The Great Bela Lugosi...
by azathothpwiggins | created - 23 Oct 2022 | updated - 5 months ago | PublicThough known mostly for his particular role as the world's most recognizable vampire, Bela Lugosi had many superb roles in horror films. He even had a knack for comedy. Here are some of his finest, and not so fine, cinematic achievements. While the films weren't always masterpieces, Mr. Lugosi always managed to rise above the material...
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Dracula (1931)
Passed | 75 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula bends a naive real estate agent to his will, then takes up residence at a London estate where he sleeps in his coffin by day and searches for potential victims by night.
Directors: Tod Browning, Karl Freund | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler, David Manners, Dwight Frye
Votes: 58,614
2. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
Passed | 61 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A mad scientist seeks to mingle human blood with that of an ape, and resorts to kidnapping women for his experiments.
Director: Robert Florey | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Sidney Fox, Leon Ames, Bert Roach
Votes: 5,260
3. White Zombie (1932)
Passed | 69 min | Horror
A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.
Director: Victor Halperin | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer
Votes: 11,652
4. The Death Kiss (1932)
Passed | 75 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Murder during film shoot sparks search for a killer.
Director: Edwin L. Marin | Stars: Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Adrienne Ames, John Wray
Votes: 1,418
5. Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Passed | 70 min | Film-Noir, Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad doctor conducts ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself trapped there.
Director: Erle C. Kenton | Stars: Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams
Votes: 10,903
6. The Whispering Shadow (1933)
Passed | 225 min | Action, Crime, Family
A mysterious criminal known as The Whispering Shadow commits crimes by means of a gang he controls by television and radio rays. Jack Norton, whose brother was murdered by The Whispering ... See full summary »
Directors: Colbert Clark, Albert Herman | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Viva Tattersall, Malcolm McGregor, Henry B. Walthall
Votes: 242
7. Night of Terror (1933)
Approved | 65 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The heirs to a family fortune are required to attend a seance at the spooky old family mansion. However, throughout the night members of the family are being killed off one by one.
Director: Benjamin Stoloff | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford, Sally Blane, Bryant Washburn
Votes: 790
8. Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Passed | 60 min | Horror, Mystery
When a nobleman is murdered, a professor of the occult blames vampires, but not all is what it seems.
Director: Tod Browning | Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill
Votes: 5,578
9. The Raven (1935)
Approved | 61 min | Crime, Horror
A brilliant surgeon with a morbid obsession for instruments of torture grows dangerously obsessed with a young socialite whose life he's saved.
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lester Matthews, Irene Ware
Votes: 6,649
10. Murder by Television (1935)
Passed | 53 min | Mystery, Thriller
James Houghland, inventor of a new method by which television signals can be instantaneously sent anywhere in the world, refuses to sell the process to television companies, who then send ... See full summary »
Director: Clifford Sanforth | Stars: Bela Lugosi, June Collyer, Huntley Gordon, George Meeker
Votes: 766
11. Phantom Ship (1935)
Approved | 62 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
During a horrific storm at sea, the crew realizes that there is a murderer among them who is killing them off one by one.
Director: Denison Clift | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Shirley Grey, Arthur Margetson, Edmund Willard
Votes: 1,051
12. The Invisible Ray (1935)
Approved | 80 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist becomes murderous after discovering, and being exposed to the radiation of, a powerful new element called Radium X.
Director: Lambert Hillyer | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Frank Lawton
Votes: 3,030
13. Shadow of Chinatown (II) (1936)
Approved | 71 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Feature version of the 1936 serial "Shadow of Chinatown."
Director: Robert F. Hill | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Bruce Bennett, Joan Barclay, Luana Walters
Votes: 170
14. The Phantom Creeps (1939)
Approved | 265 min | Action, Family, Horror
A military intelligence officer and a pretty reporter try to find a scientist whose inventions can destroy the world.
Directors: Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Robert Kent, Dorothy Arnold, Edwin Stanley
Votes: 1,120
15. Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Returning to the ancestral castle long after the death of the monster, the son of Dr. Frankenstein meets a mad shepherd who is hiding the comatose creature. To clear the family name, he revives the creature and tries to rehabilitate him.
