The only think-piece THE CORPSE VANISHES is ever likely to get![]() I was watching THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942) again recently and I forgot to laugh. I understand that laughter is the proper response because just about every critic — even the ones predisposed to horror, to Bela Lugosi, and to the inconsistent charms of Poverty Row cinema — tell us that the movie is no good, that Lugosi is no good in it, that the celluloid used to make it would have been better used for guitar picks, and that the only proper response is yuks. Ask most people in their 30s and 40s if they’ve ever seen THE CORPSE VANISHES and they’re likely to tell you “Yeah, that was one of the best MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000s ever!”
Yes, the film is undeniably cheap — more than half the scenes look as though they were filmed in a storage locker. Yes, it panders to Lugosi’s association with playing Dracula — to the point that both Dr. and Mrs. Lorenz sleep in side-by-side coffins and Lugosi treats his servants like Renfieldesque subalterns, bullwhipping them into docility or cruelly abandoning them when they no longer serve a purpose. But none of these Gothic curlicues is out of place in a story about a man who lives in denial of his failure to conquer death (Lorenz seems to have met it half way, living a morbid life to deflect his fears of morbidity) and the film’s meager budget only serves to underscore how small, how terribly petty all of this is. Clearly, Lorenz knows that he has no life ahead of him, he can only buy time, even as people all around him make happy plans for the future. He is driven by a wife who, if ever loving, is now only the shell of a human being, a shell filled with hatred and malice. When all of these strands come together in the final frames as Fagah, her children (such as they were) dead, goes after Lorenz with a shiv and Countess Lorenz shrieks with the awful understanding that this is the very end of the line, there is a kind of very cold comfort in the circularity of comeuppance. But it cannot undo what is truly horrific about this film, which is the consequence of corpses where once were possibilities. 20 Responses The only think-piece THE CORPSE VANISHES is ever likely to get
![]() Richard–Unique; this one is a total delight; one of your best. Lugosi is my favorite actor because he never lets me down. He has never “walked through” a role. No matter how ****y the script or the working conditions, he always gave it his “All”. To see Bela in his prime, check out the beautifully restored CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU. At 6’2″, with black hair and blue eyes, he was a handsome man. As Carol Borland said “He wasn’t just a “Ladies Man”. He was THE Ladies Man!” I feel affectionate towards all of his Poverty Row films, but I guess that THE CORPSE VANISHES is my fave…thank you, Richard. AL ![]() AL said; “To see Bela in his prime, check out the beautifully restored CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU.” I think you mean THE BLACK CAMEL (1931), which has a Hawaii setting. It’s very much worth seeing. CORPSE VANISHES is probably the best of Lugosi’s Monogram efforts. The worst: THE APE MAN, which is so laughable it edges near Ed Wood territory. ![]() An excellent piece on a oddly absorbing Poverty Row Lugosi film. At its core, it helps to explain just why so many of us turn to the genre — both in its good films and bad — so often. It dares to tackle themes and touch on ideas — intentinally or not — that mainsteam cinema never quite has the nerve (or courage) to grapple with. Like a famous critic once said: “Every horror film seems to get sillier with the passage of time, and yet the horror remains.” ![]() George–duh! thank you. You’re right.I think what confused me is the Hawaii setting. Glad you like BLACK CAMEL as much as I do; the print is a revelation. You may be correct about THE APE MAN; it really is amazing…and RETURN OF THE APE MAN? oy AL ![]() Jeffrey - Absolutely. I think the appeal of the horror genre, for some people (including myself), is that it offers a “safe” context for dealing with personal trauma, as it’s being represented in an external art that isn’t inherently harmful. ![]() There’s much to love in Bela’s Monograms and PRCs, and for his fans, they are not so bad they’re good chucklefests, but pieces of film history to enjoy from the only studios who sadly likely would have been the only ones to give Bela starring turns at the time. I don’t see the “bad” in these movies when I watch them, and chuckle only at the scenes we’re intended to chuckle at, such as Frank Moran chewing on a chicken leg while pursuing Luana Walters through the dark basement. ![]() Is it true that all of the original negatives of these unique Gems were “destroyed by fire” years ago? Anybody know? AL ![]() Here’s a thought-golden Hollywood big studios were akin to Broadway. ![]() Doug: B movies provided a training ground for young