View source for Scared to Death (1947 film)



{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Scared to Death
| image          = ScaredToDeath.jpg
| caption        = Original 1947 theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Christy Cabanne]]
| producer       = William B. David
| writer         = W.J. Abbott
| based_on       = play ''Murder on the Operating Table'' by Frank Orsino
| starring       = {{ubl|[[Bela Lugosi]]|[[George Zucco]]|[[Nat Pendleton]]|[[Molly Lamont]]}}
| music          = Carl Hoefle
| cinematography = [[Marcel Le Picard]]
| editing        = George McGuire
| studio         = Golden Gate Pictures
| distributor    = [[Screen Guild Productions]]
| released       = {{Film date|1947|2|1|United States}}
| runtime        = 65 minutes<ref>Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg.136. ISBN 978-0786427659.</ref>
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $135,000 (estimated)<ref>Internet Movie Database Box office/Business for</ref>
}}

'''''Scared to Death''''' is a 1947 American [[Gothic film|gothic]] [[thriller film]] directed by [[Christy Cabanne]] and starring [[Bela Lugosi]], [[George Zucco]], [[Nat Pendleton]] and [[Molly Lamont]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Scared to Death |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/scared-to-death-v43076 |website=Allmovie |access-date=April 7, 2019 |archive-date=March 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326153715/https://www.allmovie.com/movie/scared-to-death-v43076 |url-status=live }}</ref> The picture was filmed in [[Cinecolor]]. The film is historically important as the only color film in which Bela Lugosi has a starring role.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/scared-to-death-v43076|title=Scared to Death (1947) - Christy Cabanne, William Christy Cabanne &#124; Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related &#124; AllMovie|access-date=2014-09-14|archive-date=2014-05-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502174104/http://www.allmovie.com/movie/scared-to-death-v43076|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5746/scared-to-death#trivia | title=Scared to Death (1947) Trivia| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031014114/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5746/Scared-to-Death/trivia.html | archive-date=2015-10-31}}</ref> [[Lionel Atwill]] was originally intended to appear in the film but he was too ill to work, so George Zucco replaced him in the cast. Christy Cabanne completed the film in early 1946, but it was not screened until 1947.<ref name="auto">Lugosi: His Life on Film, Stage, and in the Hearts of Horror Lovers by Gary D. Rhodes (2006) McFarland & Company. pg. 136. ISBN 978-0786427659</ref>

== Plot ==
[[File:Béla Lugosi-Angelo Rossitto in Scared to Death.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bela Lugosi|Lugosi]] and [[Angelo Rossitto|Rossitto]]]] 
[[File:Scared to Death (1947) trailer 2.jpg|thumb|]]
The film opens with the disclosure by morgue examiners that a beautiful woman has literally died of fright. The plot reveals how she reached the fatal stage of terror.

The woman is married to the son of a doctor, the proprietor of a private sanatorium, where she is under unwilling treatment. Both the son and the doctor indicate they want the marriage dissolved, but the woman refuses. Arriving at the scene is a mysterious personage, Prof. Leonide, identified as the doctor's cousin who had been a stage magician in Europe.  He is accompanied by a threatening dwarf, Indigo.

After it is apparent that the wife is terrified of the foreigners, it is disclosed that she is the former wife and stage partner of a Paris magician known as René, who was believed to have been shot by the Nazis. Attempts to draw a confession that she had betrayed her magician husband and had collaborated with the [[Nazi]]s led to the use of a device employing a death mask of the supposedly dead patriot, which literally frightens her to death.

Although the young newspaperman hero and his sweetheart guess the answer to the story, they allow the diagnosis "scared to death" to stand.

== Cast ==
* [[Bela Lugosi]] as Prof. Leonide
* [[George Zucco]] as Dr. Joseph Van Ee
* [[Nat Pendleton]] as Bill Raymond
* [[Molly Lamont]] as Laura Van Ee / Laurette La Valle 
* [[Joyce Compton]] as Jane Cornell
* [[Gladys Blake]] as Lilybeth
* [[Roland Varno]] as Ward Van Ee
* [[Douglas Fowley]] as Terry Lee
* [[Stanley Andrews]] as Pathologist
* [[Angelo Rossitto]] as Indigo
* Lee Bennett as Rene
* [[Stanley Price]] as Autopsy Surgeon

== Production ==
The film was based on a one-act play which in turn was based on a [[State of Illinois v. Alice Wynekoop|1933 murder case]] involving Dr. [[Alice Wynekoop]].<ref name="robert">Mark Thomas McGee, ''Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive: The Films of Robert L. Lippert'', Bear Manor Media, 2014 p 108</ref>

The film was announced in March 1946 as ''Accent on Horror''.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Schallert, E.|title=Small plans classic; quints deal hovers.|date=Mar 29, 1946|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|165659150}}}}</ref> ''The Autopsy'' was another title that was considered.<ref name="auto"/>

==Reviews==
Historian [[Gary Don Rhodes]] commented that although the film was in color, "nothing manages to stave off the inevitable boredom. Critics found the film confusing, dull....Very possibly this remains Lugosi's worst horror film."<ref name="auto"/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Scared to Death (1947 film)}}


* {{IMDb title|0039800}}
* {{TCMDb title|5746}}
* {{AFI film|25337}}
* {{Internet Archive film | SCAREDTODEATHVideoQualityUpgrade | Scared to Death }}
* [https://archive.org/stream/variety167-1947-07#page/n173/mode/1up Review of film] at ''Variety''
* Paul Lewis, 2009: [http://dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=885 Review of '''''Scared to Death'''''] at DVDCompare

{{Christy Cabanne}}

[[Category:1947 films]]
[[Category:1947 horror films]]
[[Category:American films based on plays]]
[[Category:American gothic horror films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Christy Cabanne]]
[[Category:Cinecolor films]]
[[Category:American horror thriller films]]
[[Category:Lippert Pictures films]]
[[Category:1947 English-language films]]
[[Category:1947 American films]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]
[[Category:1940s color films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Scared to Death (1947 film)|access_date=2026-03-05}}