Don't Go Into The Lightning Bug's Lair #12: Don’t Scream, Doris Mays (1965)

I can see you haven’t heeded the creepy, crazy old man’s warning when he told you, “Don’t Go in the Lightning Bug’s Lair”, and I’m sure glad you didn’t because I have the second entry in my Halloween countdown to share with you. In the wake of Hitchcock’s Psycho, a number of films took a similar tact to try and cash in on the serial killer motif. William Castle even went to the well twice with his features Homicidal and Straight Jacket, both spins on the loose psychological theorizing that had tied up Hitch’s film so neatly. Castle wasn't the only one to see potential, and in 1965, John Bushelman, an editor with limited film experience, undertook a script from a first time screenwriter that took one of the major elements of Norman Bates’ mental problems and, by way of Ed Wood, filtered it into a film known as Day of the Nightmare. For the purposes of this list though, I’m going to talk about it under its alternate title which was used as it barnstormed around the country from drive in to drive in, and that title was Don’t Scream, Doris Mays.

Why (TRASH CINEMA) Matters by Justin Oberholtzer, the Cinemasochist

Ever hear of the old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" That easily applies to film. While film scholars will dissect and gush over the classics and arthouse cinema (and rightfully so), they're completely missing the trash cinema market. They view it as just that, trash, and don't give it a second thought. Sure, quite a few films in the subgenre warrant a brush under the rug. But, others boast an almost innocent passion to them that can't be matched by upper tier titles.

Take for instance the creativity at hand in a trash film. Usually, these films will exist in their own universe, not adhering to standard practices. This adds a layer of inventiveness that can make one's imagination run wild. This could be good enough, but even some grindhouse flicks have a clever, underlying message (the anti-drug message in "Coffy" springs to mind). Not that it's necessary. Bringing joy to an audience is just as important, if not more so, than having a profound message.

Even the truly awful films matter!

Deadly Doll's Choice: The Manitou (1978)

We've all had those days. The no good, very bad days where we wished we stayed in bed. Those days when nothing goes right. Waking up late, missing your ride, and spilling coffee are all terrible ways for your morning to start, but is anything worse than the kind of day where you feel like a powerful Native American shaman is growing in a tumor in your back and preparing to burst forth on an unsuspecting world? Those are really, really the worst, but you know what's the best, Emily from The Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense. Over the past few years, these movie swaps between the Deadly Doll and I have resulted in some of the strangest flicks I've ever seen, some real gems, my top trafficked review of all time, and some excruciating cinema that was painful to watch. No matter how I felt about the individual films, I always enjoy Emily's picks as they are often outside of my comfort zone. This month, however, she threw me a softball. Sure, she picked something bad, but I'm talking about some classic awfulness, the kind of stuff that would make Ed Wood, Jr. say, "Hey, that's great." It was the particular flavor of terrible that caused me to fall in love with cult cinema so many years ago, and, despite it's infamous reputation, I somehow had never seen it. So join me for this edition of The Deadly Doll's choice where someone is about to have the kind of terrible day I mentioned earlier when a Hollywood legend tangles with The Manitou.

Dollar Dealicious: Sisters of Death (1977)

Heya folks, it's the Bug back again to bring you another fine flick that  wont make your pocketbook get sick. That's right it's Dollar Deals time again. This month, as you all know because you would never miss a day at the Lair, I'm covering films from the value priced Horrorlicious box set, and with only two more weeks to go I can heartily say that I've really enjoyed this set. Tonight's film only strengthens that feeling as we unravel a tale, not of the Brothers of Dismay, The Uncles of Woe, or The Cousins Twice Removed of Pain, but of the....

Sisters of Death (1977) starring Claudia Jennings, Cheri Howell, Sherry Boucher, Paul Carr, Joe E. Tata, Sherri Alberoni. Roxxanne Albee, and Arthur Franz. Directed by Joseph Mazzuca. 

Judy (Jennings) and her friend Liz Clyborn are being inducted into a group called "The Sisters", and the final step of the initiation calls for them to have a gun pointed to their head and the trigger pulled. The gun is loaded with a dummy bullet, and it's not supposed to fire. Everything goes fine as Judy takes her turn, but when the gun is turned on Liz, it goes off killing her instantly. 

