Truly enjoyed Invisible Ghost this morning while reviewing staff time-cards. Notice Bela doing quite a lot of "hand" acting throughout to help emphasize his characterization when in his murderer mode. How many actors would pay such attention to minor details like that today? And Bela is quite the articulate gentleman when he wishes to be. Very effective use of light and shadow playing across Bela in the end as he is exposed and staggers almost zombie like after "dead" woman confronts him.
I really loved Lugosi's 1st "transition" of seeming "possession" coming down the stairs and looking almost mesmerized and mindless until entering the room and the gleeful evil delight comes across his face (all in close up no less) as descends upon the hapless lady.

This is the kind of old black and white stuff from film and television of which I appreciate and enjoy greatly.

Night Monster (1942)



Bela Lugosi as the servant in a murder mystery in a wealthy manor. This is the film that first inspired me to start this thread, as the premise alone always causes me to confuse it with both The Black Cat (1941) and Night of Terror (1933), each of which has a vaguely similar premise, look, and role for Bela.

Unfortunately, this time around he doesn't even get to play the mysterious servant. He is just a plain old servant. And the plot is both astonishingly unoriginal in some place and astonishingly ludicrous in all the others. We are at a point where horror films are now seen as immoral and a source of depravity, and thus Universal doesn't seem to be throwing the big bucks and serious artistry into these outings anymore. Mainstream America is staying away a little more, and the more loyal fans of horror are going to come no matter how bad the film is. Thus, at this point, all that seems to separate a Universal release from a Poverty Row release is budget and the rights to licensed characters.

In this case, there are no licensed characters. No one is going to demand a second film starring an elderly paraplegic who can magically make his limbs appear and then get killed with a single bullet. A fascinating premise for fantasy or science fiction perhaps, but not a source of terror unless he can change his limbs to tentacles or something.

And really, Bela has absolutely nothing to do in this film. He is the servant, and that's all. No one ever even considers him important enough to suspect of the murders happening in the household.


Plot (0-5 points): After borrowing all the basic trappings of every other murder mystery filmed or staged over the past three decades, I at least applaud this film's attempt to provide a more original solution to the mystery of who is committing the murders...but it's both ridiculous and not all that scary. 1/5

Atmosphere (0-5 points): One thing Universal almost always gets right is the lighting, and it's marvelous in all the dark, suspenseful scenes here. The camera doesn't do anything all that impressive though, and the special effects leave much to be desired. I doubt anyone was going to cringe over the double exposure of an unmoving skeleton during the film's "scariest" scene. 2/5

Other Actors (0-3 points): Quite impressive. Irene Harvey and Don Porter, in particular, almost make the writing sound good with their deliveries. Far better talent than this film deserved. 3/3

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): With no real character, no true motivation, and almost no moments where either the camera or the script are at all concerned with him, Bela is mostly in the background in this one, and sometimes he's hamming it up for want of any authentic direction or motivation. 4/10


Overall: For sheer brazen originality, this one is worth coming back to. In terms of the final execution though...meh. 10/23

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This is my second favorite Lugosi film after Dracula. I’ve seen it so many times! Lugosi is like a really evil Batman villain whose calling card is to leave the body of one of his accomplices at the scene of every crime! And I love it that he’s a mad social scientist! I wish there had been a Monogram film with Karloff as an evil economist!

A WB film made just a few years earlier - The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse - has a similar theme, with Edward G Robinson as a sociology professor who decides to test his theories about crime by running a crime syndicate! It also features Claire Trevor and Humphrey Bogart.

I would love to see somebody remake Bowery at Midnight with Christoph Waltz in the Lugosi role.

This movie …

Well, it's no Voodoo Man!

I've seen The Ape Man a few times over the years, when I'm in the mood for Poverty Row Lugosi and I feel a little worn out on Bowery at Midnight or The Corpse Vanishes (so many extra points for Angelo) or Voodoo Man or The Devil Bat.

The Ape Man … what is there to say? It's certainly interesting. I do like the way Lugosi gives it his ALL!

