(1941)
Dir - Albert S. Rogell
Overall: MEH
Universal's sub-par, unofficial version of Paramount's The Cat and the Canary remake from two years prior The Black Cat hits all of the well-worn "old dark house" gags to rather yawn-inducing effects. Baring the same title as the remarkably different and remarkably superior 1934 film which also stared Béla Lugosi, the only other thing that the two have in common is that neither of them have anything whatsoever to do with their Edgar Allan Poe-authored "source material". As far as what movies it does have something in common with, that would be every other film regularly produced at the time that was ridden with "stuffy, desperate people going after a rich relative's will" and whodunit cliches. The movie's lack of originality is one problem, the other is that the comedy elements around Hugh Herbert's character fall regularly flat. Why anyone thought it would be funny instead of annoying to watch him ruin furniture and antiques while saying that they will be worth more that way only several hundred times is anybody's guess. Lugosi is wasted as a red herring groundskeeper, but Basil Rathbone is ideally cast enough as a sleazy, back-stabbing husband at least.
(1942)
Dir - Erle C. Kenton
Overall: GOOD
The minor yet noticeable quality slip continues with The Ghost of Frankenstein, the fourth straight sequel and last before Universal would start adopting its much more ham-fisted, monster-mash policy. Boris Karloff retired from the role that made him famous, with the studio's new leading horror man Lon Chaney Jr. admirably stepping in. Béla Lugosi is once again in top form as the fiendish cripple Ygor, who miraculously survived the previous Son of Frankenstein with no explanation bothered to be given. The script in general is honestly pretty lazy, recycling the last film with yet ANOTHER brilliant doctor who is yet ANOTHER offspring of the initial monster-making Frankenstein. I guess these guys never decide to to into anthropology or something and they just never bothered to mention him before. Though the movie suffers a bit from its re-trotted plot, (a plot that has a number of holes present for the audience to forgive), it is still a classy presentation with sincere performances all around. B-director Erle C. Kenton, (who would go on to do House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula), is hardly an auteur, but he does deliver a tightly-paced final product that manages to go through the motions in an entertaining enough way to be memorable.
(1944)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: MEH
The penultimate film that Béla Lugosi made for Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures, Voodoo Man is about what one would expect. Lugosi is a man who practices voodoo. Even by the fairly low standards of such movies, this is a significantly lousy one. William Beaudine's direction could not be more flat and uninspired. The most stylistically exciting choice that he makes is to cut between two scenes on occasion while using a fade. John Carradine and George Zucco also appear and the former is pretty embarrassing as a dim-witted henchman. Usually, these D-budget yawns could at least come to life on occasion due to Lugosi's presence, at least if his role was significant enough, (which it often was not). Though he is accurately top-billed here, the actor noticeably looks to be phoning it in. Granted the material is quite poor and even an actor with Lugosi's occasional showmanship can only do so much with it. Still, he understandably puts in the minimal effort this time, resulting in one of the most laughably under dramatic death scenes likely ever filmed. The whole affair is about as lifeless as they come though and while Lugosi has much worse in his filmography, this one easily stands as a very forgettable one.
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