Invisible Ghost (1941) - Lugosi returns for more Monogram sinisterness

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A menacing painted rendition of star Bela Lugosi strangling a young woman makes up this poster for Joseph H. Lewis' Invisible Ghost

House-owner Charles Kessler at night becomes hypnotized by his estranged, brain-damaged wife's 'ghost', causing him to murder at random, using his coat (!).

 

Invisible Ghost is written by Al Martin (Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)) and Helen Martin (The Lady Confesses (1945)) and directed by Joseph H. Lewis (Navy Spy (1937)).

The film is a strange, quite short 'ghost' story with a ghost who is not invisible, and who is actually also not a ghost but merely brain-damaged, (you try to explain the title, because I can't.) There is also a legal twist to the story, and Bela Lugosi (Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)) and Clarence Muse (Buck and the Preacher (1972)) as the black butler are especially good here in what is really an odd little curiosity.  

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Invisible Ghost was released 25 April (USA) and runs 64 minutes. It was the first of 9 films Lugosi made under his new contract to producer Sam Katzman and Monogram Pictures. Shooting took place from March 1941 - ?, incredibly close to the film's release. Details of its release numbers are regrettably lost. The film is also noteworthy for having black actor Muse's name prominently on the poster as one of the film's just 3 credited co-stars. It has since fallen into public domain and is now available free and legally to stream and/or download right here. Lewis returned with Criminals Within (1941). Lugosi returned in The Black Cat (1941). 2.6k+ IMDb users have given Invisible Ghost a 5.2/10 average rating.]

 

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Glen or Glenda (1953) - Wood Jr.'s incredible transsexual debut turkey

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Sexually defined versions of a man and a woman and three stills from the film stand out on this sensationalist, interest-piquing poster for Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Glen or Glenda

Glen or Glenda, written and directed by debuting Edward D. Wood Jr. (The Sun Was Setting (1951, TV short)), is the filmmaker's own very sincere illumination campaign about transsexuality and cross-dressing.

We focus on the couple Glen and Barbara: Their issue is that Glen simply loves Barbara's dresses, angora sweater and high heels more than he loves Barbara herself.

Wood himself plays Glen across from his then real-life girlfriend Dolores Fuller (Bride of the Monster (1955)), who can hardly be said to act as Barbara. (It is hard to blame her, since the film reflects their own situation as a couple, as Wood was himself a cross-dresser.)
Around this story is a framing device that has Bela Lugosi (Prisoners (1929)) as the 'character' simply called 'Scientist', sitting in a thunder-plagued 'science' lab, literally babbling about puppy dog tales, snails and other similarly odd things. Glen or Glenda has another framing device also, in which a police commissioner interviews a doctor.
It is primarily the film's lack of structure, total incompetence skill-wise, and the conjoined elements that don't exactly fit together, which has made Glen or Glenda infamous as one of the worst films of all time. At the same time it is certainly singular and not at all without interest.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 20k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Glen or Glenda premiered in April and runs 65 minutes, (a 1982 re-issue raised the running time to 71 minutes.) The film was commissioned to cash in on the Christine Jorgensen story; the first American to undergo sex change surgery (which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark) went home to the States to instant fame in 1952. Wood convinced producer George Weiss that he was the man for the subject, as he was a transvestite himself. But he then secretly completely discarded the Jorgensen story in favor of a story more similar to his own life and cast the then drug-addicted and poor former star Lugosi for a 1-5k $ check. Shooting took place in Los Angeles. The film's unrelated erotic vignettes were added by Weiss to make the film longer and hotter for the young drive-in crowds it was aimed for. The release was limited, and the gross numbers are regrettably unknown. The film reportedly even enjoyed a brief screening in China. It was denied classification by the conservative British Board of Film Classification in 1958. Warren Beatty is said to have sponsored the film's 1981 re-release, which grossed just 10k $. The making of the film is portrayed in Tim Burton's biopic Ed Wood (1994) with Johnny Depp portraying Wood Jr.. Glen or Glenda has fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. Wood Jr. returned with 3 short and TV-series credits before his next theatrical work, Jail Bait (1954). Fuller returned in Mesa of Lost Women (1953); Lugosi in The Red Skelton Hour (1954, TV-series) and theatrically in Bride of the Monster (1955). Glen or Glenda is rotten at 35 % with a 3.72/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Glen or Glenda ?

The Gorilla (1939) - Hilarious Lugosi and game Ritz Brothers light up above-average gorilla flick

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A lively poster for Allan Dwan's The Gorilla, which effectively indicates both the film's potentially frightening and funny elements

 
A rich man is threatened by a man who calls himself The Gorilla, and so he hires three detective brothers to investigate. 

