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Black Dragons (1942)

Yellow Menace


Cast:

Bela "Dracula" Lugosi is Dr. Melcher/Monsieur Colomb
Joan Barclay is Alice Saunders
George Pembroke is Dr. William Saunders
Clayton "Lone Ranger" Moore is FBI Agent Richard 'Dick' Martin
Robert Frazer is Amos Hanlin


What the box says:

After an opening scene at a Washington DC cocktail party where it is demonstrated that "loose lips sink ships", the plot proper gets under way, wherein a group of six men conspire to undermine America's war effort. What is the connection between these six men, all of them outwardly respectable members of Washingtonian society? Hero Don (Clayton Moore) and heroine Alice (Joan Barclay) suspect that the answer lies with the mysterious, wryly philosophical Dr. Melcher (Bela Lugosi), a world-famous plastic surgeon. It turns out that Melcher is part of an elaborate espionage scheme hatched by the dreaded Black Dragon Society of Japan!


Plot:

Washington D.C., a group of movers and shakers discuss troops, money, and the war effort. Cue the stock footage of sinking ships, riots, and war fu. Dr. Saunders debates how to destroy ammo dumps when he receives a visitor: Mr. Colomb.

Saunders doesn’t remember Colomb (BELA LUGOSI). The ever creepy Lugosi had another face at the time and attacks Saunders. The others walk in and Saunders is talking in a zombie monotone. His guests leave.

Lugosi gives Saunders some instructions and leaves. Saunders’s butler, Steven, fixes a room for the Count.

Kearny finds Bela in his cab.

Later, Kearney’s body is found gripping a Japanese dagger in his hand on the steps of the Japanese embassy. Cue the newspaper montage.

The FBI sends special agent Dick Martin to question Saunders and his niece, Alice.

Later, at Saunders’s house, Alice arrives. She meets Agent Dick. She tries talking with her uncle who is locked in his room and claims to be terrible sick. She bumps into the creepy Bela.

Of course, I never drink wine...
Of course, I never drink wine...

More witty banter that was never in any Howard Hawk movie between Alice and Agent Dick ensues. He leaves.

Alice tries seeing her uncle again to no avail. Wallace, another dinner guest, wants to see Saunders who refuses to see him. Later Wallace sneaks back into the house and runs into Lugosi. They struggle.

Alice hears a commotion and checks on it and finds Bela reading a book. She leaves, and Bela finds a better place for Wallace’s body.

More of the dinner guests are suspicious of Kearney’s death and Wallace’s disappearance. Ryder and Van Dyke call Wallace’s hotel room and head up. By the way, Wallace is talking in a zombie monotone yet no one notices it. Bela is in the room and promptly dispatches with Wallace.

Ryder and Van Dyke find Wallace’s body. They sneak out and decide it is better not to tell the cops. They know they’re being hunted and can be on the guard.

Back at Chalet Saunders, Alice freaks out when she is sure there is someone in her room. Running downstairs, she runs into Bela who is sure she’s just a hysterical female.

Ryder and Van Dyke go to Saunders’s house. Ryder tells Saunders through the door about Wallace and how Van Dyke wants to go to the police for protection. They’re to go to the basement where Saunders will meet them. In the basement, Ryder decides to finish Van Dyke when multiple gunshots ensue. Bela finds the dead Van Dyke and the mortally wounded Ryder.

Alice heads to the basement, finds a body, and runs off into Agent Dick’s arms. 4 seconds later, they head to the basement where there are no bodies. Agent Dick wants to seen Saunders.

Lugosi is in Saunders’s room. Zombie monotone Dr Saunders ensues about not bothering him, etc…Agent Dick leaves.

Washington D.C., 2 bodies are found at the step of the Japanese embassy each holding Japanese daggers. Another newspaper montage ensues.

Steven, the butler, has vanished.

The FBI wants to get to Hanlan, the last dinner guest.

Hanlan gets a note.

Agent Dick visits Alice again. He tells her about the 2 bodies that were her uncle’s dinner guests. Lugosi finds a note from the butler leaving to visit a sick friend. Lugosi has to leave.

The FBI trails Count Dracula. When, they pull the cab over, Lugosi has vanished.

Elsewhere, Hanlan is in a business meeting when Agent Dick pays a visit on him. They need him to help catch the killer.

Later, the FBI surrounds Saunders’s house. The Chief checks Saunders’s room. Agent Dick finds Steven tied up in the basement. Chief reveals that Alice is an agent. Dr. Saunders disappeared 10 years ago. His real niece contacted the Chief.

Suddenly, a scream distracts everyone. Bela Lugosi attacks Hanlan.

The agents catch a masked man. Lugosi is able to shoot Hanlan.

Dr. Saunders tells what is going on. 10 years ago in Japan, Dr. Bela Lugosi sporting a truly wicked Fu Manchu mustache and goatee is to surgically alter several members of the Order of the Black Dragon into being able to impersonate several wealthy American businessmen.

