Frankenstein Stomps The Box Office

Frankenstein and his assistant, Fritz, appear stunned by the monster-sized feet on the laboratory slab. Perhaps it was the green toenails that did it. Anyway, those big dogs explain the big boots! The idea may have been to spare us the sight of The Monster’s head, but I can’t help wondering if the artist didn’t make it funny on purpose. The illustration looks like a gag waiting for a caption. Anyone?

Back in the Thirties, movie houses would change their programs twice a week, with film studios barely keeping up with the demand for a continuous stream of product to satisfy a huge pool of avid filmgoers. A new film would typically play three or four days, with only the more popular titles getting extended play or moving to another theater and on down the chain to second-run houses. It is a testament to the monumental success of James Whale’s Frankenstein, released nationwide on Sunday, December 6, 1931, that the film was a rare, held-over feature in theaters across North America. By mid-week, Frankenstein had broken attendance records everywhere and exhibitors were re-booking the feature and adding showings late into the night.

“Thrill Picture Is Held Over” ran a headline in the San Jose News, December 9, on the same page as the bigfoot ad. “The extension of the ‘Frankenstein’ engagement” the article said, “is indefinite”.

“There’s no doubt about it,” the article continues, “the public just ‘goes’ for mystery, horror and the unusual! Best proof of that statement is furnished by the new American Theater, where the phenomenal success of ‘Frankenstein’ has caused the management to hold the picture over… Thousands have attended every day, thrilled to the marrow by the unearthly spectacle of the young scientist making a man from parts of bodies of the dead. And the big scene, where life is brought to the composite body, is believed to be the greatest thrill the screen has ever known.”

We are reminded that talking pictures were still relatively new when the reviewer states, “Sound means a great deal to ‘Frankenstein’. The crash of the mighty electrical storm… places each member of the audience in an isolation of the terrifying din. The clatter of the spark… intensifies the drama.”

Reading like Studio ballyhoo, the article goes on to say, “…the monster, as played by Boris Karloff, is a marvel of the make-up artist’s art. No more gruesome, awe-inspiring figure has graced the screen. And the dwarf, Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant, is no less a repelling figure. The direction… in the hands of James Whale… leaves nothing to be wished for. Suffice to say that it makes of this unbelievable tale a plausible screen narrative, and one actually believes what he sees!”

In closing, the article states, “Another announcement of interest is the booking of John Barrymore’s latest picture, ‘The Mad Genius’, for the near future.” It’s worth noting that Karloff had an uncredited bit part in the opening scenes of The Mad Genius, shot prior to his stint on Frankenstein. In all, Karloff made 16 pictures in 1931.

The New American Theater of San Jose, California, where Frankenstein played, opened as the Hippodrome in 1918. It featured a spectacular vertical entrance, tall and narrow, with a long corridor-lobby leading to a 1682-seat auditorium done in the Spanish-Gothic style. The building went through a number of renovations and name changes, becoming the United Artists Theater in the Forties and on until it was demolished as part of the city’s downtown redevelopment plan. The site has been a parking lot for over 20 years now.

The storied San Jose News, founded in 1883, became the San Jose Mercury News a century later, after a 1993 merger.

And side note: This post wins me a bet! Some time ago, my friend Max, of the supremely silly Drunken Severed Head blog, threw down the gauntlet. Amused by how I was able to tie Frankenstein to seemingly unrelated subjects, like volcanoes or the invention of the bicycle, Max challenged me to make a post about “Frankenstein’s toenails”. This is it. Max pwned.

Frankenstein, Italian Style

Here’s a poster for Casanova Frankenstein, an evocative title for the German version of the 1975 Italian sex farce Frankenstein all’italiana. A French version played up the film’s comedic aspects as Plus moche que Frankenstein, tu meurs, “Uglier than Frankenstein, You Die”. The film also played in Turkey as… Young Frankenstein (Genç FrankenStein).

Inspired — in spirit only — by the Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder comedy of 1974, Frankenstein all’italiana has bawdy jokes and liberal doses of T&A substituting for sharp satire and smart sight gags. Case in point, the reassembled Monster first shows signs of life by opening his eyes and breaking wind.

