Since Tim Burton rolled Ed Wood back in 1994, many believe that, indeed, Edward D. Wood Jr. has been the worst filmmaker in history. It is very likely that your Plan 9 from Outer Space is one of the greatest absurdities of the film, but I was lucky or not to see a few years ago a film called Fear of death , directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Bela Lugosi and George Zucco, who made me change my mind about Mr. Wood. No, he is not the worst director in history, or the worst movie Plan 9. What is Fear of death.
This film of 1947 is the only one Bela Lugosi shot in color, and is a clear example of the spiral of self-destruction which had been plunged the Hungarian actor during the last years of his life.
The film begins in an autopsy room. A poster of "CENTRAL CITY MORGUE" translated into Spanish for "Forensic Anatomical Institute" followed by a "AUTOPSY ROOM - KEEP OUT" are the first shots of this sultry film. They enter the room a doctor and his assistant. On a central table lies a body covered by a sheet. The first lines of dialogue and give us the clue that this is not a normal movie:
- Is this the body?
'Yes, doctor. The police are particularly anxious to determine the cause of death as soon as possible.
The doctor uncovers only the head of the corpse. He laments:
'Pity, it was a very beautiful woman. I hate to do an autopsy on a beautiful woman.
-He has no choice, doctor.
'It's very unusual, no marks of violence on the body, what they suspect? Poison? Do you have any idea?
'I have understood that the authorities have no idea how she was killed, you know why, but not who killed her.
Yes, it matters not. Our job is to figure out what killed her. However, one often wonders: What might be the last thought was interrupted by death? ¿Would talk about it? What could it be?
A music of mystery, the superimposed image of a mask with closed eyes and the voice of a woman lead us to the next scene, no less surprising: a medical consulting room, an elegantly dressed woman sits on the couch a doctor sexagenarian advances toward her with the intention of covering his face with a bandage. She screams in terror and incorporates:
- No, I told you I do not want the band!
- Why are you so reluctant? Why are you so reluctant to sell? Do you remember something maybe?
- What do you mean?
-Oh, nothing, Laura, nothing. Why not to lie back and let finish my exam? You're a sick girl, you know, and you are very nervous.
What a great doctor! I wish all doctors were like this! Laura is her daughter, though he wishes his son to divorce her. That speak three minutes later when the child enters the query. Laura does not want divorce, what a ballot, so she gives her husband a robe around the house that has been in the hands all the time, citing:
-Ten, this is all you have given me. You can have it.
That day arrives at the mansion of a certain Dr. Leonidas, Bela Lugosi Dracula dress, friend of the family in a bygone era that the doctor would prefer not to remember; cousins, but never agreed not to call so. Leonidas comes with a mute dwarf, Indigo. When you open the door, the girl discovers Leonidas and the dwarf. Leonidas exclaims:
- My little dove! I'm glad you have opened the door, Madame. If you had waited another second, Indigo and I had broken down the door.
The girl invites you to spend as usual, and started an incomprehensible plot of suspicion, machinations, intrigues and secret passages, where everyone is afraid that a dark and murky past to rebel against them. Characters appear and disappear, wander around the house journalists and police without anyone wondering why the hell are there. All speak with prefabricated phrases, all the scenes seem more important, the last, always on the edge of dramatic tension.
I remember that memorable scene in which Laura down stairs, greatly altered, and reaches the room where a couple of journalists. One of them exclaims to see:
-Welcome to the classroom, Mr. Van Ee.
-Thanks, but not my room. I see that is not aware of my position in this house.
Laura is a fantastic opportunity to report the harassment to which it is subjected by the doctor and his son, though only beginning to confess is interrupted by them. The journalist however does not miss the opportunity to clarify the facts:
'Your wife has told me that have been threatening constantly.
-Is beside himself, protested the husband.
- Do you see what I say, Mr. Lee? - Laura says the reporter, not lose any opportunities to make me think I'm crazy.
Maybe I can explain-, Mr. Lee says the doctor. We do not believe that Laura has anything bad, but we are convinced that something could happen to your mind if you continue living with so much pressure.
- I can not tell clearer! - Laura exclaims the journalist. -They spend their days trying to terrify me, I write letters in green ink and send me mannequin heads wrapped in green paper. Anything to avoid that to scare me and I can sleep. I just think to avoid them kill me.
-These charges are very serious, gentlemen, concludes the journalist.
Minutes later, the same journalist, Mr. Lee, a friendly chat with the doctor's son in the living room of the house. Suddenly the reporter discovers through the window, that Leonidas, which is in the garden, beside the hedge, open your arms to the sky and then hides.
- What's out there? I have a right to know, 'says the son of the doctor. I do not see anything, what was it?
-It is impossible, can not be true.
Then he meets the journalist Leonid concentrate while reciting a prayer mumbled hypnotized in front of the body of the maiden. The reporter goes to him without fear:
'Well teacher, I think I just see him howling at the moon.
These two scenes are only one example of what button delusional of the film. The script is full of wonderful phrases that I have been making my own with the passage of time: "why are you reluctant to sell," "welcome to your living room" or "I write letters in green ink," I have been very useful in many occasions.
In short, one of the most surreal films to which I have faced and has left an indelible mark on me. The truth is that I see with some regularity. His absurd plot, its pathetic staging, and Bela Lugosi effort to sustain a character inconsistent and absurd, contrary awaken my feelings of shame, kindness and compassion. It makes me laugh and makes me oddly nervous at a time.
I've never seen anyone recommending bad movies for the sake of being bad, but I will do so on this occasion. This is a "see it to believe it." It's so bad it will not be disappointed, especially after watching Fear of death, any other film, even putting Antena3 in the evenings will not seem so bad, no doubt.
-Roque.