Director: Rowland V. Lee | Stars: Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill
Votes: 11,690
16. The Human Monster (1939)
Approved | 73 min | Drama, Horror
Insurance agent-physician collects on policies of men murdered by a disfigured resident of the home for the blind where he acts as doctor-on-call.
Director: Walter Summers | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Hugh Williams, Greta Gynt, Edmon Ryan
Votes: 1,528
17. Black Friday (1940)
Approved | 70 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Dr. Sovac transplants the brain of a gangster into his professor friend's body to save his life, but there is a side effect that causes a dangerous split personality.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Stanley Ridges, Anne Nagel
Votes: 2,878
18. The Devil Bat (1940)
Approved | 68 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad scientist develops an aftershave lotion that causes his gigantic bats to kill anyone who wears it.
Director: Jean Yarbrough | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, Dave O'Brien, Guy Usher
Votes: 3,446
19. Invisible Ghost (1941)
Passed | 64 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
The town's leading citizen becomes a homicidal maniac after his wife deserts him.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, John McGuire, Clarence Muse
Votes: 2,592
20. The Black Cat (1941)
Passed | 70 min | Comedy, Mystery
Elderly Henrietta Winslow lives in an isolated mansion with her housekeeper and beloved cats. As her health fails, her greedy relatives gather in anticipation of her death.
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 2,082
21. Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Approved | 65 min | Horror, Comedy
The boys are stranded in a small rural town, they hear about a "monster killer" roaming the countryside. At night, they sneak out. Peewee is shot by a grave-digger, and they are forced to seek aid at an old mansion.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall
Votes: 1,830
22. The Wolf Man (1941)
Passed | 70 min | Horror, Mystery, Romance
Larry Talbot returns to his father's castle in Wales and meets a beautiful woman. One fateful night, Talbot escorts her to a local carnival where they meet a mysterious gypsy fortune teller.
Director: George Waggner | Stars: Claude Rains, Warren William, Lon Chaney Jr., Ralph Bellamy
Votes: 30,695
23. The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
Passed | 67 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Dr. Frankenstein's plans to replace the brain of his monster are hijacked by his scheming and malevolent assistant Ygor.
Director: Erle C. Kenton | Stars: Cedric Hardwicke, Lon Chaney Jr., Ralph Bellamy, Lionel Atwill
Votes: 7,096
24. The Corpse Vanishes (1942)
Passed | 64 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A scientist, aided by an old hag and her two sons, kills virginal brides, steals their bodies, and extracts gland fluid to keep his ancient wife alive and young.
Director: Wallace Fox | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin, Elizabeth Russell
Votes: 3,511
25. Night Monster (1942)
Passed | 73 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Kurt Ingston, a rich recluse, invites the doctors who left him a hopeless cripple to his desolate mansion in the swamps as one by one they meet horrible deaths.
Director: Ford Beebe | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Leif Erickson, Irene Hervey
Votes: 1,854
26. Bowery at Midnight (1942)
Approved | 61 min | Crime, Thriller
Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Bela Lugosi uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders.
Director: Wallace Fox | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal
Votes: 1,233
27. The Ape Man (1943)
Passed | 64 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A crazed scientist accidentally turns himself into a half ape, half human creature, and scrambles to find a cure.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford, Henry Hall
Votes: 1,505
28. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Passed | 74 min | Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The resurrected Wolf Man, seeking a cure for his malady, enlists the aid of a mad scientist, who claims he will not only rid the Wolf Man of his nocturnal metamorphosis, but also revive the frozen body of Frankenstein's inhuman creation.
