Braddock Brad - Bela Lugosi: The Monogramthology

The 20 th century produced scores of legendary motion picture actors and actresses. Performers like Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel and Hardy, Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, and so many more reached iconic status and their films have endured over the decades. This collection of short stories commemorates the work of Bela Lugosi, an actor who is remembered and revered today and stands shoulder to shoulder with the true motion picture greats.

Bela Lugosi was not a product of the American motion picture industry. He had been a working actor for decades before his arrival in Hollywood. Born in 1882, Lugosi is first known to have worked as an actor on the stage regionally in Hungary circa 1901. By 1911 he was a member of The National Theatre of Hungarys acting company. So he had been working professionally as an actor on the stage for sixteen years before appearing in his first Hungarian film in 1917, Leoni Leo . For the next four years Lugosi worked in films in Hungary and Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1921.

In New York, Lugosi initially appeared in plays in small theatres with other Hungarian immigrants before landing a role in his first Broadway play in 1922, The Red Poppy . The following year he appeared in his first American motion picture, The Silent Command . Lugosi appeared in several more Broadway stage productions and four more films before landing a role in 1927 that would make him a household name.

Dracula opened at the Fulton Theatre in New York on October 5, 1927, and Bela Lugosi received rave reviews in the title role. He played Dracula in New York through May 1928, and then toured across America in the show. When the touring company of Dracula finished its engagements in Los Angeles, Lugosi left the tour and remained in Hollywood. There he appeared in eleven films between 1928 and 1931 before landing the film role that would change his life forever: a reprisal on film of Count Dracula.

Bela Lugosi was naturally Universal Studios first choice to play the character he had so successfully created for American audiences on the stage, wasnt he? Well, thats not true. At one point it appeared that Paul Leni would direct Dracula and that it would star Conrad Veidt; the two had worked together on Universals The Man Who Laughs . But in 1929, Leni unexpectedly died and Veidt left Hollywood and returned to his native Germany. Finally, after considering a dozen or more actors for the role of Dracula, Universal conceded and hired Bela Lugosi to play the part on film.

Once he was officially cast in the role, Bela Lugosi was given royal star treatment at Universal, of course? Well, thats not true either. Lugosi was signed to play the role at a paltry $500 a week while David Manners, who played Jonathan Harker in the film, was paid $3,000 a week for his role.

In spite of having won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1930 with All Quiet on the Western Front , Universal Studios was struggling financially. When Dracula was released on Valentines Day, 1931, it became a huge box office hit and saved Universal Studios from financial ruin. So, Bela Lugosi had the last laugh and finally became the king of Universal Studios and was given the respect that he was due as the studios most valuable asset? Well, again, thats not true.

Lugosi was tested for the role of the Frankenstein Monster, and history is vague on why he didnt get the part. Lugosi would say in later years that he turned the role down, while there are varying reports that say that his screen test was ruined by a poor makeup job that ran and melted in the sweltering California heat. After losing the role of the Monster, there were reports that Lugosi would instead play Dr. Frankenstein. But director James Whale had been given his choice of films to direct at Universal, and when he looked at the slate of films that were scheduled for production, he insisted on directing Frankenstein , a film that was supposed to have been directed by Robert Florey. When Whale was given the directing assignment, he cast fellow Englishman Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein, and both Florey and Lugosi were relegated to working on the 1932 film Murders in the Rue Morgue .

This was the way the 1930s continued for Bela Lugosi. There was one disappointing setback after another, and while he worked consistently, he was never given the respect or high-paying contracts that he should have received after the success of Dracula .

The worst indignity that he suffered came, once again, at the hands of Universal Studios when he was cast in the minor role of Ygor in 1939s Son of Frankenstein . Lugosi was bankrupt, and when his son, Bela Lugosi, Jr., was born, the hospital bills for his delivery were paid for by an actors relief fund. Knowing that Lugosi was desperate, Universal signed him to play Ygor for, again, a paltry $500 a week. Worse, director Rowland V. Lee was given the order to get all of his scenes with Lugosi shot in one single week. Lee bristled at the suggestion, and kept Lugosi working for the entirety of the production. As a result, the minor role of Ygor became a featured character and is considered by many to be one of Lugosis best performances, second only to Dracula.

Lugosi appeared in eight more films in 1939 and 1940. In those films he would play the lead in B-pictures like The Devil Bat or would have minor supporting roles in big films like the Greta Garbo picture Ninotchka .

Then Lugosi was offered a substantial contract from producer Sam Katzman to work at Monogram Pictures, one of Hollywoods notorious Poverty Row studios that produced nothing but B-pictures. Lugosi was contracted to star in nine of those B-pictures between 1941 and 1944.

The first of these nine Monogram films was The Invisible Ghost , released in April 1941, which was followed by Spooks Run Wild , Black Dragons , The Corpse Vanishes , Bowery at Midnight , The Ape Man , Ghosts on the Loose , Voodoo Man , and finally, Return of the Ape Man . It is an understatement to say that none of the films were nominated for Academy Awards.

This anthology is a collection of short stories that are either prequels or sequels to these nine Grade-B Monogram pictures. Why create an anthology of stories based on these films? If they were B-pictures, what did they have going for them that would make them worthy of attention today? The answer is simple: they were all Bela Lugosi movies.