Cult film fans, here is "Black Dragons," the Bela Lugosi-starring Monogram film released mere months after Pearl Harbor in 1942. Poverty-row studios were quick to capitalize on the new World War, and Lugosi's tale of a Nazi plastic surgeon gaining revenge on Japanese members of the Black Dragons turned into U.S. industrialists determined to destroy Uncle Sam's economy was as endearingly patriotic, and wacky, as the dependable Monogram cheapie.
We love these films though. They are entertaining madness, always featuring a magnificent performance by Bela Lugosi, even when surrounded by pedestrian direction and acting, and writing that seems to have been written in one night, and then constantly changed every 15 minutes. Here's a link to a review I wrote of Black Dragons on the blog. There's a link to the film.
A snippet of the review: The plot
is delightfully bizarre. Lugosi not only conducts plastic surgery on the
Japanese agents, he lightens their skin and provides them accents, as well as
hair and body shapes. All the industrialists who are now having doubles were
killed off sans anyone knowing, even their families! Once Lugosi's character is
tossed into a Japanese cell, which appears to be all stone, he somehow is able
to conduct perfect plastic surgery -- from his bag -- on another prisoner!
Back to the blog. Myself and my friend David Grudt have been going through separate clipping services, trying to create time capsule looks at classic cult films, how they were promoted through newspapers of the times, the smaller the towns and cities the better. We found a surprising amount of clips regarding Black Dragons; perhaps that is due to its World War II storyline. Enjoy these clips, whether ads, mentions or reviews. When there is not a date or newspaper attached to the graphic, we'll provide the information.
And do yourself a favor -- watch Black Dragons. It's a lot of semi-coherent fun. Get you magnifying glass for the Jimmie Fidler in Hollywood column. Black Dragons is mentioned 7 lines before the end of the second paragraph in column two. Below that we were thrilled to find an actual review in the Alabama paper, although it's probably from the movie's press packet.
In the below Movieland, Its People and Products column hed, in the March 17, 1942 Appleton, Wisc., Post Crescent, the next graphic, part of the column, mentions "Black Dragons."
AND HERE ARE A COUPLE MORE REVIEWS, we were thrilled to find them published, from Detroit and Cumberland, Md. Detroit is a little tough to read.
Finally, one more ad we culled, from the aforementioned Appleton, Wisc. Post Crescent, June 5, 1942.
Plan 9 Crunch is pleased to have a conversation with film scholar Frank J. Dello Stritto, author of many genre articles and three books: "A Quaint and Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore" (a collection of his fine articles), "I Saw What I Saw When I Saw It" (his memoir of life as a "monster boomer) and the recently published a second edition of "Vampire Over London: Bela Lugosi in Britain," that he co-wrote with Andi Brooks, who runs the best Bela Lugosi blog.
Dello Stritto's work is priceless to the cult film lover. "Vampire Over London" (our review of the book is our second most popular post) places Dello Stritto and Brooks with Gary Don Rhodes, Robert Cremer and Arthur Lennig as the Lugosi biographers one must read.
A while back, Plan9Crunch interviewed another fine genre scholar, Tom Weaver, about his book, "Poverty Row Horrors." Read it here. After we published it, I thought of interviewing Frank on the low-budget film career of Lugosi, who, it is perfectly just and fair to say, outlasts any other early horror star in prominence in the low-budget chillers of that era. Frank graciously agreed to the interview. We hope you enjoy it; we sure did. By the way, you can buy the three books mentioned above at Cult Movies Press.
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1) Was Bela Lugosi (a) initially an A-actor
who descended to Poverty Row roles as his career continued.
or, (b) a Poverty Row actor who through his career
occasionally enjoyed roles in A productions.
Dello Stritto: Definitely
(A). Bela Lugosi gave outstanding performances when given half a chance. The
few A-films in which he had sizeable roles are all enhanced by his presence. He
was trapped by his stereotype and by his accent.
But he was a great presence in Poverty
Row films, probably the greatest of the Poverty Row stars.
2) What was Bela Lugosi's top performance in
a Poverty Row movie role in the 1930s and why?
Dello Stritto: “Poverty
Row” did not really come into its own until the 1940s. In the 1930s, the films
are “the low-budget independents,” e.g., those films not associated with a
major studio (like Universal) or producer (like Samuel Goldwyn). Lugosi’s best among
these has to be White Zombie. While
it has the shortcomings of most such movies — mainly bad acting by supporting
players — it sticks to a simple story and plays almost as a fairy tale. Lugosi’s
role, the sorcerer/zombie master, is one that he could play like no other. The
weakness of a lot of Poverty Row films is that they are so hurried. Though White Zombie was filmed on a tight schedule,
effort was made to bring in some very effective cinematic touches. The editing
is surprisingly good. That was all the help Lugosi needed to give one of his
most memorable performances.
