Wonderful! One of Lugosi's best films, but not oddly enough because of either his presence or his performance. True, he handles his role capably and exudes a fair amount of charisma, but his part is not all that large and most of his thunder is stolen by other players, particularly Alexander Carr as the penny-pinching, would-be Romeo of a studio head, Harold Minjir as his put-upon yet uppity assistant, John Wray as an argumentative detective, and last, but by no means last, David Manners as a charmingly resourceful buttinsky who is only too happy to help our siren of a heroine, Adrienne Ames, avert any and all pitfalls.
For a while there it looks like even Jimmy Donlin is going to garner more attention than Bela, but his role fades away as the film progresses.
Mind you, for silent movie fans, The Death Kiss is something of a windfall. Barbara Bedford, our lovely heroine of Tumbleweeds and The Notorious Lady, can be spotted early on as a script girl (she has no dialog, alas), while her director, King Baggot, has a sizable scene as a helpful electrician. Frank O'Connor, the director of Devil's Island and The Block Signal, can be spotted in a number of sequences as a uniformed policeman, while Neely Edwards who had an extensive silent career (over 140 films) enjoys a key scene with David Manners.
Atmospherically directed in an admirably fluid style by Edwin L. Marin (in his directorial debut), The Death Kiss emerges as a fascinatingly true-to-life, ingeniously suspenseful murder mystery. Not the least of its attractions, of course, are the many behind-the-scenes glimpses of long-vanished Tiffany Studios. (I always thought it was a hole-in-the-wall outfit. I was dead wrong. It's huge!)
For a while there it looks like even Jimmy Donlin is going to garner more attention than Bela, but his role fades away as the film progresses.
Mind you, for silent movie fans, The Death Kiss is something of a windfall. Barbara Bedford, our lovely heroine of Tumbleweeds and The Notorious Lady, can be spotted early on as a script girl (she has no dialog, alas), while her director, King Baggot, has a sizable scene as a helpful electrician. Frank O'Connor, the director of Devil's Island and The Block Signal, can be spotted in a number of sequences as a uniformed policeman, while Neely Edwards who had an extensive silent career (over 140 films) enjoys a key scene with David Manners.
Atmospherically directed in an admirably fluid style by Edwin L. Marin (in his directorial debut), The Death Kiss emerges as a fascinatingly true-to-life, ingeniously suspenseful murder mystery. Not the least of its attractions, of course, are the many behind-the-scenes glimpses of long-vanished Tiffany Studios. (I always thought it was a hole-in-the-wall outfit. I was dead wrong. It's huge!)