Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
Prior to America’s involvement in World War II, the Japanese Black Dragon Society requested the services of Hitler’s lackey Dr. Melcher (Bela Lugosi). The doctor, a plastic surgeon, performed surgery on 6 Dragon members, giving them the faces of 6 murdered American businessmen in order to defeat the US war effort from within. When the operations were over, the Dragons imprisoned Melcher in order to keep their secret quiet. In his cell, Melcher switched places with another prisoner who was about to be released (also played by Lugosi, luckily), then made his way to America where he began picking off the 6 disguised Japanese spies. An interesting premise, I thought, until I actually saw the movie and realized all of the above would be told in a 10-minute flashback at the end of the movie, leaving me to wonder the rest of the time what was going on.
BLACK DRAGONS is 64 minutes of confusion from beginning to end.
Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) plays Dick Martin, the FBI agent investigating the deaths, while Joan Barclay plays Alice Saunders, long-absent niece of Dr. William Saunders, Melcher’s first victim, played by George Pembroke. In the opening scenes, a dinner party is being held at Dr. Saunders’s house until Lugosi shows up in his new identity as Monsieur Colomb. He does something to Saunders—we don’t get to see what, but from Saunders’s behavior throughout the rest of the movie, it seems he’s been either drugged or hypnotized—and the guests file out. Saunders spends the rest of the movie “sick” in his bedroom, appearing only as a voice through the closed door, or a slumped silhouette inside the room with Colomb.
Alice shows up, having been away for ten years or more, but is surprised to find her uncle unavailable, and there’s a new houseguest: Colomb. Soon after Alice’s arrival, Martin shows up to question Dr. Saunders about the first victim, Kearny, who was last seen the night before at Saunders’s party. Both Martin and Alice are perplexed at Saunders’s refusal to see anyone, but they’re even more disturbed by Colomb, who smiles innocently while appearing at random here and there about the house. More party guests are killed off, but at this point, we don’t know why—all is not revealed until the end—and we’re left to wonder who is this Colomb guy, why did he show up unexpectedly at the Saunders house, why is Saunders so quiet and isolated, and why is Colomb murdering everyone? By the time the reveal comes—Saunders is one of the altered Japanese spies, the real Saunders having been killed—we’re already so confused, we think we’ve missed something. We haven’t, it just takes a second or third viewing, with the end information already revealed to us, before we start to understand just what’s going on.
And even then, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. For example, what’s the time frame? According to the characters, the action seems to take place entirely in only 2 or 3 days, but there’s so much going on, flights to other states, several editions of the newspaper hitting stands with bold, shocking headlines about the murders, it seems more like a week has passed. And Lugosi’s Colomb character keeps disappearing. In two different scenes, Colomb is seen getting into a cab, but when the cab stops and the driver goes to let him out, he’s already gone. And there’s another scene when Colomb goes through the door leading to the basement, only to appear a few seconds later inside Saunder’s bedroom on the second floor. It makes me wonder if there are a few key scenes lying in the garbage somewhere.
The acting was horrible. I’ve seen quite a few Lugosi movies recently and each one leaves me wondering just how in the world this man rose to fame. He’s got the unsettling Dracula stare he capitalizes on in every movie, but it does little to hide the fact he’s doing nothing more than getting by on name recognition alone. He smirks and mumbles with his thick accent, but you can tell his heart’s not in the performance.
Moore and Barclay were no better.
And the dialogue. I don’t know if it was intentionally funny, but some of the lines these characters uttered . . .
Dick: Alice, will you marry me?
Alice: What for?
Dick: So I can beat you up; it’s the only way I’m ever gonna get you out of here.
I don’t know if that kind of talk was common in 1942 or what, but it sure made me take notice.
The set used for Saunders’s house was filmed like a sitcom, a few simple rooms shot from only one angel, with little or no camera movement within the scene. And while it was nicely decorated, it led to a lot of confusion about where some characters were in relation to each other. Maybe it’s all a sign of the times, or budget constraints. Whatever, BLACK DRAGONS looks like a cheap movie made over a weekend with a star name thrown in simply so the audience would take notice. And it’s included in the 50 HORROR CLASSICS DVD collection marketed by Mill Creek Entertainment, leading me to believe sometimes people will label any old piece of crap “horror” if it stars an actor best known for horror roles. Unfortunately, this is not the only non-horror movie included in that particular set. But that’s neither here nor there, we’re talking about BLACK DRAGONS.
For what it’s worth, BLACK DRAGONS did offer some mild entertainment, although I’m sure it wasn’t the kind the filmmakers intended as it’s mostly of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 variety. It doesn’t even count as a B-movie, this is strictly C- or D-quality material, rushed, confusing, choppy, badly edited, badly written, and badly acted. It’s only saving grace, aside from the few ridiculous instances you can make fun of (“A busy man has little time to indulge in feminine emotions” one character says when asked if he’s frightened of the murderer), is that it’s only 64 minutes long. And even that begins to seem like a lot longer than it really is.
If you want spy movies, there are a million other, better, options. If you want a horror movie, there are even more options because this is in no way a horror movie. If you want a Lugosi movie, just rent DRACULA. Or better yet, ED WOOD. Don’t bother with this one, it’s best left to the dust of 1942.
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