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Neither can Polly Ann or maid Terry Walker or police detective George Pembroke, who apparently was instructed to "dress like a police detective" and so wears a trench coat and fedora and chomps on an unlit cigar in every scene he's in, no matter where or what he's doing. Bela also has a daughter, Loretta Young's lookalike sister but not the one that's Sally Blane, no, this lookalike sister is Polly Ann Young, and she's engaged to a nice young man who used to sleep with the household's new maid, and so when she's murdered he's accused, despite the fact that nearly a hundred other servants have been strangled in the same house, and he's executed but his twin brother shows up to woo Polly Ann and figure out who REALLY killed the girl and I TOLD you Monogram pictures were stupid and by the way, both brothers are played by John McGuire and neither of them can act. Apparently, this has been going on for YEARS and (a) the police can't figure out who is behind this, and (b) they don't have any trouble whatsoever hiring new servants. Well, on THAT possibly inappropriate note, we return to our film and find Betty wandering around the grounds of Manor Lugosi, where her husband occasionally finds her peering in the window, which sets him off into a homicidal rage and he strangles one of the servants. Lugosi (played by, of all people, Betty Compson, and if you just said to yourself, "Surely not the Betty Compson from Docks of New York and the 1930 version of The Spoilers? Not the Betty Compson who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress? SHE didn't end up on Poverty Row, did she? Please, tell me this is some OTHER Betty Compson! PLEASE TELL ME THAT!" To which I can only say, "Life ain't easy, pal, life ain't easy." To say that she's the best actor in this film is like getting a blow job in the bathroom of a McDonald's and then announcing you finally had something there you liked. The plot of the film, such as it is, is that Mrs. Boy, is HE right, because she's actually living under the garage in a secret room she'd been in an auto accident that gave her brain damage and she's cared for and fed by gardener Ernie Adams, and why he does that we'll never know, but "abject stupidity" is part of the norm with Monogram scripts, so please hush.

He sets a place for her at the table, has his faithful servant Clarence Muse serve her soup, compliments her on how particularly beautiful she looks on any given occasion, and is quite convinced that some day she'll return. When I say "disturbed", I don't mean "annoyed" or "vexed", I mean, oh, "unhinged" and "demented". Lewis, who went on to make Gun Crazy and The Big Combo, and not for nothin', but when you've got The Invisible Ghost on your resume, having Gun Crazy on there too sure doesn't hurt your place in cinema history.īela is disturbed by the disappearance years ago of his wife, who ran off with some other guy who no doubt wasn't Hungarian.

Which isn't too say that it's GOOD you understand it sure is fascinating, though, mostly for all the wrong reasons but then, it does boast director Joseph H. The first of Lugosi's famed "Monogram Nine" pictures, and one of the more interesting films he'd ever make in his career.