3) Why did Bela Lugosi find it so hard to
find movie roles in low-budget films in 1937-38, during the British ban on
horror, while in contrast his rival Boris Karloff thrived at Monogram and
Columbia?
Dello Stritto: Boris
Karloff was a more versatile actor, a better handler of his career, and was
acting in his native language. And his most famous horror roles had been
beneath layers of make-up, while Lugosi’s face was the face of Hollywood
horror. His voice was the voice of Dracula. When horror went out of fashion,
Lugosi went with it. If he had landed a solid role in a good, non-horror movie,
he might have broken horror’s hold on him, but that never happened. No producer
wanted to take the chance.
4) What is your personal favorite of
Lugosi's Monogram films, and your least favorite, and why?
Dello Stritto: That’s a
tough one. When I was a kid, I liked them all, but in truth there is not a
really good movie among them. Lugosi’s roles in the Monograms fall in two
categories: those where he is purely a cardboard villain, and where his
character has more depth than the film cares to deal with. He is on his own in
them, and sometimes overcomes the mediocrity of the rest of the movie. My
narrow winner is Black Dragons.
Lugosi plays a plastic surgeon, betrayed by his Japanese clients and seeking
revenge. The movie has its absurdities, but Lugosi does rather well as a
basically lonely man working through his obsession before the law gets him.
Bowery
at Midnight, Voodoo Man (both
which give Lugosi’s character more potential than the movie can ever realize)
and Return of the Ape Man (not much
depth there, Lugosi is evil through and through) are close second. Except for
the two East Side Kids movies, the other Monograms are closely packed in third.Lugosi’s two East Side Kids are distant
last place holders. Neither makes good use of him.
5) Is The Devil Bat, from PRC, superior to the Monogram films, and why?
Dello Stritto: It is
certainly better than most of the Monograms, and may well stand above all of
them. The touches of humor that often simply don’t work in the Monograms, work
well enough in The Devil Bat. Lugosi’s
part suits him quite well. Dr. Carruthers is a bitter loner, secretly plotting
revenge on those who, in his mind, have crossed him. Lugosi has a lot of scenes
alone in his laboratory, and his over-the-top acting works well in that
setting. The contrast between the hateful man in the laboratory and the charmer
when he meets his victims is perhaps over-done, but it is well-done. Lugosi was
great at overacting, which sometimes fits in Poverty Row better than in
mainstream films.
6) How did RKO, where Bela had a three-film
deal, square in the 40s movie world? A productions, Bs, or somewhere in
between?
Dello Stritto: RKO may be
my favorite Hollywood studio. It is different from the other majors. It was not
founded and run for decades by a mogul. It was cobbled together by bankers (one
of them Joseph Kennedy) in the early 1930s, and handed off from one production
head to another (such as David O. Selznick and Merian C. Cooper). So, it was
often saw hard times, and wound up owned by Howard Hughes. But 1940s RKO turned
out Citizen Kane and Orson Welles’s
early films, and Val Lewton’s nine horror films. It was in the vanguard of film noir, and was the distributor of
choice for major independent producers Goldwyn and Selznick. Cary Grant,
perhaps the most important star not under contract to one studio, did some of
his best 1940s work at RKO. So, RKO may have struggled to stay among the
majors, but its output includes as many enduring films as any of its
competitors.
In the mid-1940s, Lugosi made three
films at RKO: The Body Snatchers, Zombies on Broadway, and Genius at Work. The Body Snatchers is by far the best of them, but Lugosi has a
minor role, as he does in Genius at Work.
I have great affection for Zombies on
Broadway. I loved it as a kid, and my sons when they were eight or so loved
it, too. As light entertainment, which is all it tries to be, it dates quite
well.
7) Of Lugosi's four films, Mother Riley
Meets the Vampire, Bela Lugosi Meets
a Brooklyn Gorilla, Glen Or Glenda, and Bride of the Monster, where he was mentioned as a star, which is
his best performance?
Dello Stritto: The best of
performance among them is Dr. Varnoff in Brideof the Monster. It is a true “Lugosi film” built around his character and
persona. Again, and for the last time, he is an angry outcast working his mad
schemes in secret. The movie has all the incompetence of most Ed Wood films,
but Lugosi does quite well with his part. And he has the famous scene where
Varnoff bemoans his mistreatment by the world on which he plans vengeance.
