Universal Monster movies

[AdamYJ]

I thought we needed a thread devoted to just these specific films. So, here you go.

Personally, my favorite is the Wolf Man.

[JohnPopa]

My favorite's The Creature. I love the look of The Wolfman. And the Frankenstein movies are what great horror is supposed to look like as far as I'm concerned. Nothing against the rest but those are the ones that pretty much shaped my view of what monster movies are.

[Lupek]

I love these movies. I am watching a Universal Mummy movie marathon on the Monsters Channel right now.

My favorite films are Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein and the Black Cat with Boris and Bela. Black Cat is not a Universal Monster flick per se but a Universal Horror film and a good one, although most of the scary stuff is in the dialogue. The Gill Man is my number two monster though. You'd think given my avatar, it would be Wolfman. I love em all I tell ya!

I was going to start a thread like this earlier today. I've got a goody or two bookmarked somewhere. Let me look.

[Lupek]

Oh yeah......here is Lon Chaney Jr. as Frankenstein on live TV (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt2Xz95DqjM)

and here is some more (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIQJ0qFZRFI&feature=related).

[Rabid Trekkie]

I love all of the originals (never seen any of the sequels) but my favorite has to be Dracula. Karloff was scary visually in both Frankenstein and The Mummy (his eyes in Mummy was enough to scare me) and Lon Chaney jr. and Claude Raines are great in Wolf Man, though it didn't really scare me. But Lugosi as Dracula just topped them all. His look, the way he moved, the sound of his voice, everything was perfect. He was scary when all he was doing was standing in a room and talking.

[Wolf-Man]

Guess which one I like?

[Captain_Video]

Though they are clearly not as well written or even well made as the others, my favourites are the Monster Mash movies that began with "Frankenstein meets The Wolfman", I loved the shared universe and continuity aspects that where introduced, in fact given the Universal movies influence on Stan Lee, I would not be surprised if the shared universe of superheroes is inspired slightly by this.

Lon Chaney Junior seemed to be the heart and soul of these movies, he played pretty much every character in the Universal Monsters Universe, so if we are going with favourite characters, it has to be The Wolf Man for me.

[ultramandingo]

.......any thing directed by James Whale
Frankenstein (1931)
The Old Dark House (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
plus check out Gods and Monsters (1998)

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg106/ultramandingo/IIIB2.jpg

[jemurr]

I enjoyed all those movies as a kid. Just got the Legacy collection, which is the three boxed set DVDs of Frankenstein, Wolfman, and Dracula. Personally I liked Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein the best. Visually they are amazing.

Frank and Dracula both have a ridiculous sequel or too. I thought Son of Dracula was pretty dumb. Dracula's Daughter was kind of interesting, plus it had some hot chics in it and lesbian overtones. The plot for She-Wolf of London might make a good thriller today. In a lot of these movies the climax is very quick. Only in the last five minutes or less in the movies do the villagers come with their burning torches and do their thing. Today these would be longer action sequences.

And yes the shared universe idea was great. I can't think of any other example of multiple film franchises all tying together in one shared world. Unless you would count Aliens Versus Predator and Jason Versus Freddy. I wouldn't count that because with the Universal movies, entries were being made in all three series while they were crossing over with each other. The same can't be said for AVP or JvsF.

The only other example I know of is what we're getting right now with the Marvel movies. Iron Man, Hulk, the upcoming Thor and Captain American movies all take place in the same world, building up to an Avengers movie.

But anyway back to the topic yeah the Universal movies were pretty neat, and a few of them still hold up. They're not so scary anymore, but visually they're interesting and the stories aren't bad. Check out the DVD sets if you get a chance.

[AdamYJ]

Lon Chaney Junior seemed to be the heart and soul of these movies, he played pretty much every character in the Universal Monsters Universe, so if we are going with favourite characters, it has to be The Wolf Man for me.

You know, the Wolf Man is pretty much the only monster that was played by the same actor in all of its appearances. The Wolf Man was always Lon Chaney Jr, even in the run-in with Abbot and Costello.

