Bela Lugosi is one of the kings of early horror, his name appearing in the credits for dozens and dozens of dark and scary films between the 1920s and 1940s. Lugosi was born in a region of Hungary now located in Romania. After starring in some Hungarian silent films in the 1910s, Lugosi moved to Germany to advance his career. Soon later, Weimar-era German policies restricted his creative potential, and he immigrated to the United States in 1920.
Lugosi’s most iconic role is as the vampire Count Dracula in the 1931 feature of the same name, but his filmography is far more expansive than this. He is also known as a frequent collaborator with two other horror greats: Lon Chaney Jr. and Boris Karloff. This list compiles Lugosi’s 10 most terrifying roles, ranked by their degree of sinisterness.
Charles Kessler In Invisible Ghost (1941)
This ghostly and atmospheric feature contains a bit more depth than some of Lugosi’s other horror ventures. In it, he plays a distressed widower named Charles Kessler who still grieves for his dead wife. It seems his dead wife also misses him, and she hypnotizes him from the great beyond.
Kessler’s wife has questionable motivations as a spirit, though, and her husband’s possessed body soon becomes a vehicle for murder. As the bodies pile up around him, Kessler tries to figure out what’s going on.
Professor Adam Anton Strang In The Whispering Shadow (1933)
In this peculiar whodunit, Bela Lugosi’s character is actually a red herring, a suspicious jewel thief who turns out NOT to be the crazy killer known as the titular Whispering Shadow. Still, Lugosi’s character is quite nefarious and deserves a spot on this list.
The movie is full of false clues and decoy plot points to draw readers away from the real identity of the Whispering Shadow, a technical mastermind who has conceived of a way to kill people using airwaves. Even though Lugosi voices the Whispering Shadow, the true culprit is exposed to be someone else.
Eric Marnay In Black Friday (1940)
While Boris Karloff’s character is the true menace in this feature, Bela Lugosi plays a tough and cruel gangster ready to take out his enemies at whatever cost. In Black Friday, Karloff plays a professor who brings his best friend back to life after he’s caught up in the middle of a gang shoot-out. Karloff’s character uses brain tissue from a dead gangster named Red Cannon to make the revival of his friend, George, successful.
It works, but George gets Red’s tendencies and memories, and he transitions into a life of murder and crime at Karloff’s character’s behest. Lugosi’s character, Eric, is a rival gangster who is mortal enemies with Red. This trio of bad guys come head-to-head, and everything falls apart.
‘Murder’ Legendre In White Zombie (1932)
Despite being a memorable role for Lugosi, White Zombie is full of problematic depictions of native Haitians and their voodoo rituals. Lugosi plays a man named Murder who uses his supernatural powers to turn those around him into zombies who act at his behest.
When a young white couple travels to Haiti, Murder sets his sights on the woman, desiring her as his bride. He will stop at nothing to get her.
Dr. Paul Carruthers In The Devil Bat (1940)
A campy, low-budget feature from Ed Wood, The Devil Bat sees Lugosi being excessively nefarious and creepy as a mad scientist who uses his chemistry skills to enact vengeance against his business partners. Lugosi’s character, Dr. Carruthers, decides to breed an army of large mutant bats, a pretty standard revenge scheme when you’re a character in an absurd horror film.
He gives his business partners a special present: shaving lotion he has trained the bats to hone in on. Once they don the lotion, he unleashes the bats on them, which in turn tear his enemies to bits. It all seems a bit complicated, but whatever works, right?
Dr. Richard Vollin In The Raven (1935)
Lugosi plays another mad scientist in this feature, a brain surgeon obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe. Dr. Vollin falls for a young woman, the daughter of a well-known judge who needs brain surgery. When the judge refuses Dr. Vollin’s advances toward his daughter, the brain surgeon plots against them.
Dr. Vollin intends to use tricks from his beloved Poe in order to make the judge pay. Fortunately, a prison escapee played by Boris Karloff arrives at Dr. Vollin’s house desperate for a new face. Instead, Dr. Vollin uses the man as his own murderous puppet.
Dr. Mirakle In Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
Lugosi plays another mad scientist in this classic that relies on the Expressionism of German silent era films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to develop tension and create a spooky ambiance. As Dr. Mirakle, Lugosi brings an ominous edge to an already scary role as a carnival performer who also experiments with sex workers against their will.
Dr. Mirakle likes to mix the blood of women with the blood of his pet gorilla, but it never works out how he imagines. That all changes when he uses the blood of a virgin. Provocative and subversive, Murders in the Rogue Morgue definitely pushes boundaries.
Anton Lorenzen In Phantom Ship (1935)
One of the more psychological films on this list, The Phantom Ship is based on a true story. In 1872, the American ship Mary Celeste was found drifting off the English coast with no one on board. The dig explores one potential reason why this happened.
Lugosi plays the ship’s captain, Anton Lorenzen. He, at first seems, like a well-adjusted and reliable seaman. As members of his crew start dying, he keeps everyone intact and sane. As the film progresses, though, it turns out Lorenzen isn’t who he seems, and he soon has blood all over his hands.
Count Dracula In Dracula (1931)
“I am….Drac-u-la. I bid you velcome.” Lugosi will forever be remembered as the blood-sucking Count Dracula from Transylvania in Tod Browning’s classic horror movie. A true adaption of Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name, Dracula rides on atmosphere, mood, and the sweeping movements of its title character.
On top of endless blood, Dracula also wants the young and beautiful Mina Harker as his vampire bride. All the classic characters are here: Van Helsing, Renfield, and Jonathan Harker. It’s always the Count, though, especially in this film, whose menace outshines everyone else.
Dr. Feodor Orloff In The Human Monster (1939)
While Dracula is his most iconic, Lugosi is at his most gruesome with his performance as Dr. Orloff, a greedy insurance agent who comes up with a way to financially benefit from his clients’ policies. All of the men he targets for his scheme are single men who live in a home for the blind.
Once Dr. Orloff gets the men to sign up for policies, he makes a deformed man living at the home kill the men in brutal ways. As the crazed mastermind with no redemptive qualities, Lugosi knows how to send shivers down an audience’s spine.