Turns out The Monster, played by broad, brassy comic Aldo Maccione, is monstrously endowed, boinking everyone in sight, including Baron Frankie Frankenstein’s two female assistants and his fiancée (softcore star Jenny Tamburi), nymphettes all. The Baron’s bright solution is to switch members with his Creature, but the experiment leaves both creator and creation impotent — and last seen idling time away, embroidering — while the long-suffering Igor has free reign with the castle’s insatiable femmes.

The French poster shows Maccione, a popular actor on the Continent, in a trademark pose (think “wild and crazy guy”). Also referenced is an elaborate gag sequence inspired by the Hermit scene in Young Frankenstein, in which Igor feeds Pablum to the Monster, with messy results.

Notable cast members include classically-trained actor Gianrico Tedeschi as Baron Frankie, and Ninetto Davoli, a veteran of several Pasolini films, as Igor. The film was the last directorial job for Armando Crispino, whose credits included The Dead Are Alive (1972) and Autopsy (1975).

Thanks to Kimberly of the ultra-cool Cinebeats for the poster.

The Bride Wore Bolts

“Mrs. Monster” is prominently featured in the May 19, 1935 issue of the Delmarva Star newspaper of Wilmington, Delaware. Note that a large neck bolt has been painted in, making it clear that this is, indeed, the Bride of Frankenstein. On the same page, an ad for the film, screening at the Aldine, “where the big pictures play”, reads, “The Monster Talks! To hold you spellbound when he says ‘----!‘”

In his column “The Movie Finger Writes”, critic "D. Mark Key" gives the film an enthusiastic review. “It is really grand entertainment” he says, and “a good sequel to its popular predecessor, a rare feat. Director James Whale, in other words, has done it again. Karloff — the Boris has become lost from the name — resumes his role of the Monster, and the make-up with which he out-Chaneyed Lon has lost none of its effectiveness.’

In a spirited description of the action, Key writes, “The Monster harkens to the call of spring, grows gentle as a lamb at the sound of music — and believe it or not, yearns for a mate. And therein lies the story.”

Singling out The Monster’s visit to the Blind Hermit’s hut, Key notes, “There he learns to say ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, ‘Friend’, ‘Smoke’ — a vocabulary adequate for romance… But this beautiful friendship is short-lived. Soon the poor Monster is among enemies again, hunted, beaten, bound in chains, and shot full of bullet holes.”

With the intervention of the “sinister Dr. Pretorius, who has been creating life on a miniature scale”, Henry Frankenstein, “shaken by the results of dabbling in unholy sciences” is finally persuaded, “and the grand electrical experiment is again carried out in Frankenstein’s mysterious castle laboratory.”

Careful not to print spoilers, Key writes, “How it ends we’ll let the film tell you, but it has a real bang-up climax”, adding, “The Bride of Frankenstein is actually more convincing, more gripping, more thrilling than the original. The production is elaborate, the photography exceptionally good and the musical score interesting. It’s an entertaining horror movie”.

Concluding on a humorous note, Key writes, “Please Mr. Laemmle, next year lets have ‘Frankenstein’s Baby’, followed by a series modelled on the Cohen and Kelly opi! ‘The Frankensteins at Putnam Hall’, ‘The Frankensteins in Africa’ and so on. Please?”

Key’s review also carries a fascinating bit of information, revealing that producer Carl Laemmle had personally written to “leading parent-teacher associations, league of decency committees, other film reviewing organizations, and newspaper critics”, explaining that The Bride of Frankenstein was “a shocker picture, but it is a wholesome picture, unforgetably exciting and entertaining for those people, numbering millions, who like this type of story.” This was obviously pre-emptive action on the part of studio boss Laemmle who remembered the controversy, the censorship and the outright bannings that had plagued the 1931 original.

The Delmarva Star newspaper is no longer published. The Aldine theater, designed by famous cinema architect Thomas Lamb and originally listed as a Warner Brother’s Theater, was built in 1921 on Market Street in Wilmington as a Beaux-Arts style, 1800-seat house. Sold to the Loew’s chain in 1941, it eventually closed in 1970. It has since been partially demolished and repurposed for commercial use.

The Aldine Theater on Cinema Treasures.

