If you can look beyond the unnecessarily opaque plot and poor quality production The Corpse Vanishes comes across as one of Lugosi’s better offerings of this period and actually turns out to be a respectable enough little movie.
Like a lot of Monogram films, the need to add horror to what is essentially a simple murder mystery results in some pretty far fetched and clichéd developments along the way. We never find out why or how Dr. Lorenz has managed to persuade a family of misfits to help him in his dastardly schemes, or precisely what condition is afflicting his wife and leading him to kidnap young virgins to extract their ‘glands’. In this way it resembles Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, which was also premised on the notion that if you stuck Bela Lugosi into a laboratory with a few freakish henchmen and some impressive looking electrodes then anything was plausible. The result is that we are left more confused than scared, though this never detracts from the pace of the film in any major way. In fact, it is at its most effective in the second half when it reverts back to a standard murder mystery and the clash of wills between Lugosi and Luana Walters (excellent as the plucky cub reporter Pat Hunter) and the ‘horror’ of the situation is pushed into the background.
A couple of other things stand out too. The idea of someone’s ‘glands’ being extracted for the medical treatment of others-and the morality of doing it- is an increasingly contemporary issue so the film has a certain freshness about it. Also, Lugosi is not left to carry the film by himself and Luana Walters matches him all the way, with Tristram Coffin (seriously), Elizabeth Russell and Minerva Urecal all excellent in support. All in all a respectable and entertaining offering.
Great blog. I am a big horror fan. I have linked to you on my site. I would recommend and 1960s film called The Bad Seed.