This 5-disc set, another in Brentwood’s line of public domain Legends Of Hollywood collection, brings us an assortment of (mostly) horror films from both Boris and Bela: and the ones that aren’t low-budget were probably made with no budgets at all… which means fun for the whole family!

Disc One, Side A
Scared To Death (1947) - Directed by Christy Cabanne - Bela’s only color film. A woman’s corpse narrates this tale (yes, you read that right - sixty years before Desperate Housewives!) of revenge and murder. Unfortunately, it takes a small eternity for anything to actually happen. George Zucco, Nat Pendleton, Angelo Rossitto, and Douglas Fowley co-star.

The Ape Man (1943) - Directed by William Beaudine - If you want to see how hard a guy can hit rock-bottom, here’s a wonderful example. Not even the epic scene of him wrestling a big rubber octopus in Ed Wood’s Bride Of The Monster is as humiliating as the sight of Bela roaming the streets of Monogram Studios looking like a reject from a Planet Of The Apes-themed disco (complete with Emil Van Horn in tow… dressed in his faithful ape costume). Also starring Wallace Ford, Louise Currie, Henry Hall, and Minerva Urecal (the latter two appear to be zombies most of the time).

White Zombie (1932) - Directed by Victor Halperin - Apart from Dracula, this is probably one of Lugosi’s most appreciated roles and his image as Murder Legendre has been used countless times and inspired many an artist or musician. It’s also a great zombie film (before George A. Romero came along and turned them into flesh-eaters).

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934) - Directed by William Nigh - As if seeing British-born Karloff playing an Asian in his unrelated Mr. Wong series wasn’t amusing enough, listening to Bela’s heavy Hungarian accent as he’s dressed like a Chinese villain is sure to draw up some highly inappropriate laughter. Wallace Ford (in his thinner days) again plays the good guy. Surprisingly (assuming you can get past the whole white-guy-playing-an-Asian thing - which wasn’t out of the ordinary at this point in time, folks), The Mysterious Mr. Wong delivers.

Disc One, Side B
The Ape (1940) - Directed by William Nigh - In a plot that would later be kinda-sorta recycled and turned in to The Ape Man (1943), Boris Karloff plays a kindly old doctor whose obsession with curing a little girl’s polio leads to a killing spree (in an ape costume nonetheless). Curt Siodmak co-wrote the screenplay.

Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) - Directed by John Rawlins - A superb B-Picture from RKO Pictures (and the last Dick Tracy feature to hit the big-screen before Warren Beatty’s 1990 flop). Ralph Byrd returns as America’s favorite comic strip detective and goes head-to-ugly-head with Gruesome (Karloff), a dastardly criminal who uses a nerve gas to puts his victims into a temporary state of suspended animation (ideal for robbing banks). Tracy regular Lyle Latell co-stars along with Anne Gwynne, Milton Parsons, Skelton Knaggs and future television writer Tony Barrett.

The Terror (1963) - Directed by Roger Corman - Jack Nicholson once said that this was the only film he ever made that didn’t have a plot: watch it and see for yourself. Roger Corman figured it would be such a huge waste to let his sets and actors (Boris Karloff, Nicholson, Sandra Knight, etc.) stand around after finished The Raven (1963), so he decided to do something with them. The end result is just that: something. Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, and Jack Nicholson each did their own bit of directing.

The Devil Bat (1940) - Directed by Jean Yarbrough - One of my favorite Lugosi films. Dr. Carruthers, a jaded (and mad) scientist, has developed a new aftershave lotion. He also has developed one big-ass devil of a bat that goes straight for the neck of anyone wearing the lotion. Dave O’Brien plays the reporter trying to figure the whole mystery out. This proved to be a big hit for poverty row studio PRC and they followed the film with an uncredited remake (The Flying Serpent) and an unrelated sequel, (Devil Bat’s Daughter). The sheriff in this film actually coins the now-famous expression “disgruntled” in a theory that a factory employee may be committing the murders.

Disc Two, Side A
Black Dragons (1942) - Directed by William Nigh - A group of anti-American industrialists are systematically murdered off by Monsieur Colomb (Lugosi) and the Lone Ranger himself, Clayton Moore, is hot on his trail! As it turns out, Colomb is really a Nazi plastic surgeon that was employed by the Japanese to transform six Axis Agents into Americans (we also learn that Bela was imprisoned after finishing his work and performed plastic surgery on himself in a cell with no anesthetic and three instruments!).

Disc Two, Side B
The Human Monster (1939) - Directed by Walter Summers - A British import based on Edgar Wallace and starring Bela Lugosi as an on-call doctor ho helps out some poor blind men. He also routinely kills people (with the help of a huge, lumbering blind guy) as part of an insurance scam. Somehow, Monogram Pictures managed to pick up and distribute this nicely-made flick (I first saw it on late-night TV as a kid and it stuck with me sense - in particular Lugosi’s final scene). Remade as The Dead Eyes Of London.

