What a waste of my time!!!

Overrated and overhyped

Just perfect...

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Dr. Richard Marlowe (Bela Lugosi) uses a combination of voodoo rite and hypnotic suggestion to attempt to revivify his beautiful, but long-dead wife, by transferring the life essences of several hapless young girls he has kidnapped and imprisoned in the dungeon beneath his mansion.While the film's acting is generally not all that great, it is excusable because of the plot (which is decent for the time) and for the presence of Bela Lugosi and John Barrymore. Lugosi is more or less himself (his range is not all that amazing) but it works here.While this is by no means a lost classic, it is a film worth tracking down by fans of Barrymore or Lugosi or those who want to see more of what horror films were like in the low budget 1940s.

Voodoo Man (1944) is one of nine films Bela Lugosi made for Monogram Films in the early 1940s. Monogram was a producer of B-movies (and some would argue C-movies at the very least), usually shot in under a week with a modicum of style or substance encompassed within their narratives.Some of these films remain quite watchable - Bowery at Midnight (1942) for example has a slight dementia to it due to the multiple plot lines and characters. Voodoo Man is less successful despite a promising cast that includes Lugosi, Carradine and Zucco as well as a zombie-themed plot. However, too much time is spent on the romantic leads who are quite a dull pair (both in plot and performance terms.) Lugosi is good and plays the sentimental angle of trying to resurrect his dead wife with admirable conviction. His partner in crime George Zucco shows admirable restraint in delivering his mumbo jumbo dialogue like it was the most revered Shakespearian verse. In some scenes the terrible Would War I injury to his right hand and arm is evident in his inability to straighten the fingers. John Carradine is stooped and bored throughout but manages to look like a typical stoner decades early as he slowly bangs his bongo drums with a 'far-out' expression on his face.Overall the film is an amusing diversion with lots of little moments hampered by a low budget and unadventurous direction. A must for those with an interest in the classic horror period but can be readily skipped by others.

Voodoo Man one unintentionally hilarious film done by Monogram has Bela Lugosi a scientist and George Zucco, gas station owner by day and Voodoo Man at night, trying to revive Lugosi's long dead wife Ellen Hall who Bela has kept in a zombie like state. They need the life essence of other young women and Lugosi keeps several on ice, but has to keep getting more. When he kidnaps Louise Currie who is going to her sister Wanda McKay's wedding to Tod Andrews that sets the action of the film in motionYou have to love John Carradine who had one of the great erudite speaking voices ever playing one of two half wit helpers to Lugosi. And how George Zucco was able to keep a straight face while Carradine beat it out on the bongo drum, the magical chant of 'Ramboona' is a great tribute to his ability as an actor. You've got to see Zucco doing his Ramboona chant, you'll be in hysterics.Voodoo Man does that voodoo that we love so well.

For a classic horror fan with an affinity for the great icons of the past, I was positively thrilled to discover through an Internet user that VOODOO MAN was streaming public domain. The reason is that three horror stars of the 40s star in this same film..Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, and John Carradine. I'm not sure if they ever appeared in the same film again, but simple knowledge of seeing Carradine and Lugosi in scenes together had me giddy with excitement. The main plot concerns Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist obsessed with finding a way to bring his beloved wife back to life by using lovely women his henchmen kidnap(including George Zucco who runs a gas station, contacting Lugosi when a female driver passes through, Carradine as a loyal bumpkin who tells girls they're pretty before grabbing them along with Pat McKee)in "lifeforce" experiments. It's one of those poverty row low-budgeters Zucco and Lugosi were known to act in for far less than their worth(the idea that someone of Lugosi's stature was making such a low income is a crying shame, but alas..). The voodoo ceremony with Lugosi evoking "from mind to mind" as Zucco chants some sort of ritualistic jargon, with face paint, costume, and head dress, with Carradine beating on a drum has to be seen to be believed. Carradine is more or less a harmless idiot servant who fears beatings from his master and ogles the pretty girls held captive in a hypnotic trance by Lugosi. Lugosi isn't as completely evil as his usual roles would require for Monogram, only really committing his crimes so he can return his beloved to life. The cheap Monogram sets pale in comparison to those of Universal, but Lugosi's star power helps.Tod Andrews is a reporter whose fiancé, Betty(Wanda McKay) could be in danger as Lugosi's Richard Marlowe believes she is a perfect "affinity" to reawaken his long dead wife, Evelyn(Ellen Hall). Louise Currie is Betty's cousin, Stella, herself kidnapped and put under a voodoo spell. VOODOO MAN may well be a laughingstock for those who find the premise wacky, but I think Lugosi fans will find it worth a look.