Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff's Unholy 13 (Reprise)

BELA LUGOSI'S TOP 13

I originally posted this a couple of years ago, but I thought it would be worth another visit, particularly if you want to find a film worthy of your time on Halloween. What follows is a list of the essential entries in Bela Lugosi's five-decade-long filmography.

A few years ago a friend of mine saw Rowland V. Lee's SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) for the first time at The Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. At the end of the film his first comment was, “Why does everybody say Bela Lugosi was such a bad actor? He’s great in this! He steals the whole movie—and that’s not easy when you’re sparring with Lionel Atwill, Boris Rathbone, and Boris Karloff!” He then asked me to recommend other Lugosi films, so I took the opportunity to compile my personal “Top 13 Lugosi” list. Your forthcoming Halloween viewing experience can be vastly improved by the addition of any one of the following films from the Golden Age of Hollywood....


  














 



 





BORIS KARLOFF'S TOP 13

Of course, it's only appropriate that we give equal time to Lugosi's most frequent collaborator and rival, Boris Karloff. What follows is my personal "Top 13 Karloff" list. Each of these films (some acknowledged classics, others relatively obscure) represents a high watermark in the history of cinematic horror....

THE BLACK CAT (Edgar Ulmer, 1934)


FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1931)


BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (James Whale, 1935)


THE MUMMY (Karl Freund, 1932)


THE BODY SNATCHER (Robert Wise, 1945)


BEDLAM (Mark Robson, 1946)


CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (Robert Day, 1958)


THE WALKING DEAD (Michael Curtiz, 1936)


THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (Charles Brabin, 1932)


THE BLACK ROOM (Roy William Neill, 1935)


ISLE OF THE DEAD (Mark Robson, 1945)


BLACK SABBATH (Mario Bava, 1963)

 
TARGETS (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)


No comments:

Post a Comment