#1 Story of 2007: THE LOST KARLOFF FRANKENSTEIN!

This is a detective story, a puzzle, a case of film archeology. This is the story of how classic monster movie fans came together, solved a riddle, and wrote a new chapter in Frankenstein film history.

In my book, there was no event more important this year than the discovery of a lost Boris Karloff Frankenstein performance!

The credit for this extraordinary find belongs largely to film historian Scott McQueen, with contributions by Tom Weaver, Kerry Gammill, and the collective of horror and monster movie fans at The Classic Horror Film Board.

The CHFB is a very knowledgeable community. Delving as they do into horror film history, passionate and generous in sharing their expertise, the members of the CHFB have made a number of fascinating discoveries. For instance, over the last year, tracking actors who have played the Frankenstein Monster, studying screen caps, deconstructing sometimes blurry images, CHFB members have identified at least 3 different stuntmen subbing for a frail Bela Lugosi in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman (1942).

In June of this year, Gammill purchased a photograph on eBay and brought it to the attention of the CHFB, sparking the investigation. The previously unknown still shows Boris Karloff in Monster mode, posing with makeup man Jack Pierce and a third gentleman looking on…

The problem with this picture is that Karloff’s makeup does not correspond to any of his film appearances. It’s definitely not from the original 1931 film. Karloff here is much older. It is not from 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, when The Monster wore burn scars, exposed skull clamps and singed hair. It’s not from 1939’s Son of Frankenstein either, when Karloff’s face was fuller, the makeup smoother, and The Monster was wrapped in a bulky sheepskin vest instead of his usual black coat.

Karloff also wore the Frankenstein makeup briefly in a famous 1962 episode of TV’s Route 66. The makeup job on that one was quick and crude, not done by makeup wizard Pierce, and not at all like the one in the photo. So what are we looking at here?

A companion photo to the new picture has been in circulation for some years. It’s a candid picture of Karloff, obviously from the same photo session, with wife Evelyn. That one was a bit of a mystery, too…

Evelyn Helmore, a long-time family friend, did not marry Karloff until 1946, well after he had abandoned the Frankenstein part. The only explanation for the picture, it seemed, was that Evie had visited Karloff in 1940, six years before they were wed, on the occasion of a unique, legendary non-film Frankenstein appearance. It was identified as such in Scott Allen Nollen's Boris Karloff: A Gentleman's Life, a biography written with the participation of Karloff's daughter, Sara Jane.

In the summer of '40, Karloff gamely submitted to full makeup and costume for a climactic stunt at Los Angeles’ Gilmore Stadium. The event was an All-Star Charity Baseball Game pitting Hollywood Leading Men against Movie Comedians. The proceedings were recorded in stills and a newsreel clip. The photo here shows Karloff’s Monster rising from the dugout, with Jack Pierce looking on…

Karloff stomped to the plate and grounded the ball. As The Three Stooges bumbled and butted heads, chasing the ball, The Monster clomped purposefully around the bases. The Stooges somehow got the ball, in extremis, to catcher Buster Keaton, who promptly keeled over in a pratfall faint when he saw The Monster bearing down on him. The result — one of The Monster’s most amazing superhuman feats — was an infield home run!

Was the mystery picture from the baseball game? The members of the CHFB started asking pointed questions. For one thing, upon closer inspection, the makeup in the posed pictures doesn’t quite match the one in the baseball pics. The hair is different, nicely trimmed bangs on the Baseball Frankenstein, straggly hair in the posed pics. The forehead gash on the Baseball Frankenstein is sculpted differently than the one in the candid pictures, which cuts down through the brow. Most distinctly, Karloff in the posed pics looks definitely older, with prominent bags under the eyes. What gives? And, by the way, who IS that third man?

A first, tentative answer came from Scott McQueen who dug up an August 1946 memo from Universal Pictures authorizing the use of the Frankenstein Monster by Samuel Goldwyn Productions. Then, a CHFB forum participant, doctor kiss, identified the third man as film director Norman Z. McLeod, In 1946, McLeod directed Karloff as a villain to Danny Kaye’s daydreaming hero in MGM’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty!

All of a sudden, the puzzle pieces fell into place and we had an unexpected and exciting new discovery: In 1946, sometime over the April to August shooting schedule for Mitty, freelancing makeup man Jack Pierce came in and, with Universal’s legal blessing, transformed his friend Boris Karloff for a penultimate appearance as Frankenstein’s Monster! That day, Pierce and director McLeod, as well as wife Evie, posed with Karloff in Frankenstein getup.

