bifrostbear wrote:
Of the many laserdisc releases with Bela Lugosi my favorite is "The Black Cat" - a very dark film with the added plus of having Boris Karloff play opposite Lugosi.
And the laserdisc release has the advantage of being paired up with Lugosi's "The Raven" - also very dark (and also with Boris Karloff) - it is hard to say which one really is better.
After these two gems "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein" runs a somewhat distant third - but it is still a real classic.
Hi bifrostbear,
The two you mention are great choices. That is a good double feature disc to have. At the time I bought my copy, it was a somewhat hard disc to come by. I bought my copy of it used, and was very happy to have it, even though both films are slightly time-compressed. My favorite Lugosi film on laserdisc is Plan 9 From Outer Space, although he died shortly after filming started, and has no actual lines in it. All he did was cry at his wife's funeral and then get run over by a car (off-screen, though)! After that, he was replaced by Ed Wood's wife's chiropractor holding a cape over his face
! Plan 9 is my favorite film, not just for Lugosi's part in it, but because it's just so fabulously awful that I can always get a laugh from it! Tor Johnson's part in it is priceless, as is the narration by Criswell! It's hard for me to choose between those two as to which I like better!
As for more serious Lugosi films on laserdisc, the 1931 Dracula is the obvious choice. However, a few of my other favorites are White Zombie, Island of Lost Souls, and The Invisible Ray, another film he did with Karloff. I'm definitely a huge Lugosi fan, but those are a few that come to mind which I would recommend.
Best Regards,
David