Bela Lugosi

Rating:
Summary: A Bela Bargain!
Review: For all those who love Bela Lugosi, this ten-film package is for you. And for all those who have yet to see Lugosi, this collection is a great introduction. These are Bela's "B" to "Z" movies, movies so wretched they test the mettle of an actor. And Lugosi comes with with flying colors, even when showing the ravages of morphine addiction as he did in "The Boys From Brooklyn." Here is a rundown of the set:

The Devil Bat - A wonderfully ridiculous thriller. Bela shines throughout as the mad scientist.

White Zombie - Eerie, atmospheric chiller set in Haiti with Bela as the master of a host of zombies.

The Gorilla - Bela as a butler in this tame Ritz Brothers comedy. Watchable, nevertheless.

The Corpse Vanishes - Bela needs the blood of young wives to keep his own wife young. With Minerva Urecal and Angelo Rossitto.

Black Dragons - Bela as a plastic surgeon transforming Japanese spies into Caucasians (?) who later turns sides and takes revenge on the baddies. As with the previous film, A Sam Katzman Monogram quickie -- and a must-see.

The Human Monster - Bela is wonderfully evil in this Pathe adaption of an Edgar Wallace (King Kong) thriller.

Scared to Death - A lifeless attempt at horror. Bela's only color film.

The Mysterious Mr. Wong -- Bela as a Chinese baddie who needs a set of coins to rule the world.

The Death Kiss - Underrated whodunit set in a movie studio. Bela plays a producer, and one of the main suspects.

The Boys from Brooklyn (AKA Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla -- Bela as a mad scientist (what else) who runs into the comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo, themselves superb Martin and Lewis imitators. (So good, if fact, that Jerry Lewis sued to stop their act.) Again, not to be missed.

The Phantom Creeps - Bela's great 1939 Universal serial. He is again a mad scientist set on conquering the world. He is aided in his quest by an invisibility belt and one of the great looking robots of filmdom.