100 Greatest Horror Classics - Disc 2 Review

Disc 2: The Black Dragons / Invisible Ghost / One Body Too Many / White Zombie

The second disc in this collection is a mini Bela Lugosi film festival, however, most of these movies are not ones that Lugosi is most famously known for. These are from the bottom shelf of Lugosi’s film library and will most likely never be watched again. A short review of each movie follows.

The Black Dragons was the first movie on the second disc and it isn’t what I would call a horror movie - it’s more of a murder mystery without, you know, the mystery. The movie is a quick response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which was released in theaters three months after the attack. It was an interesting concept on the use of espionage, however, it was played out poorly with wooden acting and a drawn out story. Also, there is no actual black dragons in this movie.

The Black Dragons: 2/5 stars.

Bela Lugosi was the top star in the film that followed with Invisible Ghost. This movie was a thriller that took place inside a mansion and was able to hold my interest. Part of this was due to the story and plot, the other part was due to the audio quality that was actually decent - a rarity in the movies that I have watched thus far. Invisible Ghost also featured a dramatic musical score that was a treat to listen to and used odd camera angles and lighting effects that added to the overall enjoyment. Also, there were no ghosts in this movie, unless they were, in fact, invisible.

Invisible Ghost: 3/5 stars.

The second side of the disc began with One Body Too Many, which would fall more into a thriller/black comedy as opposed to horror in my opinion. While Bela Lugosi was given top billing in the film, he actually had a bit part in this movie and starred Jack Haley (a/k/a The Tin Man) as the film’s true star. This movie had to do with the death of a wealthy man who made all of his heirs stay in his creepy mansion. Chaos ensues between the family, who were all hard to tell apart from each other as they seemed to be the same characters, to try to reverse the shares they were entitled to. Lugosi was in a running coffee gag in the movie, which never failed to make me chuckle a little bit.

One Body Too Many: 3/5 stars.

The disc ended with White Zombie, which is a movie I have seen in the past. I remember watching it a while ago and having it bore me to death, and my opinion has not changed after a second viewing. The version on this set has a run time of 65 minutes, and it felt more like three hours after it was all said and done. This is due to the overall bad quality of the movie, which includes horrible acting and zombies that actually do slave labor instead of feasting on human flesh. I will have to say that Madge Bellamy, who played Madeline in the film, was easy on the eyes, but that’s about the only good thing going in this movie.

White Zombie: 2/5 stars.

Final Thoughts
As I stated before, this disc doesn’t feature Bela Lugosi’s best work, nor a decent sample of it. I know he is featured in a few other movies in this collection, so maybe there will be something more entertaining coming down the line - or at least I can only hope. Of the four films on this disc, One Body Too Many would probably be the one I’d watch over again, but I don’t think I’d ever recommend that one, or any of these films, to any fan of horror films.

Disc Connections
- Bela Lugosi in all of four of these movies.
- Newspaper headlines were used to further the plots in The Black Dragons and Invisible Ghost.
- Closeups of Lugosi’s creepy eyes were featured in The Black Dragons, Invisible Ghost and White Zombie.
- The Black Dragons, Invisible Ghost, and One Body Too Many were are released in the 1940s.

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