The Corpse Vanishes (1942) User Reviews

The Corpse Vanishes (1942) **

[Bunuel1976 · 5/10 · 3 April 2005]

I had watched THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942) a couple of years ago but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised as to how watchable and engaging it was the second time around. Who'd have thought that such fare was worth a second look? If anything, I found CORPSE to be even livelier than GHOST (which did get to be repetitious and feel constrained by its one setting): although it is never explained why Lugosi is married to an 80-year old woman (except maybe to get into high society given that she's a "Countess") or why she needs to be youthful (it's not like she's parading her "look" anywhere except at the Lorenz household), the film offers an amusing throwback to those 30s hard-boiled reporter movies and predates such rejuvenation-themed horror movies as I VAMPIRI (1956).

I found the film to be quite atmospheric and enjoyable: it was nice to watch Lugosi surrounded by such familiar faces as Elizabeth Russell (from several Val Lewton films), Angelo Rossitto (one of Tod Browning's FREAKS [1932]) and Vince Barnett (who had a memorable supporting role in Hawks' SCARFACE [1932]) among others. That said, the campier elements of the film were sometimes too silly for words: Lugosi whipping his moronic assistant, the proverbial funereal organ-playing, the even more hilarious sight of Lugosi and Russell sleeping in coffins and the final shoot-out with the police in which, of all people, it's Lugosi's dwarfish henchman who gets it!

In the end, I guess I wouldn't mind watching Lugosi's other stuff from this period but I doubt if it will make me enough of a fan to go out and purchase them in their best available prints on DVD.

Not That Bad!

[BaronBl00d · 6/10 · 6 January 2000]

While I had pre-conceived notions of what this film would be like, I must confess that I was pleasantly surprised with this nice little old-fashioned horror story about a doctor who kidnaps "dead" brides only to remove spinal fluid in them to inject in his wife who is really 70 some odd years but looks thirtyish. Whew! Well I never said it was a great story, but it is a fine feature in which the great Lugosi can steal any scene he is in. The rest of the cast is adequate or below...some of the cast are just plain awful as with the female lead Luana Walters and the fella that plays her boss(Boy! They stink!). Yet, the story creates enough suspense to make this film very watchable and entertaining. I think the fact that it is barely over an hour in length also helps it create its zippy pacing. Minerva Urecal(from The Ape Man with Bela) and Angelo Rossitti(from Freaks) are in here, and they are fine as mysterious mother and dwarf-son Toby. The sets are pretty good considering the budget of the film and its Poverty Row Production. The fact Bela is in it is enough reason to see it, but at least with this film you get pretty good entertainment in the old traditional horror way.

Talk About Your Ambulance Chasers

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 25 June 2006]

I have enjoyed the films of Angelo Rossitto, particularly "Fairy Tales". But when Rossitto and Bela Lugosi join forces (both here and in "Scared to Death") there is an element that really sets a tone for a good eery horror film.

This film is about brides who are seemingly killed and then kidnapped so their lifeblood can keep a mad scientist's wife young. A nosy reporter, who seems to take some sick delight in getting photographs of dying brides, trails the mad scientist to his mansion and may become his next victim.

As usual, Lugosi does not disappoint. He is great as a mad scientist with his European look and accent. The supporting cast is also well chosen. While I am not familiar with them (besides Rossitto), this is not a strike against them but actually a positive sentiment. Without being known faces to me, they more successfully blended into the characters they were supposed to represent.

While not the strongest of Lugosi's films by any means, any fan would be missing out if they failed to check this one out. There is an undercurrent of black humor that keeps the film rolling and is definitely missing (unfortunately) in the films of today.

Classic Lugosi!

[Norm-30 · 22 July 1999]

Bela plays a doctor who raises orchids and gives them to girls about to be married....when they smell them, they go into a comatose state, and appear dead. Lugosi & henchmen steal the "bodies" with a hearse, and draw out the girl's spinal fluid, which is used to keep Lugosi's wife looking youthful.

This is Lugosi at his finest....and the dungeons of his home are positively creepy with Minerva Urecal and her two sons, Angelo Rossito (a dwarf) & (ex-boxer) Frank Moran. Together, with Lugosi's "wife", it makes for some nightmarish scenes.

BTW...the actress who plays Lugosi's Wife was morbidly afraid of lying in a coffin, so a "double" was used for that scene!

