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Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula

Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula

List Price: $22.99
Your Price: $22.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: `Boo!
Review: Gary D. Rhodes textured portrait of a film icon is quite good. Besides an in-depth look at his Hollywood rise and fall, yuo can view Bela Lugosi's oldest existing film, a brief fragment of Hungary's "Struggle for Life(1918). You see scenes from "Dance of the Volcano(German/1920)" and a good, restored sequence from perhaps his earliest American film role in "Midnight Girl(1925)", an otherwise slow and tedious movie. A wonderfully restored interview from 1932(at his home) and several other special features(including a first-time interview with his last and fifth wife(shortly before her cancer-caused death) are real bonuses. It's a two-disc marathon, and even features previously unknown radio broadcasts(five), including a dark diatribe against facism in 1944 that belies his left-wing, pro-communist leanings. For the Lugosi fan, this cannot be missed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A documentary that's as entertaining as a Lugosi film
Review: Here's a real treat for Lugosi fans--an in-depth, fascinating, and utterly entertaining hour featuring lots of previously-unseen material. The clips from his early silent films are beautifully restored, and left this reviewer with a strong urge to see the complete films. There's an impressive array of interviews with former co-stars and friends, and some surprisingly clear interviews with the star himself (some of these also appear on Roan's excellent "White Zombie" disc).

I was also impressed by the sometimes hallucinatory editing style--often a rapid succession of film clips set to spooky music--that made the documentary every bit as entertaining as watching one of Bela's movies.

If I have one minor gripe, it's that a large amount of "deleted scenes" could have been editing back into the feature. Most of them are expanded interviews and clips from particular films. I'm sure the decision was made to cut these extra scenes for reasons of pacing or time. But a true Lugosi fan would not only NOT mind the extra padding, he (or she) would most likely appreciate it. It's a minor point, because of course you can access all these extra scenes from the main menu.

Order this one, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A documentary that's as entertaining as a Lugosi film
Review: Here's a real treat for Lugosi fans--an in-depth, fascinating, and utterly entertaining hour featuring lots of previously-unseen material. The clips from his early silent films are beautifully restored, and left this reviewer with a strong urge to see the complete films. There's an impressive array of interviews with former co-stars and friends, and some surprisingly clear interviews with the star himself (some of these also appear on Roan's excellent "White Zombie" disc).

I was also impressed by the sometimes hallucinatory editing style--often a rapid succession of film clips set to spooky music--that made the documentary every bit as entertaining as watching one of Bela's movies.

If I have one minor gripe, it's that a large amount of "deleted scenes" could have been editing back into the feature. Most of them are expanded interviews and clips from particular films. I'm sure the decision was made to cut these extra scenes for reasons of pacing or time. But a true Lugosi fan would not only NOT mind the extra padding, he (or she) would most likely appreciate it. It's a minor point, because of course you can access all these extra scenes from the main menu.

Order this one, you won't be disappointed.


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