Glen
or Glenda needs a separate interview. As filmmaking, it is a disaster. But
it is such a personal film (by Ed Wood) that I have to give it a nod. It is like a dream — its parts don’t quite fit
together, characters come and go, wild images bubble up from nowhere. Lugosi as
whatever he is supposed to be, is quite fine in it.
Mother
Riley Meets the Vampire and Bela
Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla are intentionally silly movies. As he
always did, Lugosi tries his best. You can either enjoy the nonsense, or just
turn them off. I have done both.
Black Dragons is probably Bela Lugosi's oddest C-movie cheapie, and let's face it, the competition is fierce. But, oh, how I love these old '40s gems. It's a Monogram film, made under its Banner Productions. I'm sure it played in LA and NYC street theaters and smaller cities and towns, perhaps paired with an East Side Kids flick?
But I digress: Black Dragons, 1942, directed by William Nigh, runs 69 B and W minutes and stars Lugosi as Dr. Melcher and Monsieur Colomb. He's a sinister guy who pops up just as a bunch of American industrialists are getting mysteriously bumped off. There is also pretty Joan Barclay as the niece of a Dr. Saunders (Robert Frazer), who is all mixed up in whatever is going on. It's also fun to see future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore as an FBI agent.
Now, we have mysterious deaths, we have Lugosi. It's all set to be a horror, right ... ahem, no. This is 1942, the U.S. is at war with the Axis, and Monogram head honcho Sam Katzman saw money to be made by creating a combination thriller/WW2 propaganda anti-Japanese film. So that's what Black Dragons is, and it makes the film an interesting historical curio piece. One has to appreciate Katzman's ability to mix patriotism with a quick buck! He had this film in the can and ready for theaters by late spring 1942. The film ends with a banner headline, "Jap spy ring smashed!" and a fade out of Old Glory, the American flag.
You see, these U.S. industrialists are Japanese spies, created through plastic surgery to look like the American industrialists. Lugosi was the Nazi surgeon who did all this in Japan ... and then was doublecrossed and thrown in prison. Somehow -- the film sort of glosses over this -- Lugosi escaped Japan and headed to the U.S. to get his revenge on the spies. The plot is delightfully bizarre. Lugosi not only conducts plastic surgery on the Japanese agents, he lightens their skin and provides them accents, as well as hair and body shapes. All the industrialists who are now having doubles were killed off sans anyone knowing, even their families! Once Lugosi's character is tossed into a Japanese cell, which appears to be all stone, he somehow is able to conduct perfect plastic surgery -- from his bag -- on another prisoner!
As I mentioned, I love these time-capsule films. Monogram was famous for its bizarre intricate plots that its ultra-low budgets just could never keep up with. They dissolve into fun nonsensical action. Lugosi is Lugosi in this film. He's wonderful, whether he's coyly flirting with starlet Barclay or cleverly and calmly dispatching his victims. And there's also that wonderful, ubiquitous menacing, Monogram music. As Lugosi biographer Arthur Lennig notes, this was the last film in which Lugosi (in his early 60s) was considered attractive to a young lovely. Barclay does flirt rather unabashedly with Bela. Also, Robert Frazer, who co-starred with Lugosi in the classic "White Zombie," is in this film.
The boom of video and DVD plus public domain has made Black Dragons, once rather obscure, easy to find. It's often in the $1 DVD bin at Wal-Mart or in the 20- to 50-set public domain offerings. Those with broadband Internet can watch it free on the Net. Buy it and enjoy an hour-plus diversion into a different filmmaking existence. I love the opening sequence, where fat, bloated and old Washington pols, lobbyists and businessmen are partying with lots of liquor, cigars and blonde babes. Some things never change.
Editor's note: I watched Black Dragons last Saturday for likely the seventh or eighth time and loved it so much, as always, that I resolved to write a review. I went to Plan9Crunch and, lo and behold, learned I penned a review three-plus years ago. OK, so many reviews; hard for this 50-year-old brain to recall them all. So, I will re-post it but reserve the right to add more observations, which I have (in black). -- Doug Gibson
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Black Dragons is probably Bela Lugosi's oddest C-movie cheapie, and let's face it, the competition is fierce. But, oh, how I love these old '40s gems. It's a Monogram film, made under its Banner Productions. I'm sure it played in LA and NYC street theaters and smaller cities and towns, perhaps paired with an East Side Kids flick?
But I digress: Black Dragons, 1942, directed by William Nigh, runs 69 B&W minutes and stars Lugosi as Dr. Melcher and Monsieur Colomb. He's a sinister guy who pops up just as a bunch of American industrialists are getting mysteriously bumped off. There is also pretty Joan Barclay as the niece of a Dr. Saunders (Robert Frazer), who is all mixed up in whatever is going on. It's also fun to see future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore as an FBI agent.
