The lovely Gloria Stuart in the last pic, many years later to play the old lady in "Titanic".
Above that the truly dreadful Una O'Connor who was the weakest link both here and in "Bride". James Whale thought she was funny, many others don't.
And not that you see him, naturally, but Claude Rains in his star-making role. One of those actors who could lift a film simply by being in it - not that he often had to with such films as "Notorious" (which is @chrisno1's favourite as I discovered when we were writing "Edelweiss") and "Casablanca" in his future.
Boring part: many screenwriters came and went, coming up with ever more crazy plots, until finally it was decided to simply film the HG Wells novel faithfully (adding in a female lead was the only major change). Good move, I'd say. Hollywood too often buys a story then changes almost everything.
Notorious is only my fav thriller @Barbel although curiously the film I consider to be both the best ever made and my personal fav is Casablanca. It had never registered that Rains is in them both, although I certainly knew it. Vocally he is excellent in The Invisible Man, which is a very good Universal horror.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,096Chief of Staff
I agree with @Barbel , Claude Rains is fabulous in this…The Invisible Man has been made several times over, but this is the best version for me.
Casablanca is almost the perfect film but strangely doesn’t get into my top 20 favourite movies, but I never tire of watching it. Great post, Barbel, I’ve never considered all those angles before!
BTW I’m loving how this thread I’d progressing 😁
And you missed adding the poster, Barbel, so here it is…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
HoD is a terrible, awful movie which I love to bits. It follows from "House of Frankenstein" with much the same cast and crew doing much the same things less well. Karloff's absence is felt and everyone seems to be just going through the expected motions.
There are a few good scenes, such as Dracula hypnotising the blonde nurse he's wanting to sink his teeth into and forcing her to play scary music at the piano, but the basic plot (both Drac and the Wolf Man independently call on the same doctor seeking cures for their supernatural conditions - on the same night!) needs a lot of disbelief suspension.
Very few of the stills above (I count one, there may be two) including those in the third poster are in the movie itself. And listing the sympathetic nurse with kyphosis as one of the monsters is very cruel.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,096Chief of Staff
I don’t know but I’m presuming kyphosis is symptomatic of having a hunchback. It was unnecessary and an obvious move from the advertising department to increase the monster count. I love this movie even though it’s not very good in lots of ways.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
There were silent versions of Jekyll, Hunchback and Phantom but this was the first sound film, so in my view it’s the first of the series of 31 movies.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I hadn't seen the 3rd and 4th above. The one I'm most familiar with is
Seen today it's very slow once he arrives in Whitby and the lack of music doesn't help. Still, Bela has the title role down pat after a lot of practice playing it on stage and Dwight Frye is worth watching too.
Tod Browning was, IMHO, a poor director and any good touches there are come from director of photography Karl Freund, not long over from Germany where he'd worked on such movies as Metropolis. He'd soon be directing horror classics like the first Mummy movie.
The last of the Universal Monsters and a series of 3. Initially released in the then popular 3D process, the first as CHB lovingly details above isn't bad at all.
The second, "Revenge of The Creature" is mainly remembered today for the debut of a young man who would go very far
and for having it's plot remade many years later as "Jaws 3D".
The third "The Creature Walks Among Us" is the poorest.
Bond connection: inside the Creature costume while he's underwater is Ricou Browning, who not only choreographed the underwater sequences in TB and NSNA but doubled as Bond for a lot of the swimming scenes in the former and part of the latter.
Nice one CHB, though it was this thread that inspired the story in the first place!
Those must be reissue posters, since Karloff wasn't originally top billed.
This was made very soon after the 1931 Dracula yet appears years ahead technically.
There is one thing in particular that links the two movies - at the end of Dracula Edward van Sloan, who had played Van Helsing, emerges out of character from behind a curtain as if on a stage to give the audience a tongue-in-cheek warning. At the start of Frankenstein in which he is about to play Dr Waldman he does the same.
I've never understood why the first names of Frankenstein and his friend are exchanged here, so we are watching Henry Frankenstein and his pal Victor.
Again a lack of music, a bit less noticeable here than in Dracula owing to the less static camera.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,096Chief of Staff
Unlike the 3 previous films mentioned in the 2nd poster, there was no famous book to base a mummy film on. What it ends up most resembling under the Egyptian paraphernalia is Dracula 1931 - watch the two films as a double bill (they're only an hour or so each) and the similarities in plot, scenes, etc is clear.
That isn't helped by casting 2 actors from Dracula in very similar parts here, David Manners as handsome but bewildered hero and Edward van Sloan as Professor Not Van Helsing no definitely not in the slightest. At least this time he doesn't come out from behind a curtain to reassure the audience.