See It!

Bela Lugosi makes it worthwhile

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 30 October 2020]

*The Corpse Vanishes* doesn't waste any time getting down to business. Just about the first thing we see is a bride at her wedding dropping dead during the ceremony. The next thing we know, her body has been stolen away in the wrong hearse. (Important safety tip: When having cadavers taken away by hearses, ask to see the driver's identification.)

Amazingly, it turns out that this is only the latest in a series of such macabre incidents. I don't know about you, but if I were about to be married in a city where this was going on, I would probably delay my wedding (or at least hold it in another city.)

We soon learn that the dead brides are being used by Bela Lugosi as a source of something-or-other that he draws out of them with a nasty-looking syringe. This stuff then gets injected into his wife to restore her beauty; she's apparently suffering from some rapid aging disease or something.

A Spunky Girl Reporter (boy, they had a lot of them back then) finds out that all the dead brides had been given a rare orchid just before the ceremony. She then discovers that the local expert on this plant is (you guessed it) Lugosi. She winds up as an not-very-welcome guest of Bela and his wife. Their servants are an older woman and her two sons, one a dwarf and one a mute hunchback who likes to fondle the hair of the dead brides. (There's some speculation at one point that the brides are only in suspended animation, but this question is never resolved.)

*The Corpse Vanishes* is a wild bit of Grand Guignol, with all kinds of spooky stuff thrown in. We find out that Bela and his wife like to sleep in coffins. There is no explanation for this, except for the fact that they find them more comfortable. (This whole household makes the Addams Family look like the Brady Bunch.)

A couple of familiar faces other than Bela show up in this thing. The dwarf is played by Angelo Rossitto, who played various little people in everything from *Freaks* to *Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome*. Bela's wife is played by Elizabeth Russell. Fans of classic horror may best remember her as the woman who calls Simone Simon "Moia sestra" ("My sister") in *Cat People*. She's a striking and exotic woman, who manages the remarkable task of being more sinister than Bela.

This film is short on plot logic (surely there must be an easier way to obtain the bodies of young women than at their weddings) but it delivers more than enough in the way of creepy thrills. And of course there is the insinuation that Bela needs the glandular fluid of a virgin and a really big assumption - even in 1942 - that brides are virgins. How do you know they are virgins? Because, in the words of Fonzie of Happy Days fame - "Virgins never lie about these things."

I give it a five out of ten just because of the old world charm and mystery Bela brings to any role, no matter how low budget the film.

"I Find A Coffin Much More Comfortable Than A Bed."

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 5/10 · 3 July 2007]

Wallace Fox' "The Corpse Vanishes" of 1942 starring his greatness Bela Lugosi, is certainly not one of the highlights of Lugosi's career, but it is certainly underrated and its reputation of being total garbage is, in my opinion, unfair. The plot is chaotic and the movie is certainly not very good and completely illogical in many parts, but is has a certain atmosphere and its creepy moments, as well as some very funny ones.

After several brides drop dead during their marriage ceremonies and their bodies are stolen, the police are unable to find any clues. When a female journalist (Luana Walters) decides to do some research, her investigations lead her to the sinister Dr. Lorenz (Lugosi) , who lives in an eerie mansion with his sardonic wife and a bunch of freaks...

It seems to me that director Fox actually didn't do a bad job bringing a completely messy script to screen. The movie's beginning is, admittedly annoying, and so fast-paced that hardly a scene lasts longer than half a minute. The movie improves after some time, however, and even though some parts are still incredibly cheesy (and therefore unintentionally funny), "The Corpse Vanishes" becomes quite atmospheric after some time. The atmosphere is aided by a pretty nice score (mostly violin music, which fits in very well), and I really liked some of the characters.

Bela Lugosi is, of course, always a pleasure to watch, this man knew how to bring eeriness to screen in a very special and unique way and his status as one of Horror's greatest icons is more than justified. Elisabeth Russel does a great job playing Lugosi's creepy wife, a malevolent and sardonic countess, whose spiteful character becomes great fun to watch at times. Luana Walters also fits well into her role and the cast furthermore contains Angelo Rositto (the midget from Tod Browning's masterpiece "Freaks" of 1932).

