This is my first Old Mother Riley movie and I'm sure my last. I only watched it for Bela Lugosi, which probably puts me in the same boat as 99% of people still living who've seen this. For those who don't know, Old Mother Riley was a character played by English comic actor Arthur Lucan. This was the final movie in the series. I've never really thought men in drag was particularly funny but there's obviously a market for it, then and now.
For his part, Bela does fine playing a parody of...well, himself. He plays up his Dracula as well as the various mad scientist roles he and others played in the 1930s & 40s. Of the later Bela movies, this is one of the better ones in that I didn't feel embarrassed for him. I don't like this but at least it's a proper movie not the glorified home movies Ed Wood shot. He gets lots of lines and seems to be having fun, similar to the way he was in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. One last (and perhaps unkind) thing I'll say about Lugosi is that, looking at the state of his dental affairs in close-ups here, I'm very grateful this wasn't shot in color.
For his part, Bela does fine playing a parody of...well, himself. He plays up his Dracula as well as the various mad scientist roles he and others played in the 1930s & 40s. Of the later Bela movies, this is one of the better ones in that I didn't feel embarrassed for him. I don't like this but at least it's a proper movie not the glorified home movies Ed Wood shot. He gets lots of lines and seems to be having fun, similar to the way he was in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. One last (and perhaps unkind) thing I'll say about Lugosi is that, looking at the state of his dental affairs in close-ups here, I'm very grateful this wasn't shot in color.