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Rating: 
Summary: Bela Lugosi plays two roles in this horror crime thriller
Review: "The Human Monster" (originally "The Dark Eyes of London") has Detective Inspector Larry Holt of Scotland Yard investigating the mysterious deaths of five people who have been found floating in the Thames. His investigation leads him to discover that the deceased had policies with the Greenwich Insurance Company, which is run by the creepy Feodor Orloff (Bela Lugosi). Orloff used to be a doctor before he was driven out of the profession by his colleagues, who were convinced he was insane. Holt then discovers that Orloff asked each of the victims to make charitable donations to Dearborn's Home for the Destitute Blind. After talking to blind Dearborn (also played by Lugosi), Holt becomes convinced that these policyholders are being murdered for their money. This 1939 film (released the following year in the U.S.) is really much more of a crime thriller than a horror film. It is based on a 1924 novel by Edgar Wallace, a popular writer in the genre, but once Lugosi entered the picture the film was tailored to his talents and his audience. Hence, the American title for the film and the addition of Orloff's brutish assistant, Jake (Wilfred Walter), in the grand tradition of horror films. Director Walter Summers and Art Director Duncan Sutherland do get overly creative with the Home for the Destitute Blind and other set pieces, but your affinity for this film will be totally dependent on your affection of Lugosi's broad style of acting. The plot is fairly routine and even though O.B. Clarence provides the voice for Dearborn, it is still fairly obvious that since Lugosi is playing both characters they are really the same person.
Rating:
Summary: Bela Lugosi plays two roles in this horror crime thriller
Review: "The Human Monster" (originally "The Dark Eyes of London") has Detective Inspector Larry Holt of Scotland Yard investigating the mysterious deaths of five people who have been found floating in the Thames. His investigation leads him to discover that the deceased had policies with the Greenwich Insurance Company, which is run by the creepy Feodor Orloff (Bela Lugosi). Orloff used to be a doctor before he was driven out of the profession by his colleagues, who were convinced he was insane. Holt then discovers that Orloff asked each of the victims to make charitable donations to Dearborn's Home for the Destitute Blind. After talking to blind Dearborn (also played by Lugosi), Holt becomes convinced that these policyholders are being murdered for their money. This 1939 film (released the following year in the U.S.) is really much more of a crime thriller than a horror film. It is based on a 1924 novel by Edgar Wallace, a popular writer in the genre, but once Lugosi entered the picture the film was tailored to his talents and his audience. Hence, the American title for the film and the addition of Orloff's brutish assistant, Jake (Wilfred Walter), in the grand tradition of horror films. Director Walter Summers and Art Director Duncan Sutherland do get overly creative with the Home for the Destitute Blind and other set pieces, but your affinity for this film will be totally dependent on your affection of Lugosi's broad style of acting. The plot is fairly routine and even though O.B. Clarence provides the voice for Dearborn, it is still fairly obvious that since Lugosi is playing both characters they are really the same person.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark, Cold, Classic!!