Now, we have mysterious deaths, we have Lugosi. It's all set to be a horror, right ... ahem, no. This is 1942, the U.S. is at war with the Axis, and Monogram head honcho Sam Katzman saw money to be made by creating a combination thriller/WW2 propaganda anti-Japanese film. So that's what Black Dragons is, and it makes the film an interesting historical curio piece. One has to appreciate Katzman's ability to mix patriotism with a quick buck! He had this film in the can and ready for theaters by late spring 1942. The film ends with a banner headline, "Jap spy ring smashed!" and a fade out of Old Glory, the American flag.
You see, these U.S. industrialists are Japanese spies, created through plastic surgery to look like the American industrialists. Lugosi was the Nazi surgeon who did all this in Japan ... and then was doublecrossed and thrown in prison. Somehow -- the film sort of glosses over this -- Lugosi escaped Japan and headed to the U.S. to get his revenge on the spies. The plot is delightfully bizarre. Lugosi not only conducts plastic surgery on the Japanese agents, he lightens their skin and provides them accents, as well as hair and body shapes. All the industrialists who are now having doubles were killed off sans anyone knowing, even their families! Once Lugosi's character is tossed into a Japanese cell, which appears to be all stone, he somehow is able to conduct perfect plastic surgery -- from his bag -- on another prisoner!
As I mentioned, I love these time-capsule films. Monogram was famous for its bizarre intricate plots that its ultra-low budgets just could never keep up with. They dissolve into fun nonsensical action. Lugosi is Lugosi in this film. He's wonderful, whether he's coyly flirting with starlet Barclay or cleverly and calmly dispatching his victims. And there's also that wonderful, ubiquitous menacing, Monogram music. As Lugosi biographer Arthur Lennig notes, this was the last film in which Lugosi (in his early 60s) was considered attractive to a young lovely. Barclay does flirt rather unabashedly with Bela. Also, Robert Frazer, who co-starred with Lugosi in the classic "White Zombie," is in this film.
The boom of video and DVD plus public domain has made Black Dragons, once rather obscure, easy to find. It's often in the $1 DVD bin at Wal-Mart or in the 20- to 50-set public domain offerings. Those with broadband Internet can watch it free on the Net. Buy it and enjoy an hour-plus diversion into a different filmmaking existence. I love the opening sequence, where fat, bloated and old Washington pols, lobbyists and businessmen are partying with lots of liquor, cigars and blonde babes. Some things never change.
Black Dragons is probably Bela Lugosi's oddest C-movie cheapie, and let's face it, the competition is fierce. But, oh, how I love these old '40s gems. It's a Monogram film, made under its Banner Productions. I'm sure it played in LA and NYC street theaters and smaller cities and towns, perhaps paired with an East Side Kids flick?
But I digress: Black Dragons, 1942, directed by William Nigh, runs 64 B&W minutes and stars Lugosi as Dr. Melcher and Monsieur Colomb. He's a sinister guy who pops up just as a bunch of American industrialists are getting mysteriouslybumped off. There is also pretty Joan Barclay as the niece of a Dr. Saunders, who is all mixed up in whatever is going on. It's also fun to see future Lone Ranger Clayton Moore as an FBI agent.
Now, we have mysterious deaths, we have Lugosi. It's all set to be a horror, right ... ahem, no. This is 1942, the U.S. is at war with the Axis, and Monogram head honcho Sam Katzman saw money to be made by creating a combination thriller/WW2 propaganda anti-Japanese film. So that's what Black Dragons is, and it makes the film an interesting historical curio piece.
You see, these U.S. industrialists are Japanese spies, created through plastic surgery to look like the American industrialists. Lugosi was the Nazi-like surgeon who did all this in Japan ... and then was doublecrossed and thrown in prison. Somehow -- the film sort of glosses over this -- Lugosi escaped Japan and headed to the U.S. to get his revenge on the spies.
As I mentioned, I love these time-capsule films. Monogram was famous for its bizarre intricate plots that its ultra-low budgets just could never keep up with. They dissolve into fun nonsensical action. Lugosi is Lugosi in this film. He's wonderful, whether he's coyly flirting with starlet Barclay or cleverly and calmly dispatching his victims. And there's also that wonderful, ubiquitous menacing, Monogram music.
The boom of video and DVD plus public domain has made Black Dragons easy to find. It's often in the $1 DVD bin at Wal-Mart or in the 20- to 50-set public domain offerings. Those with broadband Internet can watch it free on the Net. Buy it and enjoy an hour's diversion into a different filmmaking existence.
