Patricia Hunter: “Oh, professor, do you also make a habit of collecting coffins?”

Dr. Lorenz: “Why, yes, in a manner of speaking. I find a coffin much more comfortable than a bed.”

Deranged scientist Dr. Lorenz is obsessed with keeping his aged wife eternally youthful, and embarks on a killing spree, murdering virgin brides and storing their bodies in order to extract the precious glandular fluids he requires to make a rejuvenating serum. Assisted by a grotesque staff that includes ageing maid Fagah, her perverted and villainous son, Angel, and the sadistic dwarf butler Toby, Lorenz pursues his macabre project apparently unhindered – until young reporter Patricia and photographer Sandy are assigned to cover the society wedding of one of his victims. Having witnessed the appalling activities taking place at Dr. Lorenz’s isolated mansion, Patricia devises an elaborate plan to trap him; but she herself is an attractive woman in the full bloom of youth, a fact that will surely not escape Dr. Lorenz…

Bela Lugosi, the undisputed master of horror, makes full use of his talents in this outrageous black-and-white shocker from 1942. Also starring Angelo Rossitto and Tristram Coffin (King of the Rocket Men), The Corpse Vanishes firmly established Monogram Pictures’ hugely successful ‘mad scientist’ theme, which would be revisited to great effect throughout the 1940s.