Welcome back to my Dark Corner of This Sick World.
‘I was warned you might appear, like one of your own illusions out of nowhere’
As well as George Zucco there, Scared to Death stars one of Dark Corners old friends.
‘Oh yes, old friends.’
For the record,it is perfectly possible to love Bela Lugosi without loving all of his films.
‘Something to think about’
This is one of only 2 colour films he made and while he’s great.
‘If I allowed myself to be announced,I doubt I would be received anywhere.’
Some of the other actors…
'Lily-beth, the woman I love.’
but that’s not the main problem.
‘You won’t get any story here.’
I love it when they say stuff like that, but it’s not 100% accurate,
'I'm afraid there is more truth in that than you might expect.'
Scared to Death feels more as if it has a surplus of story.
‘Does it remind you of something, perhaps?’
Everything really, it’s as if, in the absence of an actual plot,
someone decided to shovel on every cliché, to confuse the audience into submission.
‘The whole thing don’t hardly seem serious to me.’
So we have the dumb cop,
‘One must not expect too much from a certain kind of mentality.’
The fast-talking reporter,
‘Look Dr, nobody ever wants reporters, but then something happens and there they are.'
Who is of course a jerk, particularly to his fiancée,
‘Jane Cornell, good for dull days in a man’s life.’
Who is also a cliché.
‘I’d have mentioned it to you but you’re so scatterbrained’
and, why not, Lugosi is accompanied by…
‘Egor. A dwarf. One of the little men.’
Because dwarf was a word that needed clarification.
Played by Angelo Rossitto who had a remarkable 60 year acting career,
most notably appearing in Freaks.
‘Freaks - get out of here!’
To keep us guessing, the clues come thick and fast.
‘Why were you in the basement?’
Suspicious,
‘Leo was once confined in this place when it was an institution for the insane.’
Very suspicious,
‘Did you ever hear of a dance team called Rene and Laurette?’
Not suspicious but, apparently, a clue.
Although I don’t know to what, because at this point,
and right until the end of the movie, despite reporters and cops and everyone conducting their own investigation,
no crime has been committed.
‘But nothing has happened.’
There are secret doors.
Dr Van Ee – great name – is hit over the head...
and naturally the maid faints...
repeatedly.
'Lillybeth!'
There’s hypnosis,
crashing music cues,
‘It's adressed to you with a warning. Look out for the man with the green mask!’
#Over the top dramatic music sting#
and a head in a box.
Also a mysterious masked face at the window.
Roughly every 7 and a half minutes, throughout the film.
#Each time the mask appears there is another dramatic musical sting, also you can hear some dialogue, but is not really relevant to anything, so I'm not going to transcribe it. How was your day by the way? Thanks for watching our videos.#
How will it all be unravelled?
‘By morning let us hope that no explanation will be necessary...
...Everything will have explained itself’
Not bloody likely.
I do think this was designed to be confusing,
so the audience were left with so many questions that the absence of logic went unnoticed.
‘Are you any wiser than you were a moment ago?’
But when they edited it they realised they had a film in which no one could even guess the plot.
‘If you don’t know then how should I?’
So they came up with a framing device, opening with the autopsy of the eventual victim.
‘One hates to perform an autopsy on a beautiful woman.
’There she is naked and there’s nothing I can do.
This victim then provides narration for the rest of the film,
possibly the first time a dead character does this,
pre-empting films like Sunset Boulevard and American Beauty.
Although, I do feel like they haven’t quite nailed it yet.
‘On that day a mysterious caller came to see Dr Van Ee’
That’s just one example,
‘Then came the sinister pair’
but they are in fact all like that…
‘A gruesome surprise was in store for me the following morning.’
Actually these are my favourite bits of the film.
‘Yes I was scared, scared of my life.’
The theory that these were added later to explicate a nonsensical plot
is one I borrowed from Lugosi biographer Arthur Lennig
and I think it rings true even though, it doesn’t remotely work.
‘At last he had me under his power.’
For some reason.
So the film remains a collection of red herrings…
'Excuse me my lady.' #scream#
and dislikeable characters,
‘I’m gonna miss you an awful lot when I get tired of you.’
Prefacing a murder by death mask,
'I am here and I will have my revenge!'
'No! No, don't touch me.' #Scream#
that seems largely unconnected to much of what has gone before,
existing purely to justify the title.
‘She was literally Scared to Death.’
Still, it’s Bela Lugosi, asking a question that plagued him for most of his career.
‘Why do you persist in making me the villain Mr Lee?’
Actually Mr Lee would have the same question.
'I'll make a bet a man in green will get you yet.'
Thanks for watching. If you’d like to know more about the great Bela Lugosi then check out our special here.
What’s the most confusing film you’ve ever seen, let us know in the comments below.
'Get out I tell you, you have no business here!'