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4 Horror Films Bela Boris Lugosi Karloff on 2 DVDs Great for Halloween New Factory Sealed Free S & H Includes: The Ape Man Bela Lugosi & The Ape Boris Karloff 2 Great B-Horrors New Factory Sealed Plus Bele Lugosi DVD The Corpse Vanishes DVD & The Invisible Ghost DVD New Factory Sealed See all our DVDs Click Here The Ape Man DVD Bela Lugosi DVD The Ape Boris Karloff 2 Great b-movies Whatever poor Bela Lugosi may have done in a past life, the man did not deserve The Ape Man, arguably the worst of his Monogram horror clunkers. Viewed today, it seems that screenwriter Barney Sarecky and infamous director William Beaudine (whose nickname "One Shot" was earned helming movies like this) were out to humiliate the proud Hungarian actor at every opportunity. They had the man, who once turned down the Frankenstein monster because he found the role demeaning, walk about the entire film in a manner that was supposed to appear simian but ended up looking merely foolish. They gave him an Anglo-Saxon name, Dr. James Brewster, without bothering to explain that familiar Middle European accent. And they provided him with a spiritualist sister (Minerva Urecal), whose character name, Agatha, Lugosi of course was incapable of pronouncing. To compound matters, they wrote in a mysterious character named Zippo (Ralph Littlefield), who, in a silly porkpie hat, drifted in and out of the narrative being annoyingly mysterious, only to reveal himself in the end as "the author of the story." "Screwy idea, wasn't it?" he says blithely putting the final nail in Lugosi's coffin. Lugosi's Dr. Brewster had experimented with a spinal serum derived from the fluids of a gorilla. The dedicated medico naturally tested the serum on himself and now appears incapable of walking upright, in dire need of a shave. Needless to say, the only antidote is human spinal fluid (which Lugosi pronounces "fluit"). Accompanied by screaming headlines such as "Ape man killer still on the loose!" Dr. Brewster and his gorilla henchman (Emil VanHorn, whose simian suit paid his rent for years) stalk the dark streets for human prey. A couple of wisecracking reporters (Wallace Ford and Louise Currie, both surprisingly tolerable) briefly wander into harm's way, knocking each other over the head with prop vases. Happily, for unexplained reasons, the gorilla suddenly turns on his master and breaks his neck, ending the nightmare for all concerned, including, one would imagine, Lugosi himself. Typical for cheap Monogram, Lugosi stayed in his ape-like makeup throughout, the expected transformation scene never materializing. The critics were understandably severe — "Monogram's writer didn't have to wipe the dust from Bela Lugosi's Ape Man, he had to take the mold off," chuckled the Daily News — but as horror-film historian Tom Weaver so succinctly put it: "Despite their ruinous effects on Lugosi's career, had these Monogram pictures been made without him, they would not merit discussion today." — Hans J. Wollstein Cast Bela Lugosi - Dr. James Brewster Similar Movies The Ape DVD Boris Karloff DVD This painfully-bad Monogram feature wastes the talents of two of horrordom's finest — star Boris Karloff and co-writer Curt Siodmak (who would write the horror classic The Wolf Man for Universal the same year). The goofy plot involves the efforts of one Dr. Adrian (Karloff) to procure human spinal fluid for his polio-vaccine research by donning the pelt of a slain circus ape and slaughtering innocent people. The fact that he's snapping spines in the interest of medicine doesn't really help to clear the moral waters (he never does find a cure, anyway). Filmed during a particularly grueling year for Karloff, this marks the end of his lengthy stir with Monogram (after a tedious string of Mr. Wong potboilers). Without Karloff to kick around, the studio concentrated their humiliating efforts on Bela Lugosi, who appeared in a virtual remake, The Ape Man, three years later. — Cavett Binion Cast Boris Karloff - Dr. Bernard Adrian Similar Movies The Corpse Vanishes DVD Despite the typical Monogram drawbacks — murky photography, stolid staging, ramshackle sets — The Corpse Vanishes remains one of the more deliciously outrageous horror exercises of the 1940s. Bela Lugosi, as hammy as ever, stars as Dr. Lorenz, a European horticulturist whose octogenarian wife (Elizabeth Russell) needs fluids from the glands of young virgins to remain forever young and beautiful. Jumping to conclusions, the insane medico's rationale seems to be that the best place to find a virgin is at the altar. Consequently, seven young women are in short order poisoned by a mysterious orchid just before their "I do's" and brought in a catatonic state to Dr. Lorenz' mansion in Brookdale. Cub reporter Pat Hunter (Luana Walters) is on to the scheme and visits the Lorenz estate under the pretense of researching an article on orchids. With a typical sound-stage