All things considered, "The Corpse Vanishes" is a movie that is certainly illogical and incredibly cheesy at times, but it has a certain atmosphere, and Bela Lugosi, as well as some of the other cast members make a good effort making up for the messy script. Certainly not a must-see, but amusing and recommended to Lugosi fans. 5/10

Lugosi not at his best, but still good

[Vornoff-3 · 5/10 · 22 April 2011]

This low-budget cheapy is from the days when Bela was pretty hard up for roles, but it has a certain charm. The basic plot is that Lugosi is a mad scientist with an aging wife whose beauty he is determined to preserve forever. Apparently, the way to do this is by extracting some chemical from young women that makes them beautiful. The height of discretion, Bela decides to kidnap brides at the altar – because it's easy to find them, I guess, when they are the center of attention and surrounded by people. His clever plan is challenged by a young go-getting female reporter who seems just as interested in using her job to secure a doctor for a husband as in solving the case, her comedy-relief photographer buddy, and the inevitable bland love interest. Luckily, Lugosi has a dysfunctional degenerate white trash family to help him out, and he hires street people to distract the police. Great movie making ,this is not, but it is good for some fun.

Bela is being naughty again!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 9 February 2005]

Modest, insignificant but nevertheless amusing black & white horror that stars Bela Lugosi as a (surprise surprise!) sinister doctor who kidnaps young girls on their wedding day. Not for the cause of science this time, but to donate eternal youth and beauty to his wife, the countess. He breeds a special type of orchids (that's right, he's also a horticulturist) that paralyzes the girls and he picks up the bodies with a fake hearse. The screenplay doesn't really bother to explain what exactly happens to these girls afterwards and neither are we informed about Bela's relation with the family of misfits that lives in his mansion and works for him. In fact, "The Corpse Vanishes" is one giant incoherent mess yet I can't bring myself to bash it entirely. The basic plot idea is good, there are some moments of creepiness (when the female journalist discovers the dungeon, for example) and the acting performances are overall decent. Lugosi is on automatic pilot here but I especially liked the countess character! She's a hostile and egocentric shrew and I loved how she got so hysterical all the time. What can I say…I have a thing for evil women.

Weird Story With Bizarre Characters

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 10 June 2006]

After the death of many brides in their weddings and disappearance of their corpses, the snoopy journalist Patricia Hunter (Luana Walters) notes that all of them were wearing an orchid in their breasts. She finds that the hybridization of the orchid was made by Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi), and she decides to interview him about the flowers. She hitchhikes on the road with Dr. Foster (Tristam Coffin) and they are hosted by Dr. Lorenz in his isolated house. Dr. Lorenz is indeed a mad scientist that sleeps with his wife in coffins, and with the assistance of a dwarf and his strong retarded brother, extract gland fluids from the neck of the abducted virgins to keep his elder wife young.

"The Corpse Vanishes" is a weird story with very bizarre characters. The lighting and shadows are excellent, slightly recalling the German expressionism. The odd face of Bela Lugosi seems to be tailored to the role of the evil scientist. The DVD released in Brazil by Fantasy distributor has the image full of interferences, as if it were a low quality broadcast image. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Cadáver Desaparecido" ("The Vanished Corpse")

Not a Hitchcock movie.

[Spuzzlightyear · 7/10 · 7 September 2005]

Rather nasty piece of business featuring Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist (with yes, a Renfield-like assistant and his mother, a dwarf and yes, the scientist's wife (sounds like a Greenaway movie actually lol). Lugosi gives his wife injections from dead brides (why them? Who knows?) so that his wife can keep looking beautiful. He gets the brides after doing a pretty clever trick with some orchids that makes the brides collapse at the altar. After another bride bites the dust, a newspaper reporter just HAPPENS to be around for the scoop, and decides to snoop around for a story. She gets all sorts of clues about the orchids and Lugosi. Heaven knows where the police were. Soon she's off to Bela's lair, when she meets a sort of strange looking doctor who may or may not be eeeevil. It all cumulates in a totally far-fetched plan to have a fake wedding to capture the mad scientist, but it seems that the scientist has x-ray vision, as he foils her plans, Oh no! What will happen? I actually liked this movie as a bit of a guilty pleasure. Lugosi is great here, his hangers-on are all very very strange, the story is actually quite nasty in some places which makes it all most watchable. A fun little view.