But the kicker is the character who appears every so often and then at the end he admits he wrote this crazy picture. I've always found this to really strain credibility because I can't imagine anyone admitting they wrote The Ape Man.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)



The very first Monster Mash film has Universal pouring the kinds of resources into this film that we haven't seen from them in a decade. I'm assuming The Wolfman had proved a major hit and thus convinced Universal that making a bigger budget sequel/crossover would be a solid investment. The flipside of this is that Ghost of Frankenstein did not appear to do as well. At least, that's my best guess for why this film is ultimately edited so as to ignore elements that continue from that film, making this a crossover with a more generic Frankenstein monster who may or may not be Ygor, the "Doctor Frankenstein" that is discussed either being Henry Frankenstein (the 1931 film) or Ludwig Frankenstein (Ghost of Frankenstein). The audience has the freedom to see it either way.

Of course, much has been made of Lugosi's role in this thing. As filmed, Bela played a talking monster with the voice and brain of Ygor, blinded and desperate to regain his strength. When the film edited out ALL of Bela's dialogue, his performance became more generic and made a little less sense (why is he extending his arms awkwardly when he walks? Why does he look so sinister at the end?). As far as I'm concerned though, the real loss for Bela wasn't the downplaying of his role as the Monster. After all, we learn in this film that Larry Talbot cannot die because he is a werewolf. He communicates this to the mother of the werewolf that bit him; a werewolf (played by Lugosi) that was "killed" the exact same way that he was. Shouldn't either he or the mother have realized that this meant Bela the werewolf is still alive in his grave too? THAT's a Lugosi role I would have rather seen! Still, this is a very strong film, and Bela does an admirable job in spite of the setbacks.


Plot (0-5 points): I love how Larry has transformed from a naive and frightened young man to a much grimmer and unstable character bent on ending his life. The rest is illogical and poorly conceived, from why a traveling gypsy would know the reputation of Dr. Frankenstein for his ability to do the impossible but NOT know him for creating a monster, to why Larry's doctor leaves all of his patients to travel Europe in order to find a single unstable patient and then risk everything to help him, to why Dr. Frankenstein's daughter is hanging around, even living in the laboratory in order to lend a hand. Oh, and the town rabble-rouser/mob boss ends up being RIGHT by the close? 2/5

Atmosphere (0-5 points): Universal's best-looking monster film yet. The sets, the lighting, the camera work at times, and especially the action! We have never seen such explicit violence and fighting in a Universal film before, and it all looks very convincing. The models are a little unreal, and Larry and the gypsy are clearly in front of a screen when traveling across Europe, but overall this thing is gorgeous to look at. 5/5

Other Actors (0-3 points): You've got Bela, Maria Ouspenskaya, and Dwight Frye in the same film, and yet none of them are given enough to do. This might be my favorite Lionel Atwill performance as a highly endearing but conflicted mayor, but Patrick Knowles is a waste as the doctor trying to cure Larry and repair the monster, and Lon Chaney Jr. is still playing that dopey sweet guy when he's supposed to be tragic, imbalanced, and suicidal. 1/3

The Lugosi Factor (0-10 points): Yes, he had all his dialogue cut, and yes, he had to have stand-ins and stunt doubles do many of his scenes, but Bela still brings something impressive to the role. He physically conveys a far more broken monster than Chaney did, and it's eerily unnatural in its movements. Though the reason for them was lost on many, his extended hands were so iconic that they practically became a cliche for the monster afterward.And that menacing grin he gives at the end (see the image above) once he has been restored to full power and is truly Ygor again, was fantastic. Even with the editing and his medical issues working against him, he plays an impressive figure and does powerful acting that he couldn't have known would have to speak for itself without the aid of dialogue. Well it works. 8.5/10

Overall: A great film even in spite of its flaws and misuse of its best actors. 16.5/23

Considering how badly written the rest of the film is, I'm willing to bet whatever we are imagining is far superior to what had originally been written/spoken. Probably better this way!

Which one has Angelo Rossitto? Angelo is AWESOME!