JoeKarlosi The last of nine films that horror icon Bela Lugosi made for the ultra-cheap Monogram studio. It's certainly one of the more intriguing in this series, thanks to a twisted story and a cast of vintage old reliable scare men.Sneaky gas station owner Nicholas (George Zucco) steers young women down the wrong road whenever they get lost in their automobiles and require directions at his place. After sending them off on their gullible way, he hot tails it to the telephone to alert Dr. Marlowe (Lugosi) that another victim will soon arrive. The doc utilizes his dimwitted henchman Toby (John Carradine) to help kidnap the girls and take them to his basement, so Bela can place them into a trance and use them to restore life to his lovely but brain dead wife. The method is for Lugosi and Zucco to don voodoo garb and chant bizarre rites while Carradine bangs maniacally on a drum, in an effort to transfer the life spirit out of the hypnotized victims and into the doc's unresponsive spouse.Sounds like a hoot, does it not? This film got an extra boost around the time of this writing due to a wonderful newly restored Blu-ray release from Olive Films. Looking way better than ever before or than it probably deserves, this is a slight hour of absurd fun. Lugosi is restrained and has some emotional moments when caring for his wife's well being, and it is such a laugh to see Shakespearean veteran Carradine making an utter buffoon out of himself. How did he do it? Lord knows they couldn't afford to pay him enough. **1/2 out of ****.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS****The big three,Bela Lugosi John Carradine & George Zucco, of the bottom basement Monogram studio put their talents together in this flick about voodoo and kidnapping as they all are involved in kidnapping pretty women motorists to be used for experiments in the crazed Dr. Richard Marlow's, Bela Lugosi, plan to resurrect his dead wife Evelyn, Ellen Hall, back to life. Catching the confused women on the road to Twin Falls Dr. Marlow has his two goons Toby & Grego, John Carradine & Pat McGee, kidnap them and bring the women to his in his underground laboratory. It's there where Dr. Marlow's voodoo expert Nicholas or Nick the Greek, George Zucco, does his thing in a crazy and confusing ritual where he just goes plain crazy talking mombo jumbo like jive to bring the dead, Evelyn , back to life!Not much of a story but still worth watching in the way Lugosi Carradine and Zucco ham it up that make the film look more like a comedy then a horror movie.The hero Ralph Dawson, Tod Andrews, in the movie ends up getting the lights turned out on him and doesn't have anything to do with putting an end to Dr. Marlow's crimes which included him kidnapping Dawson's wife Betty, Wanda McKay. At the end when the movie finally ended it's Dawson who's a movie screen writer who suggests that star of the film he's to write about what he experienced in real life, in the movie "Voodoo Man", should be no other then actor Bela Lugosi! Thus giving Lugosi who's been down and out on his luck at the time a plug in his own film.The last film that Bela Lugosi made for Monogram Pictures before he sunk into his own real horror movie of drug abuse that almost ended up killing him. It took Bela some 10 years to get his act straighten out by kicking the habit but by then he was almost completely forgotten by the movie going public. It was that great bad movie director Ed Wood JR who resurrected Bela's career with bad movie classics like "Glen & Glenda" as well as "Bride of the Monster" that put Bela back in lights as well as on the silver screen.

icaredor Sadly the days when a lone, mad scientist, toiling in the basement of his sinister mansion, could perform miracles over life and death with just a few test tubes and pulsing lights, without thought of glory or patent rights, have been curtailed by the corporate monopoly of science; the simple human desire to revivify the dead, trumped by the thirst for profit. Happily, voodoo has, thus far, eluded the grasping grip of greed (ouch!) and retained its humble individuality.Voodoo Man returns us to that simpler time when science and magic worked hand in hand. It is another absurd poverty-row horror, filmed in seven days, in case you can't tell, by Bill "One-Shot" Beaudine for Sam Katzman's Monogram Pictures. Lugosi plays Marlowe, another mad scientist with another ailing wife. Indeed this wife is rather more than ailing: for 28 years she has been dead, but not in the sense we understand the word, of course. He tries to reanimate her by transferring to her the life force of abducted female motorists. Marlowe has some impressive technology – an impressive surveillance system, a car disabling ray, and some weird wife maintenance machinery. Still, he isn't one of those finicky skeptics who practice science nowadays. Like the alchemist, he recognizes the potential to improve scientific outcomes by utilizing magic.This film is sensationally silly especially given the quality of the cast. This may not be Lugosi's most absurd role; unfortunately, the same can't be said for Carradine and Zucco. Carradine plays Toby, Marlowe's jogging, dimwitted henchman, who kidnaps women and doubles as Marlowe's percussion section. His bizarre performance is only over-cast by Zucco who plays Nicholas, gas station proprietor and voodoo priest. Zucco usually brings an air of dignity to the foolish roles he plays but this one is beyond him. While Toby bashes a bongo, Nicholas, in a cheap college gown and "Phyllis Diller wig," chants gibberish at a piece of string in the name of Ramboonya who is, apparently, all powerful. And, to be fair, Nicholas is getting results until meddling relatives and policemen interfere with the ceremonies.This film has remained too obscure and deserves a far greater audience. Amazing stuff.

Scarecrow-88 For a classic horror fan with an affinity for the great icons of the past, I was positively thrilled to discover through an Internet user that VOODOO MAN was streaming public domain. The reason is that three horror stars of the 40s star in this same film..Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, and John Carradine. I'm not sure if they ever appeared in the same film again, but simple knowledge of seeing Carradine and Lugosi in scenes together had me giddy with excitement. The main plot concerns Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist obsessed with finding a way to bring his beloved wife back to life by using lovely women his henchmen kidnap(including George Zucco who runs a gas station, contacting Lugosi when a female driver passes through, Carradine as a loyal bumpkin who tells girls they're pretty before grabbing them along with Pat McKee)in "lifeforce" experiments. It's one of those poverty row low-budgeters Zucco and Lugosi were known to act in for far less than their worth(the idea that someone of Lugosi's stature was making such a low income is a crying shame, but alas..). The voodoo ceremony with Lugosi evoking "from mind to mind" as Zucco chants some sort of ritualistic jargon, with face paint, costume, and head dress, with Carradine beating on a drum has to be seen to be believed. Carradine is more or less a harmless idiot servant who fears beatings from his master and ogles the pretty girls held captive in a hypnotic trance by Lugosi. Lugosi isn't as completely evil as his usual roles would require for Monogram, only really committing his crimes so he can return his beloved to life. The cheap Monogram sets pale in comparison to those of Universal, but Lugosi's star power helps.Tod Andrews is a reporter whose fiancé, Betty(Wanda McKay) could be in danger as Lugosi's Richard Marlowe believes she is a perfect "affinity" to reawaken his long dead wife, Evelyn(Ellen Hall). Louise Currie is Betty's cousin, Stella, herself kidnapped and put under a voodoo spell. VOODOO MAN may well be a laughingstock for those who find the premise wacky, but I think Lugosi fans will find it worth a look.