2020 October Horror Challenge #7: "The Death Kiss (1932)"

 

I admit it, I'm a tad obsessed with Bela Lugosi. When I was a horror loving kid who wasn't allowed to read horror novels or watch horror movies,  I read lots of books about horror movies (which were ok because they were educational) and classic novels like Bram Stoker's "Dracula," which was ok because it was a classic.  I had a ratty old paperback edition of Dracula, and it had a picture of Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula on the cover, so I always associate Bela Lugosi with classic horror,  and i love watching his movies to this day. Something about his brooding presence draws me in. I was excited to dig up this movie, which I haven't seen yet, and I'm excited to check it out.

Here, Bela Lugosi plays a head studio exec who is looking into the death of an actor on the set of one of his studio's movies. Bad idea dude. Of course, the people who committed the murder aren't happy to have people snooping around, so more deaths are sure to follow if someone doesn't catch the killers first.

There has to be an easier way of getting rid of people you don't like than plotting their murder. The fact that it takes place on a movie set does lend credence to the idea that it was an accident, but having a mysterious woman kiss the guy right before his death (so you make sure you're killing the right guy) and the fact that the movie where the murder takes place is called "The Death Kiss" does add an air of mystery and irony. It also complicates things though, and makes the murderers more likely to get caught. Guess they never learn that such elaborate plots aren't a great idea.

Bela Lugosi doesn't have a very big role in the movie unfortunately (they re-released it with his name prominently featured after he became a big star) but he does lend an air of class and elegance to the scenes he is in. The movie focuses more on a writer who writes mystery novels who starts snooping around the set trying to solve the murder. It really seems like everyone else around this murder does more work trying to solve the murder than the cops. I guess the cops needed all the help they could get back in the days before CSI and modern technology made it easier to solve crimes. Once the bodies start piling up, we're hoping we get to the bottom of the murder and the nice writer gets to be with the actress in the end. This is a fun little murder movie. It's not Lugosi's best, but it was an ok watch.