After the movie flopped, they formed a barbershop quartet. Sadly, they could only get gigs on Skid Row.
If you’re a Bela Lugosi completist and haven’t seen Murder By Television (1935), well, I’m sorry to say you won’t be enjoying this addition to his body of work. In this story of corporate greed blown up to murderous proportions, Prof. James Houghland has invented a new capability in the area of television transmissions. When he won’t sell to any of the interested corporate interests, he’s murdered, as is Scott Perry (Lugosi), who interferes and is paid off for it.
Except when he reappears, animated and stern.
Yeah, it’s the old, lugubrious “He’s my brother” trick, a deux ex machina which is the shiniest example of the flaws in this snoozer. We’ve got a reporter who keeps breaking into a house guarded by police detectives, which contributes exactly zero to the plot; at least three different offensive stereotypes; a bunch of ladies who do absolutely nothing for the plot; magic codes; a death ray built on gibberish; and, well, skipping the rest of these painful flaws, if you make it to the end, it’ll only be because this one’s relatively short.
The shorter the better.
