Bela Lugosi and the Monogram Nine

by Gary D. Rhodes, Robert Guffey

Between 1941 and 1944, Bela Lugosi starred in a series of low-budget films released by Monogram Pictures. To many viewers at the time and during the decades that followed, the “Monogram Nine” were overacted and underproduced, illogical and incoherent. But their increasing age has recast such condemnations into appropriate praise: in the 21st century, they seem so different not only from modern cinema, but also from Classical Hollywood, enough so as to make the aforementioned deficits into advantages. The entries in the Monogram Nine are bizarre and strange, populated by crazy, larger-than-life characters who exist in wacky, alternative worlds. In nine films, the improbable chases the impossible. This book, in turn, chases them.

“Gary Rhodes has become my favorite nonfiction author, while the subject of some of his writings, Bela Lugosi, has long been one of my favorite actors. Now Gary has teamed up with co-author Robert Guffey to present, for the first time, a collection of in-depth and insightful essays evaluating those lesser ‘classics’ that comprise the so-called ‘Monogram Nine.’ If you are a Lugosi fan and also a fan of old ‘B’ horror films, you will love this book.”

– Donald F. Glut, filmmaker, Marvel Comics writer, and author of The Empire Strikes Back novelization


“An extraordinary volume. Rhodes and Guffey refract these films through the lens of surrealism, detailed genre study, auteurist-informed close readings, star studies, and vigorous historicism to name a few of the kaleidoscope of methods employed. This book provides a breakthrough model for serious work on films that have to date received very little scholarly attention.”

– Michael Lee, Ph.D. (University of Oklahoma), editor at the journal Horror Studies

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2019

About the author

Gary D. Rhodes is Head of Film & Mass Media at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Lugosi (1997), White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film (2002), Emerald Illusions: The Irish in Early American Cinema (2012) and The Perils of Moviegoing in America (2012). Rhodes is also the writer-director of the documentary films Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) and Banned in Oklahoma (2004). Currently he is at work on a history of the American horror film to 1915, as well as a biography of William Fox.

Reviews

[Dave Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a linear history of Lugosi's involvement with Monogram, but instead this is a collection of essays, one per film (two in the case of Invisible Ghost). They examine the films through a variety of lenses, and for the most part it makes for entertaining reading. There are a few dry spells, but there's also a lot of humour, and enough variety to keep things interesting.

Of the films covered, the only ones I've seen are Invisible Ghost and the MST3K version of The Corpse Vanishes, but I didn't feel like that hampered my enjoyment at all.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Episode 307: Gary Rhodes And Robert Guffey -Bela Lugosi And The Monogram 9

https://projectarchivist.podbean.com/...

A Portrait of America as a B Movie. Recommended. Highly.

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