Scared to Death (1947 film)

Last updated
Scared to Death
ScaredToDeath.jpg
Original 1947 theatrical release poster
Directed by Christy Cabanne
Written byW.J. Abbott
Based onplay Murder on the Operating Table by Frank Orsino
Produced byWilliam B. David
Starring
Cinematography Marcel Le Picard
Edited byGeorge McGuire
Music byCarl Hoefle
Production
company
Golden Gate Pictures
Distributed by Screen Guild Productions
Release date
  • February 1, 1947 (1947-02-01)(United States)
Running time
65 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$135,000 (estimated) [2]

Scared to Death is a 1947 American gothic thriller film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton and Molly Lamont. [3] The picture was filmed in Cinecolor. The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. [4] [5] Lionel Atwill was originally slated to appear in the film, but he was too ill to work, so George Zucco replaced him in the cast. Christy Cabanne completed the film in early 1946, but it wasn't screened until 1947. [6]

Contents

Plot

Lugosi and Rossitto Bela Lugosi-Angelo Rossitto in Scared to Death.jpg
Lugosi and Rossitto
Scared to Death (1947) trailer 2.jpg

The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright. The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror.

The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage (Bela Lugosi) identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf (Angelo Rossitto).

After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis. Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the Nazis led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death.

Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.

Cast

Production

The film was based on a one-act play which in turn was based on a 1933 murder case involving Dr. Alice Wynekoop. [7]

The film was announced in March 1946 as Accent on Horror. [8] The Autopsy was another title that was considered. [9]

Reviews

Historian Gary Don Rhodes commented that although the film was in color, "nothing manages to stave off the inevitable boredom. Critics found the film confusing, dull....Very possibly this remains Lugosi's worst horror film." [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bela Lugosi</span> Hungarian-American actor (1882–1956)

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, known professionally as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian–American actor, best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic Dracula, Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.

<i>Bride of the Monster</i> 1955 American science fiction horror film by Ed Wood

Bride of the Monster is a 1955 American science fiction horror film, co-written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr., and starring Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson with a supporting cast featuring Tony McCoy and Loretta King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Wood</span> American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and film editor

Edward Davis Wood Jr. was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author.

<i>Night of the Ghouls</i> 1984 film by Ed Wood

Night of the Ghouls is a horror film written and directed by Ed Wood. The film was shot between April and May 1958. The film features some reoccurring cast members and characters from Wood's 1955 Bride of the Monster, including Tor Johnson reprising his role of Lobo and Paul Marco again playing the character of Kelton the cop, while the Amazing Criswell plays himself in the frame story of the film. Another returning character is Police Captain Robbins of Homicide, although the character was played by Harvey B. Dunn in Bride, and by Johnny Carpenter in Night.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bela Lugosi filmography</span>

Bela Lugosi (1882–1956), best known for the original screen portrayal of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1931, performed in many films during the course of his 39-year film career. He appeared in films made in his native Hungary, Germany and New York before re-locating to Hollywood in 1928. Films are listed in order of release.

<i>The Gorilla</i> (1939 film) 1939 film by Allan Dwan

The Gorilla is a 1939 American horror comedy film starring the Ritz Brothers, Anita Louise, Art Miles, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Patsy Kelly. It was based on the 1925 play of the same name by Ralph Spence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Mason (actor, born 1920)</span> American actor

Thomas Robert Mason was an American chiropractor, who was best known for appearing in films directed by Ed Wood. Ed Wood was married to one of Mason's former patients.

<i>Murders in the Rue Morgue</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

Murders in the Rue Morgue is a 1932 American horror film directed by Robert Florey, based on Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". The plot is about Doctor Mirakle, a carnival sideshow entertainer and scientist who kidnaps Parisian women to mix their blood with that of his gorilla, Erik. As his experiments fail because of the quality of his victims' blood, Mirakle meets with Camille L'Espanye, and has her kidnapped and her mother murdered, leading to suspicion falling on Camille's fiance, Pierre Dupin, a medical student who has already become interested in the earlier murders.

<i>Black Dragons</i> 1942 film by William Nigh

Black Dragons is a 1942 American film directed by William Nigh and starring Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, and George Pembroke. The cast includes Clayton Moore, who plays a handsome detective. The Black Dragon Society also appears in Let's Get Tough! a 1942 East Side Kids film made by the same team of writer Harvey Gates and producer Sam Katzman.

