Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997)
*** (out of 4)
Documentary taking a look at the life and career of Bela Lugosi who would become a huge star with Dracula but pretty much fall from grace right after that. I've watched this documentary countless times and while it's very entertaining, I don't think there's any doubt that the thing is quite biased towards the actor. There's some nice interviews with those who knew Lugosi towards the end of his life including his final wife who you have to see to believe. Most of her offensive talk comes with the deleted scenes but she's certainly a rather strange woman. The one thing that didn't work for me was all the rather dirty talk regarding Lugosi. I can't remember how many times we get to hear that Lugosi was good looking and that women loved him. We know this so why this point gets beaten to death is beyond me. We hear how Lugosi had to fight eleven (or twelve) duels for sleeping with married women, we hear about his affair with Clara Bow and so on. Even with that said, this is a rather nice look at the man that I'm sure new fans will enjoy.
