BELA LUGOSI
October 20th, 1882 -- August 16th, 1956

Above: Everybody knows who this fellow is. It's Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. Yes, our favorite vampire did quite a large number of serials, though you might not have known it. Just in time for Halloween, here comes a piece on Lugosi's serial career.

The reader needs no introduction to Bela Lugosi. Born Bela Blasko in Lugos, Hungary (he took his screen name from his home town), he was a genuine screen legend if ever there was one, and his impact on the movie world will never be forgotten. Held in mockery by some for what they consider his "campiness" and "broad acting", and treated with the respect he deserves by others who recognize his genius, he was a one-of-a-kind actor of immense talent, which was not always recognized by Hollywood execs. Too often, especially in his later years, he was given routine "boogeyman" parts and regarded only as a horror actor, but he was a whole lot more than that. But Lugosi's career can't be covered as it deserves in this small article. My purpose is to cover the serials that Bela did--five, to be exact.

It's often been said that it was Lugosi's willingness to accept any role offered him, regardless of its low-budget or low-quality nature, which led to the eventual destruction of his career. This willingness was probably the reason he began acting in cliffhangers, starting in 1934 with Mascot's THE WHISPERING SHADOW. THE WHISPERING SHADOW, not one of the best serials ever made by all accounts, was a very complicated, intricate "guess-the-villain's-identity" mystery with lots of slinking around and furtive movements, but little real substance. Bela played Prof. Anton Strang, eccentric proprietor of an eerie wax museum and the prime suspect for the Whispering Shadow. Of course (SPOILERS) in the final chapter, hero Malcolm McGregor unmasked another character as the Shadow, and Lugosi proved to be nothing but a "red herring". Mascot was obviously banking on the fact that audiences would assume Bela to be the villain after his huge success in DRACULA three years before.

Above: Bela Lugosi at his sinister best as he fiddles with a strange-looking radio in this scene from THE WHISPERING SHADOW (Universal, 1934).

Lugosi's second serial, released by Sol Lesser's Principal Pictures, holds the distinction of being the only time, on the serial or non-serial screen, that Bela played a romantic, two-fisted hero! That's right--in 1934's RETURN OF CHANDU, Lugosi played Frank Chandler (aka Chandu) a skilled practitioner of White Magic, who battled the forces of the Black Magic cult of Ubasti in order to save his fiancee, the Egyptian princess Nadji (Maria Alba), who the Ubasti cult believed they must sacrifice in order to restore their long-dead mummified princess to life. Along with his sister, niece, and nephew, Chandu becomes trapped on the evil island of Lemuria, home of the Ubasti cult, and must use his wits, fists, and magical powers to destroy the cult and rescue his family and Nadji. As the only serial hero with supernatural powers, Chandu clearly needed to be played by an out-of-the-ordinary actor, and Lugosi was the perfect choice. He really seemed to relish the chance to play a hero, throwing himself heart and soul into the goings on and making the serial memorable by his enthusiastic, energetic performance which combined his usual sinister air with a surprising friendliness and charisma that showed what a truly versatile actor Bela was.

Above: Frank Chandler (Bela Lugosi, center) looks like he's trying to get some information from his crystal in this scene from THE RETURN OF CHANDU (Principal, 1934). Dean Benton is on his right and Phyllis Ludwig on his left.

Bela's next serial was for another independent outfit--Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures. SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (Victory, 1936) top-billed Bela (he had received top billing his two previous cliffhangers as well) in the part of Victor Poten, a Eurasian criminal scientist who was hired by shady importer Sonya Rokoff (Luana Walters) to close Chinatown's importing trade so her firm can acquire a monopoly. Lugosi, who secretly nourishes hatred for both the Europeans and Asians, quickly begins to operate by his own agenda rather than by Walters'. In fact, he does her in before the end of the serial, but is brought to justice by hero Martin Andrews (Herman Brix) who has been opposing Poten's plans from the start. Despite competition from a more professional supporting cast (the very talented Brix, heroine Joan Barclay, Walters, and Charles King, among others) than he had faced in his earlier serials, Lugosi still emerged as the dominant figure in SHADOW OF CHINATOWN.

Above: Bela Lugosi seems to be besting Herman Brix in this scene from SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (Victory, 1936).

