Scared to Death
Scared to Death is a 1947 thriller Gothic film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi.[2] The picture was filmed in Cinecolor. The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role.[3][4]
| Scared to Death | |
|---|---|
 Original 1947 theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Christy Cabanne |
| Produced by | William B. David |
| Written by | W.J. Abbott |
| Based on | play Murder on the Operating Table by Frank Orsino |
| Starring | Bela Lugosi George Zucco Nat Pendleton Molly Lamont |
| Music by | Carl Hoefle |
| Cinematography | Marcel LePicard |
| Edited by | George McGuire |
Production company | Golden Gate Pictures |
| Distributed by | Screen Guild Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 65 minutes 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $135,000 (estimated)[1] |
Plot
The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright. The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror.
The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage (Bela Lugosi) identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf (Angelo Rossitto).
After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis. Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the Nazis led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death.
Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.
Cast
- Bela Lugosi as Prof. Leonide
- George Zucco as Dr. Joseph Van Ee
- Nat Pendleton as Bill Raymond
- Molly Lamont as Laura Van Ee / Laurette La Valle
- Joyce Compton as Jane Cornell
- Gladys Blake as Lilybeth
- Roland Varno as Ward Van Ee
- Douglas Fowley as Terry Lee
- Stanley Andrews as Pathologist
- Angelo Rossitto as Indigo
- Lee Bennett as Rene
- Stanley Price as Autopsy Surgeon
Production
The film was based on a one-act play which in turn was based on a 1933 murder case involving Dr. Alice Wynekoop.[5]
The film was announced in March 1946 as Accent on Horror.[6]
Legacy
The film was featured in an episode of Deadly Cinema.
References
- Internet Movie Database Box office/Business for
- Erickson, Hal. "Scared to Death". Allmovie. Retrieved April 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/scared-to-death-v43076
- http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5746/Scared-to-Death/trivia.html
- Mark Thomas McGee, Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive: The Films of Robert L. Lippert, Bear Manor Media, 2014 p 108
- Schallert, E. (Mar 29, 1946). "Small plans classic; quints deal hovers". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 165659150.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scared to Death (1947 film). |
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Scared to Death |
- Scared to Death at IMDb
- Scared to Death at the TCM Movie Database
- Scared to Death at AllMovie
- Scared to Death at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Scared to Death is available for free download at the Internet Archive
- Review of film at Variety
- Paul Lewis, 2009: Review of Scared to Death at DVDCompare