Director: Roy William Neill | Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Ilona Massey, Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill
Votes: 9,956
29. Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
Approved | 67 min | Comedy
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 1,536
30. The Return of the Vampire (1943)
Not Rated | 69 min | Drama, Horror
When an errant bomb unearths the coffin of a vampire during the London Blitz, a gravedigger unknowingly reanimates the monster by removing the stake from his heart
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Frieda Inescort, Nina Foch, Roland Varno
Votes: 2,743 | Gross: $1.09M
31. Voodoo Man (1944)
Approved | 62 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
Dr. Richard Marlowe uses a combination of voodoo and hypnosis in an attempt to revive his dead wife by transferring the life essences of several hapless young girls he has kidnapped and imprisoned in the dungeon beneath his mansion.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, Wanda McKay
Votes: 1,185
32. Return of the Ape Man (1944)
Approved | 60 min | Horror
A scientist seeks to transplant a brain into the body of a thawed caveman in order to get it to do his bidding.
Director: Phil Rosen | Stars: Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, Frank Moran
Votes: 428
33. One Body Too Many (1944)
Approved | 75 min | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
An insurance salesman arrives at a creepy mansion to discover his potential eccentric millionaire client already dead. Instead he gets embroiled in a house full of greedy, murderous relatives competing for the inheritance.
Director: Frank McDonald | Stars: Jack Haley, Jean Parker, Bela Lugosi, Blanche Yurka
Votes: 1,568
34. The Body Snatcher (1945)
Approved | 78 min | Horror, Thriller
A ruthless doctor and his young prize student find themselves continually harassed by their murderous supplier of illegal cadavers.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater
Votes: 10,189
35. Zombies on Broadway (1945)
Approved | 69 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Two bumbling press agents must search for a zombie to fulfill a commitment to their ex-gangster boss's new nightclub or face the consequences.
Director: Gordon Douglas | Stars: Wally Brown, Alan Carney, Bela Lugosi, Anne Jeffreys
Votes: 876
36. Scared to Death (1946)
Approved | 65 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
From a slab in the morgue, a dead young woman tells the bizarre tale of how she got there, through a maze of murder involving a hypnotist, a midget and a mysterious figure in a green mask.
Director: Christy Cabanne | Stars: Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Molly Lamont, Nat Pendleton
Votes: 1,772
37. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Not Rated | 83 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
The Wolf Man tries to warn a dimwitted porter that Dracula wants his brain for Frankenstein monster's body.
Directors: Charles Barton, Walter Lantz | Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi
Votes: 19,563 | Gross: $4.80M
38. Vampire Over London (1952)
Not Rated | 74 min | Comedy, Horror
The mysterious figure known as the Vampire comes to England to complete experiments in his mad bid to gain control of the world. When the radar-controlled Robot which he had ordered shipped... See full summary »
Director: John Gilling | Stars: Arthur Lucan, Bela Lugosi, Dora Bryan, Philip Leaver
Votes: 983
39. Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952)
Not Rated | 74 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Two goofy entertainers meet a mad scientist on a jungle island.
Director: William Beaudine | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Duke Mitchell, Sammy Petrillo, Charlita
Votes: 2,618
40. Glen or Glenda (1953)
PG | 65 min | Drama
A psychiatrist tells the stories of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda) and a pseudohermaphrodite (Alan or Anne).
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Edward D. Wood Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lyle Talbot, Timothy Farrell
Votes: 9,188
41. Bride of the Monster (1955)
Passed | 69 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A mad doctor attempts to create atomic supermen.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King
Votes: 7,644
42. The Black Sleep (1956)
Not Rated | 82 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Sir Joel Cadman, a mad scientist, kidnaps his victims and cuts open their brains in an effort to discover a means to cure his wife's brain tumor.
Director: Reginald Le Borg | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine
Votes: 2,038
43. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Not Rated | 79 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
Evil aliens attack Earth and set their terrible "Plan 9" into action. As the aliens resurrect the dead of the Earth, the lives of the living are in danger.
Director: Edward D. Wood Jr. | Stars: Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore
Votes: 40,401
44. You'll Find Out (1940)
Approved | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
The manager of Kay Kyser's band books them for a birthday party bash for an heiress at a spooky mansion, where sinister forces try to kill her.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Kay Kyser, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi
Votes: 1,451
Tell Your Friends