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Frankenstein

31 Nights of Horror. Night 5: Frankenstein

October 7, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Promotional photo of Boris Karloff from The Br...
Promotional photo of Boris Karloff from The Bride of Frankenstein as Frankenstein's monster. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have said before I love the classic monster movies. Especially those from Universal Studios.

Frankenstein is one of my favorites. The monster is probably one of the most recognized characters in the world and did you know that the basis for his looks was never described in the original (book) by Mary Shelley.  The Monster in this film does not physically resemble Mary Shelley‘s character. It was make-up artist Jack P. Pierce who came up with innovations such as the Monster’s flat head, the bolts through the neck, the droopy eyelids, and the poorly-fitted suit. Any future Frankenstein film that features any of these physical abnormalities is taking its inspiration from Pierce’s make-up work.

What is your favorite scary movie? 

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Filed Under: 31 Days of Horror, Alaska, Daily Post, Horror Tagged With: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, Universal Studios

31 Nights of Horror: Night 1: Trick ‘r Treat

October 3, 2012 by robertforto 1 Comment

Cover of "Trick 'r Treat"
Cover of Trick 'r Treat

Every year for at least the past decade the Forto clan takes part in a fright fest. Each night in October we watch different scary movie. Sometimes it is the classic monster stuff like Dracula, Frankenstein or the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Other nights it is one of the 80’s slash ’em flicks like Friday the 13th of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and sometimes its the cheezy stuff like you might see on Elvira’s show.

Each October we always start and end with the same movies: the first one being Trick ‘r Treat (2007) about a cute little monster in footie p.j.’s named Sam and we end it with Carrie (1974) a coming of age film about a girl with supernatural powers.

Tonight’s movie: Trick ‘r Treat

Plot summary:

Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband.

What is your favorite scary movie? 

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Filed Under: 31 Days of Horror, Alaska, Daily Post, Horror Tagged With: Carrie, Dracula, forto, Frankenstein, Halloween, october, Sam, trick or treat

31 Days of Horror. Day 25: Bride of Frankenstein

October 26, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon everynight of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

Bride of Frankenstien

This is the sequel that began the sequel craze so common in the horror genre today. They went out on a limb, even way back in 1935 to capture the viewers attention but fell a bit short. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the Frankenstein movies but it just is not as good as the first one.

Fun Facts:

When filming the scene where the monster emerges from the burnt windmill, Boris Karloff slipped and fell into the water-filled well. Upon being helped out, he realized he had broken a leg in the fall. The metal struts used to stiffen his legs (for the famous “monster lurch”) helped keep the bones in place until they could be properly set.

Shot in 46 days at a cost of approximately $400,000.

Boris Karloff sweated off 20 pounds laboring in the hot costume and makeup.

In the opening and closing credits the cast list says “The Monster’s Mate” followed by a question mark.

The “body count” in the original cut was 21. This was trimmed to 10 after pressure from the censors.

Production of this sequel to the original Frankenstein was publicized as early as 1933 by both Universal Studio press releases and the trade paper “Daily Variety”, but director James Whale did not begin work on it until late 1934. With a budget under $300,000, it was originally entitled “The Return of Frankenstein”.

One of James Whale’s criteria for taking up the director’s reins on the film was that he would have complete artistic freedom. This was easily achieved, as Universal’s studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. was vacationing in Europe at the time.

As a result of audience reactions from the film’s preview screenings during the first week of April 1935, the film was extensively re-edited. Many scenes were deleted and trimmed, and at least one, the scene where the Monster stumbles into the Gypsy Camp, was added in. As a result of the editing, the original uncut film was approx. 15 minutes longer than its official release length of 75 minutes.

Elsa Lanchester was only 5’4″ but for the role was placed on stilts that made her 7′ tall. The bandages were placed so tightly on her that she was unable to move and had to be carried about the studio and fed through a straw.