Seven years later, and the sisters have long since parted ways. Judy is living the good life and had designs on the handsome son of the Governor, but when she receives a mysterious invitation to a reunion of "The Sisters", she heads out warily, haunted by their deadly past. The other four girls, speed demon Francie (Alberoni); hippy chick Penny (Albee); the hitch hiking Diana (Howell); and bitchy Sylvia (Boucher), all arrive at an inn. There they meet up with Mark and Joey (Carr and Tata), two men sent to pick up the girls and take them to "their final destination." After an hour's drive, they arrive at a large house out in the country where the men drop them off. 

The women find the house supplied with rooms for each of them, fine drink, and food, and they begin to start partying. Mark and Joey spy on the girls from a distance, and finally decide to crash the festivities. The guys hop and fence and sneak their way up to the house. After a cool reception from Sylvia, the other girls show up and the party really gets going. The next morning the girls awaken and each of them finds a picture of poor dead Liz in their rooms. 

They soon find themselves prisoner in the house, and even the fence around the property has become electrified. When their host unexpectedly reveals himself, it is in the guise of none other than Liz's father (Franz). He believes his daughter was murdered, and he calmly announces that he plans to avenge her death and uncover the truth. As he makes good on his promise, the group bands together to find a means of escape. Yet secrets run deep in "The Sisters". A traitor walks among them, and the truth must come out. 

Film Facts

--Joe E. Tata would later come to another kind of cult fame as Peach Pit's very own Nat on Beverly Hills 90210 and even now is reprising that role in the 2008 spin off/remake, the more briefly named, 90210.

--Sherri Albertini joined the cast of  The Mickey Mouse Club at age nine, and would go on to appear in many TV shows as she grew up. She has a reoccurring role on the series Family Affair for many years, and would go on to be the voice of Wendy on The Super Friends and Alexandra Cabot on Josie and the Pussycats. 

--Claudia Jennings was the Playmate of the Year in 1970. She also appeared in many genre films such as Unholy Rollers (1972) and Gator Bait (1974), and she was also considered for Kate Jackson's role on Charlie's Angels. Tragically she died in an auto accident in 1979.

--Sisters of Death was filmed in 1972, but didn't get a release for 5 more years. 

The Bug Speaks

You may well have already guessed that I enjoyed this film, and you would be correct. It had a ton of great things going for it, and for me, this was one of those films where the things that detract from it, only serve to enhance. At the core of this film is the story, and while simple and a tad overdone, it is played out quite well. There are tons of movies with the "Ten Little Indians" premise, but coming though the filter of a film that seems like the bastard child of the grindhouse and the Movie of the Week, something original manages to fall out despite itself. 

The acting, well, let's just say it varies. Roxanne Albee's flaky Penny and Cheri Howell as Diana are probably the two worst performances turned in, but thankfully neither of them holds the screen very long. Claudia Jennings' Judy is well played, and the actress put enough in the role to be able to pull off a few deft twists in her story arc. I really liked the performances of Paul Carr and Joe E. Tata as the accidental henchmen/heroes. Carr came off a bit like a cut rate David Soul (of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) , but when his hero guy potential gets going, he was really fun to watch. Tata on the other hand was more of the comic relief, and his suave '70's guy swagger made his turn as Joey come alive. 

The strongest actor in the film was by far Arthur Franz. As the vengeful father with his wild hair and manic looking eyes, he chewed up the scenery every time he stepped into a frame. Just watching him in his attic as he fashioned his own bullets becomes a study in how to make a minor character the lead role. It should be no surprise if you happen to see this film and recognize his face. He worked steadily as a character actor for over 30 years starting in movies like Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man and The Caine Mutiny(1954). He had over 135 credits to his name by the time he made Sisters of Death, and this was a man who knew how to make the small role big. He would have a few more roles until retiring in 1982, and he would later pass away in 2006 at the ripe old age of 86.

Now that I've gushed about the acting and the story let's get to the portion of the film that really brought it all together for me. It was made pretty dang poorly. The cinematographer, Grady Martin, only shot this one picture, and this was the only theatrical release film for director Mazzuca (who went on to be a production manager in the animation world working on She-ra, Muppet Babies, and Dexter's Laboratory.) The visual style of the film is quite a mess, but somewhere between the wildly sweeping shots, the boom being in the frame, and some rather rough edits, there is a charm in it's 16mm muddiness. It's not a film you're going to put on if you want to sit back and absorb the wonders of cinema. It's one you're going to watch and it'll make you wonder what is going on with it, but in a good way. 

