Cinema Revisited: The Corpse Vanishes

Directed by Wallace Fox. Cast: Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin, Elizabeth Russell, Minerva Urecal, Angelo Rossito, Joan Barclay, Kenneth Harlan, Gwen Kenyon, Vince Barnett, Frank Moran, George Eldredge, Gladys Faye, Sheldon Jett, Eddie Kane. Released May 4, 1942. Running time: 64 minutes

It is chic for modern movie ubergeeks to laugh derisively at low budget horror films, mostly due to the hipster treatment they get from MST3K or RiffTrax. But responding to low budget cinema from poverty row with a "haw-haw-lookit-how-fake" while embracing contemporary backyard video indies as "maverick guerilla filmmaking" doesn't represent a solid lock on film history or an open minded frame of reference.

This brings us to "The Corpse Vanishes," one of the shoestring budget features that horror legend Bela Lugosi made for Monogram Studios, which were comfortably nestled on poverty row. Monogram offered cheap, fast, aggressive entertainment that was shot in a few days and made piles of money in the neighborhood theaters or as second-features on double bills. From Monogram we netted the Bowery Boys series, as well as westerns, melodramas, and, yes, horror movies.

Producer Sam Katzman, a specialist with low budget features with everyone from The East Side Kids to Elvis Presley, hired Wallace Fox to direct "The Corpse Vanishes." Fox specialized in low budget westerns, but he took a couple of forays into horror cinema, and "The Corpse Vanishes" might be his best in this genre. Along with Lugosi, the film is dotted with familiar faces that had become real stalwarts in low budget movies, whether they be toiling in poverty row quickies, or showing up in the B unit of one of the major studios. Finally, the art direction of Dave Milton makes more out of the surroundings than their limited funds would seem to allow.

This one has Bela Lugosi playing a creepy scientist who kills virginal young brides and removes fluid from their glands in order to insert it into his wife to keep her young and beautiful. He is assisted by the always-welcome hatchet-faced Minerva Urecal whose unsmiling demeanor backs up Lugosi's central character. Luana Walters and Vince Barnett play a couple of snappy-talking reporters who are investigating why there has been a rash of murdered brides and abducted corpses. Luana breaks off alone and hooks up with smooth talking Tris Coffin. And someone had the clever idea to cast George Eldredge, who usually played police and detectives, as Lugosi's Igor-like servant. When he starts fondling one of the pretty corpses, and Lugosi unemotionally starts whipping him, it is an outburst without explanation, making it that much more unsettling Finally, the key to a good low budget horror picture is that diminutive Angelo Rossito is hovering about -- especially with Bela.

Despite the budget, big or small, Bela Lugosi always drew from his substantial theatrical roots and delivered as fine a performance as his formidable capabilities would allow. Bathed in darkness, moving slowly and with purpose, delivering his lines with his usual inimitable flourish, Bela anchors each scene and his character resonates when the scene switches to brightness and rat-a-tat dialog from the reporters.

It is all delightfully creepy late night stormy weather viewing for those of us who love to explore the B movies found on the bypaths of early cinema, and also appreciate the sort of no-frills horror that has more mystery and suspense than simple gore. "The Corpse Vanishes" is a low budget horror classic that should be appreciated on its own merit, and with the realization that it has its own place in movie history.