Bela Lugosi plays Charles Kessler, a man whose wife left him years ago, apparently is dead, and comes out of a crypt and hypnotizes him so he will kill people by throwing his black cloak over them till they suffocate. Hmmm..okay. This is a real cheapie by Monogram, yet it is entertaining and even has a few inspired bits of direction. Not many, however. The biggest problem with this film is that nothing is really explained about Lugosi and his wife, why she is dead and comes back, what happened to her, etc... We are also to believe that a horde of murders have happened in the house, yet no one has ever really suspected the inhabitants of the house(Lugosi, his daughter, or reliable servant Evans). In fact the murders are taken with a grain of salt as more and more people are attacked by the dreaded cloak and killed. Help must really be hard to find under those circumstances. The film is under an hour in length and surely could have benefited by some deeper exposition. The movie also has some pretty annoying acting by the likes of John McGuire playing twin brothers(yeah right) and George Pembroke as a cigar-chomping policeman. These guys have no range at all. But the other actors are pretty decent, an unusual bonus for a film like this. Polly Ann Young actually is credible in her role as Lugosi's daughter. Betty Compson is effective in her brief role(you might remember her from the silent film era and in early talkies like The Great Gabbo with the great Erich Von Stroheim). Much of the film's credibility is due in large part to the acting of Clarence Muse, the black, dignified butler Evans. Muse plays his part with subtlety and dignity. He does nothing even remotely like the Mantan Moreland scared routine, and really is a pillar of strength for the film to build upon. I definitely would like to see more of him(He does have a brief role with Lugosi in White Zombie as a coach driver). As for Lugosi..what can I say...simply wonderful. He makes the common extraordinary..and is the heart of films like The Invisible Ghost. He keeps it beating long after it would normally have died from the memories of most. Lugosi is seldom over-the-top in this film, and I found it to be one of his more sensitive portrayals. The scenes with him looking out the window at an aged Betty Compson eerily made-up are really the film's best highlights. They are well-crafted mood pieces.
