The Art of Frankenstein : Bill Nelson

American artist Bill Nelson is best known for his exquisite drawings done in colored pencil. His illustrations and caricatures, published in all the major magazines, have earned him countless awards — over 900 and counting! — including the field’s highest honors.

Nelson also brings his bounteous talents to sculpture, creating highly collectable ventriloquist figures, one-of-a-kind dolls and automata. Here, a superb sculpt of Boris Karloff in Monster getup whimsically references the numerous photos of the actor kicking back and enjoying a smoke between takes.

Nelson is a Monster Kid at heart, his early but already fully accomplished work appearing in genre magazines of the Seventies such as Photon, Gore Creatures and Cinefantastique. I urge you to click around Nelson’s exhilarating website and look for his illustrations of silent star Lon Chaney, or his portraits of the characters from Tod Browning’s Freaks. You’re in for quite an experience.

Bill Nelson’s website

Happy Birthday, Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Lee, here masterfully photographed by Nadav Kander, celebrates a glorious 90^th birthday today, May 27.

We send our best wishes, our love, admiration and gratitude to Mr. Lee who continues to entertain and amaze us. Recently in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo and currently in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, Mr. Lee will voice Dracula in Burton’s Frankenweenie later this year, and returns as Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films.

Worth noting: Mr. Lee shares a birthday with Vincent Price, who would have been 101 today, and Peter Cushing would have turned 99 yesterday, May 26.

Also worth noting, Mr. Lee’s wife, Brigit Kroncke, was chosen and fabulously featured on the cover of Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen, a blog-based book described as an “ode to the confidence, beauty, and fashion that can only be achieved through the experience of a life lived glamorously.” The book was published earlier this week.

           

The Official Christopher Lee website.

Shock Showmanship

“The two most terrifying creatures of all time” square off in a desolate landscape with swirling bats. A tantalizing trade ad in Universal’s Exhibitor’s Book of 1942 pitches the first Meeting of the Monsters, with Lon Chaney Jr. playing both Frankenstein AND the Wolf Man.

The dual casting idea was a great publicity hook, locking in Lon Chaney as the studio’s all-purpose go-to monster guy. It made sense continuity-wise, with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man conceived by writer Curt Siodmak as a direct sequel to both The Wolf Man (1941), Chaney’s signature role, and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Chaney had taken over the boots and bolts from Karloff. On the other hand, the trick casting would have been problematic, with expensive and time-consuming split-screen effects needed for Chaney’s Larry Talbot to interact with Chaney barely recognizable under the heavy makeup of the Frankenstein Monster. In fact, after Bela Lugosi was recruited to play The Monster, he would be spelled throughout the film by stand-ins, and the climactic “horror-battle” featured two stunt performers, with insert shots of Chaney and Lugosi snarling in closeup.

In the end, despite a difficult shoot and some choppy editing to cover its problems, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man turned out as one of Universal’s most entertaining sorties, its considerable success launching a series of so-called Monster Rally films that brought Frankenstein and the Wolf Man together again, with Dracula and assorted mad scientists and hunchbacked assistants thrown in, culminating in 1948 with the whole gang of monsters going up against Abbott and Costello.

Related:

When Frankenstein Met the Wolf Man

I Fought With Frankenstein!

…And Frankenstein reacted like a sissy! So said one Jimmy McFarlane, posing with dukes up against a looming Glenn Strange, of his unfortunate Halloween encounter with a Haunted Mansion Frankenstein at a Tucson shopping mall in 1987.

In a story published in 1989, McFarlane said he was startled when the costumed employee jumped out and grabbed him. Shoving ensued, cops were called. McFarlane claimed he was beaten up and injured by the arresting officers, for which he sued the city to the tune of $250,000. 

The story is plausible and probably one of those rare “strange but true” stories appearing in the otherwise whacky pages of the Weekly World News, the supermarket tabloid that specialized in Elvis and Bigfoot sightings, UFO activity, dopey diets, impending Armageddon, weird conspiracies and eyewitness reports from outer space and the very circles of Hell. Weekly World News introduced its readers the now famous pointy-eared mutant baby called Bat Boy, and a stone-faced grey alien named P’lod who took photo ops with Presidents and entertained affairs with Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice.

Weekly World News folded its print edition in 2007, after a wild 28-year run. It continues today as an online publication. 

Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein

The Great Detective and Dr. Watson are called to Darmstadt, Germany, to investigate a curious case of purloined corpses and strange goings-on at Castle Frankenstein. That's the springboard for Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein, currently in pre-production from director Gautier Cazenave’s Marteau Films of France, in collaboration with the UK-based Parkland Pictures. The film shoots later this year.

In an inspired bit of casting, Shane Briant, once Peter Cushing’s assistant in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), Hammer’s last Frankenstein film, will return to the saga as the Burgomeister. Also appearing is actor Clement von Franckenstein — the real Baron Frankenstein — cast as… Baron Frankenstein!

The atmospheric poster was created by Gil Jouin who collaborated for over 15 years with his father, Michel Jouin, famous for his film poster work on the French release of such titles as Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Gil Jouin’s solo work has also been celebrated, winning the Best Film Poster Cesar — the French Oscar — for the film Cinema Paradiso in 1990.

We’ll report back on Sherlock Holmes vs Frankenstein as the project evolves. 

A Frankenstein Mashup

Here’s a glorious homage to The Monster by maverick filmmaker Larry Fessenden, stitching together scenes from 27 different Frankenstein movies. Fessenden’s fiercely independent films include No Telling (1991), released in some markets as The Frankenstein Complex.

