CORPSE VANISHES (1942) - Great film produced by one of the poverty row studios called Monogram Pictures. This is one of those ageless woman films where they need a young woman to keep an old woman alive. Usually I'm find this story dull, but this film is different and a lot of fun. Bela Lugosi stars as a doctor who steals the bodies of young woman while they are getting married. He kills them with an flower that he send to each bride under the grooms name. Upon smelling the flower they fall to the ground right at the alter. Lugosi and his assistance wait just outside for the call to pick up the body and take it back to his place where he takes fluid from the glands to rejuvinate his aging wife. This film is a riot. Great deal for $1. Check it out. You will treasure this film.
THE GHOUL (1934) - This is a British production starring Boris Karloff as a dying professor of Egyptology. He is buried in a an Egyptian style tomb with a scarab that will give him eternal life. The funeral procession of Karloff is good with the music of Wagner. One of his servants steal his 75,000 scarab from his dead body. Karloff awakens during a full moon to recover it. The film has an actress that provides some decent comic moments, but the focus is of course on Karloff as he looks rather spritely for a dead man. The film ends back at the tomb as Karloff returns the scarab to the statue in the tomb. Not a bad film for 1934.
PHANTOM SHIP (1935) - This is actually a big production starring Bela Lugosi as a one armed man who was shanghai'd earlier in his life and appears to be out for revenge as he boards the Marie Celeste. The story of the ship is based on the real mystery of the real life ship the Marie Celeste. Lugosi actually gives a kind of Jack Palance performance in this movie as he seems kinda spaced out. They also lighten his hair and make him scuffy looking. The whole crew is murdered one by one as they try to figure out who is doing it. Not a bad film.
Post Edited (01-05-05 20:49)
