When the 1934 film THE BLACK CAT was shown in the United Kingdom, it was shown with the alternate title THE HOUSE OF DOOM. The movie co-starred Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The star of FRANKENSTEIN was featured in author Dwight Kemper’s previous novel for Midnight Marquee Press, WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? This time, Dracula takes center stage.
But Lugosi, despite having his name in the title of Kemper’s BELA LUGOSI AND THE HOUSE OF DOOM, is not the only star attraction on display. Playing greater or lesser roles in the story are Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney Jr., Glenn Strange, Jane Randolph, Karloff and the comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. I’m assuming that readers of BOOKGASM know who these people are … well, maybe not Randolph. She played the young woman who is terrorized in a swimming pool in CAT PEOPLE. She was also the fresh-faced heroine of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, and as such, she comes to our attention.
It’s early 1948 on the set of MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Director Charles Barton is having problems with his comic co-stars. Costello didn’t want to make the film in the first place. Reading the script, he is said to have responded, “No way I’ll do that crap. My little girl could write something better than this.” Only the hiring of Barton to direct — they had worked together before and they liked each other — convinced him to sign on.
The problem now is Lugosi, who almost wasn’t cast as Dracula because the executives at Universal Pictures thought he was dead. He’s become an addict through taking morphine as a painkiller — he’s already on the road to becoming Ed Wood’s favorite exploitation — and now can’t remember even the shortest lines of dialogue. Bud and Lou are bored silly, and when those guys got silly, they got silly.
The novel is a mystery and its greatest fun lies in the fact that it is plotted like a 1940s B movie, with talk of atom bombs, Nazi scientists, robots, clutching hands and bodies falling out of closets. Keeping track of Kemper’s sometimes sly references to the movies of the era is also a hoot. Costello decides to play Sherlock Holmes with the junior Chaney as his Watson. At one point, they examine a photo with a message on the back, signed with simply the initial “M.”
“Lou pointed at the inscription and handed Chaney the photo. ‘Now, who do we know connected with the letter “M”?’ Chaney shrugged. ‘Peter Lorre?’”
When they go to call on Karloff, who is staying at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel, we are told that “They couldn’t help but gawk at the lobby’s famous grand crystal chandelier like a couple of tourists and Chaney wolf whistled in admiration.”
Kemper also has a good ear for the speech patterns and thinking of his famous cast of characters. On entering a creepy old mansion: “’Yeah,’ Costello said, playing scared. ‘I heard tell this joint made the cover of BETTER MORGUES AND CEMETERIES.’”
The story’s a little long. In keeping with the spirit of old B movies, which usually had a running time of 60 to 75 minutes, the novel’s small print on 275 pages would have been a breezier, easier read if the text had been trimmed. But there’s a lot of dialogue, and that helps considerably.
All things considered, BELA LUGOSI AND THE HOUSE OF DOOM is fun, especially for anyone who loves old monster movies, Abbott and Costello, and pulp magazine fiction. —Doug Bentin
Buy it at Midnight Marquee Press.
Related posts:
- The Beast House
- Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom
- Showcase Presents The House of Mystery: Volume 2
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Full House: Queens over Jacks
- The House Without a Key