It's true that these movies aren't really considered scary anymore. However, they are cool little tales of tragedy and nice bits of gothic fantasy too. The strength of these movies is the characters. There's always something about them that makes you feel sympathetic to them. Or, in the case of Dracula, drawn to him. The Wolf Man is like an addict who has his good days and bad days. Frankenstein's monster is often like a confused, misunderstood child. The mummy's a guy who just couldn't get over his one, true love. This factor is probably the one thing that elevated The Creature from the Black Lagoon above other sci-fi B movies of the '50s. There was always this sense of loneliness, sadness and anger about the Gill-Man. Like he's the last one of his kind and now he's got this group of humans invading his home. And the only one whose heart seems to go out to him is the female that's always with the group.

Truth be told, other than the goofy sequels, the only one I run hot and cold on is Frankenstein. That's mainly because I had to read the original novel about four times in college. I love the iconography of the movie like the lab and the monster's look. However, I also love the plot of the book and the more "noble savage" take on the monster. I can also do without the '30s pop science that worked its way into the movie ("criminal brains", "the ray beyond the ultraviolet", etc).

[Bouncing Boy]

I love all of the originals (never seen any of the sequels) but my favorite has to be Dracula. Karloff was scary visually in both Frankenstein and The Mummy (his eyes in Mummy was enough to scare me) and Lon Chaney jr. and Claude Raines are great in Wolf Man, though it didn't really scare me. But Lugosi as Dracula just topped them all. His look, the way he moved, the sound of his voice, everything was perfect. He was scary when all he was doing was standing in a room and talking.

You really need to see Bride of Frankenstein, it is the better than the first one. Son of Frankenstein is also good, and features Lugosi as Ygor. Ghost of Frankenstein also features Lugosi as Ygor, but it's not as good.

[Bouncing Boy]

I forgot to mention that I also really love The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney Sr. I think it would have been better though it they hadn't changed the ending.

[Rabid Trekkie]

You really need to see Bride of Frankenstein, it is the better than the first one. Son of Frankenstein is also good, and features Lugosi as Ygor. Ghost of Frankenstein also features Lugosi as Ygor, but it's not as good.

I actually did watch Bride of Frankenstein once. I hated it. Don't know why, almost everyone talks about what a great movie it is, but I didn't enjoy one minute. Just one of those weird things I guess.

[suttercain]

Personally, my favorite is the Wolf Man.

I second that emotion.

[AdamYJ]

I actually did watch Bride of Frankenstein once. I hated it. Don't know why, almost everyone talks about what a great movie it is, but I didn't enjoy one minute. Just one of those weird things I guess.

I like Bride of Frankenstein because it actually shows some growth in the character of the monster. He learns to talk a little and you learn about him a little bit through his own words. That's actually one of the things that makes me able to reconcile the version from the movies with the one from the book. It shows that the monster isn't dumb and can learn, given time. After all, the first movie took place over the course of a few days while the novel happened over the course of years. Too bad they forgot about that in the following sequels.

[Lupek]

Image Preview: Dracula Meets the Wolf-Man (http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=20650)

[Frank]

I thought we needed a thread devoted to just these specific films. So, here you go.

Personally, my favorite is the Wolf Man.

You sir, gets props just for saying that. :biggrin:

What do you feel about the upcomng remake..?

[The Zapper]

I have a lot of these movies in my DVD collection, and watch them every Halloween (or around Halloween). The Creature is my personal favorite though.

[The Joker]

The Creature from the Black Lagoon is my personal favourite out of the Universal Monster movies as well. I remember watching the hell out of my VHS copy growing up. The look of the Creature is great, and the swimming scene between the Creature and Julia Adams is absolutely wonderful (I love JAWS as well and spotted this homage immediately).

Not to mention Julia Adams was simply gorgeous.

Second fav would have to be The Invisable Man.

[rick]

I love most of the Universal classic monster movies, but I'm a huge fan of both The Mummy and The Black Cat.

Nothing like Karloff playing truly evil.

Plus in the Black Cat you get the very rare chance to see Lugosi as the "good" guy.

[jv17]

i prefer ghost rider though it was the best for me..

[Frank]

I love most of the Universal classic monster movies, but I'm a huge fan of both The Mummy and The Black Cat.

Nothing like Karloff playing truly evil.

Plus in the Black Cat you get the very rare chance to see Lugosi as the "good" guy.

Black Cat is sublime. The characters that both of them plays are damn badass and interesting. The film goes beyond the b-movie leanings that they play in their monster flicks.

[AdamYJ]

What do you feel about the upcomng remake..?