The Gorilla is written by Rian James (The Fortress (1947)) and Sid Silvers (Bottoms Up (1934)), based on the same-titled 1935 play by Ralph Spence (Let's Go, screenplay (1923)),  and directed by Allan Dwan (The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch (1914)).
The film distinguishes itself from other gorilla movies of its era by being a 20th Century Fox studio picture and thus benefits from better production values; better pictures (cinematography by Edward Cronjager (I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951))) and sets (including the central mystery house, enveloped in thunder of course), - and not least an ape that actually looks like one.
The Ritz Brothers (Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)) as the three bumbling detectives and Bela Lugosi (The Wolf Man (1941)) as the incredibly funny butler Peters, (butler again, yes), make The Gorilla highly worthwhile for the viewer who can appreciate this type of thing.

Watch the opening of the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[The Gorilla was released 26 May (USA) and runs 66 minutes. The film was written, produced and released within just 8 months. Lugosi's role was originally meant for Peter Lorre. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California. The Ritz Brothers' father's death in January 1939 created a delay in the shoot, and when the three stars failed to show up to resume filming by late January, Fox sued them for 150k $. They came back and did the work but never worked for Fox again after that. The film has fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. Dwan returned with Frontier Marshal (1939). The Ritz Brothers returned in Pack Up Your Troubles (1939); Lugosi in The Human Monster (1939). 1,176 IMDb users have given The Gorilla a 4.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Gorilla?

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) - Universal's first monster bash is low on frights but entertains

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This exciting poster in splashy colors for Roy William Neill's Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man promises monstrous action and a scantily clad blond

The Wolf Man is awoken to life by graverobbers and flees from England to the village of Vasaria, where Dr. Frankenstein's notes are supposed to help him finally die. - But instead Frankenstein's horrific monster is also reawoken! 

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is written by Curt Siodmak (Riders to the Stars (1954)) and directed by Roy William Neill (Hoots Mon (1940)). It is the 5th film in the Frankenstein franchise and the first sequel to George Waggner's great The Wolf Man (1941). It is the first of Universal's 'monster mash' horrors in which established characters meet each other.
The film isn't scary to me: The bizarro monsters were eerie on their own, but when their universes are welded together, the result is almost comical.
Siodmak's script saves the film, along with Lon Chaney Jr.'s (Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)) portrayal of the Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot. Siodmak establishes an adventure-like pace in the rather short feature and works in themes of anxiety of insanity and village lynch mob mentality. SPOILER An exploded dam ends up washing the monsters away in a tidal wave of Biblical proportions.

Listen to 13 minutes of Hans J. Salter's score for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but likely a box office success
[Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was released 5 March (USA) and runs 74 minutes. Siodmak came up with the concept, because he needed a new car. Bela Lugosi had turned down playing the monster in the original Frankenstein (1931), thinking it unfit for his sudden stardom after Dracula (1931). He took the job to portray the monster 12 years later here after having played the monster's twisted companion Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Ygor's brain is implanted into the monster. Shooting took place at Universal in Los Angeles. Siodmak's script had the monster talking, but test audiences reacted poorly to Lugosi's talking Frankenstein, and so this element was cut. Details on the cost and box office performance of the film are not available online, - but based on the continued stream of similar titles from Universal and the general drought of horror titles in period, the film was likely theatrically successful. Both the Frankenstein monster and the Wolf Man returned in House of Frankenstein (1944). Neill returned with Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943). Ilona Massey returned in Holiday in Mexico (1946), Patrick Knowles in Hit the Ice (1943) and Lon Chaney Jr. in What We Are Fighting For (1943, short) and Frontier Badmen (1943). Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is rotten at 25 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man?

Dracula (1931) - Lugosi commands the screen as few have in chilling classic

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One of the original, striking posters for Tod Browning's Dracula

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Count Dracula prepares his exile from Transylvania in London, where he will face hard opposition.

Dracula is the 2nd adaptation of Bram Stoker's (The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903)) classic 1897 novel, following F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), though actually based on the successful 1924 play adaptation of the novel by Hamilton Deane, John L. Balderston (Gaslight (1944)) and Garrett Fort (Before Dawn (1933)). It is handsomely produced, by Carl Laemmle Jr. (Imitation of Life (1934)) and producer-writer-director Tod Browning (Freaks (1932)), and loyal to the novel.
The film is heightened by some great performances: Bela Lugosi (Ninotchka (1939)) in his defining title role, Dwight Frye (Sky Bandits (1940)) as Renfield and Edward Van Sloan (The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)) as Van Helsing are especially outstanding.
Dracula is dated and at times slow, but it is still a good film, even if other of the Universal horrors of the period are greater films, (particularly Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Wolf Man (1941)).
Different elements of Dracula were written by Browning, Louis Bromfield (For Whom the Bells Toll (1943)), Max Cohen (King Tut-Ankh-Amen's Eight Wife (1923)), Dudley Murphy (Alma de Bronce (1944)) and Louis Stevens (Border River (1954)). And Browning is said to have left the direction to fine cinematographer Karl Freund (I Love Lucy (1951-56)) for much of the shoot.