Interesting

[preppy-3 · 5/10 · 20 June 2001]

Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi) drugs young brides, kidnaps their bodies and takes spinal fluid from their necks to keep his 80 year old wife looking young. OK--it's not "Citizen Kane" but the plot is kind of interesting (in a ridiculous sort of way) and they throw in some unbelievable horror cliches--i.e. Lorenzs' assistants include an old lady, her idiot son (who Lugosi whips at one point) and a dwarf! Unfortunately they throw in an extremely annoying female reporter and a totally unmotivated romance. Also it is a Monogram picture, so production values are low (to put it mildly). Still, it does work and Lugosi gives a very good performance.

Here is where it starts to come together for Monogram

[newportbosco · 8/10 · 5 October 2007]

Bela made 9 pics for Monogram, but it was only at THIS one, the 4TH, that things started to come together. All the rest in the series would use this one as the essential template for production, writing and character development. From here on, better or worse, the series would also deal with one essential theme: a scientist (usually Bela) makes experiments in the basement or the old house (sometimes IN the basement in the old house) that causes things to go blooey. This was also the first time that Art Director Dave Milton got a chance to spread his wings. He came on board for BLACK DRAGONS, the flick before, but THIS one is where he gets to make his craft start to click. Lewis made great atmosphere for next to nothing, and was around for all the rest of the Monograms. Casting is key in these, and it's a pretty good one B movie wise, here. You get Barclay and Harlen (also from BLACK DRAGONS),along with Russell, who would star in Lewtons' CAT PEOPLE movies..and Rosetto, from SPOOKS RUN WILD...a nice slice of Poverty Row talent. If you have limited time and budget, start with this one...it sums up everything they had learned up to this point, and gives you something to compare the rest to. The plot? Bela steals gland juice to keep his nasty wife young. They both like to sleep in coffins. If you can read that and smile, the rest will be easy.

Good Low-Qual '30s Horror with Bela to Boot

[Tenkun · 6/10 · 21 May 2007]

"The Corpse Vanishes" may not be for everyone. It's basically Bela Lugosi as his typical mad scientist, this time killing off brides to inject their glands into his aging wife or something. The plot isn't anything new. Then a female reporter gets involved, and it turns into Torchy Blaine vs. Dracula. But we watch "The Corpse Vanishes" for pure Lugosi, doing his stuff: yelling at his old servant woman, mercy killing her freakish giant son, yelling at his dwarf servant, calmly and unctuously lying to the reporter and her doctor love interest, and then losing out in the climactic finale.

It's your beautiful B&W horror thriller with secret passages beneath the mad doctor's house, with flaming hearses off on the side of the road acting as distractions for motorcades. Sure, Lugosi doesn't evoke much pity in this one- not the beleaguered vampire, the dying old man, or the tragic monster- but the same madman who dedicated himself to creating a "new breed of atomic supermen." His eyes glimmering with insanity, murder, and misguided love for his shrewish wife, he vows to lay a trap for our heroine. (And what do we care for our heroine anyway? We can see her kind in any movie. But Lugosi...) You won't appreciate "The Corpse Vanishes" if you're one of those Wes Craven-obsessed latter-day horror fans who need real-looking blood to quench their cinematic thirst. Or if you're the type who'll bypass it for "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" or "Saw III." But do those have murdered freak servants lying on basement floors? Or mean-eyed dwarfs who get left behind for dead? No. No, they don't. And no toxic hybrid orchids, either.

Fascinating bottom of the barrel Lugosi.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 6 August 2012]

Creaky but fun, this Monogram programmer is a must for Lugosi fans and lovers of "Bad Cinema". It's actually his most consistently enjoyable Monogram film, campy in spite of Lugosi's sincere performance. He is a mad doctor (what else?) having brides kidnapped right before their wedding so their bodily fluids can be used to revitalize his aging wife (a ridiculously hammy Elizabeth Russell playing a modern version of Elizabeth Bathory). A reporter (Luana Walters) manages to get clues which lead her to Lugosi and his band of wackos (dwarf Angelo Rossitto who sneers and laughs at the evil around him, Frank Moran as a perverted simpleton who may be necrophiliac, and Minerva Urecal as his psychotic mama).

While Lugosi's caring for his aging, vile wife is touching from his perspective, the countess is such an angry, mean character (at one point slapping Walters simply out of jealousy for her loveliness) that you long to see her brutally dispatched. A doctor (played by the ironically named Tristram Coffin) aids Walters in her determination to find out what has happened to all the "virginal" brides, and points out to Walters that while Lugosi and Russell themselves sleep in coffins, "normal" people may not understand the reasons.