storm brewing up, she agrees to spend the night, and what a night it proves to be. Not only is poor Pat awakened by a visit from Dr. Lorenz' slobbering, hunchbacked helper, Angel (Frank Moran, who stalks her while eating a drumstick), the reporter is also slapped in the face by the disagreeable countess, snubbed by a nasty dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), and nearly suffers the same fate as the poor brides when rescued in the nick of time by an enraged housekeeper (Minerva Urecal) and her boyfriend, Dr. Foster (Tristram Coffin). — Hans J. Wollstein Bela Lugosi's stint with Monogram is usually considered a waste of the great star's talents, but The Corpse Vanishes may just be the exception. For once, Lugosi doesn't have to carry the whole show by himself, but is offered good support from the cat-like Elizabeth Russell ("Don't touch me, you gargoyle," she shrieks at poor Angelo Rossitto), the always watchable Minerva Urecal and the peppy Luana Walters, the film's true star. Usually wasted in typically empty ingénue roles, Walters tears into this assignment with gusto, matching Lugosi all the way, but always with her tongue firmly planted in cheek. One question remains, however: Why is Dr. Lorenz sleeping in a casket? — Hans J. Wollstein Cast Bela Lugosi - Dr. Lorenz Similar Movies Invisible Ghost DVD Invisible Ghost is far from the best of Bela Lugosi's Monogram vehicles (if indeed there is such a thing), but with Joseph H. Lewis at the controls it is far and away the best directed. Lugosi is cast as Kessler, an otherwise normal gentleman who goes balmy whenever he thinks about his late wife (Betty Compson). It gets worse when Kessler is transformed via hypnosis into an unwitting murderer, apparently at the behest of his wife's ghost. An innocent man (John McGuire) is executed for Kessler's first murder, but the victim's twin brother (also John McGuire) teams with Kessler's daughter (Polly Ann Young) to determine the identity of the true killer. Though cheaply made, The Invisible Ghost maintains an appropriately spooky atmosphere throughout, with Lugosi delivering a full-blooded performance as a basically decent man controlled by homicidal impulses beyond his ken. Best of all is the non-stereotypical performance by african-american actor Clarence Muse as Lugosi's articulate, take-charge butler. — Hal Erickson Let's make one thing crystal clear about Invisible Ghost: This ridiculous melodrama, disingenuously sold as a horror movie, contains no ghosts and no one is rendered invisible. In fact, had Betty Compson, who apparently casts a spell on Bela Lugosi just by prowling around in his backyard, actually remained unseen, poor Bela wouldn't have turned into a multiple murderer in the first place. This inconsistency — one among many — cannot be dismissed simply because Joseph H. Lewis knows how to frame a shot nicely from inside a fireplace. Lewis, of course, is preferable from almost any Poverty Row hack, but there is really nothing he can do with a script so totally lacking in anything resembling actual life. Four people are murdered in Lugosi's house within the film's scant 64 minutes or so, and previous slayings are discussed, yet no one seems at all upset — or even mildly worried — over the carnage, and the victims are never referred to again. Poor John McGuire is convicted of murder and executed on the flimsiest of evidence, but, as Virginia's (Polly Ann Young) new boyfriend, would he even have been familiar with the house at the time of the previous killings? The actors do what they can to survive such silliness, but silent screen star Betty Compson cannot rescue a role that has her stalking about a cheap haunted house set stealing scraps from a chicken dinner. And the great African-American character star Clarence Muse is forced to speak screenwriters Helen and Al Martin's portentous lines as if performing Shakespeare. As for Bela himself, the Hungarian star actually offers one of his more restrained performances and the role of Kessler remains a favorite among his still legion of fans. — Hans J. Wollstein Cast Bela Lugosi - Dr. Charles Kessler Movies with the Same Personnel Get Items Shipped together for S & H Discounts Click Here Titan Marketing Buy a second Movie, Book, Audio Book, Software, CD or DVD and get $2.00 Off your Total Buy a third Movie, Book, Audio Book, Software, CD or DVD and get $4.00 Off your Total Buy a fourth Movie, Book, Audio Book, Software, CD or DVD and get $6.00 Off your Total Buy a fifth Movie, Book, Audio Book, Software, CD or DVD and get $8.00 Off your Total Buy a sixth Movie, Book, Audio Book, Software, CD or DVD and get $10.00 Off your Total That's $10 Off in All on Six items, Other group & multiple S & H Discounts are Available So check out all the Movies, Books, Audio Books, Software, CD's & DVD's for sales from: Thanks for Bidding Titan Marketing click on themes for more items
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