Book review - "Lugosi" by Gary Rhodes

If you thought previous books on Lugosi were definitive, well guess again -Rhodes has come up with a true "must" for a Lugosi fan. It's a great idea - a sort of encyclopedia on Lugosi with different chapters a bio, film descriptions, stage appearances, vaudeville, television,quotes by Lugosi, quotes about him. It allowed Rhodes to shove in heaps of information without the confines of a narrative bio and it works brilliantly - they should do it for every movie star. I was especially impressed with the emphasis on stage and vaudeville - these were major components of Lugosi's career but are often treated as mere lead-up-to-becoming-a-movie-star; here they get appropriate weight. And its wonderful to hear Lugosi in his own words. Rhodes also pays tribute to Lugosi's status as a cult icon, and the great urban legends of his career (i.e. missing Frankenstein test footage, lost White Zombie footage). The essential tragedy of Lugosi's life is still evoked - one of the most appealing things about him for film fans, I've always thought - but he still had an amazingly rich, diverse life.