Boris Karloff protested against the decision to make The Monster speak, but was overruled. Since he was required to speak in this film, Karloff was not able to remove his partial bridgework as he had done to help give the Monster his sunken cheek appearance in the first film. That’s why The Monster appears fuller of face in the sequel.

It is considered inaccurate to refer to the Monster by the name “Frankenstein” rather than “Frankenstein’s Monster”, however in the prologue, Lord Byron actually does attach the name Frankenstein to the monster.

The original trailer promises “a lifetime of entertainment in two hours”. The final edit ran 75 minutes.

Elsa Lanchester’s shock hairdo was held in place by a wired horsehair cage.

Elsa Lanchester said that her spitting, hissing performance was inspired by the swans in Regent’s Park, London. “They’re really very nasty creatures,” she said.

“The Bride”, the most obscure of Universal Studios‘ Classic Monsters, is on screen for less than five minutes and is the only “Classic Monster” never to have killed anyone.

Doctor Pretorious’ full name is “Septimus Pretorious”; this is actually Latin and means “royal seven”, a reference to the seven deadly sins – as well as an indicator of his true nature.

Elsa Lanchester never receives on screen credit as “The Bride”. The character is listed as being played by “?”.

The scene in which the monster encounters the Gypsy camp was filmed shortly before the scheduled release date as a substitute for a scene that had been edited out after sneak previews because of censorship concerns. Since the scene was filmed long after the completion of principal filming – and after the film’s musical score had been completed – the Gypsy camp scene is the only segment of the movie that has no musical score.

Due to his overwhelming fame as a “thriller” actor, Boris Karloff was billed simply as “Karloff” – no first name needed.

What is your favorite scary movie? Let us know we would love to hear from you!

 

Related articles
  • The Wolf Man and The Universal Studios Monster…Mash (youmayclap.wordpress.com)
  • 31 Days of Horror-Day 2: Frankenstein (robertforto.com)
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Filed Under: 31 Days of Horror, Daily Post Tagged With: Boris Karloff, Bride, Carl Laemmle Jr, Elsa Lanchester, forto, Frankenstein, James Whale, Universal Studio

31 Days of Horror. Day 9: Thinner

October 10, 2011 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

Day 9 Movie: Thinner

Plot: A fat Lawyer finds himself growing “Thinner” when an old gypsy man places a hex on him. Now the lawyer must call upon his friends in organized crime to help him persuade the gypsy to lift the curse. Time is running out for the desperate lawyer as he draws closer to his own death, and grows ever thinner.

What is your favorite scary and/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!

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Filed Under: 31 Days of Horror, Daily Post Tagged With: forto, Frankenstein, fright fest, Halloween, Holidays, Movies, october

31 Days of Horror. Day 3: The Wolf Man

October 5, 2011 by robertforto 1 Comment

Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror.

31 Days of Horror: The Wolfman

Day 3 Movie: The Wolfman (1941)

The Wolfman is one of the classics in the old style horror genre. I love this stuff. I love watching the Classics like Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Dracula. With the budget of today’s movies reaching millions– and the 2010 version of The Wofman costing 150 million (and only brought in 61 million to date) there is a reason why they don’t make movies like they used to.

Fun Facts:

Lon Chaney Jr.‘s make-up took six hours to apply, and three hours to get off.

Shooting lasted from October 27-November 25, 1941, with a December 12 release. This is interesting in that today movies can sometimes take years to make!

The Wolfman battled a bear in one scene but unfortunately the bear ran away during filming. What few scenes were filmed were put into the theatrical trailer.

The “wolf” that Larry Talbot fights with was Lon Chaney Jr.’s own German Shepherd.

Universal originally planned the project for it’s horror superstar, Boris Karloff, who played “the Monster” in Frankenstein.

Plot: Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with village girl Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela, a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela’s mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John, who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen.

What is your favorite scary an/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!

Related articles
  • Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Werewolf? (socyberty.com)
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Filed Under: 31 Days of Horror, Alaska, Daily Post Tagged With: Boris Karloff, forto, Frankenstein, Larry Talbot, Lon Chaney, Wolf Man

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