It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The first must-see film of the year.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Black Dragons was released in 1942 and was apparently designed to capitalize on the hysteria surrounding World War II. This, in and of itself, is interesting enough, as it affords modern audiences a glimpse into the collective mindset of Americans during the post-Pearl Harbor era. There are certainly parallels that can be drawn between some of the psychological implications embedded in Black Dragons with what contemporary U.S. citizens are struggling with in a society still recovering from the unexpected brutality of 9/11, but that's where anything remotely interesting contained in the film stops.What you really get with this Bela Lugosi vehicle is a dry, sleep- inducing murder mystery that's almost exclusively set in a large house. The story is as muddled as they come. It centers on people who are found dead with Japanese daggers clutched in one hand, and this (it seems) is the stimulus for some sort of massive Eastern conspiracy centered around mind control.Or something like that.It's incredibly difficult to make sense of anything that happens, and this isn't just the product of boring writing. The sound of the film ranges from acceptably clear to indeterminably static-filled. At points it sounds like someone is moon-walking across a twenty yard sheet of cellophane. With a film this old, I wouldn't usually linger on something as expected as lackluster sound, but here it really does detract from the overall understanding/appreciation of what's taking place. And that's a bad thing.Making it to the end of Black Dragons is akin to struggling through a school-assigned documentary: you're watching it because you don't have a choice. In that regard, the most terrifying thing about the film is how much effort it takes to stay awake for the duration of its 64-minute run-time.

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.

Bela Lugosi is a real enigma. In the early 1930s, he was on top of the world after appearing in Dracula. Yet, again and again, he made lousy decisions regarding his career. Perhaps he had a bad agent, perhaps his drinking and drug use had a part in it or maybe he was just crazy. Regardless, he ruined his reputation by appearing in pretty much any film--ranging from excellent horror films (such as THE RAVEN) to big-budget flicks (like NINOTCHKA) to grade-Z flicks for the cheapest and shoddiest of studios. Interestingly enough, although he agreed to do this terrible film, he actually turned down the role that later went to Boris Karloff in FRANKENSTEIN! As for this movie, it is a very silly an horridly produced WWII propaganda film that featured a dumb plot and wretched editing. Lugosi spends much of the movie murdering saboteurs--not a bad thing at all. But at the end, we find out that he is himself a Nazi plastic surgeon and all the American-looking men he killed were actually Japanese!!!! The funniest part of this is during a flashback. You see Lugosi talking to a group of Japanese men before he changes them to American-like men. When the camera scans them, the men are clearly Asian. But, on all the other non-close-up shots, they are all VERY Western looking--many with bald heads!! They looked absolutely NOTHING like Japanese men. I suspect the plot must have undergone a re-write and this might account for the obvious mistake. Or, it could just be shoddy production values and editing. In fact, early in the film, they show a street scene in the city and all the cars (circa 1942) are old Model T Fords--obviously from stock footage!!! The bottom line is that the film is bad but also very dull. Unlike PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, it's hard to laugh at the ineptitude--just be put to sleep by it.

First - nick-623, Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, not 1942. They didn't have to predict the bombing.Second - did nobody notice these six industrialist/lawyers/whatever were missing for a rather long amount of time? They were killed *before* the surgery took place! Third - how the heck did Lugosi get out of cabs without being seen? Fourth - why did the Japanese not just kill him, instead of putting him in jail with a convenient look-alike companion and his surgical kit? Fifth - oh, what's the use? This movie has a few interesting moments in it, but by the time they explain what's going on, you'll probably have stopped watching. If not, you won't care.