I enjoyed this more the second time I watched it - maybe my expectations adjusted accordingly, but it seemed more fun. Bela Lugosi has one of his best 40s roles as a man who arranges for kidnapping of women so he can transfer their essence to his dead wife. It's shades of many previous Lugosi films - Dracula, The Devil's Bat, The Corpse Vanishes.
Monogram splashed a little extra cash here - there's some quasi elaborate sets in the area where Lugosi and his men perform ceremonies, plus some costimes; Lugosi's priest sidekick is played by George Zucco, and his Dwight Frye esque assistant is depicted by John Carradine.
The nominal hero is a screenwriter of low budget movies; the abducted women include his fiancee and her cousin, both pretty and decently acted.
The pacing is off and it feels sluglishly directed. But their are plenty of compensations: Zucco chewing the scenery as the priest, Carradine out hamming him as the assistant, Lugosi in a wacky robe, a decent structure. There's some meta-ness with the hero screenwriter at the end suggesting the film be turned into a Bela Lugosi film. I forgave that joke; it was a close run thing though.
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