Corpse Vanishes, The/Devil

 

 

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The only thing worse than being left standing at the altar is having your bride fall over dead in the middle of the service. As The Corpse Vanishes opens, that is exactly what is happening; even worse, the bride's corpses keep getting stolen. The cops are baffled, but hard-nosed female reporter Pat Hunter is determined to solve the mystery and make a name for herself in journalism. She follows her leads to the home of Dr. Lorenz (Lugosi) and winds up having the most terrifying night of her life. Lorenz has a peculiar staff - a rather annoying older servant and her two sons, one a midget and the other a seemingly mute and obviously dim-witted stooped-over fellow. Strangest of all, though, is Lorenz's ill-tempered wife. Of course, the Countess has reason to complain because she is constantly fighting old age and death. Lorenz has come up with a way to maintain his wife's youth and beauty; the only catch is that it requires the regular extraction of a certain amount of the essence of life from young girls. Why blushing brides are the specimens of choice is never really made clear. In any event, Pat struggles to find a way to trap the good doctor and convince her boss that she is telling the truth about the things she has discovered.

Interestingly, there are some definite similarities between this 1942 film and 1931's Dracula: Lugosi plays an evil man who must steal the life essence from beautiful young women in order to hold mortality at bay; Lorenz secretly enters the rooms of his guests during the night and stares down at them with the look Lugosi is famous for; Lorenz and his wife sleep in coffins; and the dim-witted, eternally slump-backed assistant (called Angel of all things) can be compared with Dracula's Renfield. The plot is rather weak in spots, but I love the nostalgic campiness of it (and, apparently, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 gang did too). I would rank this movie among the better horror movies of that golden era of cinematic fright. Lugosi fans will surely want to have The Corpse Vanishes in their video libraries as it features one of his best performances.

The plot of Devil Bat doesn't sound that impressive, but Bela Lugosi's performance earns the movie five stars from this reviewer. Lugosi plays Dr. Carruthers, a doctor and scientist beloved by everyone in the village of Heathville; he is the last person anyone suspects when a series of strange murders take place. The first three victims are all sons of the rich and powerful Heath and Morgan families. These two families made their fortunes, it turns out, on one of Dr. Carruthers' formulas, and all the doctor got out of the deal was a measly ten thousand dollars compared to their millions. Ah, yes, we have a motive. Of course, these are no ordinary murders; they seem to have been made by some type of unknown wild animal. It couldn't be a bat, of course, because the killer was definitely a pretty large specimen. Carruthers' plan is hokey but brilliant. He still works for the cosmetics firm, and he has just come up with an experimental new aftershave formula. Naturally, he wants the Heaths and Morgans to try the product out themselves before marketing it - just a few drops spread across the neck, where the skin is always tender. He doesn't bother to tell his victims that bats really, really hate the smell of the formula's secret ingredient, nor does he mention the fact that he has figured out a way to use electrical stimulation to turn a normal bat into a Devil Bat. Everything is going according to plan until a nosy reporter shows up and starts snooping around.

Lugosi is great in this movie. By 1940, he had the whole mad scientist act down to a science, and his secret scowls are enhanced by just the right touch of madness in his eyes. Best of all is the way he tells his victims "Goodbye" in a sinister voice once he has them in the soon-to-be clutches of his Devil Bat. One thing that bothers me about great old horror movies like this is the fact the moviemakers always felt compelled to provide some comic relief in the form of a goofy character - this time around, we have the newspaper photographer "One Shot" McGuire who is more interested in shooting pictures of the Heath's French maid than any silly old bat. The Devil Bat itself isn't very impressive; without the grainy, far from perfect black and white print, I am sure it would look quite ridiculous. It never even moves when Carruthers is handling it, it looks more like a hawk or eagle to me when it is flying, and its swoop attacks on unsuspecting victims make me think of the scene in Naked Gun where Frank Drebbin struggles against a towel thrown in his face. None of that matters, though, because Lugosi is just so much fun to watch.

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