Bela Lugosi Documentary: The Return of Dracula

Christopher Lee once said, "Every actor has to make terrible movies. The trick is not to be terrible in them." Bela Lugosi was not terrible in a lot of terrible movies.

Huge respect for Rowland Lee for helping out Bela when he was being underpaid by Universal.

Bela Lugosi the best Dracula to this day! Tall dark and handsome debonair loaded with charisma! Wish he was alive today to see how loved and respected he still is. Hollywood treated him terrible!

I always felt so bad for Lugosi... but seeing how much love he's gained over the years warms my heart <3

Thank you for this compassionate profile of Bela Lugosi. Too often, we forget about the human being beneath the caricature.

For all the terrible films Lugosi had to take, he never gave a bad performance. And, who's making docs about Ralph Byrd or the Ritz Brothers eighty plus years later?

God.... Poor Bela. I grew up watching Dracula when I was very young. I had an old VHS copy or it. It wasn't until I was a young teenager that I learned of the tragedy surrounding Lugosi. My heart has always broken for poor Bela.

Only now, some 40 years after I first saw him, have I realized that Sesame Street's The Count was entirely an homage to Lugosi's Count of 1931

I learn so much from these mini-docs. Bela playing Franky is where the "arms out" stereotype came from. Mystery of the century solved! Love it.

Bela Lugosi was a legend, in every facet.

I think Lugosi could have made a good Rasputin.

I would be willing to guess that Lugosi is probably more popular today. He was a consummate professional. Everything he did was always done with the upmost sincerity and professionalism.

Lugosi, back in Europe, was a consummate actor, playing everything from leading romantic roles, the usual villains to even Jesus. I think the main problem was the he didn't have an agent in Hollywood & thought he could handle all the business end himself. Having a good agent would've saved him, advising him on what roles to go for & how much money to accept.

Bela would have made a great Bond villain. On the other hand, he could also have delivered a fun comic turn as Q.

This has been a great documentary and a wonderful tribute to Bela. Thanks!

The Legend Bela Lugosi. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

I think Bela would have been terrific in the role of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Bela was the model for the large scary demon in Fantasia? Damn, I didn't know that & even today that demon still scares & creeps me out.

People mock his acting, but Lugosi came from the stage and was a really a good actor. In one film, he's the villain feigning blindness -- and he researched by studying how the blind do things. When he's had the chance to be something other than a 'Bela Lugosi character' he did a reasonably good job (I had to check the credits on a movie he did with Karloff because he played a gangster and his accent wasn't as thick as usual). His handicaps were lack of facility in English and a system that wouldn't let him do much else than variants on mad science.

No matter the quality of the film he was in, Lugosi always entertained. Excellent part 2 overview here.