There are many unintentional laughs (such as Rossito laughing in glee as Moran gets whipped for stroking one of Lugosi's victim's hair), some of them disturbing in a rather perverse way. Urecal is hammy but touching, stealing her few moments on screen. This non-pretentious melodrama is certainly no "Dracula" or "The Black Cat", but certainly better than such dogs as "Scared to Death" and the ridiculous "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla". Lugosi also starred in the very similar "Voodoo Man" two years later that has enough twists to stand on its own but is basically just a reworked version of the same plot.

Colorful Cast, Wacko Story

[dougdoepke · 4 July 2020]

What a wacko flick it is- weddings that are more like funerals, Lugosi inside an infernal lab, and the Addams family circa-1942. Yup, it's a Monogram special sure to bring in war weary crowds. And what a great cast-mix of beauty and beast, from monster Eldredge on one side to beauteous Walter on the other, with cat woman Russell in between. And shouldn't overlook tiny Angelo Rossitto adding his own big dollop of dwarfish color.

So how's Lugosi going to keep wife Russell young and sinister since --surprise, surprise-- she seems to be aging. No problem as long as girls keep getting married and sniffing orchids. His wicked lab provides the solution even if the brides keep piling up. That is, until newswoman Walter picks up the scent and things begin to unravel amid coffins in the old dark house.

Of course, no one expects high class drama from budget constrained Monogram. Nonetheless, the visuals are entertaining thanks mainly to the picturesque cast, while the story amounts to an imaginative stretch befitting the genre. So if you've got a spare hour and, like me, don't mind chancing cheapos, give it a try.

Romantic horror mad scientist, etc. Cliché-fest!

[mstomaso · 1/10 · 25 May 2005]

Brides are dying at the altar, and their corpses are disappearing. Everybody is concerned, but nobody seems to be able to figure out why and how this is happening, nor can they prevent it from happening. Bear with me. Bela Lugosi is responsible for this, as he is extracting spinal fluid from these young women to transfuse his ancient wife and keep her alive. Continue to bear with me. Finally, the authorities figure out that somebody must be engineering the deaths and disappearances, but of course, they can't figure out the improbable motive. Let's just ignore the ludicrous pseudoscience and move on... If you can get through the first twenty minutes of this mess, you will be treated to Lugosi whipping his lab assistant for disrespecting one of the brides he has murdered, explaining that he finds sleeping in a coffin much more comfortable than a bed, and other vague parodies of real horror films (the kind with budgets and plots). Anyhoo - a female journalist follows her nose to the culprit (and remarkably the inept police are nowhere to be seen!), and then the fun really starts.

The cinematography and acting are OK. There are a lot of well dressed, very good looking people in this film. The directing is fair, and the script is a little better than the material deserved. Nevertheless, this film fails to sustain the interest of all but the most hardened b-film fan. The best thing about it.... It does eventually end, but not soon enough.

Sure, why NOT remove evidence from a crime scene?

[soulexpress · 2/10 · 9 August 2017]

THE CORPSE VANISHES [1942]

One of the many 3rd-rate horror films that Bela Lugosi did in the 1940s, this one fully earned its place on MST3K.

Lugosi plays (what else?) a mad scientist, one Dr. Lorenz, whose talents include physics, horticulture, hypnotism, reversing the aging process, and committing strangulation murders when necessary. Lorenz resides in a creepy old mansion (complete with secret passageways) with his ailing but violent wife The Countess (Elizabeth Russell), his old-hag servant Fagah (Minerva Urecal), and her two sons, a simple-minded hulk named Angel (Frank Moran) and a three-foot dwarf named Toby (Angelo Rossitto).

The plot: young brides are dropping dead at the altar, after which their corpses mysteriously disappear. Both the cops and the newspapers focus on who is stealing the dead brides and why. Seems it never occurs to them (or to public-health officials) to wonder why these strapping young women have all bought the farm just as they're about to say "I do."

Hard-boiled reporter Patricia Hunter (Luana Walters) becomes suspicious when she sniffs the orchid the last bride wore, only to feel faint herself. Patricia found the orchid on the chapel floor, in the spot where the bride had collapsed and croaked. Rather than turn this evidence over to the police, Pat keeps the flower and begins her own investigation into this odd series of events. This leads her to Dr. Lorenz's mansion.

