That 5th poster is new to me, but I think I like the 3rd best. I hadn't known that Turhan Bey was billed as "The Man Of Mystery", he's very good here and in other Universal movies.
This story takes place 30 years after "Mummy's Hand", so 1970ish then?
Dick Foran and Wallace Ford are back from that film with unconvincing old age make up, but Peggy Moran has supposedly died in the meantime. Either that or she read the script.
Lon Chaney Jr is now Kharis, at least nominally, and does nothing interesting with the part.
And George Zucco is back as the High Priest. Yup, same guy who got killed last time.
Here's the main thing with this movie: when old Steve Banning tells the tale of his adventures in Egypt to his son and future daughter-in-law, we get a flashback lasting somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes showing us, the audience, what happened in the previous movie. Quite a long flashback, but this entire movie is only just over an hour so maybe a quarter of it is the last movie reprised. Certainly one way to stretch your budget.
Edit: Also, towards the end short clips from various Frankenstein movies are used to show the mob of villagers heading for the mummy. Again, stretching the budget.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
I like the 5th poster - it probably doesn’t have the same impact of the 3rd one though…
Again, both @CoolHandBond & @Barbel working in complete tandem…loving the posters and all the extra info - thanks 😁👏🏻
The posters are better than the movie, which isn't one of their best. I like the French one.
Bud & Lou play detectives who help a boxer who's hiding from the law and the bad guys after being falsely accused so decides being invisible is the best way out. The SFX are weaker than the first Invisible Man movie nearly 20 years earlier and the jokes aren't much better.
Lou Costello was once a boxer and that helps in the scenes where he's in the ring, helped by his invisible friend to win his bouts, IMHO the best part of the movie.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
I’ve only seen this movie once…probably 50 years ago 🤣😮😟
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #22 - SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (1946)
This is probably the worst of the 31 movies under this banner, only distinguished by June Lockhart who would later become the mum on the LostInSpace television series in the 60’s. I’ve only seen it once before and from what I remember nothing much actually happens.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
I wouldn't bother with it, Sir Miles. As CHB says, it's very poor. The posters do a good job of making a v boring movie look interesting. The only reason I have a copy is that it was in a box set.
The 4th one above wins for me. Strangely, the first 2 have a pic of Chaney without the mummy make-up, as not seen in the film.
I like this one more than it's immediate predecessor. Carradine makes a good priest figure, Zucco is back from the dead again, and the ending (no spoilers) is at least slightly different. The flashback takes up less time than before, and Chaney gets a good moment when he reacts to one of the priest's orders that he doesn't like.
You'd never know it from the posters but we're in small town America and it's school full of distinctly overaged students.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
I prefer the third poster down…again, I think I’ve not seen this one…🤔
Nice posters for this one, they're all pretty nice and I don't have a favourite.
This is a silly comedy, just light fun with no horror elements at all. Unless you count the career of John Barrymore that is; once maybe the biggest male star in Hollywood now playing a mad professor in a B picture and grateful for it, or he would be if he were sober long enough. Sex and drugs (well, booze - and much of that during Prohibition) will do that but no rock & roll, mainly cos it hadn't been invented yet. He'd be dead not long after this.
Anyway, also in the movie is one Stooge (the real Shemp) and a young Oscar Homolka, known to spy fans as Colonel Stok in the Harry Palmer films.
The SFX are sometimes good, at other times groanworthy, as if no-one really cared. And I've gone all this way without mentioning that Virginia Bruce is pleasant and can be funny.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
Arguably, The Wolf Man is the best movie in this collection, it certainly ranks alongside Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein. His second outing in which he meets up with Frankenstein monster was covered in #2 of this series, which seems a long time ago now!
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #25 - THE WOLF MAN (1941)
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 30,914Chief of Staff
Now this movie I have seen…and throughly enjoyed it 😁
An all time favourite of mine. That's a great selection of posters; no 6 I like very much, though it isn't as commercial as the USA ones.
Straight away I'd remove the names of Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, and Patric Knowles. They do nothing and after watching the film aren't remembered. I can't even remember their character names and I've seen this film countless times (a habit of mine which regular readers may have either noticed or deduced).
Claude Rains is our hero's father, very important to the story, and as usual he's excellent. Evelyn Ankers is the female lead, buried way down in the billing despite having a bigger and more important role than those three gents I mentioned, and is attractive and competent. Poor Bela Lugosi, unvalued by Universal, has a small but crucial part (called Bela, which is clearly not a coincidence). He would have liked to play the title role, but that just wasn't going to happen.
It was written by Curt Siodmak, who had fled Nazi Germany and became a successful writer of B-films with occasional novels between. Some have seen parallels with the Nazi regime, eg the lycanthropic pentagram standing in for the yellow star Jews were forced to wear, but I think that's a stretch myself.
