Movie review – “The Invisible Ghost” (1941) **

Bela Lugosi Monogram film is full of surprising touches. It was directed by Joe Lewis who later did Gun Crazy and while I’m trying not to be wise in hindsight here it certainly appears as though Lewis did really try. There’s a great opening scene where Bela is having dinner with his “wife” (an empty chair) – and a decent plot where Bela starts killing people in trances. It is shonky and low budget but there are plenty of good bits to keep you interested – the scene where one of the servants discovers a dead body (silence then a slow pan), a murder scene by Bela (POV of Bela, then cut to POV of the victim of Bela), the dignified performance by Clarence Muse as Bela’s servant, the revelation that the wife is being kept by the gardener in his house, the death of the male juvenile half way through (you think the whole story is going to be trying to save him – but he actually gets executed, forcing his twin to take over male juvenile duties), Bela’s expression of horror on realising that he committed the crimes.