Impossible to imagine a more definitive account of the actor’s career, or one written with more love and affection. Lennig has really gone the hard yards here, doing some excellent research, particularly about the more obscure Hungarian phase of Lugosi’s career (he served bravely in the war – onya Bela!), not to mention his theatre work. He also gets in the ring, so to speak, talking about his own encounters with the actor, and he takes Lugosi’s son to task for trying to cash in on dad. Lennig devotes pages to most individual movies – he must have seen an awful lot of schlock, and sometimes he doesn’t have much to say other than recounting the plot and offering and analysis, but if you like Lugosi it is all interesting.
And depressing. For Lugosi was one of the luckiest and unluckiest stars in Hollywood history – despite being a hammy Hungarian with a thick accent he was perfect for Dracula and became a star. But he was awful at following it up, could never manage his money, got addicted to drugs, ended up broke and dying alone… I can’t believe Universal didn’t use Lugosi better as an asset – although they had Karloff as well (it seems clear Lugosi didn’t turn down the part of Frankenstein’s monster, but he grumbled about it, and director James Whale preferred Karloff), surely two stars is better than none? Its amazing that they created a star, then threw him away, especially one that was so easily castable. Lugosi kept coming back – in the mid 30s, then the late 30s – but never really consolidated his place. He kept making too many bad films, kept getting overlooked (Universal preferred Lon Chaney Jnr to him in the 40s); only at Monogram in the early 40s did he get a run of star vehicles (many of whom are widely available on DVD – admittedly they are out of copyright but still Lugosi would be one of the most popular stars from that era with today’s DVD buyers).
It’s also frustrating Lugosi couldn’t have been in better non-horror films – he could have played more Nazis, etc in classier films.
It’s kind of heartbreaking. Lugosi wasn’t the best actor in the world, but he had presence, and no one did a mad scientist better. I don’t think it was a loss that he missed out on Frankenstein to Karloff – Lugosi later got a chance to play the monster and it wasn’t particularly memorable, and honestly I think Colin Clive would have been better as the doctor – but I would have liked to have seen him as Dr Pretorious in Bride of Frankenstein. It’s also surprising Universal didn’t use him for some more Dracula franchise films in the 40s. (Lennig makes a convincing case the studio may have been afraid of offending Karloff, a gentleman but who had a streak of cattiness, esp about Lugosi eg got him miscast in Black Friday). But that is part of the appeal of Lugosi – the tragedy of him, the what might have been, with that final act of involvement in Ed Wood films.
For what it’s worth, my own top ten Lugosi
1) Dracula
2) White Zombie
3) The Black Cat
4) The Raven
5) The Mark of the Vampire
6) Son of Frankenstein
7) The Wolf Man
8) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
9) Plan Nine from Outer Space
10) Island of Lost Souls
And depressing. For Lugosi was one of the luckiest and unluckiest stars in Hollywood history – despite being a hammy Hungarian with a thick accent he was perfect for Dracula and became a star. But he was awful at following it up, could never manage his money, got addicted to drugs, ended up broke and dying alone… I can’t believe Universal didn’t use Lugosi better as an asset – although they had Karloff as well (it seems clear Lugosi didn’t turn down the part of Frankenstein’s monster, but he grumbled about it, and director James Whale preferred Karloff), surely two stars is better than none? Its amazing that they created a star, then threw him away, especially one that was so easily castable. Lugosi kept coming back – in the mid 30s, then the late 30s – but never really consolidated his place. He kept making too many bad films, kept getting overlooked (Universal preferred Lon Chaney Jnr to him in the 40s); only at Monogram in the early 40s did he get a run of star vehicles (many of whom are widely available on DVD – admittedly they are out of copyright but still Lugosi would be one of the most popular stars from that era with today’s DVD buyers).
It’s also frustrating Lugosi couldn’t have been in better non-horror films – he could have played more Nazis, etc in classier films.
It’s kind of heartbreaking. Lugosi wasn’t the best actor in the world, but he had presence, and no one did a mad scientist better. I don’t think it was a loss that he missed out on Frankenstein to Karloff – Lugosi later got a chance to play the monster and it wasn’t particularly memorable, and honestly I think Colin Clive would have been better as the doctor – but I would have liked to have seen him as Dr Pretorious in Bride of Frankenstein. It’s also surprising Universal didn’t use him for some more Dracula franchise films in the 40s. (Lennig makes a convincing case the studio may have been afraid of offending Karloff, a gentleman but who had a streak of cattiness, esp about Lugosi eg got him miscast in Black Friday). But that is part of the appeal of Lugosi – the tragedy of him, the what might have been, with that final act of involvement in Ed Wood films.
For what it’s worth, my own top ten Lugosi
1) Dracula
2) White Zombie
3) The Black Cat
4) The Raven
5) The Mark of the Vampire
6) Son of Frankenstein
7) The Wolf Man
8) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
9) Plan Nine from Outer Space
10) Island of Lost Souls
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