"Let's hear you call Boris Karloff a cocksucker."
- Bill Murray as "Bunny Breckinridge" in ED WOOD (1994),
in reference to a poor Lugosi impersonation
Born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko in what is now Romania, Lugosi began his career on the stage and appeared in some silent films before emigrating to the United States. Bela began working as a character actor on Broadway and in Hollywood before skyrocketing to fame in Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931) portaying "one of the screen's greatest personifications of pure evil." In the next ten years he would appear in four Poe adaptations. In two of them, he was teamed with Karloff.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) - Touching on themes regarding evolution and miscegenation, carnival side show performer Dr. Mirakle (Lugosi) and his pet ape Erik abduct beautiful young women for his insane blood experiments. After Mirakle sets his sights on Camille L'Espanaye, the fiancee of medical student Pierre Dupin, all hell breaks loose.
The Black Cat (1934) - Cat-phobic, former prisoner of war Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi) returns to his Hungarian home town to confront his nemesis Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), the architect who stole his wife and daughter from him years earlier. Werdegast plays a game of chess with Poelzig to determine the fate of a beautiful woman.
The Raven (1935) - Poe obsessed surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi) saves the life and appearance of the beautiful dancer daughter of a wealthy judge and then decides he wants her for himself. Vollin considers her his "Lenore." After forcing fugitive criminal Edmond Bateman (Karloff) to do his biding, as well as all the heavy lifting, he kidnaps the daughter, her fiance, and her father the judge. While he plans to torture them in his Poe themed dungeon, vengeful Bateman sets the prisoners free and enables Vollin to die in one of his own Poe contraptions.
The Black Cat (1941) - Bela's career was going downhill when he made this comic parody of the old dark house motif. Blending the archetypes of OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) and the comedy of THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1939), the story concerns heirs gathering for the reading of a will accompanied by murder and the spectre of a black cat. Bela plays Eduardo, the sinister servant.
"I guess I'm pretty much of a lone wolf.
I don't say I don't like people at all but,
to tell you the truth,
I only like it then if I have a chance
to look deep into their hearts and their minds."
-Bela
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