Bela's next serial, SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937) is generally regarded as his best; ironically, it was the only one of his cliffhangers in which he didn't receive top billing. That honor went to Ralph Byrd as Coast Guard lieutenant Terry Kent (Byrd's only non-Dick Tracy part at Republic), who battled the evil Boroff (Bela). Boroff was attempting to develop a disintegrating gas that he could sell to the country of Morovania for uncounted millions, but when he killed Kent's brother Jim (Tommy Carr), Terry went all out to stop the scheming inventor. Unlike Lugosi's earlier serials, which were somewhat rough-hewn due to their low budgets and cheap production values, SOS COAST GUARD was polished and professional serial excitement in the usual Republic tradition, benefiting greatly from the direction of William Witney, just beginning his directorial career at Republic. Witney later recalled that he was delighted and more than a bit awed when he found he was to direct a living legend like Bela Lugosi. "He was the answer to a young director's prayer", Witney said later. His respect for Lugosi's talent showed in the serial; he even included a couple of in-jokes that referred to Bela's earlier career--for instance, Boroff's ship was named the Cairfax, after Cairfax Abbey from Lugosi's DRACULA.

Above: Lugosi on the radio again, this time ordering his henchmen to pursue Ralph Byrd and Maxine Doyle in SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937).

Above: Bela (seated center) issues orders to his henchmen in another color lobby card for SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937). That's Richard Alexander as Lugosi's mute henchman Thorg in the background behind Bela. Carleton Young is on the far right, George Chesebro is on Lugosi's right.

Interestingly, though Bela's American movie career had begun at Universal Pictures, and though he was featured in many of their horror films, he hadn't made a serial for them up to this point. Apparently, Universal finally decided to use Lugosi in one of their cliffhangers--THE PHANTOM CREEPS, made in 1939. Top-billed once more for what would be his final serial outing, Bela played Dr. Alex Zorka, another mad scientist, whose fantastic inventions were coveted by foreign spies headed by Edward Van Sloan (who had played Dr. Van Helsing in Lugosi's DRACULA). A fellow scientist (Edwin Stanley) advises Zorka to turn over his inventions to the US Government, but Zorka, bridling at what he considers an attempt at coercion, threatens to turn over his inventions to the spies instead. Zorka is placed under FBI surveillance, but he fakes his death and attempts to bring his wife (Dora Clement) to his secret hideaway. His attempt to sneak her away by plane backfires and results in her death, and Zorka, vowing revenge on society, begins wreaking havoc on the world at large with his inventions (including mechanical spiders, an invisibility device, and a giant robot) while the good guys (headed by Robert Kent as G-man Bob West) and the bad guys battle each other for his inventions. A rather oddball serial, THE PHANTOM CREEPS may not have been a great cliffhanger, but it was a barrel of fun for both the audiences and Bela, who chewed up all the surrounding scenery as the demented, mercurial Zorka and blasted the rest of the excellent cast into oblivion. He really seemed to enjoy the part, and it made a more than appropriate cliffhanger finale for one of the best serial villains ever.

Above: Dr. Zorka (Bela Lugosi) gleefully manipulates his giant robot in this scene from THE PHANTOM CREEPS (Universal, 1939). THE PHANTOM CREEPS was Bela's last serial.

Above: Lugosi demonstrates the robot for his ex-convict henchman Monk (Jack C. Smith) in another scene from THE PHANTOM CREEPS (Universal, 1939).

Serials had seen the last of Bela Lugosi, a terrific and talented villain. However, the rest of the movie world would see a lot more of him in years to come, as he appeared in many memorable parts, horror or otherwise, in such films as GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, NINOTCHKA, and THE WOLF MAN. Unfortunately, his career took a downward turn in the mid forties; his last great role was a final reprisal of his Count Dracula character in ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, and, after that, he would mainly appear in low budget and low quality films like RETURN OF THE APE MAN or the infamous PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, his final (and never completed) film role.

Bela Lugosi died in 1956, but his legend lives on. He will continue to symbolize the creepy, the eerie, and the supernatural in movies as long as film endures, and he will always be remembered by serial fans as a great villain (Poten, Boroff, Zorka), a great hero (Chandu), and a just plain great actor. As serial scholar William C. Cline has said, "no other villain, before or since, has managed to leave such an indelible imprint on an entertainment medium as Bela Lugosi did on motion pictures."

You can't keep a good vampire down; Bela Lugosi will forever live on in the heart of serial (and movie) fans.