The Classic UNIVERSAL Monster Series: The Silent Era!!!
Welcome AINT IT COOL MUSEUM patrons from your felicitous host FATHER GEEK. I hope you all enjoyed your trip down my cinema memory lane with me in our opening Museum excursion. That hodgepodge of vaguely related images will be the norm here in the Museum over the coming months. They will include shots of Posters, Books, Toys, Comics, Cards, Art Objects, Epherma, and Real People too, all strung together within each report by an esoteric thread of commonality.
Our current scuttlebutt will concern the CLASSIC UNIVERSAL STUDIOS' SERIES MONSTERS. Yes film fans, you should prepare yourself viewers for a macabre and gruesome trip through the gallery of horrific rogues that Universal has blessed us with in our far off, mostly black & white, movie past. We will visit with the Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon; with a few short side trips along the way.
Universal's 1st real horror star was the legendary master of the makeup arts Lon Chaney. One of his early triumphs for the studio was his electric portrayal of the title character in 1923's silent adaptation of Victor Hugo's immortal HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Universal didn't do the 1939, or 1956 Hunchback's, but their '57 bio-pic of Lon Chaney MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES with James Cagney included some great footage of Cagney in Bud Westmore's makeup as the Hunchback.
Lon, Sr. will probably be remembered by most for his horrific shaping of the deformed creature in Universal's 1925 masterwork THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA with Mary Philbin as the object of his obsessive love. There was also a 1929 re-release of this classic with partial sound and all new movie posters. I have a 16mm print of this film that was chopped down for a late 30's reissue, but it still has alot of impact and Chaney's gruesome close-ups are all intact.
In 1943 the studio decided to remake Gaston Leroux's original tale as a grand, Techni-colorful operetta with Claude Rains in the highly sought-after role of the phantom. Susanna Foster served as the love interest this time around. It was a rousing success, though not as terrifying as their earlier effort. Our 16mm copy of the theatrical trailer for this interpretation of the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA simply kicks ass.
Universal had nothing to do with the '62, or '89 remakes, but once again Westmore's makeup on Cagney in MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES in 1957 is pretty darn striking.
In 1927 Chaney would star in the "lost" silent classic by Tod Browning LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, which was for that musically inclined studio... MGM. His sinister Burke and Edna Tichenor's weirdly erotic "Batgirl" make this one of the most sought out "lost" motion pictures. Because of Lon Chaney, Sr.'s popularity and the wild success of his horror themed pictures Universal would enter the "sound" era as the leading producer of Horror movies, a title they by no means wanted to lose.
Original Rare as hell Silent Era Lon Chaney Doll! Would make an excellent gift for my son this December 11th (sorry... Harry made me say that!)
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