Black Dragons (1942)

 Black Dragons (1942)

After Bela Lugosi's contract with Universal Pictures ended, his career descended to a string of low budget b-films, and many of them were really not very good.  Bela Lugosi though took every role seriously, and there were times it felt that he was the only one that did.  In 1942 as World War 2 was going on, there were films made that were little more than anti-Japanese propaganda, and sadly Bela Lugosi was cast in one of those films, a spy movie with horror elements called Black Dragons.  As much as I love Bela Lugosi this film has always been hard for me to watch.  The film features heavy anti-Japanese sentiment bordering definitely crossing the line into racist propaganda, and also there is a brief anti-union scene, which is especially sad as Lugosi was a very strong advocates of unions.  Black Dragons is one of those films from a dark period of American history during World War 2, when sexism and racism were very mainstream popular concepts.

Black Dragons was directed by William Nigh, with a screenplay by Robert Kehoe and Harvey Gates.  The film was produced by Banner Pictures Corporation, and distributed by Monogram Pictures Corporation, both companies known for their low budget productions.   Black Dragons was released in 1942, and was rushed into production following the attack on Pearl Harbor.   The Black Dragon Society was also featured in the 1942 East Side Kids film Let's Get Tough, which was made by the same writer/production team as Black Dragons.

Black Dragons stars Bela Lugosi as Dr. Melcher aka Monsieur Colomb/Cell Prisoner, Joan Barclay as Alice Saunders, George Pembroke plays her uncle Dr. Bill Saunders, and Clayton Moore plays Dick Martin.   Aside from Bela Lugosi and Joan Barclay no one in the cast is really worth mentioning.  Lugosi brings his exotic hypnotic charm to the role, much like his portrayal of Dracula, he appears sinister yet enchanting.   Joan Barclay plays the role of Dr. Saunders' niece, but there is something more than meets the eye about her character, and she does a great job at playing the beautiful young girl who helps to unravel the plot behind the murders of prominent business men, who are found dead with a Japanese dagger in their hands.

Bela Lugosi is the only reason to watch this film, he is the only thing about this film that can even come close to being called good, or even enjoyable.  The film is nothing more than a racist anti-Japanese propaganda during World War 2, the people that would have enjoyed this film, probably also were in support of the Japanese-American concentration camps (I mean "Internment Camps").  This film is constantly using the racist slur "Jap" when referring to the Japanese, and there really is not point behind the film at all.   If you are a fan of Bela Lugosi, his performance makes the film almost worth watching, if you are not a huge Bela Lugosi fan, then this is a film that I would highly recommend just skipping, other than Bela there is really no reason that this film should be watched at all.  It is sad to see such a great actor being stuck playing absolute crap roles like this, but he wasn't in a position to really turn down roles, after turning down Frankenstein, and his active role in unionizing film actors made him shunned by the major motion picture companies, which ultimately lead to the sad end of his life, after he befriended Ed Wood, one of the few directors in Hollywood who truly believed in him after his career dried up.  It is sad to see such a great actor in such a crap film like Black Dragons, I am sure that he wasn't very proud of this film, but you have to pay the bills somehow.