In lieu of a trailer for the film, not currently on Youtube, watch a neat video of scenes from the movie to a piece of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake here

Cost: 0.355 mil. $
Box office: Unknown (likely somewhere around 1.75 mil. $)
= Uncertainty (likely a big hit)
[Dracula premiered in February 12 (New York's Roxy Theater) and runs 85 minutes. Murnau's unauthorized adaptation had resulted in a successful copyright lawsuit, so Laemmle Jr. made sure to buy the rights to adapt the existing play and novel fair and square. Lugosi had played Dracula extensively in the Broadway hit play but was an unpopular pick at Universal, who accepted him on the basis of paying him just 500 $ a week. The shoot lasted 7 weeks. Footage from Universal's The Storm Breaker (1925) are incorporated into Dracula, which accounts for the jumpy change of image quality in the storm scenes. Browning was mostly comfortable with silent film, which is one of the reasons behind Dracula's intertitles and theatrical acting style. A Spanish-language as well as a silent version of the film were created simultaneously for release in Spanish-speaking countries and in theaters that had not yet converted to sound. No score was commissioned for Dracula, because sound and scoring was still in its infancy in film, until Philip Glass was commissioned to compose one in 1998. Audiences are said to have fainted in shock at the premiere of Dracula, which contributed to its attraction, which made it Universal's top-grossing film of the year, resulting in reportedly 0.7 mil. $ profits, which might put the film's box office earnings at around 1.75 mil. $, - which would translate into the Film Excess status of 'big hit.' The film received mixed reviews upon release and would forever mark Lugosi's life, as he was thereafter always identified with count Dracula. The remarkable and rare original posters for Dracula today auction at as much as 0.1 mil. $. Dracula is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Dracula?
Which is your favorite Dracula movie and why?

The Corpse Vanishes/The Case of the Missing Brides (1942) - Sinister Lugosi does the mad doctor in obscure virgin fluid turkey

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Strange, funny poster for Wallace Fox's The Corpse Vanishes

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Well, there isn't much to write about this rather obscure, very low quality horror drama ... Someone on the Internet has summed up its plot perfectly in just one sentence:
"A scientist, aided by an old hag & her two sons - a malicious dwarf and a brutish moron, kills virgin brides, steals their bodies, & extracts gland fluid to keep his ancient wife alive and young."
Bela Lugosi (Dracula (1931)) of course plays the mad Dr. Lorenz, who poisons brides at weddings to "feed" them to his strange wife. This unfortunately doesn't provide anything really worth seeing.
- But Corpse Vanishes does have a dwarf!
It is directed by the productive, if not strictly speaking gifted, director Wallace Fox (Bowery at Midnight (1942)), and the film is in public domain and can be downloaded free and legally right here.

 Watch the original trailer for this shabby flick right here

The kind of married couple you don't wanna invite to your wedding or anything else at all, really, in Wallace Fox's The Corpse Vanishes

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of The Corpse Vanishes?
Have you ever seen anything of some real quality from Wallace Fox?

Black Dragons (1942) or, The Sinister Foreigner Attacks!

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Sinister intrigues are lurking on this handsomely painted poster for William Nigh's Black Dragons

Black Dragons was one of Hollywood's first responses on screen to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place just a month before shooting began in January 1942. The film is a weird and fairly awful, exploitative, anti-Japanese and anti-German WWII spy thriller with the telling work title Yellow Menace. It runs only 62 minutes, a testament to its measly, rocking structure and meager substance.
Besides a then arthritic, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Die Todeskarawane (1920)) in the villainous lead, there really isn't much to come for in Black Dragons:

 
Evil Japanese plot to infiltrate powerful positions in the West by assassinating the leaders and switching them out with their own cosmetically altered doubles.  

 

Lugosi does both the incredible operating, - as Doctor Melcher, - and the assassination of the American leaders, under the moniker Monsieur Colomb.
The man who would later become the Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore (The Far Frontier (1948)) plays a handsome detective in the poor Black Dragons, which is directed by William Nigh (Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)), a prolific b-movie director, who directed Mack Sennett comedy shorts earlier in his career. It is written by Harvey Gates (Navy Secrets (1939)), based on the story Black Dragon by Robert Kehoe.

Related posts:

William Nigh: The Ape (1940) or, The Costume-Crazed Doctor  
Doomed to Die (1940) - Karloff's last Mr. Wong movie is a good one 

The Fatal Hour (1940) - Nigh and Karloff return with a humdrum crime flick 

Here's a 7-minute clip from the trailer

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

[Black Dragons was released 6 March (USA) and runs 64 minutes. A virtual lightning-speed production, tapping into especially the anti-Japanese sentiment of the time, shooting started in late January 1942, taking place in California, and less than two months later the film was released! Details around its release are regrettably scarce to come by. The film was colorized in the 1990s. It is now available (in B/W) in public domain to watch and download free and legally right here. Nigh returned with The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), (he directed 7 feature films in 1942 in total!) Lugosi returned in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). 1,2k+ IMDb users have given Black Dragons a 4.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Black Dragons?