The question now, of course, is whether a scene was actually shot. Perhaps the makeup was done to see how it would photograph in color, but it is certainly likely, with the director present, that a scene, a short cameo, would be filmed. Why it was discarded is a mystery. Perhaps the gag didn’t work as intended. Or maybe it worked too well and “stopped the show”.

The investigation continues. Perhaps a script can be found with the Frankenstein gag mentioned. Who knows, maybe actual footage of Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, in Technicolor, is slowly disintegrating in some forgotten film can, waiting to be saved.

Whether anything is ever found remains to be seen, but still, an important discovery in Frankenstein history has been made. It’s amazing — and encouraging — that something like this can pop up after sixty long years.

Congratulations, and thanks, to the people at The Classic Horror Film Board for bringing forth the #1 Most Important Frankenstein Event of 2007!

If you enjoy classic horror, the Classic Horror Film Board forums will amaze you. You learn something there every day. If you ever decide to register (free) and participate in the discussions, you’ll find the CHFB crowd is enthusiastic and inclusive. They will welcome you with open arms. 

I hope you enjoyed my countdown of Frankenstein Events. Post a comment, let me know what you think!

100th Post!

We’ll get back to our Year-End Review and the #1 Frankenstein Event of 2007 shortly, but first, time out, if I may, to celebrate my 100th post!



When I launched this blog in late August, I asked myself — as no doubt every new blogger does — how long this could last and would it find any readers. Starting out, I made a list of themes and subjects I wanted to post about. Well, after 100 posts, my original list is still largely untouched. I knew that my subject, my predilection, offered rich opportunities and it might take a while before I ever ran out of ideas, but I have found myself scrambling to keep up with everything I want to post about. New ideas materialize, new events occur, new directions open up, and the possibilities are truly endless. I should have known: Frankenstein is inexhaustible!

As for readership, visits to this site have grown steadily and encouragingly from day one. As the blog propagates, Google brings more visitors, roughly a hundred people now, every day. Lots of people are looking for info on Mary Shelley, Boris Karloff and Jack Pierce. There’s are recurring searches for James Whale, Schuler Hensley and Harem Alek. And, hey, there sure seem to be quite a few Rosalba Neri fans out there!

I am especially grateful for my regular visitors. Your support makes all of this worthwhile. And thanks to those of you who stop and leave a comment now and then. You inspire me and you keep me going.

And so, to celebrate the start of my next 100 posts, an announcement...

Beginning in January and on through the year, on occasion, I’ll be welcoming Guest Bloggers— Fellow bloggers, friends and writers I admire — to Frankensteinia! The only criterion is, of course, some reference to Frankenstein, otherwise, anything goes. Our guests will contribute reviews, discussions, analysis and humor. They’ll share personal Frankenstein stories and comments. They’ll opine, reflect and surprise. I already have a couple of posts on hand, and dammit, they’re great! Can’t wait to start sharing with you. We’re all in for some great reads!

Thanks again, everyone, and have a Great 2008!

Frankenstein: A Cultural History

Frankenstein’s themes, inherent and suggested, and, of course, its signifier character, The Monster, have been referenced in cultural and human affairs for almost 200 years, now.

Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s book, Frankenstein: A Cultural History, is an ambitious and satisfying overview of the phenomenon.

Hitchcock is an engaging writer and, best of all, she is generous and inclusive, as genuinely interested in Mary Shelley’s literary significance or the political interpretations of editorial cartoonists as she is in The Monster’s appearances in cheap B-movies and on Halloween masks. Dick Briefer’s comic book interpretation gets as much respect as Jung’s archetype of the shadow does in explaining The Monster’s sway on our consciousness.

Frankenstein movie fans might be a little disappointed by the film coverage in the book. Key versions are examined, and Boris Karloff’s iconic bolt-neck interpretation fairly permeates the narrative, but because the book is so wide-ranging, which is the whole idea, films are just a part of the greater story, and Hitchcock gets nowhere near — and never intended — a comprehensive study of Frankenstein in the cinema. It must also be noted that there are a couple of minor mistakes in the book’s film discussion. The Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) character is first mentioned in the correct context of Son of Frankenstein (1939), but a few pages on, he is associated with the earlier Bride of Frankenstein (1935). In discussing Hammer Films’ Curse of Frankenstein (1957), credits belonging to Peter Cushing are attributed to his co-star, Christopher Lee. These are mere slip-ups, to be sure, but genre fans will bristle.

