Search - Bela Lugosi: 10 Movies on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 6/22/2024...

The Corpse Vanishes - Not the best from Bela Lugosi!

Devil Bat

Phantom Creeps

White Zombie

Monsieur Beaumont

The Gorilla

and more.

A Bela Bargain!

Edward Garea | Branchville, New Jersey United States | 12/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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.

"

Good Entertainment at great value

Barbara (Burkowsky) Underwood | Manly, NSW Australia | 08/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was pleased to find that this budget-priced box set of 10 movies - plus a 12-part serial - is quite high quality all round, which is not always the case with these 10 or more movie offers, and I'm sure that both Lugosi fans and/or enthusiasts of Thirties and Forties films would be quite pleased and satisfied with this set. The selection of movies is an interesting cross-section of Bela Lugosi's career, attempting to show him in various roles other than the one he is most famous for, namely "Dracula". It was this 1931 film in which Lugosi so convincingly portrayed the character of Count Dracula with his expressive facial gestures and, above all, his unmistakable Hungarian accent, which catapulted him to fame and led the way to many similar stereotyped roles for the next two decades. Once the public had associated Lugosi with the evil character who speaks with a strange accent, it was difficult for him to break out of this mould, and he ended up taking even small, supporting parts in a variety of movies; some of which are presented in this set. Perhaps his most popular films are still the low-budget horror movies of the 30s and 40s in which he usually played a sinister character or mad professor who `vonts to rule ze verld', and of this group "The Devil Bat" (1941), "White Zombie" (1932) and "The Corpse Vanishes" (1942) are good representations, showing Lugosi as a mad doctor seeking revenge by creating a mutant killer bat, as an evil practiser of voodoo magic, and then again as a mad doctor who needs corpses of young women to keep his aging wife looking youthful. Although they may seem quite silly today, the stories are nevertheless good and interesting, and move at a good pace with an element of suspense and if not taken too seriously, simply good fun to watch.



The same can be said for all the other movies in this set, such as those of the mystery whodunit genre, both serious and humorous. "The Gorilla" is part comedy, part mystery-thriller, with Lugosi playing only a supporting role as the butler, and the fast pace and many twists and turns will leave you wondering right till the end whether the butler did it. In a more serious line, "Black Dragons" (1942) also keeps up the suspense as a group of men are consecutively killed with a Japanese dagger, and all of them are somehow linked to the mysterious house guest played by Lugosi. Of a somewhat higher standard are the two mystery thrillers "Human Monster" (1939) and "The Death Kiss" (1933), the former set in England where a series of murders is linked to a home for the blind and a certain suspicious Dr Orloff (guess who) who deals in insurance. Lugosi has only a small part in "The Death Kiss", which revolves around the murder of an actor on a film set, and while Lugosi is once again the most suspicious character, the twists and turns in this plot once again keep you guessing til the very end.



Just for a change, Lugosi plays a scheming, evil Chinaman with a Hungarian accent, and actually gets away with it in "Mysterious Mr Wong" (1935) while a nosy reporter tries to uncover the series of deaths in Chinatown and solve the mystery of the 12 gold coins of Confucius. Two of the newer movies, and also my least favourites in this set, are "Scared to Death" (1947) and "Boys from Brooklyn" (1952) both of which once again feature Lugosi only in supporting roles in another humorous and confusing whodunit in "Scared to Death" and finally as a mad professor once again in "Boys from Brooklyn" which actually stars two irritating Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin impersonators. But the piece de resistance in my opinion is the intriguing Sci-Fi serial "The Phantom Creeps" which is presented in 12 parts of 20-minute episodes. It has absolutely everything: Lugosi as the mad professor who `vonts to rule ze verld' with his discovery of a meteorite stone which is the source of his powers of invisibility and suspended animation; the most hideous-looking robot you've ever seen; the worst fake spiders you've ever seen (even worse than the mutant killer bats) and unbelievable car and plane crashes, evil spies, nosy reporters, secret agents and plenty of action every minute. All up, never a dull moment in this entire set, and while not classic or high standard material, it is nevertheless good, fun entertainment and certainly very good value for money.

"

How to choose? How to resist!!

Ronald Levao | Princeton, NJ United States | 12/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My dilemma was whether to choose this set or the 15 Frightful films set of Bela. There is a little overlap, and the bigger set does include Bride of the Monster with Tor Johnson, that great Swedish wrestler memorably parodied by Drew Friedman and well-known from Plan 9 and other delights. But this set was my choice for two reasons beyond the obvious one of the great Lugosi himself. Two co-stars did it for me: 1. Sammy Petrillo's imitation of Jerry Lewis in the Brooklyn Gorilla film. I first saw this about 50 years ago, and the extraordinarily obnoxious acting bored a hole in my brain that has not healed to this day. How could anyone resist that? And perhaps MORE excitingly, 2. The exploitative Black Dragons includes CLAYTON MOORE in a supporting role. The true, all-time masked man, the Lone Ranger, appearing UNMASKED in a pre-William Tell extravanganza. Who cares how dreadful these films are. No self-respecting baby boomer could do without such treasures!"