This is a film that will not please lots of folks. From the production to the product itself, it lacks a couple key elements that usually add to the appeal of a movie of this ilk. There is precious little in the way of blood spilled with only the shooting at the beginning and one other murder yielding the red stuff, and there is only the promise of nudity that goes unfulfilled. For what it lacks, it still delivers you a maniac with a Gatling gun, a tarantula full of Cool Whip, a veritable parade of questionable '70's style, and an ending that twists literally up until the last frame. So check it out folks, and let me know what you think of what these twisted sisters (sorry, it was too easy to pass up) have in store for you. 

Bug Rating

No trailer I'm afraid, but here's the opening three minutes of the film.

Dollar Deals: King of the Zombies (1941)

Sometimes a movie in and of itself is not very good, but the characters or actors in it elevate the material. The skill of some actors to work beyond the lines they are given is often key to a film. This is the way I have often heard people speak of actors like Brando or Pacino. However I believe that lesser known character actors are usually the ones who really breathe life into the little unrewarding and often demeaning roles they are given. This film surely has a great example of one of those actors, and his performance alone is worth well more than the dollar I spent on this DVD, but I don't want to get to into that just yet because first I must tell you about the...

King of the Zombies (1941) starring Dick Purcell, Henry Victor, Mantan Moreland, Joan Woodbury, and John Arthur. Directed by Jean Yarbrough.



Bill Summers (Arthur) Jack McCarthy (Purcell), and Jack's valet Jeff (Moreland) are on a mission to locate a missing Navy Admiral when their plane crashes on a mysterious island. With no way to escape they seek refuge in the home of Austrian doctor Miklos Sangre (Victor). Jeff keeps having strange occurrences around the house including a run in with zombie slaves, but his employer dismisses Jeff as being hopelessly paranoid.



Deep in the night, after a spectral visitor convinces them that Jeff is telling the truth, the two men explore the house and Bill gets attacked by a zombie. The next day they go back to the wreckage of the plane to salvage the radio, but find it has been stolen in the night. With no way off the island, they are at the mercy of the doctor who seems to be using voodoo and hypnosis to aid an enemy of the United States.

Film Facts

--The role of Miklos Sangre was first offered to Bela Lugosi. When he proved to be unavailable, their second choice was Peter Lorre. After that fell through it was eventually given to Henry Victor who had portrayed the strongman in Tod Browning's Freaks.

--Produced before the start of WW II, it never the less hinted to the foreign power that the mad doctor was working for to be Germany.

The Bug Speaks

This movie in and of itself is a fairly average affair. In fact the same year it was produced gave birth to classics like Citizen Kane and The Wolf Man. So King of the Zombies was in no danger of winning any accolades (that is except the music which was Oscar nominated.) The plot is thin but fun, and it's always nice to kick back with a good old fashioned voodoo zombie flick. It was kind of funny when the evil doctor admonished the men that "Zombies do not eat meat." Ahh, how times have changed.

How times have changed indeed. That is what I really want to talk about tonight. While the performances in the movie are very textbook the actor that truly rises above the pedestrian material is Mantan Moreland. While his role is seeped in stereotype and shades of the old Stepin Fetchit type routine, he manages to make his character both the only person with any sense and the only relatable character.

Mantan had been performing in films for years by the time he made this one. He starred in many of the Charlie Chan movies (themselves a bastion on stereotypes) as Chan's chauffeur. He would go on to appear in movie and TV work until 1973 and for genre audiences he might be most recognizable from his bit part in 1958's Spider Baby. He was a comic genius who's prime era of work was marred by the institutionalized racism that was inherent in his parts. (For anyone with doubts about his comic prowess let me say that none other than Moe Howard considered him for inclusion in the Stooges after the departure of Shemp.)

In King of the Zombies, Mantan truly becomes the main character whether that was

intended to be the case of not. He delivers his lines with great aplomb and timing. My favorite include when Mantan hears far off voodoo drums one one of his companions asks "What is that?" to which Mantan replies "I dunno, but it wasn't Gene Krupa." and "If there's one thing I don't want to be twice, zombies is both of them." Naturally to a politically correct modern ear, these lines seem callus when delivered in the exaggerated tone popularized by actors like Moreland and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson.

While we look down upon these roles now, they were roles that actors like Moreland pioneered before black audiences and portrayed in films featuring all black casts, and they don't seem so far removed from performances like Chis Tucker in Rush Hour or Richard Pryor in movies like The Toy.

