Enjoy Bela Lugosi's poverty-row gem The Corpse Vanishes

 

By Steve Stones

The Corpse Vanishes is my favorite Bela Lugosi Monogram film. It is also the first Monogram film I ever remember seeing on TV as a child sometime in the late 1970s. The scene of police opening a coffin in the back of Lugosi’s car is priceless. The look on Lugosi’s face as they open the coffin is unintentionally hilarious.

Speaking of coffins, the film also stars Tristram Coffin as Dr. Foster. Coffin starred in many serials of the 1940s and 50s. Angelo Rossitto, star of Freaks and countless other Monogram cheapies, plays Lugosi’s midget assistant Toby. He is billed in the opening credits as simply Angelo. It’s interesting to note that Rossitto would go on to star in the Mel Gibson film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome some forty years later. He also starred in Al Adamson’s cult classic Dracula vs. Frankenstein.

Young brides are dying at the altar and Dr. Lorenz, played by Lugosi, is kidnapping their bodies for scientific experiments to rejuvenate his countess wife’s youth and beauty. She is played by Elizabeth Russell, best known in RKO's Cat People and Curse of the Cat People. Newspaper reporter Patricia Hunter, played by Luana Walters, discovers that all the kidnapped brides were wearing a rare wild orchid. Her investigation leads her to Dr. Lorenz, who raised the rare orchids. Apparently the smell of the orchid caused the brides to collapse at the altar.

On route to Dr. Lorenz’s home for an interview, Hunter meets Dr. Foster, who warns her of Lorenz’s eccentric and weird ways. Arriving at the Lorenz home, the Countess Lorenz expresses her unwelcoming nature to Hunter by slapping her in the face. Lorenz convinces Foster and Hunter to stay the night because of the pouring rain outside.

During the night, Hunter discovers a passage to an underground mausoleum and sees some of the kidnapped brides being held there. She also witnesses Lorenz and his wife sleeping in separate coffins. Lorenz explains to Hunter the next morning that sleeping in a coffin is much more comfortable than sleeping in a normal bed. Lorenz also suggests that Hunter was having a bad dream when she thought she witnessed seeing the kidnapped brides in the mausoleum.

Hunter decides to return to her newspaper headquarters and comes up with a plan to trap Lorenz in the act of kidnapping a bride by staging a fake wedding. The wedding day is set, and Lorenz does not fall for the trap, but instead kidnaps Hunter at the scene of the wedding. Foster and the local police catch up to Lorenz just as he is about to conduct an experiment on Hunter. The film ends with Hunter and Foster getting married. This time Lorenz cannot kidnap the bride.

It’s also interesting to note that Barney A. Sarecky was the associate producer of this film. Sarecky was one of the screenwriters for the Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s, starring Buster Crabbe as Flash.

Any fan of Bela Lugosi cannot afford to miss The Corpse Vanishes. All of Lugosi’s Monogram films are an absolute delight to watch. I particularly love this one because of the simple plot. Watch for the scene of Lugosi whipping his laboratory assistant named Angel. It’s a precursor to Lugosi’s famous scene of whipping Tor Johnson in Ed Wood’s classic The Bride of The Monster. Enjoy watching the film here.  Also, more photos from film and a newspaper ad.