Frankenstein: A Cultural History succeeds because it takes large steps, with net cast wide, following Mary Shelley as she slowly gains acceptance for her seminal novel, and her extraordinary Monster as it inexorably takes its place as a central cultural icon.

Susan Tyler Hitchcock’s website, featuring an excerpt form the book.

Hitchcock’s blog, Monster Sightings.

The publisher’s Frankenstein page.

Frankenstein on Broadway

It was one of the most anticipated showbiz events of the year, gathering steam in the entertainment press even as the show was being tried out in Seattle.

Adapting the beloved 1974 film to the stage posed a challenge. Mel Brooks had been very successful in morphing The Producers into a live musical. That one translated easily to the stage. Making Young Frankenstein into a live experience implied a major modification to the original concept. The nostalgic, iconic visuals at the core of the movie had to be thrown out.

Young Frankenstein was not only a marvelous comedy, it was a pitch perfect homage to the classic Frankenstein films, a visual spoof replete with authentic laboratory sets and evocative black and white photography. The effect was so dead-on, it was like stumbling onto an alternate universe Universal movie where everything looked perfect, but all the characters had lost their marbles. Translating to the stage meant losing the key visual treatment of the film. The set pieces are the same, the familiar jokes are all there on cue, but in the end, the new Young Frankenstein is a different animal. Going from film to stage, it traded satire for parody, finesse for burlesque.

Critics have generally been kind to Broadway’s Young Frankenstein. By all accounts, it is loud, boisterous and thoroughly entertaining. Sutton Foster has been singled out for her knockout interpretation of the lusty Inga (played by the equally excellent Terry Carr in the original movie), notably for a show-stopping hayride number, and the fabulous Andrea Martin is a perfect casting opportunity as the dreaded Frau Blucher. Most satisfyingly, Shuler Hensley, in the all-important part of the galumphing Monster (his third pass at the role), is unanimously acclaimed.

The unstoppable Mel Brooks justified his revival and retooling of Young Frankenstein as a Broadway blockbuster in a recent issue of Vanity Fair. “Listen," Brooks said, "the reanimation of dead tissue is important philosophical thought—and it's still good for a laugh."

For sheer hype and wall-to-wall coverage, no other Frankenstein event this year can match the media impact of Young Frankenstein coming to Broadway as a musical.

The Broadway show’s elaborate website (Check out the Transylvania Travel Bureau) and MySpace page.

An article with pictures on fangoria.com.

Previous Young Frankenstein Musical posts.

The Great Frankenstein Controversy

Number 4 on my list of Frankenstein Events in 2007: John Lauritsen’s The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein.

It’s an old story. From the moment it was published, anonymously, 190 years ago, critics attributed Frankenstein to the author of the book’s original introduction, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Even after Mary assumed her byline, Percy’s presence loomed as her editor, some said collaborator, in the authorship of the famous novel. To this day, scholars are still measuring Percy’s influence on the novel, chiefly through the study of his numerous annotations to Mary’s manuscript.

In March of 2007, writer John Lauritsen revived the controversy and cranked it up to eleven. Lauritsen argues that Frankenstein was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, not Mary, whose contribution was basically secretarial, copying Percy’s work in her own handwriting as she had done for some of Lord Byron’s poems, preparing the manuscript for the printer. Lauritsen also suggests that the central theme of Frankenstein is male love, expressed both directly and in coded language that he, as a gay historian, is able to interpret.

Lauritsen’s forceful thesis, self-published under his Pagan Press imprint with the unmistakable title of The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, ignited a firestorm in literary circles. It went ballistic, reaching a wider audience after Camille Paglia gave the book a short but resoundingly positive review in a Salon.com article.

What’s fascinating about Paglia’s review is not so much how completely convinced she is by Lauritsen’s arguments, as her gleeful celebration of its assault on stuffy old academia. Paglia writes: “Lauritsen's book is important not only for its audacious theme but for the devastating portrait it draws of the insularity and turgidity of the current academy… This book, which is a hybrid of mystery story, polemic and paean to poetic beauty, shows just how boring literary criticism has become over the past 40 years.”

A vastly different perspective on the book came from Germaine Greer whose article in The Guardian carried its own unequivocal title, “Yes, Frankenstein really was written by Mary Shelley. It's obvious - because the book is so bad”.