Well, I wish it a lot of success, but I'm not sure it'll be the movie for me. While I love monsters, I'm not crazy about modern horror movies because I don't really care for all the blood and gore they use. From what little I know, this movie could be following suit. However, even if they turn out a product I don't care for, it doesn't really matter. That's because I own the original on DVD and it's not going anywhere. It's like how I can ignore the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies if I want to because I have the Karloff one on DVD already.

[The Zapper]

Second fav would have to be [i]The Invisable Man.

That's my second favorite as well. Creature barely edges it out.

[Frank]

Well, I wish it a lot of success, but I'm not sure it'll be the movie for me. While I love monsters, I'm not crazy about modern horror movies because I don't really care for all the blood and gore they use. From what little I know, this movie could be following suit. However, even if they turn out a product I don't care for, it doesn't really matter. That's because I own the original on DVD and it's not going anywhere. It's like how I can ignore the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies if I want to because I have the Karloff one on DVD already.

From what I saw it seems like they've tried to be quite faithful to the original and not do something shocking or overly gory wich is refreshing.

[AdamYJ]

Image Preview: Dracula Meets the Wolf-Man (http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=20650)

That was a pretty cool comic. It's too bad it wasn't the actual Wolf Man though, rather than just "a Wolf-Man". Then again, I don't know who has the current comic license for the Universal Monsters. Last time around, it was Dark Horse.

From what I saw it seems like they've tried to be quite faithful to the original and not do something shocking or overly gory wich is refreshing.

We'll see. I couldn't tell much from the trailer bootleg from Comic-Con. I pretty much decided already that if I didn't like it I wouldn't get too upset about it. So many people would be like "They ruined a classic monster movie!!!" when the Chaney one is still out there. I mean Dracula and Frankenstein have been revisited countless times and no one ever forgets the work of Boris and Bela.

The only problem would be if they tried to destroy the old one to replace it with the new one. It sounds crazy today, but it's not unheard of. Back in the '40s when MGM wanted to make their own version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Spencer Tracy, they bought the earlier version starring Fredric March from Paramount and destroyed every copy of it they could find. The movie was almost lost, which is sad because people generally admit the March one is better. Somewhat ironically, you can now buy a DVD with both versions of the movie on it.

[Frank]

That was a pretty cool comic. It's too bad it wasn't the actual Wolf Man though, rather than just "a Wolf-Man". Then again, I don't know who has the current comic license for the Universal Monsters. Last time around, it was Dark Horse.



We'll see. I couldn't tell much from the trailer bootleg from Comic-Con. I pretty much decided already that if I didn't like it I wouldn't get too upset about it. So many people would be like "They ruined a classic monster movie!!!" when the Chaney one is still out there. I mean Dracula and Frankenstein have been revisited countless times and no one ever forgets the work of Boris and Bela.

The only problem would be if they tried to destroy the old one to replace it with the new one. It sounds crazy today, but it's not unheard of. Back in the '40s when MGM wanted to make their own version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Spencer Tracy, they bought the earlier version starring Fredric March from Paramount and destroyed every copy of it they could find. The movie was almost lost, which is sad because people generally admit the March one is better. Somewhat ironically, you can now buy a DVD with both versions of the movie on it.

The worst nightmare of this practice has to be the lost Lon Chaney horror movie "London by Midnight". The movie was about to be released but "The Jazz Singer" came out at the same time, essentialy the first talky and it changed everything from top to bottom. So the studio put London...on the shelf for a while. Then the Universal Monster movies vague came about and they just decided to just remake LBM with Lugosi(under the title The Vampire Bat) since they figured it would be far more successful. Anyway, several copies of LBM were destroyed. Eventualy something worst happened where there was a fire and the storage facility where the original was, became an inferno and several movies were lost forever. Nobody has ever seen any copies of this movie since. But there is a hope that one day it will be found and be seen.

Can you imagine, the last film of genius Lon Chaney...?

[Royal]

London after Midnight AKA The Hypnotist

the Endore/Balderson remake was Mark of the Vampire.

Vampire Bat was a mystery copying the Universal style made by RKO I believe.

LAM is around, they just have to find it.

[Rabid Trekkie]

Can you imagine, the last film of genius Lon Chaney...?

I wish I could see more Lon Chaney movies but none of my local rental stores carry any. the only movie by him I have seen was the original Phantom of the Opera but my enjoyment was lessened because whoever put this one together put music in that didn't really fit what was on screen. I mean a happy melody doesn't really fit with the unmasking of the Phantom. Still isn't as bad as my copy of Nosferatu though.