Long story short: Lorenz is using a special type of orchid to kill the brides when they sniff it. Seems the good doctor needs "fluids" from the newly-deceased brides to inject into his elderly wife so that she becomes young again. Exactly which fluids perform such a miracle? And why is it imperative that the dead women all be brides? The screenwriter didn't bother with such trifles.

Item: the film provides many head shots of Lorenz looking very, very sneaky.

Item: For a hard-boiled reporter, Patricia has a penchant for fainting when things become dangerous. She does this more than once, leading me to wonder if she suffered from sleeping sickness.

Item: The hunchbacked, non-verbal Angel gets his jollies from stroking the hair of the dead brides, who Lorenz keeps in a morgue below his mansion. When Lorenz finds him engaged in this necrophilia, he flogs Angel with a whip and tells Fagah, "He's at best an animal. Someday, I shall have to destroy him." Yes, he tells that to the mother whose son he has just flogged in front of her. Not a nice man, our Dr. Lorenz!

Item: when a cop sees Lorenz loading a passed-out Patricia into his car, the officer responds by pulling out his gun and firing, which kills Toby the dwarf. I suppose yelling "Police, stop!" was too much effort.

If contrivance or clichés are your forte, this film explodes with each.

Reappear/Disappear.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 4/10 · 5 October 2014]

With having had a fun time watch a number of Horror movies starring Bela Lugosi for the 2013 Horror Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I decided to take a look at a box set which had been sent from a very kind IMDber.Looking at the titles,I was delighted to see that I would get the chance to have a double dose of Bela.

The plot:

Desperate to keep his 70 year old wife looking youthful, Dr. George Lorenz decides to send orchids to about to be married women,which thanks to containing a chemical,causes the women to faint,and leads to Lorenz kidnapping them,so that he can get their spinal fluid for his wife.As Lorenz's kidnapping spree grows,local reporter Patricia Hunter decides to track down the missing women.Getting hold of the orchid from the latest victim,Hunter discovers that the only expert on orchids in the town is a man called Dr.George Lorenz.

View on the film:

For the screenplay of the movie,writers Sam Robins, Gerald Schnitzer and Harvey Gates disappointingly never give even the slightest reason for Lorenz desperate desire of keeping his wife looking youthful,which leads to the plot feeling rather disjointed.Shooting on a low budget,director Wallace Fox gives Lorenz house /mansion a chilly,low-lit appearance. Angelo Rossitto and Bela Lugosi's team up allows for a great crossing over of Tod Brownings Freaks and Dracula to take place,as Lugosi shows in his icy stare,a lust to turn every blushing bride in the town into a corpse.

A Nice Little Film

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 5 January 2013]

Bela Lugosi plays a mad scientist named "Dr. George Lorenz" who kidnaps young brides in order to transfer their life essences to his evil wife "Countess Lorenz" (Elizabeth Russell) which keep her youthful. But his operation becomes scrutinized when a pretty newspaper reporter named "Patricia Hunter" (Luana Walters) starts snooping around. Anyway, what I enjoyed about this film was that it was a likable little movie which never got too dark or too serious. And even though Bela Lugosi put on an excellent performance I thought Luana Walters actually stole the show and made it such fun to watch. Now, fans of horror might not think this is scary at all. It certainly isn't by today's standards. But this was made in a time when movies in general were a bit more subdued than they are now. Even so, there is no reason it still can't be enjoyed for what it simply is-a nice little film.

One of the Best Monogram Quickies!

[Chance2000esl · 5/10 · 18 October 2008]

This is one of the best Monogram quickies because it is a fast paced story well told full of creepy and eerie weirdness. It is well suited to late night watching for lovers of the bizarre.

Bela Lugosi gives a good performance as Dr. Lorenz, a suave, devoted husband to his 'Countess' wife, while at the same time moonlighting as a body snatcher of brides who suddenly die at the altar (due to his poisoned orchids, of course). He extracts glandular fluid from them to inject into his wife's body to keep her young and beautiful (as we find out, she is really in her 80s). He stores the bodies for future use in a morgue in his basement.

