This is about what you'd expect from a Bela Lugosi vehicle from the mid 1940s. At this point, his career was steadily sliding downhill, but hadn't quite reached rock bottom as he would in the early to mid 50s. This is a low budget Monogram quickie, with nothing particularly exciting or memorable going for it. The plot is predictable and derivative of an earlier, slightly better Lugosi flick- "The Corpse Vanishes". Bela plays a mad doctor (wow, really?) who drains the life out of several young women into the body of his decades dead wife(who happens to possess a stylish 1940s hairdo). He is aided by a Voodoo practicing gas station attendant and two imbecilic henchmen. All is going well until a Hollywood scriptwriter stumbles upon their little operation.While some of the characters and situations are somewhat different from your typical low budget Monogram flick, it's mostly just same ol' same ol'. You've got a creepy house in the middle of nowhere, lots of driving through the woods, and Bela doing what he does best. (or at least most often). To it's credit, the movie does have a decent cast. Bela's great as usual, John Carradine and George Zucco make formidable secondary characters, and this does contain some nice looking ladies, including Louise Currie, who happens to slightly resemble Gillian Anderson of "X Files" fame, at least to me... Also, the set design is decent as well. The finale, which takes place in a cave, springs to mind.But overall, this is just a mediocre 1940s horror flick, clearly only made to make a few bucks, with very little effort on the part of the writer or director.

"I'd turn back if I were you", Bert Lahr says in "The Wizard of Oz". The poor women in this would be better off to remember that line as they are carried off by John Carradine for mad scientist Bela Lugosi's nefarious plans. Basically a re-tread of "The Corpse Vanishes", this has bizarre witch doctor Lugosi utilizing voodoo with young women to bring his long dead wife back to life rather than an aged Elizabeth Bathory type harping at Lugosi to return her to her youthful state in that 1942 cult classic. This has the benefit of director William Beaudine, the Ed Wood of the 40's, who directed hundreds of features and shorts from the silent era through the 1950's. Beaudine could take the worst script and turn it into something fairly entertaining, which is precisely what happens here. Lugosi, the lead boogie man in this, is surrounded by fellow spooksters John Carradine and George Zucco. The use of a television like device to see what's going on outside Lugosi's lair is just one of the ingenious plot points that helps you forgive the lameness of the story. There's a wonderful twist in the very last minutes of the film that is hysterically funny.

Sadly the days when a lone, mad scientist, toiling in the basement of his sinister mansion, could perform miracles over life and death with just a few test tubes and pulsing lights, without thought of glory or patent rights, have been curtailed by the corporate monopoly of science; the simple human desire to revivify the dead, trumped by the thirst for profit. Happily, voodoo has, thus far, eluded the grasping grip of greed (ouch!) and retained its humble individuality.Voodoo Man returns us to that simpler time when science and magic worked hand in hand. It is another absurd poverty-row horror, filmed in seven days, in case you can't tell, by Bill "One-Shot" Beaudine for Sam Katzman's Monogram Pictures. Lugosi plays Marlowe, another mad scientist with another ailing wife. Indeed this wife is rather more than ailing: for 28 years she has been dead, but not in the sense we understand the word, of course. He tries to reanimate her by transferring to her the life force of abducted female motorists. Marlowe has some impressive technology – an impressive surveillance system, a car disabling ray, and some weird wife maintenance machinery. Still, he isn't one of those finicky skeptics who practice science nowadays. Like the alchemist, he recognizes the potential to improve scientific outcomes by utilizing magic.This film is sensationally silly especially given the quality of the cast. This may not be Lugosi's most absurd role; unfortunately, the same can't be said for Carradine and Zucco. Carradine plays Toby, Marlowe's jogging, dimwitted henchman, who kidnaps women and doubles as Marlowe's percussion section. His bizarre performance is only over-cast by Zucco who plays Nicholas, gas station proprietor and voodoo priest. Zucco usually brings an air of dignity to the foolish roles he plays but this one is beyond him. While Toby bashes a bongo, Nicholas, in a cheap college gown and "Phyllis Diller wig," chants gibberish at a piece of string in the name of Ramboonya who is, apparently, all powerful. And, to be fair, Nicholas is getting results until meddling relatives and policemen interfere with the ceremonies.This film has remained too obscure and deserves a far greater audience. Amazing stuff.

Odd ball horror film, I think its a horror film, starring Bela Lugosi as a doctor trying to resurrect his dead ("not in the way you know death") wife. To that end he kidnaps women who pass by his home on the way to Twin Falls. Aided and abetted by legends John Carradine and George Zucco Lugosi is trying to use a weird form of voodoo to bring his lady back. Into the mess comes a screenwriter on his way to get married who turned down a chance to write a movie based on the missing girl cases, but ends up in the middle of things when the cousin of his bride to be goes missing when she disappears after giving him a ride when he ran out of gas. I'm not making it up. Thats not even half the film. Really. As I said at the top I have no idea if this is a horror film or a comedy since much of the dialog seems to have been written with a knowing edge. You have dialog scenes that don't build plot so much as crack wise, the writer and his brides cousin for example. Its a weird sort of film that probably should not be seen any earlier than 2AM on commercial TV, thats neither good not bad but a weird mixture of the two (sort of like its mixing Horror and comedy). Give Monogram credit for turning out a film that kind of predates the madness that Ed Wood set loose upon the world. For lovers of Lugosi and those who like off the wall treasures (especially stuff that feel like a Late Late Late show movie), all others need not apply.