Bella Lugosi isn’t Dracula.

I love films from the 40s because a lot of it is film in its infancy. Not just in shooting but in marketing. Every time I review a movie here at How About Notflix I pull up the trailer in order to grab screenshots. And the trailer for Black Dragon just whole ass spoils the entire movie from start to finish.

Directed by William Nigh, Black Dragons stars Bella Lugosi as Monsieur Colomb, a weird man who shows up at the house of Bill Saunders (George Pembroke) during an interesting dinner party. Saunders along with his four cohorts are discussing their plans to sabotage the war effort including Hanlin (Robert Frazer), Ryder (Edward Peil Sr.), Kearney (Max Hoffman Jr.), and Stevens (Joseph Eggenton). But then in a twist nobody could have seen coming, Colomb turns out to be the bad guy!

Or the good guy. Since he’s killing people working against the US in the war. Or the bad guy because he’s a serial killer. Or the good guy since the people he seems to be killing are the bad guys. Is Colomb the first anti-hero?

I don’t know. The question is why is Colomb killing everyone. And the movie answers that in the last ten minutes. The trailer does too in the first 40 seconds. As the FBI is breathing down everyone’s neck and people are getting knocked off one by one, can they figure out Colomb’s motives before he wipes out the whole crew? I sure hope not. Then again the movie is an hour long, they have to wrap it up pretty quick.

Is it a good movie? It’s fine. Something to watch on a Friday night. There are some really good shots. There’s not a whole lot of music during the film and the whole thing is mostly a series of shots back to back and then eventually the film remembers it has to get to a point and finish at the last minute.

Rating: B-