...Click here for Part One

This second part of our three part profile of Bela Lugosi sees our hero on the cheap side at Monogram as he loses the popularity war with Karloff!

In 1938, Bela returned to Universal after a year and a half away from the pictures. If the truth be known, Lugosi had not been offered any work, and asked Universal for a part on their next horror pic to help pay for the arrive of his son. He had also recently lost his luxurious Outpost Drive home due to a shortage of funds. Director Rowland V. Lee decided to help our poor Bela, who after all, had helped to start the whole horror cycle, but Universal only wanted Bela on the set for one week, in a brief performance as a Police Inspector. Lee, however, promised Lugosi a larger role, and created the unscripted part of Igor.

The film, of course, is the 'Son of Frankenstein', and Bela's performance as the broken-necked, rotten-toothed, light-hair Igor was one of his finest roles. Bela even rivals co-stars Karloff (as the monster), Basil Rathbone (as the titular doc) and Lionel Atwill (who ended up in the Inspectors role) in a brilliant edition to the series. Igor is the real villian, who tricks Frankenstein to revive his father's creation and abuses his friendship with the monster for his own ends. His success here seemed to indicate that Bela would again be on an important piece of the Universal horror picture, however, Lugosi couldn't help taking on those cheap parts whilst waiting for Universal to get in touch.

Although produced by 20th Century Fox, 'The Gorilla' was a typically cheap and overly familiar mystery, with Lugosi only hired as the butler (who didn't do it) after Peter Lorre dropped out. The real stars are the awful Ritz Brothers (Marx Brothers immpersonators with a tenth of the talent), who grin and gurn their way through the film. It was back to low budget series (albeit for the final time) after this, 'The Phantom Creeps' is typical cliffhanger fare, Lugosi playing his usual sinister self. The most memorable element is a huge grinning robot constructed by Bela to do most of his dirty work.

His next role, was a suprise (albeit small and serious) part in a big studio comedy. 'Ninotchka' was Lugosi's only film to be nominated for an Oscar, however, this can hardly be accredited to him, as he only appears in one scene (as a communist).

Lugosi returned to Britain to make the fantastic 'Dark Eyes of London' for Pathe Films. It's based on a story by Edgar ('King Kong') Wallace about the evil Dr. Orloff, an insurance swindler who disguises himself as the director of a home for the blind. Although well constructed and unusally vicous (for the time), Bela appears in costume (fake wig, mustache and thick glasses) throughout the film, his lines dubbed by English actor O.B. Clarence, hiding the Bela's thick Hungarian tones, which he never learnt to hide.

Lugosi's lack of diversity and problems with typecasting seemed to bother him little, however, and he seemed happy enough in the horror genre. Occasionally, he did turn his hand to something different, but he still came across as the menacing foreigner, as was the case in the 1940 'The Saint's Double Trouble'. It was back to horror (and Universal) in 'Black Friday', where Lugosi (who only gets about eight minutes screen time) is again over-shadowed by co-star Karloff (and even more by Stanley Ridge, the real star). The most interesting thing about this film is the mythology that surrounds it; Lugosi was supposedly hypnotised for his death scene, and the three leads were eledgedly originally cast in different roles (hence Karloff and Lugosi have no scenes together).

Lugosi and Karloff were back together for the musical comedy chiller 'You'll Find Out', where they team with Peter Lorre to scare Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge in an old dark house. A typically light-hearted pseudo-supernatural affair, the spookiest moment comes during a fake seance.

1941 saw the begin of the end for Lugosi as a serious, respected actor. Lugosi made 'The Devil Bat', for PRC, regarded by most as the smallest and cheapest studio in Hollywood. He plays Dr. Paul Carruthers, who uses a giant blood-sucking bat to gain revenge on those that made a fortune at his expense. It's undeniably cheap, but most of Lugosi's cheapos are tremendous fun (even if it is for the wrong reasons), but Lugosi's agent probably wasn't best pleased. 'The Black Cat' another old-dark-house "comedy" saw Lugosi return to Universal (albeit B pics), and there's a great cast (Basil Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, Gale Sondergaard, Anne Gwynne, and Alan Ladd.), but it's all very forgettable stuff with Bela having little to do.

Sam Katzman, realising Bela was becoming increasingly desperate, signed him to a nine-picture contract at Monogram Studios. This would prove to be a low point for Bela, as many people still today associate Lugosi with Monogram as much as Universal. The first release was 'The Invisible Ghost', a fun, but silly story of somnambulism and the pseudo-supernatural. It features many of the Monogram trademarks; bad acting, a light-hearted approach, unique, far-fetch plots, and cheap sets.

Next, Bela started with Monogram's comedy team, the Bowery Boys for the first time in 'Spooks Run Wild'. He's again a sinister, although innocent Dracula-esque character, who keeps giving the gang of 35 year-old kids "the willies".

