Review of Invisible Ghost (1941) by Kurt B — 11 Jan 2011

Bela Lugosi plays an old man who has lost his wife in a car crash and is trying his best to get on with things. Unfortunately it is not to be, Bela keeps seeing what he thinks is his dead wife outside the window every night and people in the mansion start dieing from be strangled by a murderer who is revealed right at the start of the movie...

There is no way I could possible spoil the movie for anyone, even if it didn't tell you that it was Bela Lugosi doing the murders at the start you would because well, it's what Lugosi does. It also very blatant that Bela is also not aware he is behaving badly because he goes into some sort of zombie trance every time his catches a glimpse of his hot wife out the window. I find it such a waste of a fine actor when they make him walk round the house with both his arms raised in front of him in such a stereotypical way.

There was one scene which was absolute magic in this feature, every morning the residence of the mansion wake up to discover that someone has been murdered but this time the painting of Lugosi's wife has been vandalised, obviously he is unaware it was himself that committed the atrocity because of the trance he enters at night. When he comes down the stairs in morning with everyone else he sees the painting and the look on his face is very upsetting to see, he is absolutely devastated but consoles himself and checks the house to see if everyone else is ok.