And finally Lon Chaney Jr. I love his movies, I enjoy watching him, but I have to admit that he was no great actor. He struggled in the Inner Sanctum series to portray academics and his Dracula was the weakest part of "Son of Dracula" (more Siodmak). In the right part, though, he could be terrific. Lennie in "Of Mice And Men" could have been written for him, he was so good there, and Larry Talbot here runs Lennie a close second. He went on to play Larry again and again, as can be seen from some of the posters above.
I love how the boys were known in different countries. They're all good posters, even no 5 which for some reason says the director was Jack Arnold who was known for sci fi movies.
Still, fun posters do not a fun movie make. It's a laboured effort with only a few good jokes and was A&C's last film for Universal, for whom they had been top box office earners ten years and more ago. Their success had been extended by meeting various characters (Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Invisible Man, etc) but was now at an end partly due to younger audiences preferring Martin & Lewis but mainly owing to the rise of television. They would make one film together after this before splitting up.
Eddie Parker played the mummy, as I mentioned earlier, and even the makeup is poor.
Good bunch of posters, pretty similar except the French one. I like the first one best, I think, but there's not much in it. They all give a good idea of the film.
Universal have noticed there was a war going on and they'd better do some patriotic films, you might even say propaganda, with their characters. Sherlock Holmes was already doing this, battling Nazi spies on two continents, but they could hardly put Dracula etc into the proceedings so an invisible man (not THE Invisible Man) seemed the way to go.
It's a thriller with some comedy elements and not bad in it's way. Ilona Massey was top billed for some reason as she was when Frankenstein met the Wolf Man and looked very beautiful while Jon Hall (of whom I know nothing except that he's back in the next Invisible Man movie) plays a descendant of the original character who initially refuses to get involved in the war but changes his mind.
But neither of those matter. The villains are the great Peter Lorre (the first Le Chiffre) and Sir Cedric Hardwicke (who's wearing a toupè in the posters but not in the film) and they carry the whole thing without breaking a sweat.
The SFX are better than in it's predecessor, and work well.
Edit: Pedant's Corner.
You'll notice that Hardwicke is billed using his title. You won't see that these days - no "Dame Judi Dench as M" for example (which would please CHB enormously), or "Sir Michael Caine" etc. I wonder when it became the done thing for an actor to not use their title in a film.
Comments
I like “ghost”, well, I like all the Universal horrors 😁 and I tend to overlook obvious faults because of that!
Thanks for the info, Barbel, it’s much appreciated.
UNIVERSAL HORROR #20 - THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1942)
That 5th poster is new to me, but I think I like the 3rd best. I hadn't known that Turhan Bey was billed as "The Man Of Mystery", he's very good here and in other Universal movies.
This story takes place 30 years after "Mummy's Hand", so 1970ish then?
Dick Foran and Wallace Ford are back from that film with unconvincing old age make up, but Peggy Moran has supposedly died in the meantime. Either that or she read the script.
Lon Chaney Jr is now Kharis, at least nominally, and does nothing interesting with the part.
And George Zucco is back as the High Priest. Yup, same guy who got killed last time.
Here's the main thing with this movie: when old Steve Banning tells the tale of his adventures in Egypt to his son and future daughter-in-law, we get a flashback lasting somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes showing us, the audience, what happened in the previous movie. Quite a long flashback, but this entire movie is only just over an hour so maybe a quarter of it is the last movie reprised. Certainly one way to stretch your budget.
Edit: Also, towards the end short clips from various Frankenstein movies are used to show the mob of villagers heading for the mummy. Again, stretching the budget.
I like the 5th poster - it probably doesn’t have the same impact of the 3rd one though…
Again, both @CoolHandBond & @Barbel working in complete tandem…loving the posters and all the extra info - thanks 😁👏🏻
Thank you, Sir Miles. Barbel’s superb snippets of information are greatly appreciated, and he doesn’t even know what movie is coming next!
UNIVERSAL HORROR #21 - ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951)
The posters are better than the movie, which isn't one of their best. I like the French one.
Bud & Lou play detectives who help a boxer who's hiding from the law and the bad guys after being falsely accused so decides being invisible is the best way out. The SFX are weaker than the first Invisible Man movie nearly 20 years earlier and the jokes aren't much better.
Lou Costello was once a boxer and that helps in the scenes where he's in the ring, helped by his invisible friend to win his bouts, IMHO the best part of the movie.
I’ve only seen this movie once…probably 50 years ago 🤣😮😟
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #22 - SHE-WOLF OF LONDON (1946)
This is probably the worst of the 31 movies under this banner, only distinguished by June Lockhart who would later become the mum on the Lost In Space television series in the 60’s. I’ve only seen it once before and from what I remember nothing much actually happens.
This film is a new one on me 🤔
I wouldn't bother with it, Sir Miles. As CHB says, it's very poor. The posters do a good job of making a v boring movie look interesting. The only reason I have a copy is that it was in a box set.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #23 - THE MUMMY’S GHOST (1944)
The 4th one above wins for me. Strangely, the first 2 have a pic of Chaney without the mummy make-up, as not seen in the film.
