In our two previous posts, we’ve seen how the Italian promotion for Universal’s Monster Rally of 1945, House of Dracula, generated fanciful posters and odd credits. Here’s one more, a lobby card, this time.
The featured performer is Jane “Poni” Adams as, Nina, one of
the most unusual characters in the Universal canon: A female hunchbacked assistant. On some of the American posters
for the film, Nina, “The Hunchback!”, was listed as one of the film’s star
creatures along with Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, Wolf Man and the Mad
Doctor.
What’s weird about this lobby card — misspelled “Martha” aside — is the appearance at left on the painted framing art of
the Frankenstein Monster’s old friend, Ygor! Originally played by Bela Lugosi,
the broken-necked Ygor was a memorable character in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and its direct sequel, The Ghost of
Frankenstein (1942), in which he was
ultimately crushed to death, his brains saved and plopped into The Monster’s
flat skull. Lugosi would go on to play The Monster himself in Frankenstein
Meets the Wolf Man (1943), and Glenn
Strange took over the part with House of Frankenstein in 1944.
Perhaps the artist was given a package of stills and
advertising material from previous Frankenstein films to play with as he worked
on the lobby card design. Ygor’s rough and menacing features, combined with a
desolate, windswept mansion and dead trees made for a nice, spooky background.
The art, unfortunately uncredited, is rather good.
1 comment:
I loved Nina; I would have been much happier if she ended up with Larry Talbot instead of the bland blonde!
Post a Comment