SCARED TO DEATH

US, 1947, 69 minutes, Colour.
Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton, Molly Lamont.
Directed by Christie Cabanne.

Scared to Death is a good example of a bad film. It was a star vehicle for Bela Lugosi. Lugosi had made an impact as Dracula in the early 1930s and then continued doing variations on the same performance for many years. He gradually moved to B-budget and very small and short-running films like this one. His story is told in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood where he is played by Martin Landau who won an Oscar for the performance (better than Lugosi himself).

This film was directed by Christie Cabanne who appeared as an actor in some of D.W. Griffith’s films and from 1912 to 1948 directed over one hundred and sixty small-budget films. (He appeared in Bruce Beresford’s And Pancho Villa as Himself and was played by Michael Mc Kean, directing Villa Rides – his first film as director in 1912.)

The film is very poorly acted and the process it was filmed in is called Naturalcolor. A woman lies dead and her voice tells a story – which does have a twist but is obscured by a mixture of attempted scares as well as some very corny humour. It turns out that she had betrayed her husband during the war to the Nazis because she hated him and he has returned in order to frighten her to death. The husband was an assistant to Bela Lugosi’s magician and he appears, with his cape, in his usual style. Nat Pendleton offers some lame comedy as a security guard. George Zucco tries to bring some dignity to the proceedings as a suspicious doctor.

Interesting only for historical reasons – and for those who want the full catalogue of Bela Lugosi films.