Mantan was an actor taking the parts he could get and making the most of them, and in this film he really achieved that. The era it came from was full of injustices and shameful acts, but here was a performer who did not stoop to get a role. Instead he got the role and brought the whole film up to his level. So while I'm not going to rate this movie unbelievably high because it's really not that good a film (though pretty entertaining and at 67 minutes a perfect running time), I do recommend it to anyone who wants to see an unsung genius work the screen. This film is well worth a buck if you can find it, and if not it is available on the Internet Archive here for free download.

The Bug Rating

No trailer, but here's a clip featuring Mantan Morland and his first encounter with zombies.

Conrad Brooks Double Feature!

The role of of Patrolman Jamie in Plan 9 From Outer Space is probably not the most auspicious way to begin a career. It's your first time out of the gate, and you're already in "the worst movie ever made". Flash forward to 1988 and you get yourself a bit part in a real contender for "worst movie". Then onto 2003 and you play opposite Brinke Stevens in a movie where Tom Savini is Jesus Christ. What actor could even endure such a career? The one and only actor from the Ed Wood playhouse Conrad Brooks. And so Conrad, this is your life..... or perhaps just a review of two films from your life that coincidentally have you in them in a minor role. Either way Conrad, here's to you!

We'll start off here in 1988 with a little something called....

Curse of the Queerwolf (1988) starring Michael Palazzolo, Kent Butler, and Taylor Whitney. Directed by Mark Pirro. 

Well, then. In a nutshell here's how it goes. Stop me if you've heard this one. The feared Dickenthrope stalks the night, and if it happens to bite you,well, you turn into a Dickenthrope as well. That is until someone kills you with a silver dildo in your ass. That is the fate of Larry Smallbut. After picking up a couple of girls at a bar, Larry and his swinging single friend Richard Cheese. (Yes, Richard Cheese) retire to Richard's place. While things go wild but well for Richard, Larry finds an unwanted surprise in his gal. Seems she is a queerwolf and she bites Larry on his ass. Larry's world spirals into craziness as each full moon he could change. The change into the queerwolf is kind of disappointing as I was assuming it would be a gay werewolf, but it turns out its more like a change into the worst Rocky Horror costumes ever.

The idea had some potential for laughs and it gave some up. I really enjoyed the torch bearing mob that really took their torches seriously. (I mean when you bring one in the car with you; then you mean business.) The angry mob was portrayed as simple, stupid, and buffoonish, but at the same time Larry doesn't learn anything from his plight except that a John Wayne amulet can keep him from turning. It's a movie of its time definitely set out to exploit and it does so to varying degrees of entertainment. Alright for a watch, but I wouldn't go so far as to recommend it.

Right about now you might be saying "What about Conrad Brooks?" Well Conrad had a bit role in this one as one of Richard Cheese's patients. Richard is an aversion therapy doctor who always seems to accidentally avert people all the way to death.  Forrest Ackerman also makes a cameo as another one of the patients.

Bug Rating: Queerwolf

And so now we bravely flash forward to the future from then,  to the past of now, and to the now of then and here we go....

Zombiegeddon (2003) starring Ari Bavel, Joe Estevez,  and Paul Darrigo. Directed by Chris Watson.

The film opens up on a hotel bedroom and Tom Savini and Brinke Stevens in bed. Tom is , of course, playing Jesus Christ, and it seems he's just gotten his favorite kind of sex "The kind you don't have to pay for." He tries to get Brinke to say around the room for a while, but she has to get to her job as a radio DJ. She has an interview lined up today with Dean Martinson from the community college (Played of course by our man Brooks), but she's fed up with that news and soon begins recounting the story of how the world might end in three days as told to her by a man who said he was Jesus Christ.

The first forty five minutes to an hour of this movie are a rambling mess so I'll sum it us as fast as I can. Two cops, both dirty, three kids in a college  bookstore, Lloyd Kaufman as a janitor, and the Lord of Zombies awaiting world takeover. Seems zombies are the devil's race of men and they have always been among us, and they can only be defeated by a line of holy warriors of which there is only one. 

A Special Message from the Lightning Bug

"I just want to take a moment to say this. If you are the last in a line of holy warriors that must protect the whole world from a invasion by the devil and zombies, then for Savini's sake have more than one kid. Sleep around a bit. I'm sure it might be frowned on in the whole holy warrior business, but seriously, get over it and get busy. OK back to your regularly scheduled review."

