I must say, I was a bit surprised after viewing "Invisible Ghost." It
could have been because of Bela Lugosi's sympathetic portrayal
of Charles Kessler, a warm and kind-hearted man, deeply
troubled by his wife's absence. Or ... it could have been Clarence
Muse, playing the black butler sans the usual comic relief.
Whichever way you look at it, "Invisible Ghost" is certainly worthy of
note. Too bad one has to rummage through so many bad movies
to locate the few really good ones. Here we have the late, great
Bela Lugosi, looking better than ever. His portrayal of a sympatheic
man under the control of powers beyond his comprehension is
somewhat of a diversion from previous characters. He's not
sucking the blood of beautiful ingenues. Nope. He's on a murder
rampage, suffocating his victims with a ... bedroom robe?
Okay ... a little quirky. What did you expect? Shakespeare?
What's impressive here is Mr. Lugosi's enormous acting talent.
Lugosi could express more emotion through a simple facial
expression than most actors could through an entire monologue.
He's an excellent example of a talented man giving a performance
greater than the movie itself deserves. No make-up effect or
computer generated effect could ever reproduce this. To this, I hold
Mr. Lugosi up next to Vincent Price ... as a man whose talents
barely reached the public surface. If only he were alive today and
making movies. No doubt he would have been treated with a great
deal more respect and admiration.
And so ... "Invisible Ghost" is a very good movie to enjoy. I was
lucky enough to purchase this along with seven other Lugosi films
in AMC's Monsterfest DVD collection. Pick it up if you get a chance.
It includes movies like "The Human Monster" and the amazing
"White Zombie." While some of these films were hits and others
were misses ... all feature the extraordinary presence of Bela
Lugosi ... certainly one of our greatest actors.
