Lock Up Your Daughters (lost Bela Lugosi horror film; existence unconfirmed; 1959)

Bela Lugosi in 1912.

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

1960 newspaper showing of Lock Up Your Daughters proving it played past 1959

Lock Up Your Daughters was a supposed horror film starring the famous horror star Bela Lugosi. It seems to have been released in 1959 (3 years after Lugosi died) and been lost to time, but due to there only being an extremely small amount of evidence on the film's existence, it is debated on whether the film is lost or is just nonexistent.

Plot

Due to there being an extensive lack of info on Lock Up Your Daughters, there is not an official word on the plot of the film. One review of the film states that the plot of the film involved an evil (or "vampiric") doctor (Lugosi) doing evil experiments on women in an attempt to bring his dead wife back to life. The review also claimed that clips from Lugosi's previous films were included in the film.

But, there are also reports that the film showed Lugosi as a host who would show clips from his older films, and some also state that cash would be given to audience members if they could guess the correct film as to which a clip was from.^[1]

Newspaper talking about the movie for a round 4 months before September 13, 1959

Other Info

From the film's existing information, the film appears to have been produced by a man named E.J. Fancey, and the film seems to have a short running time of 50 minutes.^[1]

The source that expands on the film the most is an article from The Kinematograph Weekly newspaper.^[2]Other than that, there is almost no concrete info on the film's plot anywhere else. An alleged film poster has been found it that promotes the airing of Lock Up your Daughters as a double feature alongside The Neanderthal Man. Two excerpts from the Liverpool Echo newspaper confirm this information and further mention that the film's premiere date was on the 13th of September 1959.

This would prove the film was aired at some point, albeit it probably had a limited release.

Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenburg, both authors who have written books about Lugosi, have speculated that this film could contain voiceovers from the actor's previous appearance on Murder and Bela Lugosi in 1950.