I saw this film in Vancouver B.C. and I don't recall ( Daughters Who Pay (1925) ) any of it. Sad.

There were more.



Lugosi made countless appearances as Dracula. Most just weren't recorded and/or saved.

Also, don't forget the almost Dracula appearances. You include Mark of the Vampire but what about Return of the Vampire?



Lugosi was a bit of a prima donna, according to most accounts, and he repeatedly rubbed Universal the wrong way. Universal gave him a lot of work after Dracula, but perhaps didn't want to further feed his ego by allowing him to continue in his most legendary role. I have heard stories that he was originally slated to appear in Dracula's Daughter, but I don't know the rest of what presumably occurred there.

I've heard it suggested that Lugosi didn't immediately reprise his Dracula role for a sequel simply because it didn't occur to Universal that they could bring him back.  Unlike with the Frankenstein Monster whose death at the end of that film was somewhat ambiguous, Harker drove a stake through Dracula's heart and the character was dead.  Nowadays, this wouldn't be an issue, but supposedly in 1931, Universal figured that Dracula's story had come to an end, hence Daughter of Dracula and Son of Dracula dealing with the character's offspring and not Dracula himself.  I've also heard it theorized that it was Lugosi's Return of the Vampire for Columbia with its 'Vampire returns when metal stake is pulled from his heart' premise that made Universal go 'Hey, why didn't we think of that' hence the following year's House of Frankenstein employing the same trick to bring him back.

I don't know if Lugosi really was a prima donna.  There are a lot of myths about the guy which for the longest time were taken as gospel.  Lugosi, for instance, was said to have turned down the role of the Monster in Frankenstein because he felt a non-speaking part was beneath him.  Never mind the fact, as Shaxper has already illustrated, that Lugosi had done plenty of non-speaking roles already through his silent years (I can't imagine that once sound was introduced, Lugosi demanded only speaking parts) but it seems as though the decision not to use Lugosi was made by James Whale.

Lugosi would later star in some pretty cheap movies which were beneath him and while you can't really argue that him playing the Ape Man or working with Ed Wood was a sign that he was up for anything instead of simply being an indication that he had to take whatever roles he could get whether he wanted them or not, I've never heard anyone who worked with him express the opinion that he seemed bitter about being reduced to such roles which is how you would think a "prima donna" would react.  He may have been - I know I would be - but the fact that he seemed affable and even fun on set (I recently listened to the commentary for the cheapy The Devil Bat and its description of Lugosi joking around on the set with his co-stars as if he genuinely enjoyed the experience).

Karloff was once on set at Universal and was asked where the toilets were.  He responded, "the whole place is a toilet".  Chaney, Jr. expressed frustration at being "starved into" taking the name Lon Chaney, Jr instead of being allowed to use his own.  Lugosi was the guy who walked around with an ape on chain to promote Bride of the Gorilla for Ed Wood with a smile on his face.  Again, people will do a lot of things to make a living, but I've never thought of Lugosi as a prima donna.

This is making want to dig out old issues of Filmfax. Bela is also featured in an anecdote about Clara Bow that gets written about in various places.

It's on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray (and I assume DVD) copy of The Devil Bat and the commentary is care of Richard Harland Smith.  In this film, Lugosi plays a guy who comes up with an aftershave lotion which attracts a giant bat to kill his victims once they leave his home.  Everytime Lugosi gets one of his victims to try the lotion (they think he's simply a pleasant, friendly fellow) he wishes them a friendly "Good night" followed by an ominous "and good-byeee".  I don't know if Smith spoke first hand with Lugosi co-star Suzanne Kaaren (she lived until 2004) or simply researched the details, but he notes that at the end of shooting every night, Lugosi would say good-bye to his co-stars by copying his "Good night... and good-byeee" farewell as a joke. 

On another note, that commentary also drew my attention to a detail I hadn't noticed before and I suspect it's something I would never have noticed if it hadn't been pointed out to me - whenever Lugosi turns the crank which opens the hidden passageway in his laboratory, he's actually just miming the action.  There's no crank - it's just a blank wall and Lugosi turns his arms while his hands grip empty air to make it seem as if he's turning a crank.  Next time you watch it, look out for it.  A word of caution though - you won't be able to not see it from here on out.

