Bela Lugosi

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Filmed back to back with The Mysterious Mr Wong in 1934 Bela's next role was playing Doc Boehm in The Best Man Wins. Both films were released in January of 1935.

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Toby and Nick are best friends who love two things in this world one is deep sea diving and the other is an unfortunate love of the same woman Ann. Toby saves his friends life in an under water accident but unfortunately looses his arm for his heroics. With only one arm Toby finds it impossible to find work and in his desperation takes a job working for Doc Boehm on his ship collecting stolen jewels off the bottom of the ocean. In the meantime Toby's once best friend Nick is now working for the harbour police and soon their paths will cross again but this time on much less friendly terms.

The Best Man Wins has abit of everything adventure, crime, friendship ,loyalty, love and betrayal. Toby is a very likable character you really do feel for him he has lost so much his best friend the woman he loves his arm and to him any chance of happiness but despite this he still shows alot of fight and spirit. A prime example of this was a scene that made me laugh loud watching a one armed man beat a guy around the harbour with a hose

I highly recommend watching this if you have the chance great acting great characters and the underwater scenes are brilliantly shot for the time they didn't look fake to me at all. It's just a great film.

Lugosi does not have much screen time but when he does he is back to his best making an impact not just a passenger. It is a different role for him he's not playing a sinister scheming madman he's just a straight up leader of a smuggling operation with a passion for his fish and astrology the normal things in life

7/10

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The next time we would see Bela on screen would see him returning to horror staring in Mark Of The Vampire taking on the role of Count Mora.

Same vampire bat time
Same vampire bat channel



I'll get me cloak

Coming soon.

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A rich nobleman is found dead slumped over desk in his library. At first glance it looks like murder and there are many suspects but when two marks are found on his neck and his body has been drained of blood it's obvious to everyone that the old wives tales of vampires in the mountains may just be true. But is everything as it seems.

This is more murder mystery that horror it does have the characteristic of a horror film with the heavy fog dence forests and a creepy count and his daughter but this is all just background noise to distract you from what's really going on. I'll say no more.

Mark of the Vampire starts off great plenty of creepy atmosphere with the gypsies praying around the camp fire and people rushing home to be safe inside from the night. But sadly it takes a bit of a nose dive from there there is a serious lack of vampires just people describing seeing them rather than showing them. There is only a handful of times that we even see count mora and his daughter I think we see the bat more often. The sets are beautiful and really capture what I was hoping the film would be but I just found it boring and a real chore to watch. There are a few twists along the way which are interesting but the build up to these moments were so dragged out and non eventful. It's a shame really it had such a great start as I mentioned but couldn't capitalise.

As for Bela Lugosi I'm really confused why he would take this role it's a bit of an insult to the man in my opinion. He was getting some great roles and leading roles at that so ton take a step back like this is crazy. It has one line at the end of the film and once earlier he just says Ahhh and that's was it. Im sad to say this was terrible and as a fan it was hard to watch him in this film.

On the plus side a his next role would be amazing

4/10

Beautiful sets and I did enjoy the twists but it was still a slog.

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After playing Count Mora in Mark Of The Vampire Bela would take on the role of Dr Richard Vollin in an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poes The Raven alongside Boris Karloff.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I'd saved Mark of the Vampire to watch over Christmas just gone. I was expecting great things and was severely disappointed.

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Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I'd saved Mark of the Vampire to watch over Christmas just gone. I was expecting great things and was severely disappointed.

I was only talking to my mate about it in work and I was saying you know when you start a film and a few minutes in you can just tell this is gonna be a good one well Mark of the vampire is exactly like that. Then I watch the rest of it and I will never trust my own gut feeling again

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Felt this was an appropriate place to post this and just about another 100 Lugosi films to watch and review before i even get to Voodoo Man

Just about to watch The Raven review to follow.

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The daughter of the very influential Judge Thatcher has been in a very horrendous car crash and now she lays in hospital her life hanging from a thread. The surgeons have all but given up but the Judge refuses to accept and turns to the best surgeon around the now retired Dr. Vollin. Dr. Vollin has distanced himself from medical practises and has dedicated his life to the study of his life's obsession the works and life of Edgar Allen Poe. His obsession goes beyond just research he has gone the extra step and built all the instruments of torture that Poe speaks about in his works.

After some ego tickling from Judge Thatcher Dr. Vollin agrees to come out of retirement to operate on The Judges daughter Jean. After successful surgery and Jean is back to full health Dr. Vollin falls in love with her but the emotion is not fully returned and this rejection drives Dr. Vollin crazy so much so he threatens her father who is trying to keep them apart. But the Doctor is not taking no for an answer but to what extremes will he go to to get what he wants.

The Raven is hands down my favourite performance from Lugosi he steals every single scene even when he is along side such a heavy weight as Boris Karloff. Lugosi always plays the role of a mad man brilliantly but in The Raven he takes it further than ever before from start to finish he is larger than life and so over the top even down to when he is playing the organ like a man possessed by all the demons from the deepest darkest parts of hell His performance is so convincing that even the mention of the word torture gives him more pleasure than any man has ever experienced doing anything in his life the exthacy is just etched all across his face his eyes his entire body.

Watching him here doesnt make you feel like your watching Bela Lugosi playing a mad man but you are watching Bela Lugosi becoming a madman he is exercising all the demons he has inside him every failed audition every disappointment from every time he was forced to play minor roles knowing he was even better than the leading man everytime he was cast aside and shunned it all comes out here and he is loving every second of it. Not only was he taking revenge on the father of his new love but he was taking revenge on Hollywood. Dracula may have introduced him but its The Raven he should be remember for.

Clocking in at just under the hour the time flies by and it only feels like your 20 minutes in and the end credits start to roll leaving you wanting more . All the main cast are great apart from two of the couple at the party were pretty annoying but its that sort of comic relief popular at the time. It would be disrespectful to not mention how great Karloff is here too he is so tortured and sad it feels like he is exercising his own demons with his performance especially when Lugosi reveals his face after the surgery. While he is removing the bandages from his face you can feel his joy his excitement the anticipation that people will no longer look at him for his ugliness but as an actual person with feeling but then the realisation that he has been turned into a monster and he is destroyed shattered and humiliated its a very moving scene and you almost forget for a second that this is a sick individual which was only explained moments before when he burned off a mans face when he was trying to rob a bank and that is all down to such a strong performance from Karloff making you feel for a sick criminal.

Great to see Lugosi and Karloff together complimenting each other brilliantly. Two different performances but bothas emotionally charges as the others.
9/10

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Bela would return to the role of Chandu in his next film. This would be his third and final appearance in a Chandu film after playing the lead as Chandu in only two of the three films the first of which he played a different character altogether.