Classic Monster Movies

In this video, I combine the song "This is Halloween" from Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas with the following franchises: 1) Dracula - Bela Lugosi 2) Frankenstein - Boris Karloff 3) Wolfman - Lon Chaney Jr. 4) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Fredric March

Dracula (1931) For More Info On Dracula, please read: http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2008/03/dracula-1931.html In 1927 a theatrical adaptation of Dracula written by Hamilton Deane and John L., Balderston became a huge hit on Broadway. This play would star the Hungarian born actor Bela Lugosi who didnt speak a word of English. Lugosi learned all his lines phonetically, which produced the famous speech pattern that Dracula (and most vampires) would become associated with. Bela Lugosi (Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasco) came to America in the 1920s to pursue an acting career. Even though the actor had starred in several small roles prior, he would always be remembered for portraying Dracula, both on stage and in numerous films. After Dracula became a huge hit the actor was offered the part of The Monster in Frankenstein, which he turned down. Boris Karloff would become famous for the part, and Lugosis short term as the King of Horror would end as quickly as it started. Lugosi would go on to play Dracula and other various vampires throughout his career. The actor managed to beat a drug addiction, but ended his career in low budget features such as the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space which would be his last film. He passed away while it was still in production. Despite all of his stage and film roles the actor died in poverty. Carl Laemmle Jr. had a vision for a big screen adaptation of Dracula for Universal that would have been in the same league as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. Laemmle was also very insistent that Lon Chaney, play the vampire in his picture and set out to lure him away from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Unfortunately Lon Cheney passed away from throat cancer before production was set to begin.

When Universal released Frankenstein in 1931 the film was a very unique piece to watch. The film has always been regarded as a black and white classic when it was nothing of the sort. When audiences originally saw the film in theatres the daylight scenes were in amber, the night in pale blue, the eerie scenes in green and the fiery climax in red. Universal also thought it was necessary to hype the film up a bit. As if the film wasnt scary enough on its own the studio found it in their best interest to park an ambulance out in front of many theatres and to keep two nurses on hand in the lobby to raise the chill factor. They even went as far as to place an actress in the audience during every showing who would, at the scariest moment in the film, scream, jump out of her seat, and run up the aisle and out of the theatre. Too bad we dont see theatrics like that anymore.

The Wolfman 1941 starring Lon Chaney, Jr.

Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar® winner Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar® winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Lawrence Talbots childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brothers fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate. As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himselfone he never imagined existed.