99-es számú bérkocsi is a 1918 Hungarian crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz. The film is sometimes just referred to as 99.

The Wedding Song is a 1918 Hungarian film directed by Alfréd Deésy. The film was released on 27 February 1918, first shown at the Corso Theater in Budapest. Lugosi's co-star in the film, Karoly Lajthay, later went on to direct the first film version of "Dracula", entitled Drakula halála (1923).

Küzdelem a létért is a 1918 Hungarian drama film directed by Alfréd Deésy. It is based on French writer Alphonse Daudet's 1889 play La lutte pour la vie. The film was advertised and discussed in Hungarian trade publications as A Leopard.

<i>Az élet királya</i> 1918 film

Az élet királya is a 1918 Hungarian film directed by Alfréd Deésy. It is an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Daughter of the Night is a German drama film directed by Richard Eichberg. The film is about a French aristocrat who falls in love with a Russian nightclub singer, and his attraction to her involves him in a Russian revolutionary movement.

<i>The Silent Command</i> 1923 film

The Silent Command is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by J. Gordon Edwards featuring Bela Lugosi as a foreign saboteur in his American film debut. The film, written by Anthony Paul Kelly and Rufus King, also stars Edmund Lowe, Alma Tell, and Martha Mansfield. The film depicts the story of Benedict Hisston (Lugosi), who is part of a plot to destroy the Panama Canal. Initially unable to obtain necessarily intelligence from Richard Decatur (Lowe), a captain in the United States Navy, he enlists the aid of femme fatale Peg Williams (Mansfield). Decatur pretends to be seduced into the conspiracy, costing him his career and estranging him from his wife (Tell), but he ultimately betrays the saboteurs in Panama and stops their plan. He returns home to the Navy and his wife, and to popular acclaim for his heroics.

<i>The Rejected Woman</i> 1924 film

The Rejected Woman is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Albert Parker and written by John Lynch. The film stars Alma Rubens, Conrad Nagel, and Béla Lugosi in a supporting role as Jean Gagnon. It was produced by Distinctive Pictures and distributed by Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan Distributing Corporation. A print of The Rejected Woman is preserved at the George Eastman House.

Lock Up Your Daughters is a 1959 horror film starring Bela Lugosi. Due to the lack of information on its production and release, it is uncertain whether it is a lost film or if it ever existed.

<i>The Dark Eyes of London</i> (film) 1939 British film

The Dark Eyes of London is a 1939 British horror film produced by John Argyle and directed by Walter Summers, and starring Béla Lugosi, Hugh Williams, and Greta Gynt. The film is an adaptation of the 1924 novel of the same name by Edgar Wallace. The film is about a scientist named Dr. Orloff who commits a series of murders for insurance money, while periodically disguising himself as the blind manager of a charity to further his scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violetta Napierska</span> German actress

Violetta Napierska was a film actress. Most of her acting career she worked in German silent films, often with Béla Lugosi, Lee Parry and director Richard Eichberg. She was born in Germany in 1890, and died in Italy in 1968.

<i>Mother Riley Meets the Vampire</i> 1952 British film

Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, also known as Vampire Over London or My Son, the Vampire, is a 1952 British horror comedy film directed by John Gilling, starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi that was filmed at Nettlefold Studios.

References

  1. Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg.136. ISBN 978-0786427659.
  2. Internet Movie Database Box office/Business for
  3. Erickson, Hal. "Scared to Death". Allmovie. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  4. "Scared to Death (1947) - Christy Cabanne, William Christy Cabanne | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie". Archived from the original on 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-09-14.
  5. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5746/Scared-to-Death/trivia.html Archived 2015-10-31 at the Wayback Machine [ bare URL ]
  6. Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg. 136. ISBN 978-0786427659
  7. Mark Thomas McGee, Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive: The Films of Robert L. Lippert, Bear Manor Media, 2014 p 108
  8. Schallert, E. (Mar 29, 1946). "Small plans classic; quints deal hovers". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest   165659150.
  9. Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg. 136. ISBN 978-0786427659
  10. Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg. 136. ISBN 978-0786427659