4 - The Corpse Vanishes and the Case of the Missing Brides

Summary

Monogram Pictures was not usually given to understatement, particularly when it came to Bela Lugosi. The title of Wallace Fox’s The Corpse Vanishes is a fascinating exception. Released in May 1942, the film features Lugosi as Dr. Lorenz, a physician and scientist who abducts women in an effort to keep his aging wife, Countess Lorenz (Elizabeth Russell), alive and well. Three bodies disappear during its running time, along with the kidnapping of a journalist (Luana Walters). And that’s to say nothing of at least three bodies Lorenz stole in the days, weeks, months, and perhaps years prior to the film’s opening scene. To announce the vanishing of a single corpse in the film title hardly seems to be an adequate tabulation of Lorenz’s crimes.

Shooting on The Corpse Vanishes began in early March 1942. Sam Robins and Gerald Schnitzer received credit for the original story, which Harvey Gates adapted into a screenplay. When interviewed in 2012, Schnitzer mentioned that one of the producers had provided the idea for the tale: “I vaguely recall discussing the idea with Jack Dietz, who claimed he had read about a socialite bride being kidnapped, headlined in the tabloids.” Little else is known of the film’s production. Daily Variety joked that producer Sam Katzman had borrowed six coffins from an undertaker to use in the film, promising that they would be returned in perfect condition. Two were damaged, which meant an unhappy Katzman had to purchase them.

The company moved through production and post-production rapidly, giving a preview screening on April 10, 1942. The final cut was released on May 8, 1942, only two months after shooting had begun. Industry trade reviews were largely positive—somewhat surprising given that The Corpse Vanishes was just a B-movie, a “programmer” meant to complete the lower half of double features. Motion Picture Daily judged it to be “about as eerie an offering as has appeared on the screen,” in spite of a merely “competent” production that featured some “inept” acting and dialogue. Film Daily told readers:

Bela Lugosi has made some horrifying horror films in his day, but this one tops them all for suspense and sheer, grim, mad frightfulness.