Black Dragons (1942)
1/10
Wild And Way Out Claptrap
7 October 2010
It's strange that three years before appearing in Monogram's Black Dragons, Bela Lugosi got some critical acclaim for his role in the classic Ninotchka where he supported Greta Garbo. That he was now doing this kind of propaganda claptrap shows you just how his career was on a toboggan slide.

The strange Mr. Lugosi arrives at the house of a noted physician and interrupts a dinner party. The guests are five industrialists who are cheerfully talking of sabotaging America's war effort. But one by one they meet their dooms at Lugosi's hands as the film progresses.

Now why is Bela who is clearly not a patriotic American doing this to help the war effort? For that you will have to sit through the slightly over an hour film for that.

Even for a poverty row outfit like Monogram this film was over the top in terms of wartime propaganda. Black Dragons was released in March of 1942 and the attack on Pearl Harbor is referenced so this must have been one quick job by Monogram to inflict this on the movie-going public.

Clayton Moore and Joan Barclay are the love interest and of course this is an opportunity to see the unmasked Lone Ranger who was a handsome devil, why did he want to hide that is a mystery that we'll never solve.

As for the reason for all this homicide, let's just say there's no honor among the Axis.
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