is the only time he played Dracula other than the 1931 film and here he actually gets to talk and interact with actors who have some life in them. The sets and effects are great-- even by today's standards. Lugosi really shines in his final major motion picture.

Bela Lugosi will always be remembered for Dracula -- but his biggest and wildest role was the Raven. He and Boris Karloff are co-stars but Bela steals the show as the mad surgeon, Dr. Vollin, who sees himself as a "god with the taint of human emotion." He has a Poe fetish and loves to torture as he has been tortured so he can clear his head and be, "the sanest man who ever lived."

This has one of the most horrific scenes ever filmed. After Dr. Vollin has disfigured the criminal (Boris Karloff) the criminal awakes in a room of mirrors and must stare at his hideous face--while Vollin laughs hysterically!

This is one of the few classic Universal horror films that actually gives genuine chills!

The best of the collaborations between Karloff & Lugosi. The production values are high and Karloff's makeup is excellent. There is a lot going on it the script-- perhaps too much, as the script is a bit confusing and sometimes pointless. But the atmosphere is thick and the "aura" hangs over the movie like a dense mist. There is more horror implied than actually seen. This movie has black magic, a man skinned alive, treachery, phobia, and a chess game with lives at stake. Mostly, it has great performances by Karloff and Lugosi in their one and only film appearance as equals (without one dominating the other). Truly, this is one of the finest Universal horror classics and will deliver everything a fan of such fare could possibly want.