There is much that gives the film its creepy, eerie quality. First, there is his bizarre 'family' attending him: delightfully ugly Minerva Urecal as his housekeeper Fagah, with her two sons the dwarf henchman Toby (played by Angelo Rossito) and Angel (Frank Moran), a retarded necrophiliac hunchback. Then further menace and atmosphere are added by heavy rain and cracks of lighting instead of music, by dark shadows and lots of hidden passageways, and in the pleasure Lorenz and his wife take by sleeping in coffins. When suspenseful and tension building music is used, the staccato violin theme is catchy and effective. You can hear this same music used in other films as well, such as Grand National Film's' 'Rollin Plains' (1938) with Tex Ritter.

The action of the story is equal to the 'female reporter hot on the trail' B pictures of Universal or other major studios. Luana Walters plays the reporter Patricia Hunter, who discovers the poisoned orchid clue to the murders. Naturally, the hybrid orchid was developed by Dr. Lorenz himself, so she hitch hikes to his spooky mansion on the crest of a dark and forbidding mountain with Dr. Foster (played by Tristam Coffin) to interview him. The weather prevents them from leaving, so they must stay overnight in the spooky house and become victims to the mad characters' menace. Eerieness follows as Patricia passes through secret doorways and passages, stalked by the hunchback, and discovers the dead bodies. Hidden in the dark basement she witnesses Lorenz kill Angel bare handed.

Finally, after returning to her newspaper office, a plot is enacted to stage a fake wedding to trap Lorenz. He foils it, kidnapping Patricia to make her the next 'donor' for his wife's youth serum. Dr. Foster and the police arrive just in time to rescue her, although Fagah has already exacted her revenge on Lorenz. And all of this is done in little more than 60 minutes (with no commercials)!

Angelo Rositto was a lead player in the amazing Tod Browning film 'Freaks' (1932), and is also recognizable in 'Babes in Toyland' (1934), Samuel Fuller's 'The Baron of Arizona' (1950), as a regular in TV's 'Baretta' (1975) and in 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' (1985). Both Frank Moran and Minerva Urecal rejoin Bela's housekeeping family in 'Ghosts on the Loose' (1943) with the Bowery Boys. Luana Walters can be seen as the female lead in the serial 'Drums of Fu Manchu' (1940), as well as the 'Prairie Flower' in many Monogram westerns. Tristam Coffin, with over 232 movie and TV credits, had a chameleon character, voice and personality that made him equally believable as either hero or villain. He's easily recognizable in either role from his many western TV appearances of the 50s, and in the serials 'Holt of the Secret Service' (1941), 'Spy Smasher' (1942), 'Perils of Nyoka' (1942), 'KIng of the Rocket Men' (1949) or 'Radar Patrol Vs. Sky King' (1949).

As for Bela Lugosi, we are always drawn to him as if we had been hypnotized by his eyes and hand gestures the first time we saw 'Dracula' (1931) and 'White Zombie' (1932). Too many of his films don't feature him enough in terms of screen time, as this one doesn't; but it moves along in such a fast and interesting way that this is a minor drawback.

This one deserves at least a 5. It's definitely good for late night viewing.

NOTE: In 'The Invisible Ghost' (1941) the story completely revolves around Bela as the lead character in which he is not even aware of his own dual personality. While much slower in pacing than this film, he dominates the movie both in terms of screen time and character. Also noteworthy is his amazing turn as Ygor in 'The Son of Frankenstein' (1939), definitely one of his performances for the ages.

"Someday the master will catch you, then you'll be sorry."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 18 August 2005]

I'm surprised at the rather low rating IMDb viewers have given this film, as I rather like the set up for this one. Beautiful young brides wind up dead at the altar just as they are about to recite their wedding vows, and their bodies are stolen shortly after. Mad scientist Dr. Lorenz (Bela Lugosi) is behind the mayhem in this low budget Monogram creep fest; he uses glandular and spinal fluid from the victims to inject into his haggardly wife (Elizabeth Russell) to keep her young and beautiful. Countess Lorenz is rather one dimensional in her role, but at least she mimics Lugosi's speech pattern rather effectively.