I like this one more than it's immediate predecessor. Carradine makes a good priest figure, Zucco is back from the dead again, and the ending (no spoilers) is at least slightly different. The flashback takes up less time than before, and Chaney gets a good moment when he reacts to one of the priest's orders that he doesn't like.
You'd never know it from the posters but we're in small town America and it's school full of distinctly overaged students.
I prefer the third poster down…again, I think I’ve not seen this one…🤔
Thank you, Barbel.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #24 - THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1940)
Nice posters for this one, they're all pretty nice and I don't have a favourite.
This is a silly comedy, just light fun with no horror elements at all. Unless you count the career of John Barrymore that is; once maybe the biggest male star in Hollywood now playing a mad professor in a B picture and grateful for it, or he would be if he were sober long enough. Sex and drugs (well, booze - and much of that during Prohibition) will do that but no rock & roll, mainly cos it hadn't been invented yet. He'd be dead not long after this.
Anyway, also in the movie is one Stooge (the real Shemp) and a young Oscar Homolka, known to spy fans as Colonel Stok in the Harry Palmer films.
The SFX are sometimes good, at other times groanworthy, as if no-one really cared. And I've gone all this way without mentioning that Virginia Bruce is pleasant and can be funny.
Another one I’ve never seen 🤗
Thanks, Barbel.
Arguably, The Wolf Man is the best movie in this collection, it certainly ranks alongside Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein. His second outing in which he meets up with Frankenstein monster was covered in #2 of this series, which seems a long time ago now!
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #25 - THE WOLF MAN (1941)
Now this movie I have seen…and throughly enjoyed it 😁
An all time favourite of mine. That's a great selection of posters; no 6 I like very much, though it isn't as commercial as the USA ones.
Straight away I'd remove the names of Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, and Patric Knowles. They do nothing and after watching the film aren't remembered. I can't even remember their character names and I've seen this film countless times (a habit of mine which regular readers may have either noticed or deduced).
Claude Rains is our hero's father, very important to the story, and as usual he's excellent. Evelyn Ankers is the female lead, buried way down in the billing despite having a bigger and more important role than those three gents I mentioned, and is attractive and competent. Poor Bela Lugosi, unvalued by Universal, has a small but crucial part (called Bela, which is clearly not a coincidence). He would have liked to play the title role, but that just wasn't going to happen.
It was written by Curt Siodmak, who had fled Nazi Germany and became a successful writer of B-films with occasional novels between. Some have seen parallels with the Nazi regime, eg the lycanthropic pentagram standing in for the yellow star Jews were forced to wear, but I think that's a stretch myself.
And finally Lon Chaney Jr. I love his movies, I enjoy watching him, but I have to admit that he was no great actor. He struggled in the Inner Sanctum series to portray academics and his Dracula was the weakest part of "Son of Dracula" (more Siodmak). In the right part, though, he could be terrific. Lennie in "Of Mice And Men" could have been written for him, he was so good there, and Larry Talbot here runs Lennie a close second. He went on to play Larry again and again, as can be seen from some of the posters above.
Thank you for your input, Barbel, once again enhancing this feature.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #26 - ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY (1955)
I love how the boys were known in different countries. They're all good posters, even no 5 which for some reason says the director was Jack Arnold who was known for sci fi movies.
Still, fun posters do not a fun movie make. It's a laboured effort with only a few good jokes and was A&C's last film for Universal, for whom they had been top box office earners ten years and more ago. Their success had been extended by meeting various characters (Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Invisible Man, etc) but was now at an end partly due to younger audiences preferring Martin & Lewis but mainly owing to the rise of television. They would make one film together after this before splitting up.
Eddie Parker played the mummy, as I mentioned earlier, and even the makeup is poor.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS #27 - INVISIBLE AGENT (1942)
Good bunch of posters, pretty similar except the French one. I like the first one best, I think, but there's not much in it. They all give a good idea of the film.
Universal have noticed there was a war going on and they'd better do some patriotic films, you might even say propaganda, with their characters. Sherlock Holmes was already doing this, battling Nazi spies on two continents, but they could hardly put Dracula etc into the proceedings so an invisible man (not THE Invisible Man) seemed the way to go.
It's a thriller with some comedy elements and not bad in it's way. Ilona Massey was top billed for some reason as she was when Frankenstein met the Wolf Man and looked very beautiful while Jon Hall (of whom I know nothing except that he's back in the next Invisible Man movie) plays a descendant of the original character who initially refuses to get involved in the war but changes his mind.
But neither of those matter. The villains are the great Peter Lorre (the first Le Chiffre) and Sir Cedric Hardwicke (who's wearing a toupè in the posters but not in the film) and they carry the whole thing without breaking a sweat.
The SFX are better than in it's predecessor, and work well.
Edit: Pedant's Corner.
You'll notice that Hardwicke is billed using his title. You won't see that these days - no "Dame Judi Dench as M" for example (which would please CHB enormously), or "Sir Michael Caine" etc. I wonder when it became the done thing for an actor to not use their title in a film.