Voodoo Man

source: Voodoo Man

Forget Scream... Voodoo Man did meta-horror decades before Wes Craven's slasher classic. Horror legends John Carradine, George Zucco and Bela Lugosi play the villains of the piece, Lugosi as Dr. Richard Marlowe, who attempts to bring his dead wife back to life with help from gas station owner/voodoo man Nicholas (Zucco) and bongo playing henchman Toby (Carradine). Abducting young women, they attempt to transfer their victims' life force to the dead woman, with little success, the result being a dungeon full of 'zombie-girls' Hollywood scenario writer Ralph (Tod Andrews) becomes involved in the hunt for the missing women after his wife-to-be's maid of honour Stella Saunders (Louise Currie) also disappears. Lugosi, Carradine and Zucco ham it up a treat, clearly aware of just how cheesy the whole thing is, but despite their best efforts (Lugosi stares hypnotically, Zucco chants gibberish, and Carradine acts like a drooling simpleton), the film is still incredibly dull at times, with an uninspired script, a sluggish pace and repetitive action. What makes this one a touch more fun at times is its self-awareness: when Stella reappears, the woman in an emotionless trance, Ralph comments that she is like one of those zombies in the movies, and the film ends with the writer turning his adventure into a script, even going so far as to suggest that Bela Lugosi should be the star. It's not much, but this meta aspect makes Voodoo Man just a tad more memorable than many a poverty row horror/thriller.

The last of nine films that horror icon Bela Lugosi made for the ultra-cheap Monogram studio. It's certainly one of the more intriguing in this series, thanks to a twisted story and a cast of vintage old reliable scare men. Sneaky gas station owner Nicholas (George Zucco) steers young women down the wrong road whenever they get lost in their automobiles and require directions at his place. After sending them off on their gullible way, he hot tails it to the telephone to alert Dr. Marlowe (Lugosi) that another victim will soon arrive. The doc utilizes his dimwitted henchman Toby (John Carradine) to help kidnap the girls and take them to his basement, so Bela can place them into a trance and use them to restore life to his lovely but brain dead wife. The method is for Lugosi and Zucco to don voodoo garb and chant bizarre rites while Carradine bangs maniacally on a drum, in an effort to transfer the life spirit out of the hypnotized victims and into the doc's unresponsive spouse. Sounds like a hoot, does it not? This film got an extra boost around the time of this writing due to a wonderful newly restored Blu-ray release from Olive Films. Looking way better than ever before or than it probably deserves, this is a slight hour of absurd fun. Lugosi is restrained and has some emotional moments when caring for his wife's well being, and it is such a laugh to see Shakespearean veteran Carradine making an utter buffoon out of himself. How did he do it? Lord knows they couldn't afford to pay him enough. **1/2 out of ****.

Remember the " Mad Scientist" series of films Boris Karloff did for Columbia studios in the 1930's and 40's? Bela Lugosi did a batch of them for low budget studio Monogram in the 40's.This one is a hokey old melodrama that gets some laughs that are not always intended, and film seems to run much longer than it's just over an hour running time.Poor Bela tries, and Wanda Mckay is pretty,George Zucco spouts mumbo jumbo for most of his time on screen. As for John Carradine,he realises he is in a poor potboiler and gives the performance to accompany it. it does occasionally poke fun at itself. Fair at best and that's being generous.

Like many horror films of the time period, it's all in fun and Voodoo Man is no exception. It's entertaining, good for a few giggles and, as usual, enjoyable to watch Zucco, Lugosi and Carradine on screen. Here we have Bela Lugosi as Dr. Richard Marlowe, a mad scientist of sorts, that wants to bring his long dead wife back to life. Young women are captured, hypnotized, "zombified" and kept in Marlowe's dungeon, these women are part of the plan to bring back Mrs. Marlowe. George Zucco plays the evil high voodoo priest that mumbles mumbo-jumbo, while John Carradine is the strangest character of them all - a guy that doesn't have much upstairs. Overall a really fun movie - quite enjoyable way to spend an hour with 3 great legends of horror! 8.5/10

"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.

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.

Monogram's "The Voodoo Man", which not only features George Zucco in his most demeaning, humiliating role as a voodoo priest (Ramboona never fails) but also has John Carradine as an imbecile and Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist of a sort. Bela turns in a pretty good performance as the demented doctor trying to instill life into his amazingly well preserved dead wife through the use of voodoo and some nubile Monogram starlets. Carradine is in there pitching in an embarrassing role. Zucco, as the voodoo priest, is required to wear an absurd costume and chant gibberish in most of his scenes. Being the old pro that he was, he manages to turn in a credible performance. If you are willing to look past the hokum, this isn't a bad way to pass an idle hour.

"Dr. Richard Marlowe" (Bela Lugosi) is intent upon bringing his dead wife "Evelyn" (Ellen Hall) back to life. In order to do that he resorts to voodoo which requires a young woman with similar attributes to transfer her life forces into Evelyn. Those who aren't a perfect match become zombies. At any rate, the loss of several young women in a small country area begins to trigger suspicions which flare up when one of the zombies "Stella Saunders" (Louise Currie) accidentally escapes from the house and is found wandering on the side of the road by the local sheriff. When Dr. Marlowe comes to examine her, he realizes that her best friend, "Betty Benton" (Wanda McKay) is a perfect candidate and decides that he must have her. At any rate, rather than give away any secrets I will just say that lovers of old horror movies will probably really enjoy this one as well. Granted it is clearly dated and the zombies of this era are totally dissimilar to those we typically see today. As such, it doesn't have the action or the gore that most people these days might expect. But I still found it entertaining enough and I recommend it to anyone who might be interested in an old-style zombie film.

Monogram cheapie (shot in seven days!) starring Bela Lugosi as a doctor who is kidnapping young women to use in voodoo rituals to cure his zombified wife. The things we do for love! Of the many Poverty Row movies Bela made during the 1940s, this is one of the most fun. It helps that in this one Bela has support from fellow horror legends George Zucco and John Carradine. All three contribute greatly to the unintended comedy that makes this such a silly entertaining picture. The hero of the piece is a writer played by Tod Andrews, an actor who played a lot of roles in film and television but who I best remember from an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where he played a jerk. He's kind of a jerk in this, too. There's also some fun character actors playing rubes that add to the humor. Anyway, this is worth a look for fans of Bela or those who like old mad scientist movies. It's nothing that's going to change your life but it might entertain you for an hour. Love that ending.