Black Dragons (1942)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This WW II film opens at a rather tame wild party. Some executive types with cuties on their knees are blabbing about troop movements. Cut to headlines about fifth columnists followed by stock footage of disasters. This takes up 5 of the film's 64 minutes and leads us to believe we're in for a cautionary tale about loose lips sinking ships. The film makers seem to have changed their minds, or maybe it was leftover footage ultra-low budget producer Sam Katzman didn't want to go to waste.Next thing we know, there are five captains of industry and, for some reason, one family doctor sitting around the doctor's Washington DC house gloating about how they're sabotaging the war effort.Soon the conspirators start getting murdered one by one. Since a mysterious stranger with a thick Hungarian accent showed up just before the murders and always seems to be around when they happen, the police are baffled.This stranger, played by Bela Lugosi, not only has superhuman strength and the ability to turn people into zombies. Twice he inexplicably disappears from moving taxis, once taking with him a man he murdered in the back seat without the driver noticing anything untoward. He's also good at making corpses disappear in a few seconds. He might even be responsible for the several occasions when someone leaves a house in the middle of the night to be greeted by bright sunlight on the outside.At the end, when Lugosi is fatally wounded and all the other bad guys have been killed, the doctor, who seemed to be a zombie but actually was turned into a monster by a serum injected by Lugosi, explains.It turns out the Japanese had murdered all these important people with no one noticing. Then they invited a Nazi plastic surgeon with a Hungarian accent to Japan to give Japanese agents the faces of the dead men, as well as their bodies and their voices, and sent them to America, where no one wondered where they'd been all that time.But where they went wrong was when they ungratefully decided to eliminate the plastic surgeon. Instead of simply shooting him, they threw him in a dungeon with another prisoner, scheduled to be released the next day, who happened to look just like him, and you know the rest. On such trivial miscalculations can the most foolproof plans go awry.

Atrociously acted, and quite amusing at times, Black Dragons features Mr Yes-I-Can, Bela Lugosi as a suspicious character killing off Jap sympathizers, but why? Lugosi is playing a rather curious Anti-Hero here, More anti then hero, and we're never too sure why he's doing this until the film's most-hilarious final minutes. Until then, Less-Then-B actors take turns emoting with the great one until the film's AMAZING final "twist" which had my mouth on the floor on it's pure preposterousness. Totally cheap, bizarre (why and how DID Lugosi keep vanishing?) and stupid (Hey, let's get some Dracula references in when we can (or maybe that was in Bela's contract?)) This was a fun time-waster.

A very strange poverty row production from the period where horror star Bela Lugosi was resigned to taking whatever roles he could get. However, this entry in what we might safely call Bela's "Monogram Nine Series" is really far-out! He plays a strange visitor who first arrives at a reputed doctor's home in the guise of a patient, and then starts to take over the place, holding the doctor prisoner in his own house, and also killing a group of other important men who are associated with him. Lugosi has an old score to settle with these well-to-do types, and it involves his former association with the Nazis and the Japanese. By the time the 61 minutes are over, all will be explained (sort of!). If you're expecting too much sense out of a crazy movie like this, you can forget about watching it. This is not a horror film (though the ending may qualify) but it's a strange one and a rather offbeat curiosity for Bela Lugosi fans. He's also got a few really absurd lines which are a lot of fun. ** out of ****

When i first heard about the movie, i figured Bela Lugosi, must be another horror, monster movie. I was greatly surprised about what i saw and i enjoyed the film very much. It supplied great drama and suspense and it kept me watching although the movie hardly lasted more than an hour. I think the story line was a good idea considering the time period and i think it also emphasized the ideas and feelings that Americans were having during that time. And of course Bela Lugosi is a great actor who keeps his audience watching and waiting for his next "strike". I didn't recognize the other actors that were in the movie, but they did very good and believable acting. This movie is a must see and should stand the test of time, although the movies i say that about don't.