Lugosi really shinned
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — General Discussion
LunaRaven — 21 years ago(December 23, 2004 05:16 AM)
I saw this movie on TCM late one night and I absolutely adored it. I had loved Bela Lugosi from just seeing him as Vlad Dracula but this movie really caused his skills as an actor to shine.
Not only that but I really did love the plot and overall story-line.
Lugosi went beyond his Vampiric ways and became a wonderfully detailed character. I'd give this a 8/10
"He who fears death dies every time he thinks of it."
STANISLAS I -
mad19571 — 21 years ago(January 12, 2005 04:33 PM)
You are both SOOOO right about Bela in this film. Getting to be the good guy alone makes this performance special, but he also allows us to see all of the facets of his character. A man who has been warped by pain and betrayel in his life and, as the movie begins has worse things to experience in front of him.
The vengence he enacts on Karloff's character is as creepy and gut wrenching as anything that goes on in todays horror films, maybe even more so since we don't actually see it.
This gives us one of the best examples of what kind of actor he must have been on stage in Hungary, and just adds to the tragedy of how Hollywood can throw away good talent.
For those of you who haven't seen it don't miss Martin Landau's loving tribute of a performance as Bela in "Ed Wood".
P.S. The past tense of shine is shone. The way you have spelled it makes me think of "The Simpson's" Halloween segment "The Shinning". Oh well, new words come along in the language all the time. -
tayandbay — 21 years ago(February 27, 2005 02:45 PM)
As I have written previously, Lugosi certainly outclassed Karloff (no mean feat) in this film and in all of the Universal films they made together, possibly excepting "The Invisible Ray" and "Black Friday". Even in those films he played atypical roles that induced a degree of sympathy in audiences. I would challenge anyone who holds the erroneous opinion that Lugosi's talent was questionableHELL NO!! Lugosi was a gifted man who fell victim to his own personal vanity, a botched medical treatment that led to opiate addiction, the Hollywood Star system (which creates and then discards talented players then and now), and his refusal/inability to master the English language. Having first seen Lugosi's work on late-night TV some 35 years ago, I still indulge myself watching him in everything from "The 13th Chair" ( a pre-"Dracula" Tod Browning mystery), to "White Zombie" ( a certifiable classic), to his 1930's serials (like "The Phantom Creeps"), to his Monogram period ("Bowery at Midnight" is actually pretty good!), to his last artistic gasp with Ed Wood. Bela Lugosi had the dramatic muse, and entertained me and countless others, in his day, and continues to do so nearly 50 years after his demise.
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FranLovesBetteD — 10 years ago(October 29, 2015 06:39 AM)
Bela was so underrated I re-watched this masterpice last night and, once more, his performance totally captivated me. He was certainly larger than life.
Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop -
scott-h-moore — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 04:23 PM)
I preferred Karloff in this film. For me, Lugosi's performance was rather wooden. His speaking in English was actually fairly good and, of course, he was the only one who pronounced the Hungarian properly - I assume he tried to teach the other actors now to pronounce the Hungarian names, with varied success. Karloff had a whole line Hungarian, when he asked his servant to fetch Alison, and did a reasonable job of pronouncing it.
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Woodyanders — 10 months ago(May 23, 2025 11:30 AM)
Love that Lugosi is playing a much more sympathetic and complicated character than usual in this film. His character was more than a little mad, but said insanity stemmed from the obvious PTSD that he suffered from due to his harrowing experiences as a prisoner of war.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything.
