Bela Lugosi in color! Lugosi's only color film is a terrible film, but ever since Martin Landau's touching performance as Lugosi in "Ed Wood," I can't help but read into these terrible Lugosi film a kind of tragic subtext. Here's a great actor hobbled by addiction having to waste his talents in embarrassingly bad low budget horror films that capitalize on his early career successes. The story here follows a young woman who's been murdered and who then recounts the events leading up to her demise, which involve a creepy hypnotist, Lugosi, and his loyal dwarf man-servant, Angelo Rossitto of "Freaks" fame who himself was a talented actor hobbled by typecasting. Besides Lugosi and Rossitto, there's also Nat Pendleton, who's not a famous actor, but who's face and voice any classic film fan will recognize. Overall, this film isn't as bad an an Edward D. Wood Jr. production, but it doesn't seem that far off.

The corpse of a woman laying on the morgue slab tells of how she came to die—a tale of murder, mystery, a maniac in a mask, and a mischievous midget (played by Angelo Rossitto of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, who is technically a dwarf, but that wouldn't have suited my alliteration).Bored to Death would be the obvious way to summarise this creaky Bela Lugosi clunker, except that it isn't really THAT boring, merely extremely underwhelming. The film features many of the elements that go to make the 'old, dark house'-style comedy thriller genre so much fun (except that the house in question isn't dark, it's actually well lit), but it still fails to provide a good time thanks to a very convoluted plot that takes a long time to reach an inevitable conclusion (the title is a massive spoiler). The film also suffers from broad performances that border on the embarrassing (there's more ham on display than at the deli counter in Waitrose) and very little in the way of genuine scares or laughs.

Scared to Death (1947) ** (out of 4)A dead woman (Molly Lamont) is laid out at the morgue and then tells us how she ended up there. Through flashbacks we learn about a strange doctor (George Zucco), a nutty detective (Nat Pendleton) and a mysterious man (Bela Lugosi) and his dwarf assistant (Angelo Rossitto),SCARED TO DEATH is best remembered today for being the only color film to star Lugosi. That's not 100% true since he appeared in a 1930 film that was in color but I believe the color version is lost. He was also in a WWII short that was in color but if you're wanting lead material Lugosi in color then this here is it. Sadly the film itself really isn't all that good, although there are a few interesting moments they just never really come together.The biggest problem with the film is that it really doesn't make too much sense. I've seen the movie several times in my life and its story just never really played out too well and it seems that everything was just thrown together to get to a conclusion. Another problem is that the idea of a corpse telling us their story just doesn't make much sense either and especially since there's so much here that the corpse, when alive, wouldn't have known about. Perhaps that's putting too much logic into a B movie?The one saving grace is the good cast, which includes Lugosi getting to play it up. I must admit that it's pretty neat getting to see him in color and I'll also add that his persona just doesn't seem as good as it does in B&W. I don't know, there's just something about Lugosi that screams for B&W. He has some good moments with dwarf Rossitto; the two had previously worked together in THE CORPSE VANISHES. I also liked Zucco and Pendleton but neither one gives too much of an effort.Another major problem with the film is that the "victim" is so hated that you really don't care what happened to her as you're happy that it happened. This works against the picture but if you're a fan of the cast then SCARED TO DEATH is still worth watching.

If Bela Lugosi weren't in "Scared to Death," I would probably have skipped it. As it is, the producers used the "Dracula" star simply as a red herring. He shows up at a doctor's office with a dwarf and lurks mysteriously in the shadows and shrubs. The action focuses on a girl named Laura who is married to the son of the doctor (George Zucco), but she acts like she is a hostage in the house. Most of everything that we learn about Laura occurs as a result of her memories of the past. What makes "Scared to Death" such an oddball opus is that Laura narrates the film from the slab of an autopsy room. Exactly why she undertakes this task is anybody's guess. Not surprisingly, she died--as we discover in the final quarter of the film because she saw a man who she believed was dead, shot by the Nazis. The final five minutes unloads a treasure trove of exposition and revelations that you are not prepared for during the previous 50 minutes. The story unfolds at the doctor's office as Professor Leonide shows up with his dwarf Indigo. Pay close attention to the first few minutes after the autopsy room. Lugosi is appropriately flamboyant while Zucco is all business. About half-way through the story, a wisecracking reporter, Terry, shows up with his future wife. Nat Pendleton is amusing as a cop who is no longer on the force. "Scared to Death" is a low-budget epic shot in color.