And yet none of this matters. Karloff* is the centre of the story and carries it wonderfully both with the bandages and without. The scene where the mummy comes to life is perhaps the most genuinely scary of the whole Universal catalogue. Zita Johann was a very offbeat heroine, and AFAIK didn't make many movies so this is her only chance to be memorable and she is.
* He's billed without the "Boris" here and in a few other movies of the era. Similar to "Garbo" and, much later, "Elvis". The idea being that no other name was required.
I hadn't seen those French (?) posters before; I really like the last one.
Despite the heavy plugging of HG Wells' name (I'm guessing he was still alive) this has nothing to do with the first story. The only thin connection is that the brother of the original invisible man (that's him with test tubes in the first 2 posters) makes an innocent but wanted man invisible.
And that man is Vincent Price in his first of many, many horror films. The first requisite of an actor for such a part is a distinctive voice, and he most certainly had that and used it well (Michael Jackson "Thriller" anyone?). He played the part again a few years later as a cameo, frightening Abbott and Costello.
Sir Cedric Hardwicke walks through the part of the villain with his usual "I'm too good for this kind of film but I need the money" undertones, as seen in his other parts for Universal but this time it suits the role.
Not a bad sequel; worse was to follow.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 31,096Chief of Staff
I like those posters…and it’s another film I’ve seen 😁 and thanks again for all the extra info @Barbel 😁
Comments
Love the extra info…but I love Pedant’s Corner more 😁
Thank you, Barbel, and like Sir Miles, I enjoyed the Pedant’s Corner piece 😁
UNIVERSAL HORROR #4 - THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)
The lovely Gloria Stuart in the last pic, many years later to play the old lady in "Titanic".
Above that the truly dreadful Una O'Connor who was the weakest link both here and in "Bride". James Whale thought she was funny, many others don't.
And not that you see him, naturally, but Claude Rains in his star-making role. One of those actors who could lift a film simply by being in it - not that he often had to with such films as "Notorious" (which is @chrisno1's favourite as I discovered when we were writing "Edelweiss") and "Casablanca" in his future.
Boring part: many screenwriters came and went, coming up with ever more crazy plots, until finally it was decided to simply film the HG Wells novel faithfully (adding in a female lead was the only major change). Good move, I'd say. Hollywood too often buys a story then changes almost everything.
Notorious is only my fav thriller @Barbel although curiously the film I consider to be both the best ever made and my personal fav is Casablanca. It had never registered that Rains is in them both, although I certainly knew it. Vocally he is excellent in The Invisible Man, which is a very good Universal horror.
I agree with @Barbel , Claude Rains is fabulous in this…The Invisible Man has been made several times over, but this is the best version for me.
Agreed, it's still very watchable.
Re "Casablanca", my best friend and I have spent a lot of time trying to persuade our lead guitarist to watch it.
He says he likes war movies, so we assure him it is definitely a WW2 movie.
He says he likes musicals, we say there are plenty songs.
He says but it isn't a comedy and he likes comedies. We tell him there are many witty lines, some very famous examples.
Ah, but I like thrillers he tells us. We reply there are thrills all right.
He says it isn't film noir, we reply it most certainly is.
He doesn't like romances ... and we admit he's got us there.
Casablanca is almost the perfect film but strangely doesn’t get into my top 20 favourite movies, but I never tire of watching it. Great post, Barbel, I’ve never considered all those angles before!
BTW I’m loving how this thread I’d progressing 😁
And you missed adding the poster, Barbel, so here it is…
UNIVERSAL HORROR #5 - HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945)
HoD is a terrible, awful movie which I love to bits. It follows from "House of Frankenstein" with much the same cast and crew doing much the same things less well. Karloff's absence is felt and everyone seems to be just going through the expected motions.
There are a few good scenes, such as Dracula hypnotising the blonde nurse he's wanting to sink his teeth into and forcing her to play scary music at the piano, but the basic plot (both Drac and the Wolf Man independently call on the same doctor seeking cures for their supernatural conditions - on the same night!) needs a lot of disbelief suspension.
Very few of the stills above (I count one, there may be two) including those in the third poster are in the movie itself. And listing the sympathetic nurse with kyphosis as one of the monsters is very cruel.
It’s also I film I’ve never watched either 🤗
I don’t know but I’m presuming kyphosis is symptomatic of having a hunchback. It was unnecessary and an obvious move from the advertising department to increase the monster count. I love this movie even though it’s not very good in lots of ways.
Sorry, medical background showing through. Yes, it is.