[AdamYJ]

I wish I could see more Lon Chaney movies but none of my local rental stores carry any. the only movie by him I have seen was the original Phantom of the Opera but my enjoyment was lessened because whoever put this one together put music in that didn't really fit what was on screen. I mean a happy melody doesn't really fit with the unmasking of the Phantom. Still isn't as bad as my copy of Nosferatu though.

You know, a lot of silent movies have moved into the public domain, so you might be able to find some online. That's how I managed to see the John Barrymore version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

[Frank]

London after Midnight AKA The Hypnotist

the Endore/Balderson remake was Mark of the Vampire.

Vampire Bat was a mystery copying the Universal style made by RKO I believe

Oh yes that's right.

[/Quote]LAM is around, they just have to find it.[/QUOTE]

I'm skeptical about that. But for lovers of movies everywhere I hope they do find it.

[Frank]

I wish I could see more Lon Chaney movies but none of my local rental stores carry any. the only movie by him I have seen was the original Phantom of the Opera but my enjoyment was lessened because whoever put this one together put music in that didn't really fit what was on screen. I mean a happy melody doesn't really fit with the unmasking of the Phantom. Still isn't as bad as my copy of Nosferatu though.

I have this shop around my town that sells pratically every forms of entertainment and you can also order praticaly everything from them. Maybe you can find something like that around your town and just ask around to varied shops if there's any way you can order stuff.

[ultramandingo]

London after Midnight AKA The Hypnotist

LAM is around, they just have to find it.

.......... even if they dont i got the sideshow 12" - as well as most of their universal stuff

http://widget.slide.com/rdr/1/1/3/W/170000000fcd5f2f/1/73/52Rve3su4j-lNDeqCYP3l1pb-MLzayIY.jpg (http://www.slide.com/s/AGeR1fscwj_CChMtvvY3DHS-tL9fPqlq?referrer=hlnk)

[Julusnc]

I remember as a kid growing up in the 1970's first being exposed to the Universal Monsters on Saturday afternoon "Shock Cinema." My favorite will always be the Wolf-Man but Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy will be close seconds.

I just imagine how awesome it would have been to see The Mummy when first released and knowing all of the Egyptian artifacts and sites that where being discovered around this time.Amazingly Scary I am sure!

[Lupek]

I wish I could see more Lon Chaney movies but none of my local rental stores carry any. the only movie by him I have seen was the original Phantom of the Opera but my enjoyment was lessened because whoever put this one together put music in that didn't really fit what was on screen. I mean a happy melody doesn't really fit with the unmasking of the Phantom. Still isn't as bad as my copy of Nosferatu though.

Turner Classic Movies shows some of his films from time to time. Try and see The Unholy Three (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unholy_Three_(1925_film)). There is a silent version and then a talkie made a few years later also starring Lon. It's got a ventriloquist tranny who sells parrots that don't really talk, an evil dwarf and a circus strongman on a crime spree.

Also, Lon's two creepy clown movies, He Who Gets Slapped and Laugh Clown Laugh are pretty damn good too.

But above all, try and see The Unknown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_%281927_film%29). It is my favorite silent film. It is so over the top creepy and clever that it amazes me that no one has ever tried to remake this film.

[AdamYJ]

Turner Classic Movies shows some of his films from time to time. Try and see The Unholy Three (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unholy_Three_(1925_film)). There is a silent version and then a talkie made a few years later also starring Lon. It's got a ventriloquist tranny who sells parrots that don't really talk, an evil dwarf and a circus strongman on a crime spree.

Also, Lon's two creepy clown movies, He Who Gets Slapped and Laugh Clown Laugh are pretty damn good too.

But above all, try and see The Unknown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_%281927_film%29). It is my favorite silent film. It is so over the top creepy and clever that it amazes me that no one has ever tried to remake this film.

Man, I always knew there was something creepy about the circus.

Anyway, I also suggest to Rabid Trekkie that he check out the videos and DVDs at his local library. Sometimes, they'll get older and more obscure movies that video rental stores will not. Plus, you can't beat the price. A week rental for nothing. You might even be able to see if they have what you want before going there, if they use an online catalog. I'm actually pretty lucky in that we have the Upper Hudson Library System around here. So, I can borrow from any of the libraries in the area using the same card.