Behind the Couch

As Count Dracula , Bela Lugosi was no stranger to guzzling the red stuff. The actor himself, however, was also something of a connoisseur when it came to the red stuff. No, the other red stuff. Although Count Dracula never drank 'wine', Bela Lugosi, the actor, had impeccable taste in wines. With the creation of the Bela Lugosi brand wines, the Lugosi family pays tribute to their patriarch, a man of distinction, while acknowledging the icon that will forever be - Dracula. Continuing the family’s enthusiasm for wine inspired by Bela Lugosi, Lugosi Wines will seek varietals sourced from superior wine-growing regions. Winemakers will create exceptional wines from distinct appellations to assemble a portfolio of the Bela Lugosi brand wines that will celebrate the best varietals from around the world. With each new release added to Lugosi Wines’ offerings, the Bela Lugosi collection will exemplify the distinct qualities of Bela Lugosi, the man, in a unique compilation of outstand...

As part of this week's Boris Karloff blogathon , we continue to take a look at the Uncanny One's work with distinguished producer Val Lewton. With work on Isle of the Dead coming to halt only days into the shoot due to Karloff needing to have a spinal operation, Lewton began working on his next film – The Body Snatcher . In early 1944, the ‘period thriller’ began to gain popularity again. Titles such as Gaslight and The Lodger had proved immensely popular with wartime audiences who relished the opportunity to step back in time to find their chills and thrills. After the 1930s cycle of horror films, Lewton had helped ‘Americanise’ and modernise horror with the contemporary Cat People , and many other filmmakers had followed suit; however it soon came to pass that period films were hot again, and Lewton, not content to just remix past glories, was eager to try and make his own mark on the period horror film. Lewton thought it appropriate to return to the world of literatu...

1940 Dir. Jean Yarbrough Dr Paul Carruthers (Bela Lugosi) devises a plan to extract revenge on his employers, the owners of a cosmetics company, whom he believes have exploited and betrayed him, getting rich on a product he created. Concocting a new aftershave (!), he offers it to the sons of his employers and then releases an electrically enlarged bat, trained to hone in on the distinct aftershave (!!), and slaughter its wearer. The series of mysterious deaths sparks the interest of roving reporter Johnny Layton (David O’Brien) and photographer, One-Shot McGuire. The two set out to investigate the murders and put a stop to the diabolical mastermind orchestrating them, before they too become victims of the ‘death-diving’ giant bat. The Devil Bat was produced by PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation), one of the more modest production studios of Hollywood’s ‘Poverty Row.’ PRC produced mainly low budget B-movies, particularly horror films, westerns and melodramas. The film compris...

Dir. Tod Browning After my post yesterday about Bram Stoker and the fact that the whole of Dublin is reading Dracula this month , I found myself craving a peek at Universal’s classic adaptation of Stoker’s novel again. Featuring Bela Lugosi in his most iconic role, and some of the most memorable imagery from the whole Dracula mythos, courtesy of controlled direction from Tod Browning, Dracula is always a darkly bewitching film to indulge in. Opening with the spooky bit from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake , a highly dramatic and romanticised mood is instantly evoked. This adaptation opts to open with Renfield, not Jonathan Harker, travelling to Transylvania on business with the mysterious Count Dracula. Now seeming like rudimentary cliché, he stops off briefly at a local inn and is warned of the dastardly Count and his dubious ways. Quashing the local’s protests to turn back and ignoring their hushed whispers of ‘the Nosferatu’, he continues on his way and meets with a sinister carriage...

1934 Dir. Edgar G. Ulmer Fifteen years after he was made a prisoner-of-war by his general's betrayal, Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) has tracked down the old friend who betrayed him; crazed architect and Satanic priest Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). Poelzig's menacing Hungarian abode, built on the mass grave of 10,000 soldiers who died because of his treachery in WW1, is the place where the two wage a dark, psychological battle, with the lives and souls of stranded honey-mooning American couple Joan and Peter Allison (Jacqueline Wells and David Manners) as the wager. The Black Cat is a significant genre entry for many reasons, the most obvious being that it was the first film that featured both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi together. Despite the title however, The Black Cat does not resemble the titular tale by Edgar Allan Poe. Indeed the only relevance the title bears to the film itself is that Lugosi’s character suffers from Ailurophobia (fear of cats). While a ...

1942 Dir. Wallace Fox The Corpse Vanishes  was one of many B-movies to star Bela Lugosi in the 1940’s, a particularly prolific period for the actor. The story follows reporter Patricia Hunter (Luana Walters) as she tries to discover who is murdering brides on their wedding day. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Lugosi is the culprit: stealing the bodies of young brides to extract vital glandular fluids from them to keep his ailing wife (Elizabeth Russell) youthful. Lugosi is aided in his diabolical quest by the freakish sons of his housekeeper: a sadistic dwarf and a dim-witted giant. The film begs no pardons for its exploitative subject matter – it relishes in the sensationalism and its shock value goes for the jugular every chance it gets. ‘Its sensational! Another kidnapping of a dead bride – what a story!’ scream the newspaper headlines that spin across the screen, imposed over shots of a busy printing press. After the bizarre opening shots of Lugosi in...