Back at Monogram, Lugosi did three quick features in a row of Katzman. First was 'Black Dragons', an incoherent mess concerning, Nazi plots, Japanese saboteurs and plastic surgery. Lugosi shows his ability to take serious the most ridiculous of scripts (as he did again in 'Glen or Glenda') without ever breaking into laughter. 'The Corpse Vanishes' is one of Monogram's better productions, featuring Bela as a bride-stealing, gland-transfering doctor attempting to keep his tetchy wife young. Again, it's outrageously ludicrous, but so endurable fun you can't help but love it. 'Bowery at Midnight' is often refered to as the most effective of Katzman's films, featuring plenty of gritty realism, but the plot is shamelessly stolen from 'Dark Eyes of London' (which Monogram distributed in the US).

'The Night Monster' is one of Universal's best B features. Ralph Morgan plays a legless man who becomes prime suspect when the doctors who ambutated his legs start turning up dead. A great film, but Lugosi (and co-star Lionel Atwill) is wasted, as seems to be usual in his murder mysteries. In 1943, Bela was finally cast in the role that he was intended to play in 1931. It only made sense that since Igor's brain was transfered into the Frankenstein monster, that Lugosi should star in the role in 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman'. Chaney returns, and is great, as the wolfman, but Lugosi is hopelessly miscast, looking, and even sounding (he hisses a lot) out of character. Although a lot of the films plot (and explainations of what had happened to the monster after the last film) were cut before release, the rest of the film is regarded as a huge success, and lead to a series of multi-monster films.

Back to Monogram for 'The Ape Man', which suffers from being both ridiculous and boring. Lugosi looks pathetic as the titular creation, a scientist who becomes a silly-looking monkey man; bend over, arms swinging, and overgrown sideburns. One of the dullest of the Monogram features, it was directed by William 'One Shot' Beaudine. 'Ghosts on the Loose' saw our man co-starring opposite the Bowery Boys again. It's very similar to, but much slower than, their previous encounter.

1944 saw a rare treat, as Bela appeared as a Dracula-esque bloodsucker in 'Return of the Vampire'. Universal wouldn't allow Columbia to use the name Dracula, so Bela stars as Armand Tesla, and suprisingly, it's only the second time Lugosi played a vampire. Inspired by 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman', it also features a werewolf. It's a pretty atmospheric chiller with some genuine chills, and one of Bela's best from the 40s.

Bela's last two Monogram films followed, 'Voodoo Man' is a hokey but typically fun feature, co-starring George Zucco and John Carradine. Lugosi has the best role, who (like in 'The Corpse Vanishes'), kidnaps women in an attempt to revive his dead wife. 'Return of the Apeman' wasn't actually a sequel to 'The Apeman', but the tale of a neanderthal (Frank Moran) revived by scientist Lugosi (in a typical role) with the aid of John Carradine's brain. The end of '44 saw Lugosi as another butler in another murder mystery, 'One Body To Many'. He's a red herring AGAIN (did he ever actually do it?) in this moderate affair.

In 1945, freed of his Monogram contract, Bela signed a three picture deal with RKO. The first of this trilogy highlighted how much Karloff had eclipsed him. In 'The Body Snatcher', regarded by many as one of the all time greats, Karloff appears in the lead as the titular bad guy, whilst Lugosi has a bit part as a servant who winds up as just another "body"; his name was simply used as a box office draw. After helping establish the zombie movie in 1933, Bela found himself returning to the very popular sub-genre in the comedy 'Zombies on Broadway'. He's a serious foil for comedy duo Brown and Carney; a mad scientist who turns people into the living dead. It was a sort of a spoof follow-up to RKO's 'I Walked With A Zombie', and featured two of it's stars, Darby Jones, and Sir Lancelot. Lugosi again starred alongside Brown and Carney for 'Genius at Work' in 1946, but he's merely Lionel Atwill's henchman, (Atwill died shortly after production) in a standard mystery comedy.

By 1947, the roles were really drying up for Bela, as was the horror genre in general. His only role of the year was in the Screen Guild cheapo 'Sacred to Death'. It co-starred George Zucco and Angelo Rossitto, it was the only serious horror of the year, Bela's only colour film, and was narrated by a corpse. All this and it still managed to be dull. 1948, and Universal decide to send up their classic monster series in 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'. They hired a cast of talented but fading stars; the title duo, Lugosi, Chaney, Glen Strange (who'd played the Frankenstein Monster in the last two film and did so again here) and beautiful Lenore Aubert. The result is one of the best comedy/horrors of all time, everyone, especially Lugosi as Dracula on film for only the second time, is in fine form. He helps revive the monster (a role he once played), menaces Lou Costello, and gets his fangs into Aubert. He looks great, baring in mind he was, at this point, 65 years of age!

Sadly though, 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' was Lugosi's last film for four years. Horror movies were no longer popular, and the world waited for Hammer to relight their tastes for the bizarre. Meanwhile, he attempted to revive his former glory by portraying Dracula on stage. But if he thought that at least the humiliation of no-budget movies was behind him, he was sadly mistaken, as soon, Bela would meet the incomparable Ed Wood Jnr., and his worst days were still ahead of him!