Greer writes, “The latest sensation to galvanise the torpid lit-hist-crit establishment is the "discovery" by market research analyst John Lauritsen that Mary Shelley did not write Frankenstein.” She then delivers a full-on blast against Lauritsen, complete with her own reading of Frankenstein as feminist text: “The driving impulse of this incoherent tale is a nameless female dread, the dread of gestating a monster… If women's attraction to the gothic genre is explained by the opportunity it offers for the embodiment of the amoral female subconscious, Frankenstein is the ultimate expression of the female gothic.”

Another good read on the subject is the transcript of an Australian ABC Radio program, The Book Show, featuring Lauritsen along with Percy Shelley expert Neil Fraistat, and Charles Robinson, author of The Frankenstein Notebooks. Its all very civil, composed and thoroughly fascinating. Fraistat makes an observation that, in the end, provides a satisfying coda to The Great Frankenstein Controversy of 2007:

“I think the interesting thing is that one of the things that John's book does that's so valuable is it acts as a kind of provocation, it makes people have to go back and really look at the evidence and think these things through for themselves.”

John Lauritsen’s website is here. Pagan Press is here, including a list of reviews, notably Camille Paglia’s, and Pagan Press' Frankenstein pages.

Germaine Greer’s article in The Guardian.

Transcript from ABC Radio’s The Book Show.

If you are interested in Lauritsen’s book, The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, I suggest getting it directly from the author. Support small-press publishers!

The Frankenstein Events of 2007 Countdown continues on Wednesday, December 26.

Frankenstein Events of 2007

Starting here and all this coming week, I will undertake to list the Top 5 Frankenstein Events of 2007.

This list, of course, is entirely personal, wildly arbitrary and seriously subjective. These are the events I interpret as being significant. The only criteria used here is What Struck Me. Anyone else might remix the list in a different order or come up with a whole different batch of events that deserve mention. I cannot judge films, plays, books, toys and merchandising I haven’t seen, so unless any of these garnered uncommon critical praise or high media visibility, they can’t make the list.

Perhaps, if we’re still meeting here in a year’s time, if you like the concept, I might assemble a panel of experts from among our very knowledgeable readers and come up with a more informed and inclusive list of Frankenstein Events for 2008. We’ll see. For now, without pretensions, here’s my list, with my heartfelt Season’s Greeting to all.

First, some runners-up…

GIANT FRANKENSTEIN PEZ DISPENSER

It is one of the most common search engine terms leading to this blog. The folks at Pez Candy, Inc. produced this special, limited edition, Universal-licensed, Frankenstein head Pez dispenser. It’s a foot tall, it lights up and makes noise. Candy and batteries are included, and both taste the same. You are more likely to find one on eBay than in your local pharmacy’s notions department.

THE BEDSIDE FRANKENSTEIN

Continuum Publishing’s playful series invites its readers to sample their books at leisure, serving up its contents in bite-size articles, sidebars and capsules. The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Frankenstein, written by Carol Adams, with Douglas Buchanan and Kelly Gesch, encompasses all aspects of Frankenstein’s stride through popular history, complete with quizzes, a crossword puzzle, flip-books, “monsterbilia”, and maps of Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein’s travels. There are interviews with Forrest J Ackerman and Frankenstein uber-expert Don Glut. I love the great cover by Dan Piraro.

You can sample pages from the book on Amazon’s Online Reader.

FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS DVD

The Monster’s heart, a Nazi submarine, the bombing of Hiroshima… And that’s just the beginning of this, one of the most delirious Frankenstein films ever made. It ends with a 25-foot tall, flathead, caveman Frankenstein battling what appears to be a giant vinyl octopus. And its got Nick Adams in it, too.

Frankenstein Conquers The World, aka Frankenstein vs Barugon (1965) makes the Year’s Best DVD list over at Tim Lucas’ Video WatchBlog. David Kalat calls it “A stellar job, a DVD done right”. Fellow reviewer Sheldon Inkol says, “you owe it to yourself to experience the unbelievably loopy Devilfish finale.”

MARION MOUSSE'S FRANKENSTEIN

My #5 pick for Frankenstein Event of 2007 goes to Marion Mousse’s gorgeous graphic novel version of Mary Shelley’s book, which I previously blogged about here.