Freeway Frankenstein

No fancy ribbon cutting here. Frankenstein smashes a barricade to inaugurate a new access ramp to the Hollywood Freeway off Lankershim Boulevard. Universal sits right at the intersection. The photo is dated March 25, 1970.

An unidentified actor in a Don Post mask does the honors, surrounded by members of the North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Country Board of Supervisors. The lady is Elena Verdugo, then appearing in the hit series Marcus Welby, M.D.

Ms Verdugo had a direct Frankenstein connection, having played the ill-starred Ilonka, the Esmeralda-like Gypsy Girl caught in a monster love triangle with unrequited hunchback J. Carrol Naish and the infelicitously lycanthropic Lon Chaney, Jr. in House of Frankenstein (1944).

Thanks for the wonderful find to Greg of Cinema Styles, The Invisible Edge, and Unexplained Cinema.

Related:
Universal Tour Frankenstein

Gods, Monsters, and Ernest Thesiger

Dr. Pretorius pulls the switch that electrified the Bride of Frankenstein to life. Careful of that overhead lever, please. That one’ll blast everyone to atoms!

Ernest Thesiger was born on January 15, in 1879. His family was a storied one, with barons, war heroes and a famous explorer among his ancestors. As a young man, Thesiger worked or socialized with some of the great British artists, among them George Bernard Shaw, Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward. The famous American-born painter John Singer Sargent, the leading portrait painter of his era, captured a smiling 32-year old Thesiger in a charcoal sketch in 1911.

In addition to his work as an actor on stage and in films, Thesiger was an accomplished painter and an expert at needlework, eventually writing an important book on the subject, Adventures in Embroidery (1941). A wounded veteran of the Great War, Thesiger joined the Church Army League of Friends of the Poor, helping to form the Disabled Soldiers Embroidery Industry and earning the humorous title of Honorary Secretary Cross-Stitch. His work teaching needlework to severely disabled men was admired by Queen Mary (consort of King George V), no less, and Thesiger became a frequent visitor to Buckingham Palace.

Thesiger’s first film part came in 1916, playing a comical witch in The Real Thing At Last, a film that mercilessly spoofed how Hollywood would stage Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The now lost epic was written and largely directed by Peter Pan creator J.M.Barrie. A showing at the London Coliseum was held on March 7 with King and Queen in attendance and proceeds going towards the YMCA fund. A smattering of silent film roles over the next few years would include a part in Number 13, an abandoned project directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1922.

By the early Thirties, Thesiger was in America, appearing on Broadway, when he was called to Hollywood by an old acquaintance from the London days, director James Whale. The part offered was that of Horace Femm, the archly sinister patriarch of The Old Dark House (1932), perhaps the most sophisticated horror comedy ever made. The largely British company included Boris Karloff, fresh off his success in Frankenstein, now cast as a brutish, disfigured menace. Thesiger and Karloff would work together twice more. First came The Ghoul (1933), marking Karloff’s triumphant return to England. Here, Thesiger plays a devious butler who steals an amulet, provoking Karloff’s gruesome rise from the grave. Their next collaboration came in 1935 with The Bride of Frankenstein.

Universal had originally penciled in Claude Rains as Frankenstein’s one-time mentor, Dr. Septimus Pretorius, but Whale held out for Thesiger, a brilliant piece of casting. Spider-like, sardonic and sinister, dominating all his scenes, this maddest of scientists plays off the actor’s sometimes flamboyant gay persona. Writer Mark Gatiss (James Whale: A Biography or, The Would-Be Gentleman, 1995), describes Thesiger’s Pretorius as “a desiccated homosexual imp” displaying “waspish malevolence”. Driving the story forward, Pretorius manipulates Colin Clive’s Frankenstein and Karloff’s Monster with equal aplomb. He first calls on Frankenstein’s sense of wonder, seducing him with alchemical creations, including a doll-like mermaid in jar — “an experiment with seaweed” — then proceeds to more robust methods as needed, having Frankenstein’s wife, Elizabeth, kidnapped and held hostage. Unlike Frankenstein who was awkward and impatient with his creation, Pretorius immediately understands The Monster’s simple-minded outlook and simple needs, providing him with friendship, food, drink, and a promise to build him a mate.