Right then, so it turns out that one of the crooked cops, Jeffery, is the last of the line, and it's all up  to this dipstick so save humanity. Zombie killing at the college campus ensues and the dirty fuzz are called. One of the best scenes in the film is a fight between the dirty cops and king fu zombies, but after that it spirals downhill again with more jokes and more fighting leading to the inevitable showdown between Jeff and the Lord of the Zombies.

Now was this movie any good. Well, it has a disclaimer on the front of the movie in the form of Uwe Boll saying not to watch it, which in and of itself seems to be an endorsement to do just the opposite, but you never know what's going on with Uwe. (I've seen somewhere that House of the Dead is being released in a "funny version") For my taste, the jokes are not that funny and the whole first half rambles too much and too long to have any kind of coherency, but at the same time,  I never felt that I wasn't entertained. The cameos are good to look for, but some, like Ron Jeremy as a voice on Brinke Stevens' radio show, don't really become obvious without a close inspection of the credits. Overall, a fun distraction with very little meat on it's bones, and you know that doesn't make for happy zombies.

Bug Rating: Zombiegeddon

And so Conrad Brooks. We here at the Lightning Bug's Lair and all the Moonies everywhere salute you. You have devoted your life's work to keeping up the fine standards of Edward Wood, and providing the world with some new "worst movies ever" to add to our lists. 

It's Like Heavy Man, Ya Dig.

Disclaimer: The Lightning Bug in no way advocates the use of illicit films for recreational use. All films prescribed by the Bug have been tested on willing moon subjects and approved for the general consumption. Also please stay away from the brown laser disks. That is all.

Whew, glad that out of the way. Good evening moonies. Tonight's  film features the heavy use of drugs. That's right the Bug's in the drugs, can you dig it! It comes from an era of peace and love in 1968 when you had to wear flowers in your hair and people thought you might just be able to smoke banana peels. The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album had just been released, and kids everywhere were tuning in, turning on, and dropping out. I suppose a good many of them were also dropping in... to the local theater that is, and the king of B-Movies, Roger Corman wanted to turn the kids on to this flick.

The Trip (1968) starring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and Dennis Hopper. Directed by Roger Corman.

Yes everything is groovy in 1968, well, almost everything. Seems commercial director Paul Groves (Fonda) is unhappy with his life. His wife is divorcing him and he's looking all around for meaning. So he goes to his friend John (Bruce Dern) to hook him up with some LSD which John does by getting it from Max (Dennis Hopper). They go back to John's place, and Paul drops his acid and lays back blindfolded as pretty colors swirl all around his eyes. Its getting to be a pretty groovy place in here. John is Paul's babysitter. He serves him drinks and gives him oranges to play with and turns on some music for him, but Paul is not all there anymore.

Paul is having some real vivid full 3-D interactive hallucinations. He's running along a rocky beach, over sand dunes, having a psychedelic love scene, or being offered a drink by a kindly dwarf. He sees his ex-wife sometimes and often a girl, Glenn,  he met at the drug house. He comes in and out of these visions and during the out parts is where the movie actually captures some realism. Paul seems almost childlike in his wonder of the world, and also realistically John seems a bit amused by his tripping friend. Sadly those parts are few and far between, but I suppose its for the best. Having had to listen to someone on acid babble for hours, I can attest it wouldn't make a good film.

Of course, Paul's trip is not all moonbeams and rainbows and soon he hits a bad part of his trip where horse riders looking like dollar store Ringwraiths chase him into a haunted house where he discovers his body hung up inside and also seems to be burnt alive. Yeah, doesn't make much sense, but I suppose that's the point of it though. It goes on like that for ages with Dennis Hopper showing up in Paul's hallucination to judge his life and to also show Paul pictures of everyday things which Paul says makes him feel like "everything is familiar, but I feel separate." Of all the statements in the film, this one to me seems the most accurate about the depersonalizing effects of LSD.

The film drags on with Paul getting more paranoid to the point where he thinks that John has been killed and leaves the house. He wanders all over town meeting a little girl, a lady in a laundrette, and ending up in a hippy bar. From there he goes and seeks out Max who doesn't want him there since Paul thinks that the cops are after him. Soon after it ends up in a denouement that doesn't really sum anything up or provide resolution to the story.

