Bela Lugosi DVD Corpse Vanishes DVD Invisible Ghost DVD

Bela Lugosi DVD New Corpes Vanishes/The Invisable Ghost Factory Sealed

See All Our DVDs Click Here                       Check Out Our other items!

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
Luana Walters  - Pat Hunter
Tristram Coffin  - Dr. Foster
Elizabeth Russell  - Countess Lorenz
Minerva Urecal  - Fagah
Kenneth Harlan  - Keenan
Vince Barnett  - Sandy
Joan Barclay  - Alice Wentworth
Frank Moran  - Angel
Gwen Kenyon  - Peggy Woods
Angelo Rossitto  - Toby
George Eldredge  - Mike

Similar Movies
 The Dead Eyes of London  (1960, Alfred Vohrer)
 Mark of the Vampire  (1935, Tod Browning)
 The Mad Monster  (1942, Sam Newfield)
 The Night Strangler  (1973, Dan Curtis)
 
Movies with the Same Personnel
 The Ape Man  (1943, William Beaudine)
 Bowery at Midnight  (1942, Wallace W. Fox)
 Black Dragons  (1942, William Nigh)
 Scared to Death  (1947, William Christy Cabanne)
 Spooks Run Wild  (1941, Phil Rosen)
 Return of the Ape Man  (1944, Phil Rosen)
 The Seventh Victim  (1943, Mark Robson)

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
Polly Ann Young  - Virginia Kessler
John McGuire  - Ralph and Paul Dixon
Clarence Muse  - Evans
Terry Walker  - Cecile
Betty Compson  - Mrs. Kessler
Ernie S. Adams  - Jules Mason
George Pembroke  - Inspector
Fred Kelsey  - Ryan
Jack Mulhall  - Tim

Movies with the Same Personnel
 Murder by Television  (1935, Clifford Sanforth)
 Return of the Ape Man  (1944, Phil Rosen)
 White Zombie  (1932, Victor Halperin)
 The Stranger on the Third Floor  (1940, Boris Ingster)
 Spooks Run Wild  (1941, Phil Rosen)
 Scared to Death  (1947, William Christy Cabanne)
 The Human Monster  (1939, Walter Summers)
 The Phantom Creeps [Serial]  (1939, Ford I. Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind)

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:

                                               Titan Marketing's ebay Store.

                                             Thanks for Bidding

                    Titan Marketing   

                                           click on themes for more items

Any questions e-mail us by Clicking Here

Sign up for my email newsletters by adding my eBay Store to your Favorites  

Other Details & Updates See Our Me