Scared to Death ** (1947, Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Molly Lamont, Roland Varno, Nat Pendleton, Joyce Compton, Dorothy Christy) – Classic Movie Review 3746

Director Christy Cabanne’s intriguingly eerie and exotic 1947 thriller stars Bela Lugosi in his only colour film, apart from his brief unbilled appearance in 1931’s Fifty Million Frenchmen (which now exists only in black and white) and Viennese Nights in 1930.

Morgue examiners reveal that a beautiful woman, Laura Van Ee (Molly Lamont), has died of fright. She was married to Ward Van Ee (Roland Varno), the son of a doctor, Dr Joseph Van Ee (George Zucco), the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she was being treated against her will.

The doctor’s cousin, Professor Leonide (Lugosi), a stage magician in Europe, arrives, accompanied by a threatening dwarf, Indigo (Angelo Rossitto).

The film is based on a one-act play Murder on the Operating Table by Frank Orsino, which in turn was based on a real-life 1933 murder case involving Dr Alice Wynekoop.

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