As to whether or not Bela had a big ego - it could be that he did and by the 50's it was gone.  I'm a little sensitive about his memory because of how Lugosi is often portrayed/remembered/thought of in the public consciousness.  Christopher Lee (whose own attempt at Dracula always struck me as Inspector Closeau-ish any time he had to do a death scene) once had the audacity to dismiss Lugosi by saying how he didn't want to end up 'like Bela Lugosi -a heroin addict reduced to playing Dracula over and over again'.  That such an insult would come from Christopher ('Dracula AD 1972', 'Taste the Blood of Dracula', 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula', 'Dracula Has Risen from the Grave', 'Scars of...', blah, blah, blah) Lee whose hammy over the top Dracula is certainly nothing to be proud of is bad enough, but to have this fictionalized account of Bela Lugosi appear anytime in public is galling.  I mean, Lugosi was a man who was exempted from the draft but still volunteered to fight in World War 1 because he believed in the cause.  While there he saved a fellow soldier who had come under fire and did so by leaving the safety of the large tree he was shielding himself with (when Lugosi had saved the man's life he turned to go back to the tree he was using for cover only to discover that it had been destroyed by an explosion and knew that his act of bravery had inadvertently saved his own life too).  He was an activist for a number of worthy causes both in the film and stage industry (he led a mass demonstration in Hungary to champion the cause of underpaid workers; was a founding member of SAG) and in politics (he aided in the formation of the Hungarian-American Council for Democracy to oppose Nazism and used every opportunity he could to demand that Washington do something to help the Jewish Hungarian refugees during this time).

eh.  Big ego?  Maybe.  I do know he described himself as "the leading actor of Hungary's Royal National Theatre" and did have that giant portrait of himself hanging in his home, but... what was I talking about again?

Hopefully you realize that my getting worked up over this has nothing to do with you Shaxper.  Far from it!  "Favorite actor?"  Man, I think my respect and appreciation for you is about to turn into hero worship or something creepier than that soon!  Prima donna?  If he was then there's no point in sugar coating and as I'm sure you'll agree, hardly a deal breaker when deciding whether someone was a good person.  Like I said, Lugosi is one of those actors who deserves to be not even be better remembered than he is so much as differently remembered from how he often is so.  At the same time though, if the swelled head was there, it shouldn't be conveniently forgotten about either.   

I didn't even know Kino Lorber did a version of Devil Bat. There are so many perfectly good copies in the public domain, it never even occurred to me to seek a fancy restoration. I'll have to see if I can track down this commentary elsewhere. Otherwise, it might be worth the cost of a fancy Blue ray edition that I don't actually need.



That's hilarious!




For what it's worth, Lee spoke far more respectfully of Lugosi in his 100 Years of Horror series, even going so far as to suggest Lugosi had inspired his own acting career.




LOL he was a complex man. He was outlandishly kind to fans and friends, but just ask any of his many wives what he was like behind closed doors. He was a joy to work with for some, and a difficult prima donna for others. He led a tempestuous life, running away from home as a child to become an actor, then going on to have possibly the most up and down career in all of Hollywood, as well as numerous marriages and divorces -- how much of that is because of who he was and how much of that made him who he was is anyone's guess. He led a life full of blessings and curses, and while there's no denying it ended horribly, he lived like a king for many years and experienced a kind of fame and lifestyle you and I would be hard pressed to even imagine.



I never took it that way, my friend. I always love our back and forths and always feel highly complimented when you follow me into yet another review thread.



ummm...thank you?



Thoroughly agreed. He certainly didn't shy away from being associated with Dracula, but that's nowhere near the full extent of the man's greatness.
As I've said numerous times, it's not even in my top five favorite Lugosi films.




But it also shouldn't eclipse the man's legacy. He had every right to believe he was important and worthy of great roles after Dracula. How he articulated it to Universal may have been arrogant, may have been misconstrued or distorted, or may have even been the result of his limited English. Who can say? I'm never comfortable trading in hearsay. In this case, it's simply the best explanation we have as to why Universal never put him in the cloak again.

I can see where Shaxper is going ... but I can go either way whether its legit or not.