Lorenz is surrounded by a veritable menagerie of sideshow outcasts, including the wizened Fagah (Minerva Urecal), and her two sons, one a hulking brute and another a freakish dwarf named Toby (Angelo Rossitto). Hot on the trail of the missing bride mystery is reporter Pam Hunter (Luana Walters), who follows up on her theory that the brides died from inhaling the sweet but deadly odor from a poisonous orchid developed by Dr. Lorenz. When Lorenz becomes wise to the reporter's initiative, he sets out to make her yet another victim, but alas, he's done in by his own sweet Fagah, in revenge for killing her brute son who had a penchant for stroking the hair of the doctor's corpses.

"The Corpse Vanishes" offers just the right blend of atmospheric sets and bump in the night action to keep things interesting, a nifty little vehicle for Bela Lugosi's talents. You can have some fun with this one, made to order for that clichéd dark and stormy night.

At least it has Bela in it

[bensonmum2 · 3/10 · 4 February 2005]

Bela Lugosi plays a doctor who will do anything to keep his wife looking young and beautiful. To this end, he drugs brides during their wedding ceremonies to make it look as if they are dead so he can steal their bodies. I'm not exactly sure what he does with the bodies. I don't remember it ever being fully explained. All I know is that he extracts something from them and injects it in his wife. (I'll just guess that it's spinal fluid. Spinal fluid was all the rage of mad scientists in the 40s.) You can pretty much guess the rest from here.

There are a couple (well, really more than a couple, but I'll only write about two) of problems that I have with this movie. One is the way Bela is used. Sure, he does a decent enough job in his own overacting sort of way (BTW, the rest of the cast is simply abysmal). But, to have him hiding in the back of a hearse or having him creep into the female reporter's bedroom to do nothing is just silly. Also, why have him beat and/or kill every henchman he has? Is it to make him look evil? Well, someone who is kidnapping comatose brides doesn't really need to be made to look more evil.

The second problem I have is the idea of drugging brides. Why brides? Wouldn't any female under the age of 20 do? Watching Bela go through these gyrations to get his victims, I was reminded of the idiotic Fisherman in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. In each case, there would appear to be an easier way of reaching your objective than employing a seemingly impossible plan that depends way to much on circumstances out of your control. (BTW, an alternate title for this movie is The Case of the Missing Brides. I guess that partially explains the need for 'brides'.)

somewhat entertaining Lugosi film

[unclerussie · 10/10 · 15 May 2003]

I wouldn't say this is a bad movie; in fact it's pretty typical of the type of film that the "poverty row" studios were releasing at the time. Filmed for Monogram, Bela Lugosi is very effective in his role as the somewhat demented doctor-scientist, masquerading as a respected member of the community. In this movie, Bela and his henchmen have the nasty habit of stealing young brides, and, after their demise, injecting Bela's wife with a serum taken from their bodies in order to keep her young. Lugosi is more than up to the task in making this an enjoyable film, however, the movie suffers from the ultra-wooden acting of co stars Luana Walters and Tristram Coffin. Coffin (nice name for a guy in a horror flick) is especially bad in this case. I've seen him in numerous movies and tv shows and he is always the same; stiff, wooden and utterly unconvincing. Miss Walters is only slightly better, but she too lacks the acting talent to make her role believable. Still, the viewer can enjoy the great Lugosi act out yet another dastardly scheme only to be foiled in the end! Despite the poor acting by some, "The Corpse Vanishes" is an enjoyable movie for all to see.

corpse

[kairingler · 7/10 · 3 July 2013]

I really enjoyed this one,, not a classic by any stretch but way better than the amazing mr. x . this one had me laughing all the way,, a news reporter from the society page is assigned the task of figuring out why and who keeps killing virgin young brides, then proceeds to steal the corpse away to an unknown location for as yet unknown purpose. Bela Lugosi does his usual good acting in this acting his usual creepy self. their are many interesting characters in here and all with very interesting parts throughout the movie. it was full of laughs and very enjoyable to watch throughout. without getting into why the corpses are taken away, and to what they are used for I will have to let you watch this and see what you all think about it, I personally loved this movie.

And so does the audience.

[InzyWimzy · 3/10 · 2 November 2000]

Bela Lugosi as creepy insane scientist who uses orchids to woo brides in order to steal life essence for aged wife. The midget in this film is hilarious!! A lot of freaks, plus a lot of padding and no plot makes watching this film a nightmare. I loved how all the pieces fell together in the end in typical Hollywood fashion. The story never gets interesting, and you feel helpless as you watch.

Usually I'd score bore flicks like this one low, but the midget added just enough creepiness and entertainent to gain a couple more points.