The script by William Hurlbut, closely supervised by Whale, provides Thesiger with wonderful and sometimes loaded lines, like “Leave the charnel house and follow the lead of nature, or of God… if you like your Bible stories.” Best remembered is a running gag line “It’s my ONLY weakness!”, applied first to a glass of gin and later to a fine cigar, and a famous, unforgettable toast to success, “Here’s to a new world of Gods and Monsters!”

In the film’s feverish climax, Frankenstein and Pretorius’ magnificent Bride rejects her betrothed on first sight, and Pretorius as well, pushing him away and launching herself into Frankenstein’s arms. The heartbroken Monster grabs the doomsday leeeever, orders Frankenstein and Elizabeth to leave, “You live!”, and brings down final, terrible judgment upon the hissing Bride and the grimacing Pretorius, “You stay... We belong dead!”.

A marvelous backstage photo shows the English actors, Colin Clive and the two monsters, Karloff and Elsa Lanchester, enjoying afternoon tea while Thesiger displays some of his recent paintings. Thesiger also transformed his hotel suite into an impromptu art gallery and was known to work on his embroideries during breaks in filming.

Bride of Frankenstein would be Thesiger’s last American film. His output from then on would be exclusively British, including several mystery and light fantasy films like The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953). Most notably, Thesiger played “the silk stocking murderer” in They Drive by Night (1938), a rarely seen but highly praised thriller said to provide Thesiger with one of his best roles.

As a writer, Thesiger produced an early biography, Practically True, in 1927. A second biography, presumably including a mention of his horror films of the Thirties, remained unpublished upon his death. The manuscript resides in the Thesiger collection at Bristol University. Thesiger also provided an introduction to an edition of T.W.Bamford’s Practical Make-up for the Stage (first published in 1940). In 1957, he contributed to the London Times obituary of James Whale.

Thesiger worked until the end, appearing on stage a few months before he passed away on January 14, 1961, the eve of his 82nd birthday.

Quentin Crisp would pay homage to Thesiger as a Pretorius-like assistant in the opening sequence of Franc Roddam’s The Bride (1935), and Australian actor Arthur Dignam appears briefly as Thesiger in the James Whale biopic, God and Monsters (1998).

An excellent overview of Thesiger’s genre films on The Missing Link.

The Ernest Thesiger Collection catalogue, University of Bristol.

Frankenstein in 2009

Remember 2009? Let’s!

2009 marked the 70^th Anniversary (on January 13!) of Son of Frankenstein (1939), and the 35^th anniversary of the film spoof that closely referenced it, Young Frankenstein (1974). The live musical version of Young Frankenstein bookended the year. It closed in January after 14 tumultuous months on Broadway and reappeared as a touring show in the fall. It is currently booked into some 17 cities through September 2010.

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl was the most creative and outrageous of the year’s Frankenstein films. I called it “a live action Itchy and Scratchy cartoon”. The bizarre trailer contains equally jarring blackface and arterial spray. Another alternative title was Matthew Saliba’s Frankenstein Unlimited, a collection of short films very loosely based on Frankenstein themes. It was released to DVD in September.

Bikini Frankenstein, starring Jayden Cole as a Bride called Eve, was an “erotic horror comedy” shot in ’09 for a January 2010 release.

For mainstream fare, Frankenhood was a comedy featuring king-sized athlete Bob Sapp as a king-size corpse reanimated and recruited as a street basketball player. House of The Wolfman was a fanfilm that channeled the classic Universal Monster Rallies, with Ron Chaney playing a lycanthropic scientist and Craig Dabbs as a nasty-tempered Frankenstein Monster.

Frankenstein films announced in 2009 included I, Frankenstein, a modern-day action/horror movie in development from writer/actor Kevin Grevioux. Dutch director Richard Raaphorst announced he was repurposing an abandoned WWII zombie film, Worst Case Scenario, as Army of Frankenstein. Here’s a good-looking trailer.

A proposed remake of Bride of Frankenstein, on and off the Universal schedule over the last decade was trotted out again, this time with writer-director Neil Burger attached and media hype attributing the title role to either Scarlett Johansson or Anne Hathaway. Meanwhile, Tim Burton is reportedly putting together a feature-length version of his wonderful short film Frankenweenie, and the unstoppable Guillermo del Toro, busy with the simultaneous shooting of two Hobbit films, has been downright eager to discuss his own planned version of Frankenstein, with Doug Jones locked in for The Monster’s part.