The clip here was created for a fund-raising evening last February hosted by Fessenden on behalf of Radiohole, a Brooklyn-based ensemble who are mounting a performance called Inflatable Frankenstein, due to open at The Kitchen in New York City in January 2013.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for Inflatable Frankenstein. Meanwhile, feast both eyeballs on Larry Fessenden’s Frankenstein Mashup!

Radiohole website.

Larry Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix.

Making The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

Found on Facebook (with thanks to Tim Lucas) and originally posted by Paul Gallagher on the Dangerous Minds blog, here’s a short, lighthearted BBC report from April 28, 1970, on the making of Hammer Film’s The Horror of Frankenstein. The film, written and directed by Jimmy Sangster, was an attempt at rebooting the Frankenstein series with a younger cast, Ralph Bates stepping up as the cruel Baron.

Running just short of six minutes, the black and white BBC film goes on set with Bates and Dennis Price shooting a scene, and into the makeup room where Tom Smith prepares David Prowse — in spectacular bodybuilding form — for his part as The Monster. Best of all, the generous and ever-affable Peter Cushing appears with Bates for a short interview, effectively passing the baton to his replacement.

The much-maligned Horror would ultimately fail at the box office and Cushing would return to his signature part to wrap up the series with Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974). David Prowse would also appear as a different and much shaggier Monster, and both Cushing and Prowse would share the screen again in Star Wars (1977) as, respectively, Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader. 

Alive, Alive!

Heads up! Artist Bernie Wrightson returns to Frankenstein, with scripts by horror-writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), in the new ongoing series Frankenstein Alive, Alive! arriving in comic shops this week.

First published in 1983, Wrightson’s astounding illustrations for Mary Shelley’s novel are legendary. Now, 30 years on, Wrightson is creating a sequel to the classic tale, in comic book form. The long-cherished project finally crystallized when Steve Niles came aboard as writer. The combined talents make Frankenstein Alive, Alive! an important, must-see addition to the Frankenstein canon.

Steve Niles has posted a fascinating conversation with Bernie Wrightson.

Related:
Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein
The Covers of Frankenstein: Bernie Wrightson

Son of Frankenstein trade ad, 1939

The Monster swoops like a greenish ghost out of a foreboding castle and flies over a desolate landscape in an unusual trade magazine ad for Son of Frankenstein (1939). Most curious of all is The Monster’s smile. Was the studio downplaying the horror aspect, or is The Monster happy with his success as he “Scares the country into Box office records…”?

Produced and directed by Rowland V. Lee, Son of Frankenstein was put into production soon after a revival double-bill of the 1931 classics, Dracula and Frankenstein, did exceptional business. The film signaled the beginning of a new wave of Universal horrors that would return Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy to the screen along with a new player, the Wolf Man, culminating in the multiple-monster rallies of the mid-Forties and a momentous 1948 meeting with Abbott and Costello.

Son of Frankenstein starred Boris Karloff in his third and last appearance as The Monster and introduced Bela Lugosi as the scruffy, scene-stealing Igor. The film also features Basil Rathbone, who would make his first Sherlock Holmes film the same year, and Lionel Atwill as the wooden-armed Inspector Krogh. Son would go on to be the main inspiration for Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974). 

Image source

"There Isn't a Single Laugh in Frankenstein"

Addressing exhibitors, Universal’s long-running Straight from the Shoulder Talk series of industry ads were basically promotional pep talks dressed as man-to-man, insider correspondence.

Published in Film Daily on December 14, 1931, Talk number 735(!) deals with Frankenstein, still rolling out across the country. The film had finally opened in New York, to record crowds, just ten days earlier. Here, advertising men and exhibitors are celebrated for the bold promotional work done for Frankenstein. “Instead of soft-pedaling on the fact that the picture is gruesome, grisly and shocking,” the copy goes, “they made capital out of the fact.”

In the end, it all serves as a lead-in to Universal’s next scheduled "Super-Shocker", Murders in the Rue Morgue, due for release in early 1932. “Men who welcome a chance to do original thinking will be delighted to hear that I’ve got another big opportunity for them to show their stuff.”

For a talk purportedly penned by venerable studio President Carl Laemmle himself, you can’t help noticing the fingerprints of a seasoned publicity writer. Murders in the Rue Morgue, we are told, is “no Pollyanna. It’s red hot and grisly and packed with the kind of dynamite that can be detonated by smart brains.”

Related:
Everybody Shivered and All Had a Good Time 
Stand Them On Their Ears

Stand Them On Their Ears

The title rockets across the page on speed lines: They liked it so much, they made 2 wonderful Trailers for Frankenstein! This is another trade ad aimed at exhibitors, from the December 2, 1931 issue of the industry newspaper Film Daily.

Back in ’31, movie trailers were made available to exhibitors through a single company, National Screen Service. It was a much more practical arrangement than having individual theater owners deal with any number of sources in an era when countless Hollywood studios vied for screen space. Within the decade, NSS would begin producing and distributing posters and other print materials, eventually becoming the exclusive purveyor for all movie advertising in North America. Studios turned their advertising campaign over to NSS, and exhibitors could order from, or walk into a local NSS “exchange” office to buy or rent whatever posters, stand-ups or lobby card sets they needed for their front of house displays.

NSS went out of business in the 80s with the rise of the multiplex, after on-the-spot theater ballyhoo had gone out of fashion and films were now promoted with a single, standard-size poster.

Coming Up: Carl Laemmle has a talk with exhibitors.

Related:
Everybody Shivered and All Had a Good Time