UNIVERSAL HORROR #6 - DRACULA (1931)
There were silent versions of Jekyll, Hunchback and Phantom but this was the first sound film, so in my view it’s the first of the series of 31 movies.
I hadn't seen the 3rd and 4th above. The one I'm most familiar with is
Seen today it's very slow once he arrives in Whitby and the lack of music doesn't help. Still, Bela has the title role down pat after a lot of practice playing it on stage and Dwight Frye is worth watching too.
Tod Browning was, IMHO, a poor director and any good touches there are come from director of photography Karl Freund, not long over from Germany where he'd worked on such movies as Metropolis. He'd soon be directing horror classics like the first Mummy movie.
Yes, without Lugosi the movie would have flopped and indeed we may not have had the Universal horror franchise.
He had no competition as Dracula for over 20 years and then
suddenly he did.
This is a brilliant piece of artwork 🍸
UNIVERSAL HORROR #7 - CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
The last of the Universal Monsters and a series of 3. Initially released in the then popular 3D process, the first as CHB lovingly details above isn't bad at all.
The second, "Revenge of The Creature" is mainly remembered today for the debut of a young man who would go very far
and for having it's plot remade many years later as "Jaws 3D".
The third "The Creature Walks Among Us" is the poorest.
Bond connection: inside the Creature costume while he's underwater is Ricou Browning, who not only choreographed the underwater sequences in TB and NSNA but doubled as Bond for a lot of the swimming scenes in the former and part of the latter.
Thanks for the extra comments @Barbel they are very welcome.
Nice posters and informative extra info - thanks 😁
UNIVERSAL HORROR #8 - FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
In honour of Barbel’s latest story over on the Imaginary Conversations thread…
Nice one CHB, though it was this thread that inspired the story in the first place!
Those must be reissue posters, since Karloff wasn't originally top billed.
This was made very soon after the 1931 Dracula yet appears years ahead technically.
There is one thing in particular that links the two movies - at the end of Dracula Edward van Sloan, who had played Van Helsing, emerges out of character from behind a curtain as if on a stage to give the audience a tongue-in-cheek warning. At the start of Frankenstein in which he is about to play Dr Waldman he does the same.
I've never understood why the first names of Frankenstein and his friend are exchanged here, so we are watching Henry Frankenstein and his pal Victor.
Again a lack of music, a bit less noticeable here than in Dracula owing to the less static camera.
Great posters again…I particularly like this one…
And thanks @Barbel for the extra information 😁
UNIVERSAL HORROR #9 - THE MUMMY (1932)
Hadn't seen that 3rd one, it's great.
Unlike the 3 previous films mentioned in the 2nd poster, there was no famous book to base a mummy film on. What it ends up most resembling under the Egyptian paraphernalia is Dracula 1931 - watch the two films as a double bill (they're only an hour or so each) and the similarities in plot, scenes, etc is clear.
That isn't helped by casting 2 actors from Dracula in very similar parts here, David Manners as handsome but bewildered hero and Edward van Sloan as Professor Not Van Helsing no definitely not in the slightest. At least this time he doesn't come out from behind a curtain to reassure the audience.
And yet none of this matters. Karloff* is the centre of the story and carries it wonderfully both with the bandages and without. The scene where the mummy comes to life is perhaps the most genuinely scary of the whole Universal catalogue. Zita Johann was a very offbeat heroine, and AFAIK didn't make many movies so this is her only chance to be memorable and she is.
* He's billed without the "Boris" here and in a few other movies of the era. Similar to "Garbo" and, much later, "Elvis". The idea being that no other name was required.
Thank you @Barbel these comments and information are much appreciated.
UNIVERSAL HORROR #10 - THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940)
I hadn't seen those French (?) posters before; I really like the last one.
Despite the heavy plugging of HG Wells' name (I'm guessing he was still alive) this has nothing to do with the first story. The only thin connection is that the brother of the original invisible man (that's him with test tubes in the first 2 posters) makes an innocent but wanted man invisible.
And that man is Vincent Price in his first of many, many horror films. The first requisite of an actor for such a part is a distinctive voice, and he most certainly had that and used it well (Michael Jackson "Thriller" anyone?). He played the part again a few years later as a cameo, frightening Abbott and Costello.
Sir Cedric Hardwicke walks through the part of the villain with his usual "I'm too good for this kind of film but I need the money" undertones, as seen in his other parts for Universal but this time it suits the role.
Not a bad sequel; worse was to follow.
I like those posters…and it’s another film I’ve seen 😁 and thanks again for all the extra info @Barbel 😁
UNIVERSAL HORROR #11 - DRACULA’S DAUGHTER (1936)