''Scared to Death'' is a 1947 thriller

Gothic film A Gothic film is a film that is based on Gothic fiction or contains Gothic elements. Since various definite film genres—including science fiction, film noir, thriller, and comedy—have used Gothic elements, the Gothic film is challenging to defi ...

directed by

Christy Cabanne William Christy Cabanne (April 16, 1888 – October 15, 1950) was an American film director, screenwriter, and silent film actor. Biography Born in 1888, Cabanne (pronounced CAB-a-nay) started his career on stage as an actor and director. He a ...

and starring

Bela Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

. The picture was filmed in

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...

. The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role. Lionel Atwill was originally slated to appear in the film, but he was too ill to work, so George Zucco replaced him in the cast. Christy Cabanne completed the film in early 1946, but it wasn't screened until 1947.

Plot

Béla Lugosi-Angelo Rossitto in Scared to Death

The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright. The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror. The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage (

) identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe. He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf (

Angelo Rossitto Angelo Salvatore Rossitto (February 18, 1908 – September 21, 1991) was an American actor and voice artist. He had dwarfism and was 2'11" (89 cm) tall, and was often billed as Little Angie or Moe. Angelo first appeared in silent films opp ...

). After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis. Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death. Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.

Cast

as Prof. Leonide *

George Zucco George Zucco (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was a British character actor who appeared in plays and 96 films, mostly American-made, during a career spanning over two decades, from the 1920s to 1951. In his films, he often played a suave ...

as Dr. Joseph Van Ee *

Nat Pendleton Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler, film actor, and stage performer. His younger brother, Edmund J. Pendleton (1899-1987), was a well-known music composer and choir maste ...

as Bill Raymond *

Molly Lamont Molly Lamont (22 May 1910 – 7 July 2001) was a South African-British film actress. Life and career Lamont was born in Boksburg, Transvaal, South Africa. After winning a beauty contest in South Africa she was offered a contract by Britis ...

as Laura Van Ee / Laurette La Valle *

Joyce Compton Olivia Joyce Compton (January 27, 1907 – October 13, 1997) was an American actress. Biography Compton was born in Lexington, Kentucky, the daughter of Henry and Golden Compton. (Despite frequent reports to the contrary, her name was not ...

as Jane Cornell *

Gladys Blake Gladys Blake (born Gladys Timmons, May 12, 1910 – May 21, 1983) was an American character actress from the 1930s to the 1950s. Biography Blake was born on January 12, 1910 in Luray, Virginia. Her mother, Ada Timmons, died when Gladys was l ...

as Lilybeth *

Roland Varno Roland Varno (March 15, 1908 – May 24, 1996) was an American character actor from Utrecht, Netherlands. Varno's father was a tea planter, Martin Fredrick Vuerhard, and his mother was a concert pianist. Although they hoped for him to ha ...

as Ward Van Ee *

Douglas Fowley Douglas Fowley (born Daniel Vincent Fowley, May 30, 1911 – May 21, 1998) was an American movie and television actor in more than 240 films and dozens of television programs, He is probably best remembered for his role as the frustrated m ...

as Terry Lee *

Stanley Andrews Stanley Andrews (born Stanley Martin Andrzejewski; August 28, 1891 – June 23, 1969) was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program ''Little Orphan Annie'' and later as "The Old Ranger", the first ...

as Pathologist *

as Indigo * Lee Bennett as Rene *

Stanley Price Stanley Price (December 31, 1892July 13, 1955) was an American film supporting actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1922 and 1956. He was a charter member of the Screen Actors Guild. Career Price was an actor whose artistic career sp ...

as Autopsy Surgeon

Production

The film was based on a one-act play which in turn was based on a 1933 murder case involving Dr.

Alice Wynekoop Alice Lois Lindsay Wynekoop (February 1, 1871 – July 4, 1955) of Chicago, Illinois, was a well-respected physician, professor, feminist, civic leader and educator in child hygiene, as well as the convicted murderer of her 22-year-old daughter-in-l ...

.Mark Thomas McGee, ''Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive: The Films of Robert L. Lippert'', Bear Manor Media, 2014 p 108 The film was announced in March 1946 as ''Accent on Horror''. ''The Autopsy'' was another title that was considered.

Reviews

Historian Gary Don Rhodes commented that although the film was in color, "nothing manages to stave off the inevitable boredom. Critics found the film confusing, dull....Very possibly this remains Lugosi's worst horror film."Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg. 136. ISBN 978-0786427659

References

External links

* * * * *
Review of film
at ''Variety'' * Paul Lewis, 2009
Review of ''Scared to Death''
at DVDCompare 1947 films 1947 horror films American films based on plays Films directed by Christy Cabanne Cinecolor films American horror thriller films Lippert Pictures films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-horror-film-stub