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.]

 

What do you think of Invisible Ghost?

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?