The 2024 ‘Spooky Season’ Gets Especially Spooky With Bela Lugosi as TCM’s October 2024 Star of the Month
Hungarian American actor Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó — better known as horror icon Bela Lugosi — is fittingly celebrated as Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month during the 2024 spooky season. The first four Wednesdays of October 2024 will feature nighttime lineups of Lugosi favorites divided by themes.
Each night’s lineup of titles is listed below this nice little tribute video to the legend.
TCM STAR OF THE MONTH: BELA LUGOSI — OCTOBER 2024 SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES EASTERN)
Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024 — Begins at 8pm
Tonight’s initial theme is “Universal Horror Star,” which kicks off with his legendary title role in the film that made Bela Lugosi an instant and immortal star:
8pm: Dracula (1931) — This iconic, Tod Browning-directed film sometimes feels like the Dracula stage play on which it was based (Lugosi also starred in a 1927 revival of the play, his first major English-speaking role), but the actor’s indelible performance as the legendary vampire elevates the production to the classic level it has attained. There are good supporting performances from Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing, Helen Chandler as Mina Seward, David Manners as Jonathan Harker and Dwight Frye as Renfield (providing some of the greatest maniacal laughter in screen history), and cool cinematography from Karl Freund.
Following Dracula are other frightening classics with Lugosi in lead or supporting roles, mostly from Universal:
9:30pm: Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) — Inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe short story.
11pm: Island of Lost Souls (1932, from Paramount) — Based on H.G. Wells’ novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, and led by Charles Laughton as that character.
12:15am: The Black Cat (1934) — The first of eight big-screen pairings between Lugosi and fellow scary movie master Boris Karloff, and “suggested by” another Poe tale.
1:30am: The Wolf Man (1941) — Lugosi has a supporting role as a Romani fortuneteller named Bela in this classic that introduced the great Universal Monster of the title, played by Lon Chaney Jr. in his monster and human (Larry Talbot) forms. Claude Rains costars.
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 — Begins at 8pm
This evening features eight films that show how adept Lugosi was at making people laugh as well as scaring them, sometimes parodying his onscreen persona and creepy reputation. The night of horror comedies begins with the most memorable example of that:
8pm: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) — This film not only revived the career of the titular comedy duo, but also brought classic Universal Monsters back to the forefront, in a nice mix of scares and laughs. Best of all, the movie saw Lugosi back onscreen as Dracula for the first time since 1931, alongside Abbott and Costello, the Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange) and the Wolf Man/Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.).
Remind Following that are:
9:30pm: Zombies on Broadway (1945) — Comedy duo Alan Carney and Wally Brown — RKO’s not-quite-as-successful answer to Universal’s Abbott and Costello — lead this zombie comedy that also features Lugosi as a mad scientist.
10:45pm: You’ll Find Out (1940) — Bandleader Kay Kyser plays himself in this comedy that finds he and his orchestra stranded in a spooky castle and uncovering a swindling plot orchestrated by a phony mystic (Lugosi), a seemingly respectable attorney (Boris Karloff) and a professor (Peter Lorre).
12:30am: Spooks Run Wild (1941) — The first of Lugosi’s appearances in a horror comedy led by the East Side Kids.
1:45am: Ghosts on the Loose (1943) — Another East Side Kids comedy, this one involves an alleged haunted house that’s actually a front for a Nazi spy ring, whose leader, Emil (Lugosi) tries to scare the fellas away before they uncover their operation. Ava Gardner also makes an early appearance.
3am: The Death Kiss (1933) — David Manners and Edward Van Sloan, who also costarred in Dracula, re-team with Lugosi for this mystery.
4:15am: Scared to Death (1947) — This Gothic thriller marks the only time that Lugosi led a color movie.
5:30am: The Gorilla (1939) — Lugosi costars with another famed comedy team of the era, the Ritz Brothers, in this horror comedy that also features Anita Louise, Lionel Atwill and Patsy Kelly.
Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 — Begins at 8pm
8pm: White Zombie (1932, pictured below) — The first feature-length zombie movie, and probably Lugosi’s second-most famous horror film after Dracula, White Zombie features him as evil voodoo/zombie master Legendre.
Courtesy of United Artists
9:15pm:The Body Snatcher (1945) — Based on a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, this horror film from producer Val Lewton and director Robert Wise which marked the eighth and final onscreen pairing between Lugosi and fellow scary movie master Boris Karloff.
10:45pm: The Devil Bat (1940) — Lugosi again plays a mad scientist, this time Dr. Paul Carruthers, who the film informs us found time “to conduct certain private experiments — weird, terrifying experiments.” Those experiments yield him the ability to create a small army of giant size Devil Bats that he sics on enemies.
12am: Mark of the Vampire (1935) — Another teaming of Lugosi with Tod Browning, who had directed Lugosi’s signature performance in 1931’s Dracula.
1:15am: The Thirteenth Chair (1929) — A mystery feature made before Lugosi was famous and also helmed by Browning.
2:45am: Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957) — Ed Wood’s infamous, very low-budget production that was Lugosi’s final film, the making of which was immortalized in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994), featuring a touching and Oscar-winning supporting performance by Martin Landau as Lugosi.
Following Lugosi’s passing in August 1956, Wood used a few minutes of unrelated footage he had taken of Lugosi and inserted it into Plan 9, making the cameo a tribute of sorts, and a final screen credit for the actor. You can see most of it here:
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 — Begins at 8pm
The final evening of TCM’s October 2024 salute to Bela Lugosi features seven films that spotlight his strength as a character actor even in smaller supporting roles, and sometimes in perhaps unexpected genres, like the comedies featured later in the evening.
First up are a few of the type of mystery and/or horror films with which he is most associated:
8pm: The Corpse Vanishes (1942) — Featuring Lugosi in another mad scientist role.
9:30pm: Bowery at Midnight (1942) — Lugosi plays the leader of a criminal gang whose downfall comes courtesy of a doctor who finds a way to re-animate the corpses of henchmen Lugosi’s character has killed.
10:45pm: The Saint’s Double Trouble (1940) — This fourth entry in RKO’s eight-film series featuring famed fictional criminal-turned-crime fighter Simon Templar (aka The Saint), played here by George Sanders, Lugosi plays a member of an international gang of jewel thieves.
12am: Broadminded (1931) — Lugosi has a small role in this comedy led by Joe E. Brown.
1:30am: Genius at Work (1946) — The last of RKO’s series of comedy films starring the team of Wally Brown and Alan Carney, this title features Lionel Atwill as “the Cobra,” a criminal posing as a radio station owner, and Lugosi as Stone, the Cobra’s sadistic butler who carries out some of his dirty work.
2:45am: Ninotchka (1939, pictured below) — This classic romantic comedy led by Best Actress Oscar nominee Greta Garbo as the title character also features Lugosi as Commissar Razinin.
4:45am: Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931) — Opening in theaters on Feb. 14, 1931, the same day as Dracula, the film that would make him a star in the lead role, this musical comedy featured Lugosi in a very small (and uncredited) role as a magician.
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