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Scared to Death (1947) Directed by Christy Cabanne   Scared to Death starts off in a morgue, and what better place could there be for a horror film to begin? As a woman lies there growing ever colder on the slab the two medical examiners wonder what her last moments might have been like, the screen goes suitably wavy and dream-like, and the viewer is transported to a time before the dead gal was a dead gal and is stretched out on a doctor's examination couch. The doctor is her father-in-law and, like his son, he is anxious to see the marriage dissolved. The not-yet-dead-gal though has other ideas. Scared to Death is the only colour film in which Bela Lugosi had a starring role, although he did have non-starring roles in two other colour films. Lugosi plays a stage magician who turns up at the not-yet-dead gal's father-in-laws front door with a rather strange-looking dwarf in-tow. It is quite a memorable sight when the maid swings the front door open to reveal Lugosi standing there in a black cape and a trilby hat, while the dwarf looks to be getting ready to converse with his kneecaps, and it is worth watching the film for that alone. The not-yet-dead-gal seems to be being haunted. Either that or someone is trying to drive her out of her mind and this is exactly what she seems to thing is happening. It adds more than a little credence to the idea when the maid delivers a parcel to her that, at first, seems to contain a woman's severed head (screams) but turns out to be only that of a decapitated mannequin. There is though, the matter of the blue face that keeps appearing outside the windows and floating in and out of view. It looks as if someone has decapitated the mannequin's husband too, gone to work with some blue chalk and then stuck his head on a long stick with the intention to terrify. But do you know what? It also looks pretty darn creepy and if you decide to watch the film you might even get a shiver or two from it, but certainly not scared to death. Anyway that's about all that I can really say about the film, if you want to know more you will just have to watch it yourself. There is, as always, a download link at the bottom of the page.     CAST  Bela Lugosi ...  Prof. Leonide  George Zucco ...  Dr. Josef Van Ee  Nat Pendleton ...  Bill 'Bull' Raymond  Molly Lamont ...  Laura Van Ee  Joyce Compton ...  Jane Cornell  Gladys Blake ...  Lilly Beth (the maid)  Roland Varno ...  Ward Van Ee  Douglas Fowley ...  Terry Lee  Stanley Andrews ...  Pathologist  Angelo Rossitto ...  Indigo  Lee Bennett ...  Rene the Killer  Stanley Price ...  Intern      Watch It For Free!  Scared to Death now falls into the public domain and can be downloaded, or watched online, by clicking HERE   Also available to buy from Amazon          HOME