HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We celebrate with Universal Horror!


This one started it all. The first time you see Dr. Frankenstein, he is behind bars (a fence) and has his face between two pointed bars, which suggests the devil. Gotta love a strong opening image! James Whale broke a lot of new ground here.


This is just a great movie. Not only is it incredibly poignant on one level, but it's incredibly cool on every other level. Dr. Frankenstein doesn't want to do it again, but Dr. Praetorius makes him! The Burgermeister is obsessed! This is the one where they really established a broader (not in the bad sense) universe for these characters. This was James Whale's second and last Frankenstein movie.


You've learned that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover? Meet Ygor!This is another outstanding film, and the set design and art direction are amazing. I have always had a problem with Basil Rathbone in the title role. I love him in everything else, but not here, where he is a little two emotionally overwrought. This was Boris Karloff's last turn as the monster, but he'd be back in the series!



The Wolf Man is another great flick. Meet Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) - he's tortured I tell ya! Meet his messed up dad (Claude Rains!), meet Maria Ouspenskaya as a gypsy empath! This was directed by George Waggner, and I believe he is the same guy who later worked on the Batman show. Nice training!


Here Ygor is back, coercing another Dr. Frankenstein to put his brain into the Monster's body. This time the Monster is played by Lon Chaney Jr. This one was followed by the grandaddy of all fight flicks!


Lawrence Talbot - he's tortured I tell ya! travels to Transylvania to see if Dr. Frankenstein can cure him, but the doctor is dead. Alas, the Monster is not! This is the first team up of the Universal Monsters, and as such was a crowd pleasing stroke of genius. Roy William Neil directed and seemed to really embrace the mythmaking that was going on. With the Monster and the Wolfman together at last, could Dracula be far behind?

Everybody's in the haunted hizzy! This one features John Carradine as Dracula. He has an interesting take on the role. This is sort of a travels with hunchback flick, as Karloff is back in the series, but this time playing an evil scientist posing as a travelling entertainer but really out to find the Monsters. Good stuff!


The series finale (if you don't include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein). Here, Carradine is back as Drac, and a doctor is trying to cure the Monsters! He, like the flick itself, is a little too ambitious. After this the Universal Monsters as entities unto themselves were put on the shelf. Thirteen years later, Hammer would start spinning new myths around the same characters, but the Universal monsters never came back. Let's hope the ice floe that no doubt holds them in suspended animation succombs to global warming in the not too distant future.

Happy Haunting, friends!