talent, while also serving as a resting place for veterans on their way down. Television took over some of that function in the ’50s, although AIP continued the B tradition by giving work to veterans (Price, Karloff, Lorre, Rathbone) and to newcomers (Nicholson, Hopper, Dern, Peter Fonda, etc.) Miramax was sort of like that in the ’90s; it created new stars (Paltrow, Affleck, Damon) and hot directors (Tarantino and Kevin Smith). I’m not sure where the incubator of new talent is today. Cable TV? Movies based on YA novels? ![]() It’s fun spotting a future A-level movie star, early in their career, in a Poverty Row film. A young Ava Gardner turns up in the East Side Kids movie Ghosts on the Loose…starring Bela Lugosi. ![]() “Is it true that all of the original negatives of these unique Gems were “destroyed by fire” years ago? Anybody know?” The story as *I* understand it is that the Tiffany-Stahl library was acquired by David O. Selznick and the nitrate burned for the burning of Atlanta scene in GONE WITH THE WIND. ![]() James said: “It’s fun spotting a future A-level movie star, early in their career, in a Poverty Row film.” Old TV shows offer the same fun. While watching the second season of ROUTE 66 (1961-62), I spotted Robert Redford, James Caan, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds, Tuesday Weld and Lee Marvin. (The latter two were well known by then, but weren’t yet movie stars.) And the directors included Robert Altman and Sam Peckinpah. ![]() Richard–What is it with this NitrateDeal? Who can forgive the barbaric way Jack W.mutilated A STAR IS BORN–recalling every single print existing, making the same deletions on every one of them–then took all, including the ORIGINAL NEGATIVES of those scenes and “melted down” everything to “retrieve The silver nitrate”. He didn’t even keep ONE print for the archives! I’ll have to google “Tiffany-Stahl”–but remember that I was referring to the PRC-Monogram’s from the 40′s. ![]() Universal destroyed almost all their silent films in the late 1940s. Only about two dozen were preserved, mainly those with remake value. That’s why we still have the Chaney versions of PHANTOM and HUNCHBACK. ![]() Al: I believe nitrate was no longer in use by the time they made A Star Is Born, its flammable properties were already notorious for quite some time. And the only reason Chaney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame survives is because of one 16mm print made from the camera negative, probably for “Show-At-Home” purposes, that is the source for all restored versions on home video. I have a soft spot for this film too, but then again, any Lugosi outing looks good after you’ve watched Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. ![]() “Bela in his prime” is a theme brought in by Al and commented on by George and it made me yearn/beg/plead for TCM to make Bela the star of the month. In addition to the aforementioned The Black Camel, TCM has shown wonderful early Bela films such as The Thirteenth Chair (Tod Browning working with his future Dracula star who here plays a hero!) and the Joe E. Brown comedy Broad Minded where Bela is priceless, seemingly enjoying himself in the Joe E. Brown comedy, where he gets to woo the fabulous Thelma Todd, and spouts the immortal line “Look vat you’ve done to my strawberry shortcake.!” ![]() swac44–I’ll have to check up on the nitrate issue. I attended the roadshow tour of the restored A STAR IS BORN (Paramount Theatre in Oakland). James Mason, Lillian Gish, Ron Haver appeared on stage along with Fay Kanin who said that when they first explored the WB vaults, the first thing they discovered was “a pristine three-strip Technicolor 35mm Cinemascpe print of the CUT version”, then they uncovered the UNCUT original stereo soundtrack and that’s what they used to begin the restoration…and I think I agree with you about BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA–it’s really ghastly. ![]() A cursory Google search tells me that nitrocellulose was phased out in favour of safety film around 1948. I once got to see a new LoC-made 35mm print of Tod Browning’s Iron Man (a 1931 Tod Browning boxing picture starring Lew Ayres and Jean Harlow) made from a nitrate negative, and the B&W image was spectacular, with glossy blacks and a silvery sheen. I’m sure the look can be recreated with modern lab and digital techniques, but I’d never seen anything quite like it at the time. ![]() My favorite scene is that obnoxious girl reporter spooked by the sudden appearance of the great Elizabeth Russell, who hisses to her: “So young! So beautiful! Some day you too will be a bride!” Leave a Reply |
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I’m sure I’d rather laugh at this movie (which I’ve never seen) than have your reaction. But sometimes I have the same mind-set you describe. Then even mild horror movies are unbearable for their depiction of human suffering, lost joy, the meaningless destruction of youth and beauty.