The art is loose and confident, cartoony, yet accurate and detailed. This engrossing adaptation is very faithful to the original, and still allows for exploration and development of the themes and characters. Volume one (of three) ends, tantalizingly, with the creation scene. The next two episodes are coming out in 2008.

Published by Delcourt of Paris, this one deserves to be translated into English, perhaps collecting the three 48-page parts together into one book. Like I said in my original review, pending a translation, this one is worth getting for the artwork alone.

Next up: The countdown continues with a Frankenstein Controversy!

The Covers of Frankenstein : Creepy No. 10

A brutal, battling Frankenstein’s Monster straddles a tumbling tombstone on a cemetery knoll, rats and bats in attendance, and torch bearing villagers converging under a bloody orange sky.

When he delivered this dramatic, atmospheric oil painting for the cover of Creepy no. 10 (August, 1966), Frank Frazetta was at his creative peak. Over the next incredibly prolific seven years, Frazetta would produce most of the cover images that would cement his reputation as an artist’s artist. His paperback covers for Lancer Books’ Conan reprints not only fixed the image of the muscle-bound barbarian in the public consciousness, they fueled sales for the series in the millions of copies.

Publisher Jim Warren, an unabashed fan of Frazetta’s work, offered him total creative freedom. “Just do it,” Warren said. “Just bring it in!”. Frazetta would produce stunning covers for Warren’s horror comic magazines Eerie and Creepy, and sensuous masterpieces for Vampirella. Free to experiment, the artist explored unusual compositions and startling color combinations.

The outstanding Frankenstein cover for Creepy number 10 is three-dimensional, its main elements popping off the page, the graveyard in deep focus receding to a far horizon. The dynamic characters, anchored by heavily textured soil, are framed and focused by the dead tree and its clawing branches. If you are familiar with the work of Jeff Jones and Bernie Wrightson, you can actually see elements in this painting that influenced and informed their styles.

Though Frank Frazetta’s distinctive brushstroke signature would become instantly recognizable to fans, it is nowhere to be seen on this cover. The artist playfully engraved his name on the overturned tombstone.

Frank Frazetta Wikipedia page, and an “unofficial” Frazetta gallery site.

There are four Frazetta books edited by Arnie and Cathy Fenner of Spectrum fame: Legacy: Selected Paintings and Drawings by the Grand Master of Fantastic Art, Frank Frazetta; Frank Frazetta: Icon; Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta, and the newly published Spectrum Presents Frank Frazetta: Rough Work.

On DVD: Fire and Ice, Ralph Bakshi’s sword and sorcery epic designed by Frazetta is available in a two-disc limited edition that includes Painting With Fire, a documentary directed by Lance Laspina. Frazetta - Painting With Fire is also available as a standalone DVD.

Frankenstein (Mortal Toys)

Long ago, paper puppets and toy theaters were popular as parlor diversions and children’s entertainment. Avant-garde artists Janie Geiser and Susan Simpson, founders of Los Angeles-based Automata, experiment with toy theaters and other forgotten or neglected art forms to create original, immersive theatrical productions. Their take on Mary Shelley’s tale, entitled Frankenstein (Mortal Toys), is based on Eric Ehn’s intense, pared-down adaptation first staged as a combination puppet and Noh play by San Francisco’s Theatre of Yugen in 2003.

Press notes say this version “follows the haunted journey of Victor Frankenstein and the startling monster created by his own hands. The menacing beauty of the arctic and the high Alps surround the distraught scientist as he confronts the loneliness and rage of his alienated creature.”

Geiser and Simpson elaborated and performed Mortal Toys as a “miniature spectacle” over a three-year period beginning in 2004. The complete work will be staged again January 8-19, 2008, at the HERE Arts Center in New York. The performance includes flat puppets, shadow sequences, short films, and a live score by Severin Behnen featuring a toy piano.

I’d love to see a DVD of this, and to hear the much-touted musical score, but I suspect it works best, as intended, as a live, immersive experience.

Here’s an elaborate presentation of the play and its creators, on City Guide NY.

Read about Automata and Frankenstein (Mortal Toys) on The Manual Archives and USC’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy.

A review in the LATimes.

The Selling of Frankenstein, Part Quatre

While American movie poster artists toiled uncredited, French distributors hired established and often well-known artists who got to sign their work. Case in point, Roland Coudon, about whom I posted last time, and Jacques Faria, author of the Frankenstein posters here.