Disc Three, Side A
The Death Kiss (1932) - Directed by Edwin L. Marin - Not a horror film, but rather a murder mystery. When a big-name Hollywood actor is shot and killed during the final day of shooting for the film The Death Kiss, police arrest his ex-wife - one of many women the late star was romantically involved with. A screenwriter played by Dracula co-star David Manners (the Ben Affleck of his day - he gets top-billing in this one) and studio manager Lugosi decide to do a little detecting of their own. Another Dracula star, Edward Van Sloan plays a director and Vince Barnett provides comic relief as a security guard. True to real-life Hollywood investigations, the police are total idiots.

Disc Three, Side B
Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) - Directed by William Beaudine - Oh, the humanity… Imagine (if you dare) what might have happened if Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had made a really bad wacky swingin’ musical comedy (like all Martin & Lewis films) with Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist. Some sources report Ray “Crash” Corrigan as portraying the gorilla (he did twelve years earlier in The Ape (1940) with Karloff), while others state Steve Calvert played the part (who knows, maybe they both played gorillas!). Another low-budget wonder from William “One Shot” Beaudine shot in just over a week.

Disc Four, Side A
The Snake People (1971) - Directed by Juan Ibáñez, Jack Hill - If you thought Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla was an atrocity, wait until you see this! Jack Hill, the director of immortal favorites such as Spider Baby and Switchblade Sisters, filmed enough scenes of Karloff in California to insert into Se or Ib ez’ footage from Mexico (it was one of four films the pair of directors worked together on). Like his horror movie counterpart’s famous post-mortem performance in Plan 9 From Outer Space, Boris is replaced by a double (who wears a mask and has a completely different voice) in some scenes.

Disc Four, Side B
The Invisible Ghost (1941) - Directed by Joseph H. Lewis - I’ve never quite figured this one out. For starters: an invisible ghost? What a stupid title! Anyway, Bela’s onscreen wife was left mentally damaged in a car accident. Rather than upsetting the old man, the house servants opted to hide her in the garden shed (!). Every now and then, she sneaks out of the shed and looks at Bela through the window… which prompts him to murder women. Ten points to anyone who can figure out what the hell is going on half of the time in this confusing mess from Monogram. The wonderful Fred Kelsey plays a detective and black actor Clarence Muse gets a rare (for 1941) serious part as a butler (well done, Monogram).

Disc Five, Side A
The Gorilla (1939) - Directed by Allan Dwan - One of several film adaptations of a stage play by Ralph Spence, only this time starring The Ritz Brothers as low-rent detectives called in to investigate the multiple death threats received by the extremely wealthy Walter Stevens (Lionel Atwill, who appeared alongside of Boris and Bela in Son Of Frankenstein the same year). Zany comedienne Patsy Kelly plays the maid.

Disc Five, Side B
The Corpse Vanishes (1942) - Directed by Wallace Fox - Well, it showed up in the First Season of Mystery Science Theater 3000… what else would you like to know? Bela again stars as a mad scientist - this time he’s kidnapping virgin brides (back when there was such a thing) on their wedding days with the assistance of Minerva Urecal (in one of three films that she was paired with Lugosi) and her two boys: giant brute Frank Moran (in one of three films that he was paired with Lugosi!) and impish dwarf Angelo Rossitto (in one of three films that he also was paired with Lugosi!!). The great Tristram Coffin also stars.

Presentation
Well, once again, it looks like Brentwood (ahem) “borrowed” their transfers from other sources: most of these films are pretty public domain-looking (for lack of a better expression) with the exception of The Human Monster (under it’s original British title, The Dark Eyes Of London) and The Ape (1940). I imagine that these two titles were taken from the Roan Group editions. I noticed that the opening credits for The Gorilla (1939) have been re-assembled from frames as opposed to the old dissolves like the VHS cassette I owned all those years ago.

I’m guessing a lot of these discs were released individually (or as part of another set) at one point in time as some have BCI logos following the FBI warning while others have Brentwood logos (both new and old ones at that). Some discs (2, 3, and 5) offer a choice between 2.0 or phony 5.1 Surround tracks (neither sound all that hot). No subtitles are provided on any disc.

Extras
In an attempt to both confuse and annoy perfectionists, Disc 2 contains Chapters 5 & 6 of the Universal/Bela Lugosi Serial The Phantom Creeps (one chapter on either side), Side A of Disc 3 features Chapters 9 & 10 and Side B of Disc 3: Chapters 11 & 12. Then, when you get to Side A of Disc 5, you find Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 on Side B (nothing like consistency). Neither print on any of these Extras (which aren’t mentioned on the cover) is anything to write home about.

The Bottom Line
Lugosi: 12 (plus 8 shorts)
Monogram: 7
Karloff: 4
Atwill: 1
Zucco: 1
Spelling Errors on Cover Art: 1 (The Nake People!)