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Rating:  -
Fan-tastic! If you are a fan of Bela, this is a must have collection for you. I have collected a few Bela DVD's and this box set has a lot to offer. A good version of my favorite Bela Lugosi film: "White Zombie", and pretty good transfers of the other films. These are old films, and not all perfect, but heck, it's great to be able to see any version of some of these rare films.
A HUGE plus is the 14 episodes of the action serial "The Phantom Creeps". The Dvd set places one episode of Phantom Creeps after each movie, a creative idea, and makes one think of the theater setting this classic chillers all appeared in.
Don't wonder if this is a good addition for your collect - it is! If you are a Bela Lugosi fan, this will be pure gold for you!
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My dilemma was whether to choose this set or the 15 Frightful films set of Bela. There is a little overlap, and the bigger set does include Bride of the Monster with Tor Johnson, that great Swedish wrestler memorably parodied by Drew Friedman and well-known from Plan 9 and other delights. But this set was my choice for two reasons beyond the obvious one of the great Lugosi himself. Two co-stars did it for me: 1. Sammy Petrillo's imitation of Jerry Lewis in the Brooklyn Gorilla film. I first saw this about 50 years ago, and the extraordinarily obnoxious acting bored a hole in my brain that has not healed to this day. How could anyone resist that? And perhaps MORE excitingly, 2. The exploitative Black Dragons includes CLAYTON MOORE in a supporting role. The true, all-time masked man, the Lone Ranger, appearing UNMASKED in a pre-William Tell extravanganza. Who cares how dreadful these films are. No self-respecting baby boomer could do without such treasures!
Rating: -
Passport Video presents "The Bela Lugosi Box - 15 Frightful Films" (1942) --- (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Béla Lugosi was the stage name of actor Béla Ferenc Dezs Blaskó (October 20, 1882 - August 16, 1956) --- Lugosi was born in Lugos, Hungary, at the time part of Austria-Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania), the youngest of four children of a baker --- best known for his portrayal of "Dracula" in the American Broadway stage production, and subsequent film, of Bram Stoker's classic vampire story.
Late in his life, he again received star billing in movies when filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr., a fan of Lugosi, found him living in obscurity and near-poverty and offered him roles in his films, such as "GLEN OR GLENDA?" (1953) (in which his role made no more sense than the rest of the movie) and as a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist in "BRIDE OF THE MONSTER" (1955), during post-production of the latter, Lugosi entered treatment for his addiction, and the premier of the film was ostensibly intended to help pay for his treatment expenses. The extras on an early DVD release of "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE" (1959) include an impromptu interview with Lugosi upon his exit from the treatment center, which provide some rare personal insights into the man --- this was one of Lugosi's most infamous roles was released after he was dead. Ed Wood (Director) features footage of Lugosi interspersed with a double --- Wood had taken a few minutes of silent footage of Lugosi, in his Dracula cape, for a planned vampire picture but was unable to find financing for the project --- Wood later conceived of Plan 9, Wood wrote the script to incorporate the Lugosi footage and hired his wife's chiropractor to double for Lugosi in additional shots --- notice however the "double" is thinner than Lugosi, and covers the lower half of his face with his cape in every shot --- Leonard Maltin (Famous Film Critic) was quoted - "Lugosi died during production, and it shows."
Lugosi died of a heart attack on August 16, 1956 while lying in bed in his Los Angeles home. He was 73 --- Bela Lugosi was buried wearing one of the many capes from the Dracula stageplay, as per the request of his son and fifth wife, in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California --- Contrary to popular belief, Lugosi never requested to be buried in his famous cloak; Bela Lugosi, Jr. has confirmed on numerous occasions that he and his mother, Lillian, arrived at their decision independently.
BIOS:
1. Bela Lugosi (aka: Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó)
Date of birth: 20 October 1882 - Lugos, Austria-Hungary. [now Lugoj, Romania]
Date of death: 16 August 1956 - Los Angeles, California
2. Edward D. Wood Jr. (Director, Writer and Producer)
Date of birth: 10 October 1924 - Poughkeepsie, New York
Date of death: 10 December 1978 - North Hollywood, California
This collection of "The Bela Lugosi Box - 15 Frightful Films" (1942) --- still has the magic that we remember from those bygone years --- but as long as we have the labels and networks who play and show these wonderful films of yesteryear, they will never be forgotten ... Plus the half-hour tribute "100 Years of Horror: Bela Lugosi", hosted by Christopher Lee --- and a great job by Passport Video for this release --- looking forward to more of the same from the '20s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or Passport Video, stay tuned once again for more remarkable films from the vaults of classic television and Hollywood during the Golden Era of Entertaiment.