I had looked forward for years to watch this one, and perhaps my expectations were too high. Some of the psychedelic footage was fun to look at, but there was so much of it that be became very boring. The script for the film was written by Jack Nicholson and of course in 1969 Jack, Dennis, and Peter would team up again for much better results in Easy Rider. It's an interesting drug movie in that, at the time, I don't know how many were made that didn't show drugs in a negative light (i.e. Reefer Madness). Tripping acid has been something I have seen many times in movies, and it's never able to be captured with any kind of accuracy. If you want to see a fairly interesting try, then give it a shot. It's not a bad flick, not groovy, not a bummer, just alright, man.

Bug Rating

Bela Lugosi in Living Color!

Greetings, moonies. The Bug is back and I'm bringing Bela with me, in color no less. Sorry to get any one's hopes up if you thought that Bela might have appeared as Fire Marshal Bill or on Men on Film. Sadly those tapes are lost to the ages, but one color appearance of his survived to present day, Bela only starred in one color film, but actually appeared in two. The other film Viennese Nights (1930) still survives, but the color prints do not. So if you want to see Bela outside of his usual black and white that leaves you only one choice.

Scared to Death (1947) starring Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton, and Molly Lamont. Directed by Christy Cabanne.

The story opens with a girl on a slab in a morgue and she's telling us a story. The story of her death. Seems our dead narrator, Laura (Molly Lamont), is unhappily married to Ward Van Ee and lives in a big house with him and his father the half ass scientist/psychologist Dr. Joseph Van Ee (George Zucco who also appeared in House of Frankenstein and The Mummy's Tomb among others). Well as unhappy in her marriage she won't grant Ward a divorce. Possibly because she already suffers from some sort of paranoia about something. I'd really love to be more specific, but that's about how specific the movie is.

Soon after the opening sequence and some more narration from our rigor mortised rhetorician, the Doctor is visited by Mrs. Warren who is out to blackmail the Doc over....something. Sigh, this movie is quite frustrating that way. After she is rebuffed and leaves, Professor Leonide (Bela) and his dwarven companion Indio show up to add more confusion to the mix. The Professor was once a inmate at an asylum that one was in this very house and he bully's the Doc into letting him stay. Seems the Professor has been on the road with a hypnotist act all over the world. Ward shows him a picture of a dancing duo he suspects Laura was once part of along with a man in a Green Mask. The Prof seems to have no knowledge of the duo....or does he!

It goes on and on like this for a while with red herring after red herring, and its only broken up by the slapstick comedy brought to you by the house cop Bill 'Bull' Raymond (Nat Pendleton, former Olympic wrestler and member of the cast of the Abbott and Costello classic Buck Privates) and the maid Lilly Beth (Gladys Blake). Both his bumbling attempts at keeping law and order (while wishing for a murder so he can make big at the precinct) and flirting with the maid are the highlights of this film.

As if the plot were not muddled enough, a reporter Terry Lee and his gal pal show up to investigate the goings on in the house. Why? Excellent question, but one the movies never bothers to answer. Then things really get going (well as much as ever goes on here) and Laura receives a mock up of her head in a box, the maid is found dead (late revealed to be in a hypnotic trance) with presumably a green mask on that looks quite blue, and Indigo the dwarf sneaks around for absolutely no reason.

The film rambles on and on with Bela trying his best to do what he can in his precious few moments on screen. Meanwhile the rest of the cast seem just as confused as we are. Eventually we are treated with an appearance by the Green Masked man who was Laura's old dancing partner. Seems she ratted him out to the Nazi's and he's been on her trail ever since to exact his revenge which he does in the penultimate scene when he finally scares Laura to death. He is then caught dressed up like Mrs. Warren who suddenly has a much more manly appearance.

Well, what to say about this one. Its not a complete turkey. It has it moments and some classic lines come out of Bela's mouth:

Lili Beth: I'm sorry, sir, but I really must announce you.

Leonide: My dear girl, if I allowed myself to be announced, I doubt I would be received anywhere!

and one of my favorites as he ominously intones:

Leonide: Who can ever be sure what is behind a mask?

Who indeed Bela, who indeed. Overall this is not a movie I can tell people they should run out and watch, but I was entertained by it. The plot, such as it is, will keep you on your toes following who is suspected of what at any given time, and the parts where Dead Laura talks to us while being punctuated by a moody theremin are quite odd. So watch at your own risk, but if you want to see Bela and his full color glory, check it out.

The Lightning Bug Rating