Faria (1898-1856) was the French-born son of another famous artist, Brazil’s Candido Aragonez de Faria (1849-1911). Both men had prolific careers as illustrators of circus, travel, music hall and film posters. Candido de Faria is, in fact, recognized as one of the pioneer film poster artists, working as early as 1902 on Ferdinand Zecca’s Alcohol and its Victims. Both father and son's art is highly collectible today.

Jacques Faria’s main Frankenstein poster has an elongated Monster front and center, surrounded by lab equipment, almost a caricature with his signature straight arms and hands fanned out. Electricity dances between his neck electrodes. The image, here in black and white, was taken from a 1970 issue of Midi-Minuit Fantastique magazine. You can get a glimpse of the color treatment, purple shadows on The Monster, in this picture of writer/director Robert Florey posing with two French posters, reputedly the only surviving copies. You could buy a house with either one of those today.

Faria’s other Frankenstein poster recycles the familiar striding Monster punching through the paper, previously used in the American exhibition campaign. Here, Faria gives it a solid red background, adding pencil sketches of significant scenes: Creator and the Created facing off on the mountain, a lab scene with The Monster on its elevator slab, and agitated villagers at the burning windmill.

Jacques Faria’s bracing take on The Monster, standing tall, and Roland Coudon’s uncommon, large-size portrait of Clive and Karloff are among the very best of all the outstanding art created to promote Frankenstein around the world in the early 30s. By the way, check the stunning, singular Swedish poster I blogged earlier.

No doubt about it, the selling of Frankenstein, with its unique lead character, yielded some of the most original and splendid art ever engraved on movie posters.

The Selling of Frankenstein, Part Trois

Roland Coudon was a famous illustrator, Swiss-born if I’m not mistaken, who painted numerous French film posters in the 30’s, including one for Fritz Lang’s M, le maudit and, in 1939, Quasimodo, the French title for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame with Charles Laughton.

Coudon’s posters for Frankenstein, released in France in 1932, are unique. The poster above prominently features the title character, Colin Clive, with The Monster floating darkly in the background. Note, again, the suggested “horns” on The Monster’s forehead.

The monochromatic poster shown below is strikingly atmospheric, done in rough charcoal and a gouache the color of dried blood. The striding Monster pose is lifted from one of the American posters (here). Note the arms like rolled, riveted steel, accentuating the robotic aspect of the character. Coudon adds a lugubrious, windswept funeral procession which, of course, is the first scene in the picture.

Very effective, n’est-ce pas?

Images courtesy of Jean-Claude Michel.

The Selling of Frankenstein, Part Deux

“The Triumph of Cinematographic Technique” boasts a French ad for Frankenstein. Note the script credit given to Robert Florey.

In May of 1931, Florey wrote (with Garrett Fort) the first draft of the screenplay, introducing key elements like the windmill finale and the all-important criminal brain switch. Over a period of three days, June 15-17, Florey rehearsed and directed a test for the film with Bela Lugosi in Monster makeup. How the test was received by Universal heads is still a matter of debate. Whatever happened, mere days later, on the 29th, the Hollywood Daily Citizen announced that James Whale would direct the film.

Robert Florey was off the project and when Frankenstein came out, his name was nowhere to be seen. Florey lobbied Universal for recognition of his script contribution, and the studio made amends by displaying his name prominently on foreign posters.

A bit of visual trivia: The dramatic pen and ink rendering on the ad shows the “clamped horns” on The Monster’s forehead. It’s interesting how a photograph of Karloff's early test makeup, which theoretically should have been filed away because it was different from the final, screen-used version, would circulate so freely. The photo turns up in the film’s promotional material, it appeared in newspapers and was sometimes used as a reference by poster artists.

Image from the collection of Jean-Claude Michel.

The Selling of Frankenstein

When Universal released Frankenstein in the winter of 1931, exhibitors were offered a cornucopia of promotional materials and stunt ideas that promised to “Roll Up Monster Grosses!”. These were the days of Barnumesque ballyhoo, haphazard and unsophisticated by today’s advertising standards, but unashamedly exuberant and enormously engaging.

Frankenstein’s poster line came in a surprising variety of painterly styles. One version shows The Monster’s face in expressionistic black and red. Another depicts The Monster with curious clamped “horns” on his forehead, inspired by this photograph of an early, unused makeup test. The glorious six-sheet litho pictured at top, shows a very human-looking Monster, with natural skin color and no neck bolts. “Let the monster look from every billboard”, exhibitors were told. “His face is your good fortune!!”.