Total Time: 1034 mins on DVD ~ Passport Video #5260 ~ (9/05/2006)
Rating:  -
I was pleased to find that this budget-priced box set of 10 movies - plus a 12-part serial - is quite high quality all round, which is not always the case with these 10 or more movie offers, and I'm sure that both Lugosi fans and/or enthusiasts of Thirties and Forties films would be quite pleased and satisfied with this set. The selection of movies is an interesting cross-section of Bela Lugosi's career, attempting to show him in various roles other than the one he is most famous for, namely "Dracula". It was this 1931 film in which Lugosi so convincingly portrayed the character of Count Dracula with his expressive facial gestures and, above all, his unmistakable Hungarian accent, which catapulted him to fame and led the way to many similar stereotyped roles for the next two decades. Once the public had associated Lugosi with the evil character who speaks with a strange accent, it was difficult for him to break out of this mould, and he ended up taking even small, supporting parts in a variety of movies; some of which are presented in this set. Perhaps his most popular films are still the low-budget horror movies of the 30s and 40s in which he usually played a sinister character or mad professor who `vonts to rule ze verld', and of this group "The Devil Bat" (1941), "White Zombie" (1932) and "The Corpse Vanishes" (1942) are good representations, showing Lugosi as a mad doctor seeking revenge by creating a mutant killer bat, as an evil practiser of voodoo magic, and then again as a mad doctor who needs corpses of young women to keep his aging wife looking youthful. Although they may seem quite silly today, the stories are nevertheless good and interesting, and move at a good pace with an element of suspense and if not taken too seriously, simply good fun to watch.
The same can be said for all the other movies in this set, such as those of the mystery whodunit genre, both serious and humorous. "The Gorilla" is part comedy, part mystery-thriller, with Lugosi playing only a supporting role as the butler, and the fast pace and many twists and turns will leave you wondering right till the end whether the butler did it. In a more serious line, "Black Dragons" (1942) also keeps up the suspense as a group of men are consecutively killed with a Japanese dagger, and all of them are somehow linked to the mysterious house guest played by Lugosi. Of a somewhat higher standard are the two mystery thrillers "Human Monster" (1939) and "The Death Kiss" (1933), the former set in England where a series of murders is linked to a home for the blind and a certain suspicious Dr Orloff (guess who) who deals in insurance. Lugosi has only a small part in "The Death Kiss", which revolves around the murder of an actor on a film set, and while Lugosi is once again the most suspicious character, the twists and turns in this plot once again keep you guessing til the very end.
Just for a change, Lugosi plays a scheming, evil Chinaman with a Hungarian accent, and actually gets away with it in "Mysterious Mr Wong" (1935) while a nosy reporter tries to uncover the series of deaths in Chinatown and solve the mystery of the 12 gold coins of Confucius. Two of the newer movies, and also my least favourites in this set, are "Scared to Death" (1947) and "Boys from Brooklyn" (1952) both of which once again feature Lugosi only in supporting roles in another humorous and confusing whodunit in "Scared to Death" and finally as a mad professor once again in "Boys from Brooklyn" which actually stars two irritating Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin impersonators. But the piece de resistance in my opinion is the intriguing Sci-Fi serial "The Phantom Creeps" which is presented in 12 parts of 20-minute episodes. It has absolutely everything: Lugosi as the mad professor who `vonts to rule ze verld' with his discovery of a meteorite stone which is the source of his powers of invisibility and suspended animation; the most hideous-looking robot you've ever seen; the worst fake spiders you've ever seen (even worse than the mutant killer bats) and unbelievable car and plane crashes, evil spies, nosy reporters, secret agents and plenty of action every minute. All up, never a dull moment in this entire set, and while not classic or high standard material, it is nevertheless good, fun entertainment and certainly very good value for money.
Rating: -
the 10 movies in this collection show the decline of bela's star in hollywood. not 5 years from dracula, bela is working at quick little studio's for what ever money he could get(by this time drugs were taking over his life). most of the movies are 1 to 3 star movies,but in them all you can sometimes see a flash of the greatness bela could do when giving the chance, so for that this one gets 5 stars from me.
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