In books, Dead and Alive, the long-awaited third episode in Dean Koontz’ Frankenstein series arrived in July. A Monster’s Notes by poet Laurie Sheck, was described in The New Yorker as “an uncanny fable that portrays Frankenstein’s monster as an enigmatic but compassionate spirit”. Writer-artist Neil Numberman’s Do Not Build a Frankenstein was reviewed by the ALA Booklist as “a light, fun, and awfully cute intro to the famous horror icon”. You can preview the book here.

Books from the previous year released in North America in ’09 included The Original Frankenstein, a reconstruction of Mary Shelley’s original manuscript by Charles Robinson, and The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein: A Novel by Roger Akroyd, which conflates the life of Mary Shelley and her entourage with that of her fictional characters. Both titles were praised by critics.

In comics, R-13 from Blacklist studios was described by its writer, Thomas Hall, as “Frankenstein meeting Homer’s Odyssey”. The art is by Daniel Bradford. Over at IDW, John Byrne crafted a one-shot meeting between Joss Whedon’s Angel and the Frankenstein Monster, just in time for Halloween. There’s a five-page sample up on i09.

Theatrical adaptations of Frankenstein were, as usual, abundant. There seems to be a new version, pro or amateur, playing somewhere every week. I noted a few in passing, otherwise, it’s impossible to keep track.

In the news last year, Christopher Lee, whose career kicked off with his interpretation of The Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) was knighted.

The year’s most intriguing Frankenstein story developed on The Classic Horror Message Board, where vintage horror movie experts and devoted fans explored the possibility that a brief bit of Bela Lugosi’s deleted dialog survives in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942). The film (which I previously discussed here) was shot with Lugosi’s Frankenstein Monster spouting extensive dialog but, for reasons unclear — screenwriter Curt Siodmak claimed that Lugosi’s Hungarian accent sounded hilarious — The Monster was made mute again in post-production, his dialog either cut or erased from the soundtrack (Lugosi’s lips are seen to move in some remaining scenes).

The moment comes when The Monster leads Lon Chaney’s Larry Talbot to a hidden box said to contain the journal of Dr. Frankenstein. Many listeners hear Lugosi saying a line, albeit gnarled and buried under scraping noise and booming music. There’s debate over what is actually said — “It’s in here” or “Here it is” — or if anything is said at all. If you care to give it a try, the CHFB thread is a fun, if rambling read, and contains several soundclips isolating and amplifying the purported dialog. Here’s a YouTube clip of the whole scene, zoomed in on the characters, and here’s the “Eureka Moment” isolated, with sound enhanced. It’s your call.

Finally, this blog — if I may say so myself — contributed a few worthwhile Frankenstein-related events. Notably, screenwriter John Cox reported on his pilgrimage to the site where the infamous Little Maria drowning scene was shot, way back in 1931, for James Whale’s Frankenstein. John’s article, Return to Malibou Lake, complete with exclusive photographs, is a gem.

In November, I called on fellow bloggers to join me in celebrating the life and career of actor Boris Karloff. The result was, in a word, spectacular. An amazing 105 individual bloggers participated in the Boris Karloff Blogathon, creating a total of 292 posts. I don’t know, it could be some sort of record. What I’m sure of is that it was a rich, informative, entertaining and thoroughly overwhelming experience, and a powerful tribute to the abiding popularity of the great Karloff. Thanks again to all who participated. I’m very proud of our collective achievement.

Now, a new year is underway. I’m very excited about some of the posts I have lined up for the next few weeks and, come March, we’ll be celebrating the centennial of the first Frankenstein film.

2010 is looking good!

Frankenstein Sudoku

Here’s a nice typographic cover illustration for a sudoku book with quotes from Mary Shelley’s novel interspersed among the “Monsterously Hard” number puzzles. Published last April by Black Wagon Press of Kingston, New York, it’s one of the more curious Frankenstein-related titles of 2009. The company also issued Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde-themed companion books.