Help me solve this Bela Lugosi mystery...

[fibbermac]

In the 1924 Lon Chaney Sr. film "He Who Gets Slapped", it is alleged that Bela Lugosi was an extra in that film, appearing in clown make-up. Here is a scan of a still I acquired a few years ago, before I realized that Lugosi is possibly one of the clowns.




Here is a closer look at the clown on the left...



I tried using Photoshop to compare this image with a screengrab I took of Lugosi in "The Midnight Girl", from 1925. Check out these comparisons:









Tell me what you guys think...IS THIS LUGOSI OR NOT?

[Scatter]

I think it is.........

[Mike Scott]

Hmmm? Maybe? Kinda hard to find another pic where all the angles match, but the features look pretty close, considering.

[Illoman]

The Internet Movie database confirms it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014972/fullcredits#cast

Great job! I never knew that. Where did you first hear about him being in that film?

Mike

[Mike Scott]

The Internet Movie database confirms it:

Although, they confirm a lot of things that aren't true.

[Wich2]

Fibber, scholarship by Gary Don Rhodes says it's possible, schedule-wise - but there's absolutely no proof he was in the film.

Bela and friends talked a lot; it's odd that there's no mention by any of them, anywhere, of Lugosi meeting Chaney.

But you never know!
-Craig W.

[Orlok]

I was not aware of this fact, but it actually looks like our Hungarian friend.

Identification of a face is usually made from the distance between the eyebrows, between the eyes, between the nose and the mouth and between the mouth and the chin.

[Illoman]

Fibber, scholarship by Gary Don Rhodes says it's possible, schedule-wise - but there's absolutely no proof he was in the film.

Bela and friends talked a lot; it's odd that there's no mention by any of them, anywhere, of Lugosi meeting Chaney.

But you never know!
-Craig W.

Craig, from the impression I get of his ego, he probably wouldn't have considered Chaney that big of a deal. Or how long had he been in the States at that point? Maybe he didn't understand the magnitude of Chaney's talent.

Mike

[monsterphile]

Fibber, scholarship by Gary Don Rhodes says it's possible, schedule-wise - but there's absolutely no proof he was in the film.

Bela and friends talked a lot; it's odd that there's no mention by any of them, anywhere, of Lugosi meeting Chaney.

But you never know!
-Craig W.

Maybe if Bela was "just an extra" and maybe his English wasn't quite sufficient for conversation, chatting might not have been likely.  It would be interesting to ask Bela Jr. if he knows anything about it.

Rob

[Wich2]

Mike-

Bela had been here several years, already made several American movies.

And he was never shy later, talking about Karloff, Clara Bow, other movie & stage stars he'd known, etc.

(Both of Rhodes' books are The Real Deal - well researched, and highly readable.)

-Craig

[Grape]

Hmmm? Maybe? Kinda hard to find another pic where all the angles match, but the features look pretty close, considering.

These two faces do appear to be very similar. Notice that Bela's EYE is very slightly higher than the clown's EYE, and that Bela's EAR is slightly lower than the clown's. Those two misallignments make sense once you consider the very slight difference in the angles.

BUT then shouldn't there be more misallignment of the NOSES and the CHINS? Shouldn't Bela's CHIN and NOSE be slightly higher than the clown's? And shouldn't Bela's MOUTH be slightly higher than the clown's, just as his EYE is?

And does anybody think the clown's face is too broad to be Bela in 1924? That's a pic' of Bela ten years later, ain't it?

I'm inclined to think it's not Bela as the clown.

[fibbermac]

The Internet Movie database confirms it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0014972/fullcredits#cast

Great job! I never knew that. Where did you first hear about him being in that film?

Mike

Well, Mike, I actually spend a lot of time cataloging my film collection using the IMBd and that is where I first heard about this. But, unfortunately, IMDb is a lot like Wikipedia and users are allowed to submit corrections. I've submitted several pieces of information in the last few years and they have correctly refused some of my submissions, so I know that they try to be as accurate as possible. But I still wanted more proof than their say-so. That's why I put it up for debate here, to see what this forum thought.

[fibbermac]

Hmmm? Maybe? Kinda hard to find another pic where all the angles match, but the features look pretty close, considering.

Mike-

What an awesome comparison job! I think yours is much better than mine. I chose that screen grab from "The Midnight Girl" because it was filmed at roughly the same time as "He Who Gets Slapped", but unfortunately, both roles used a pretty heavy make-up, so in both cases some of the facial features are partially obscured. Your gif shows a much closer resemblance.

I didn't want to taint the jury pool with my initial post, but my take on the picture comparison is that the ears look right (notice that the clown cap pushes down on the actor's left ear), the nose shape looks right, the distance between the nose and lips looks right, .. but on the clown the dimple is missing (perhaps due to make-up?) and within the eyes, the iris appears to be dark, while most Lugosi close-ups show a lighter colored iris surrounding the pupil. But since this was not a close-up picture, I suspect that catching the iris shade isn't possible and I tend to think that the clown on the left IS Lugosi.

I still want to hear more opinions on this matter though. So everybody please still comment on what you think and why.

-fibbermac-

[Wich2]

I think Grape made a very good point: the heavier, thicker Bela face (from MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, 1935?) would not really be the same as the 1924 face?

To me, there's ALMOST no evidence for this to be Bela; EXCEPT for the fact, that I believe it's Richard Sheffield, his friend, who said a copy of the pic was in Bela's collection.

That's not conclusive, either, though - maybe he just liked Chaney, or the film, or knew someone else in the pic, or...

"Bricks, Watson - I must have more bricks with which to build!"

-Craig

[Wolf Man]

Well, I can only judge by my gut instinct since I don't know much about the subject but when I first looked at the photo I thought is was a photo of Bela, then I read the post and immediately went to the photo of the clown on the left so my instincts tell me its him and from reading what others have written I am inclined to think it is really him in the photo.  As for the difference in the chubbiness in the face between the two photos actors gain and loose weight all the time for a variety of reasons.  It would not surprise me if it is him.