Theater owners were prompted to create their own displays. Universal provided instructions on how to carve up posters and make shadow boxes with flashing lights animating cut-out lightning bolts and The Monster’s punched-out eyes. A “Marquee Monster Display” would use frosted green bulbs to throw an eerie halo around The Monster’s electric head. For lobby display, Universal suggested borrowing medical equipment like test tubes, retorts, alcohol jars and anatomy plates, but cautioned exhibitors to “Use judgment. Do not display anything repulsive”.

Contests were proposed, such as writing a supernatural story or drawing The Monster’s face, with newspaper or radio “hook-ups” for maximum publicity. A book “tie-up” (When did tie-ups become tie-ins?) was arranged with Grosset and Dunlap, publishers of a new edition of Mary Shelley’s novel illustrated with scenes from the film.

Publicity stunts were encouraged. There are stories of theaters parking an ambulance out front and nurses patrolling the lobby, smelling salts at the ready. On opening day, “plants” would jump out of their seats, scream, and run up the aisle in a panic. A “Robot Ballyhoo” stunt involved sending a man out in the streets in dark clothes, green powder makeup and black rings under the eyes, carrying a sandwich board reading "I am looking for my master... FRANKENSTEIN!" Universal specified that the man “should walk with a mechanical step”.

The posters, displays and “showmanship accessories” were made available to exhibitors through film exchanges and licensed contractors for mere pennies. At auction today, surviving posters go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frankenstein is one of the most desirable titles in collector circles.

Value aside, if I had my pick of original 1931 promotional items, I’d go for the delightful die-cut cardboard streamer that promised “to give your front and lobby that “Frankenstein” flash!”. Note the neck bolts have been moved to the temples on The Monster’s head, probably the first instance of the switcharound often favored by cartoonists to this day.

The Covers of Frankenstein : House of Frightenstein No.1

Not to be confused with TV’s Hilarious House of Frightenstein, this is a one-shot comic book published by AC Comics in 1994.

Main feature is a black and white reprint of Dick Briefer’s classic Frankenstein strip “The Monster’s Mate”, originally published by Prize Comics in 1953. Unfortunately, the art is badly manhandled, the panels cut up and repositioned, some are stretched or tilted to eat up space, adding 2 pages of jigsaw padding to the strip’s original 13-page length. The name Frankenstein is replaced with Frightenstein in the word balloons.

The issue carries another vintage horror strip and a 5-page photo-feature on Forry Ackerman’s Ackermansion. The cover Monster wears a full-head mask by Cinema Secrets — “Scare the crap out of your baby sister!” — available by mail-order.

Halfway between a monster mag and a comic book, this one is, at best, a curio.

The Monster : Clancy Brown

My friend Max at Drunken Severed Head once asked me who I thought was the best interpreter of the Monster role, Karloff aside. I pitched some names, I even stretched it, including Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. One name that I have to put up there among the very best is Clancy Brown, in Franc Roddam’s atypical Frankenstein movie, The Bride (1985).

It’s an elegant film, beautifully photographed, with a temerarious script by Lloyd Fonvielle, a pseudo-sequel that riffs off James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein. It picks up right where the original left off, with the Bride’s frantic creation scene. There’s even a Dr. Pretorius-like character, Quentin Crisp in the Ernest Thesiger part, an inspired bit of casting if there ever was one. Casting the principals had more to do with commercial appeal, though. The Baron was played by Sting, then at the height of his rock-star popularity, and The Bride was played Jennifer Beale, fresh off her breakout in Flashdance.

The film follows two parallel paths: A cruel Dr. Frankenstein’s troubling relationship with the ingénue Bride, and The Monster’s adventures as he clomps his way through a world he’ll never understand. The difference between the Maker and his Creation is exposed in broad strokes and we are made all too aware, well before we get to the inevitable, climactic confrontation, of who the real Monster is.

Clancy Brown plays The Monster as a big-baby innocent, utterly guileless, trusting, and easily fooled. Brown’s performance is nuanced, genuinely moving and totally convincing. There’s decency in this Monster’s sad eyes, and real warmth in his easy smile.

Another memorable performance is given by David Rappaport as the circus dwarf who befriends and educates The Monster. Sting is solid as a ruthless Frankenstein who grows more despicable as the film progresses, but Jennifer Beale’s is curiously bland and unengaging as the artificial woman.