Review: Bela Lugosi is certainly one individual you would not want to meet in a dark alley. Come to think of it, a well-lit alley would not be such a great idea either. In this film, he displays his penchant for panic by pretending to be a doctor whose real prescription is murder! Beware, this film will make you think twice before going to the doctor!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT PAIRING OF LUGOSI and GRETA GYNT
Review: My DVD suffers from bad sound, but I hope I`ll get hold of another edition. Norwegian Greta Gynt is NOT the cowardly heroine one sees in Dracula 1930 and so forth(Quote from a US critic), but Greta`s Diana Stewart stand up to Dr Orlock a`la a modern Scarlett O`Hara. The film is also brutal and the World seems indeed a not safe place 2 be in this account... All good people are NOT as they are supposed 2 be..... The film is good, but as I said - my edition isn`t on par of what I`ve been told of other editions of this film. We all know of Bela Lugosi, but u better catch GRETA GYNT(1916-2000) in the films DEAR MURDERER 1947-as the neurotic Vivien - married 2 a man called Lee(humoursely - Vivien Leigh - VIVIAN MARY HARTLEY - got her professional name from HER husband, Leigh Holman) and the Ronald Neame-Hithcock-thriller TAKE MY LIFE 1947 as an operasinger, trying 2 catch a real killer when her own husband is suspcted of foul behaviour. But this is DARK EYES OF LONDON - the film that MADE her :-)
Rating: 
Summary: 50-50
Review: The two films on this DVD proved exactly the opposite of what I expected. I bought the disc because the story of THE MYSTERY LINER sounded intriguing. I assumed THE HUMAN MONSTER would be a lackluster Lugosi vehicle with little to recommend it. In fact, MONSTER is the more entertaining of the two, with some surprisingly fluid filmmaking and lots of left over German Expressionist touches that always seem to work. LINER, on the other hand, feels like little more than a few ideas barely tied together by a strip of film. If the people who made it took more than one take on each shot, I'd be amazed. Not that either film is exactly a masterpiece. They are definitely for connoisseurs of low-budget filmmaking, and only to the extent you are willing to accept that the effort to uncover hidden treasures from the past occasionally yields only fool's gold. The story of MONSTER is hammily obvious. The filmmakers don't even make any effort to hide the identity of the villain. The credit sequence features Lugosi's eyes scowling over the type, and just in case you didn't get it, he orders the murder of a character in his second scene. The pleasures the film provides are in the marginal details, like the work house for the blind practically dripping with damp decay, or the blind AND mute beggar with the heart of gold or his loyal, if murderous, best friend, who has a severe speech impediment and a face like a bargain-basement Frankenstein's monster. (This guy would never arouse suspicion walking down the street, no, no way.) MYSTERY LINER, on the other hand, is grindingly mundane, with few of the flourishes of the Lugosi film. There are some half-hearted efforts to create a kind of Mastermind surrounded by test tubes, oscillators and bunsen burners, while weird, very low-budget science-fiction effects bubble around him. But the story makes even less sense than MONSTER. It has something to do with a device to control ships at sea remotely. Our Man of the Oscillators is out to steal this from the rightful owners. The Captain of the ship has been made half-insane because the Bad Guys know they have to get rid of him to pull off their scheme. Meanwhile there's this old woman passenger making passes at every man on board, and a nurse who is in love (I think) with one of the officers, and a suspicious passenger with a thickly Germanic accent, and an obnoxious one who seems, for obscure reasons, to be in a position to tell everyone else what to do. When, after a dreary hour plus of struggling with this under cooked stew, the story unexpectedly, almost inexplicably, comes to a halt, you're not even quite sure what happened. Not that it really matters much. The problem is that we don't get the delights of cut-rate virtuosity, just the obvious signs of tenth-rate talents laboring very heavily to make a dime yield a dollar and not even getting a nickel. Both films, however, have the virtue of just about every other grade-Z film from this period: they're mercifully short.
Rating:
Summary: A low-budget mystery that only has Bela Lugosi to recommend
Review: This is an example of Bela Lugosi's lesser film work. It's a creaky, "cheapy-creepy" featuring Lugosi in a dual role. A killer stalks London, and Bela's slum-area workhouse is connected. There is also a blind "ape-man" sort of killer creeping around the slums, leaving a trail of victims. The film is obviously dated and produced on a low budget. Determined Bela Lugosi fans should be pleased, but others should beware!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Lugosi Thriller
Review: This is Lugosi's best British film, it's an exciting fast paced thriller with Lugosi in top form. In the dual role of the sinister Dr Orloff and the seemingly kind Dr. Dearborn Lugosi runs an insurance racket in which he drowns blind people and dumps their bodies in the Thames. The film is handsomely mounted, with good production values and a top cast. The film was remade in the 60's with Klaus Kinski in the Orloff role but this is the version you should see.
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