Surgery fu ensues; the Japanese leader is pleased with Lugosi’s work. However, he is imprisoned to keep him from revealing their new identities. However, a man is in the prison cell with the evil Nazi Dr. Bela Lugosi. Note: it is Bela Lugosi without the Fu Manchu and no grey hair… Dr Lugosi uses his mini plastic surgery tool kit. Cut to the present.

Dr. Saunders was injected with some sort of formula that hideously disfigured him.

Montage, the spy ring is destroyed…USA..USA…USA…


What I say:

Some movies don't require you to know anything about them to sound interesting. Take Black Dragons. The Lone Ranger versus Dracula in a spy movie set in WWII. That isn't quite a accurate description but when Clayton Moore who is more known as the Lone Ranger. Of course, Bela is known for Dracula. Those facts just sort of make that joke so much easier. Never let the facts ruin a completely deranged jokes that are slightly less funny than randomly blurting out "niko neko niko.."

It is Bela Lugosi once more unto the breach. Some might think I'm against Bela Lugosi after reviewing Ape Man, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, Corpse Vanishes, Devil Bat, Invisible Ghost, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and White Zombie. To me, he is one of the most respected actors. The man is one of the most acknowledged horror actors of all time along with Boris Karloff. Even in Bela Lugoi's worst movies, he still had the talent to elevate it. He always had a charisma albeit typically sinister charisma that many horror actors today could use but lack.

Low budget movies have always had to use exploitative methods in some fashion to draw up business. The Cold War had the heroes like John Wayne battling communists in the 1950s. Before that decade, previously, in my review of Adventures of Fu Manchu, I mentioned the "Yellow Menace." After Pearl Harbor grew fear against Japanese which led to internment of Japanese Americans. World War 2 after Pearl Harbor moved Hollywood into making movies that lampooned the Japanese whether Japanese soldiers were being bedeviled by Warner Brother cartoon characters or live action movies.

Well not until near the end of Black Dragons do we have the shocking secret revealed that a group of Japanese agents underwent plastic surgery to infilitrate the US and sabotage the industries to slow the war effort. What would be a better way to bring in business than have a movie about Japanese spies working a fifth column to undermine the US's war effort? To be honest, the movie could have been done with Germans in the place of the Japanese infilitrators without a single change except making Bela a different nationality.

Fear of the unknown has been used so commonly in many sci-fi and horror movies. It just works so well, whether it is aliens that are so hideous to humans sort of like spoiled anorexic bratty heiresses or that really weird guy ahead of you at the DMV asking 50 questions. Invasion of the Body Snatchers had the aliens that infilitrate society for the nefarious purpose of conquering us. I'm sure we've all heard the various theories of how the aliens represent communists and McCarthy supporters. Yes, the "who can we trust?" vibe without giving us Gillian Anderson to leer at which we could really use.

It is just hard to believe that no one noticed any of the characters talking in a strange zombie monotone. Get the book, the "Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis" br Raj Jain andread pages 234-244 (Seriously, get the book). You should sound awfully close to the tone of the characters that Bela hypnotizes. Talk like that in front of your friends and see if any of them think something is wrong. If any notices, they are actually listening intently to you.

The 1940s had its blatantly sexist portrayals of women about the only thing they don't mention is her place should be barefoot in the kitchen about to drop another kid. Basically, take Alice and have her freak out at every thing in the movie. Almost every comment to Alice from Bela is how her nerves are feeble, "too emotional," etc...Actually, you'd almost expect the hero to be so ruggedly masculine to make Alice renounce any career dreams to frantically start popping out babies like biscuits out of a can. Most of the men just call her a hysterical female gives you a good description of her character. Well, Bela Lugosi just is allowed to make those comments because he's evil.

The Bela Lugosi with the goatee and greyed hair being thrown into the same prison cell as a a clean-shaven darker haired Bela Lugois is one of the funniest things. What could make it funnier? No one even mentioned they looked similar. Suddenly, he is able to perform enough plastic surgery to switch places with the other guy. Somehow, I think we have learned the secret of how Dr Hannibal Lector came up with his plan to escape by using the guard's face as a mask. OK, Black Dragons didn't have the gore quotient or even implied gore quotient of Silence of the Lambs. However, a doctor being able to overpower someone else and manage to disguise himself as someone else if by plastic surgery or skinning someone is Hannibal Lectorian



2 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"Don't forget your bedside manner."
"I'm not in the habit of seeing patients in my home."
"You can call me, Dick."
"This is one time, I refuse to suspect the butler in the case."
"A busy man has little time to indulge in femine emotions."


Morals of the Story

Yellow Taxi Cabs look strange in black and white.
Bela Lugosi's humming sounds like 2 guys fighting.
Dead bodies can disappear in 4 seconds.
Plastic surgery can be performed with 2 sclapels and no painkillers.


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