The Bride deserves to be revisited. It remains one of the more interesting takes on the legend. It is at it’s best when Clancy Brown’s big-hearted Monster and Davis Rappaport’s artful Rinaldo share the screen, the giant and his little protector, abiding in a world where they are both unwelcome.

Clancy Brown's official website features reviews of The Bride.

Frankenstein Premieres

"James Whale… has wrought a stirring grand-guignol type of picture, one that aroused so much excitement at the Mayfair… that many in the audience laughed to cover their true feelings.”

— Mordaunt Hall, New York Times.

On this day, December 4, in 1931, James Whale’s Frankenstein premiered at the Mayfair Theater in New York City. Crowds lined up in Times Square despite the cold rain. A week later, the Mayfair reported box office earnings of $53,000, and a record-breaking seven-day attendance of 76,360. The film went into wide release on December 6 with similar success in every market.

Frankenstein clocked in at a tense 67 minutes. It has been well documented how the film had been trimmed, prior to release, of a few seconds worth of perceived excesses. The cuts included supposed blasphemy in invoking God, a violent struggle when The Monster is first subdued, a hard blow to The Monster’s head, close-ups of Fritz terrorizing The Monster with a torch, an hypodermic stab, and the notorious drowning scene, all of which were miraculously preserved and edited back into the film 58 years later.

It appears that there are a few more cuts belonging on that list. An early trailer for the film — visible on YouTube — includes two brief scenes that have been called “outtakes”, arguably trimmed for length or pacing, yet these scenes are distinctly violent moments and they might have been culled for the same reason the other, better-known scenes were removed, i.e. to tone down the mayhem. For example, the trailer shows a brief but nasty struggle as a grimacing Monster throttles Frankenstein when they meet on the mountaintop.

Another scene shows The Monster rising from the dissecting room floor and rapidly exiting the frame. This last take suggests that the sequence where The Monster sits up and grabs Dr. Waldman by the throat, which cuts there, actually continued, morbidly, as The Monster fought or strangled the old man to the ground.

Reporting on Universal’s restoration efforts in the June/July 1989 issue of Films in Review, Greg Mank wrote, “The restored version… adds only about a minute to Frankenstein. Still, the new footage gives an eccentric, strangely sadistic spice to a beloved film…”. The scenes in the trailer support that statement. The restored cuts and the still missing elements glimpsed in the trailer suggest that James Whale’s original vision called for rougher action and a more vicious Monster.

Yet for all the cuts made, still more were demanded by civic and religious groups as the film rolled out across North America and the World. In England, among other censored scenes, the entire sequence where The Monster menaces Elizabeth in the bedroom was removed. The film was banned outright or delayed pending severe censorship in many countries, including Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Australia.

Such was the power of James Whale’s Frankenstein, unleashed 76 years ago today.

Read the original review by Mordaunt Hall in The New York Times, December 4, 1931.

Read the original review by Alfred Rushford Gleason in Variety, December 8, 1931.

Poster image courtesy of Jean-Claude Michel.

The Covers of Frankenstein : Monster World No. 7

Flanked by Ygor and Frankenstein’s son Wolf, the semi-comatose Monster on its slab is about to be powered up by a jolt of crackling electricity. In the background, the hellish sulfur pit boils and smokes.

The phenomenal success of Famous Monsters of Filmland, first of its kind in 1958, provoked a slew of imitations. Sales of the magazine were unaffected by all the copycat titles, suggesting that the monster magazine field was far from saturated and the Monster Kid dollar had some stretch to it. Rather than watch others pick up the slack, publisher Jim Warren launched his own in-house knockoff, Monster World, in 1964.

Edited by Forry Ackerman, the magazine was a carbon copy of the original, essentially extra issues of Famous Monsters under a different masthead. In fact, when Monster World was cancelled after 10 issues, its entire run was absorbed by Famous Monsters, and the flagship title’s numbering instantly jumped from No. 69 to No. 80.

Artist Gray Morrow (1934-2001) provided an unusual and very effective plunging perspective cover for Monster World No. 7 (March 1965). Unlike the fully painted monster portraits that usually adorned Warren publications, this one is closer to a comic book esthetic, a colored line drawing depicting action, telling a story as it were, suggesting a scene from Son of Frankenstein (1939). The dynamic design is augmented with groovy, blocky hand-drawn titles, probably the work of layout artist Harry Chester.

See a Monster World cover gallery.

Famous Monsters of Filmland Wiki page.

Warren Publishing Wiki page.