"Black Dragons" is not really  horror despite its spooky star. It’s more of a spy movie although it’s dark, full of murder, and has some disfigured characters. To borrow a concept presented by another viewer it’s like taking Bela Lugosi out of a horror movie, dropping him in an espionage plot, and watching him go homicidal.

 

A mysterious visitor brings death on his heels for several business men. A respected doctor begins acting suspiciously upon the stranger’s arrival locking himself in his room and refusing to see his niece or his friends. As the police struggle to solve the murders and save the remaining potential victims, a diabolical plot to undermine the U.S. war effort unfolds involving the Nazis and the Japanese.

 

This is a hard to follow plot, or was for me because the summary I read started at the end rather than the beginning so I kept expecting things that didn’t happen until the final few minutes of the movie. The explanations that unlock the whole of the plot are saved for the very end of the story so knowing the truth before knowing the context actually makes for a nonsensical viewing experience.

 

In other words, you aren’t meant to understand much of the plot for most of the movie. You’re supposed to question and wonder until the revelation at the end. When the plot comes together it does come to make sense.

 

Another problem point for me was that I was initially confused about the identity of the homicidal stranger and how he tied in to the back story shown in the flashbacks. This was due to an error in a printed cast list. If you see Dr. Melcher listed as being played by Boris Karloff, it’s actually Bela Lugosi in the role. If I had known that, the flashbacks would have tied in more coherently with the current events of the story (though if you don't know who either of those actors are it probably won't matter much to you).

 

A non-plot problem comes with the poor audio. Many of these old movies suffer from that (featuring genuine mono sound only), but this one is worse than average. The dialogue in the beginning in particular is muddled and difficult to make out especially since there’s little context given to help decipher it. Combined with the confusing summary and incorrect cast list, the hard-to-understand audio deepened my initial confusion about what was happening.

 

I really need to see this movie again don't I? That first viewing was a total wash.

 

The acting is about what I would expect from a relatively unknown black-and-white “horror” movie. Bela Lugosi is his classic self, but otherwise the performances are unremarkable though not terrible. I’ve certainly seen worse. Monsters are fun, but those old costumes often look ridiculous. Sometimes a movie can benefit just by not having anything like that to pull the viewer out of the illusion of reality. This one has the disfiguring makeup effects, but nothing like a floppy rubber suit. It at least has that much going for it.

 

Speaking of effects, being a movie that has nothing visually fantastic there are really no effects at all. This could easily be presented as a community theatre stage play for all the effects going on. It therefore relies on an interesting story and characters to carry the interest. It comes close to achieving what it needs but ultimately falls short.