Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931-1946 [Book Review]

Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931-1946
By Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, John Brunas
1990, McFarland & Co.

I thought about saving this entry for the 2013 edition of Halloween Scream (even though I took a break in 2012…) but I figured I better talk about this book while it’s fresh on my mind. I can always link back to it later in October.

For the record, I’ll be discussing the 1990 first edition. A second printing was given to the book in 2007 and it apparently features extra artwork and movie posters not shown in the first edition. Either edition you have features some cool movie poster artwork, publicity photos and still shots from the films though.

Second Edition (2007)

At 600 pages plus, this book is not light reading but a great reference tool covering Universal Studios’ contributions during the golden age of horror. Despite the explosion of the internet and websites like Wikipedia and Internet Movie Database I still found this book full of useful information that I hadn’t read anywhere else. All of Universal’s horror movies  from this time frame (and even some that could only very loosely fit under the horror umbrella) are represented and talked about at various lengths. Some of the information covered is fairly standard but in-depth: cast/characters, crew, running time, release date, etc.

Of course, all of the major Universal Monsters are covered: Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, etc. Then we have other offerings like the Ghoul, the Werewolf of London, the She-Wolf of London, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, the Ape Woman, the Man Made Monster, The Old Dark House, Rondo Hatton as the Creeper, the Sherlock Holmes series starring Basil Rathbone and the Edgar Allan Poe films that starred Bela Lugosi and/or Boris Karloff (Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat & The Raven). Some of these things are not like the others, I’ll leave it to the reader to decide…

Quotes from the actors and crew regarding the production process and their experiences on the set are also offered up. The authors interject their own personal opinion from time to time. This only bothered me on a few occasions when I thought the authors were being too catty or biased for their own good but overall I actually enjoyed their personal quips and thought more than a few were pretty funny. I’ve read some reader reviews where complaints are made about the authors going off topic. While the authors do tend to wander at times, the topics still deal with old Hollywood so I didn’t see it as much of a problem so I was still interested in what they had to say.

My only real issue with this book is that they didn’t bother to include the movies that starred the Creature from the Black Lagoon (I’ve never been a fan of calling him “Gill-Man”) or the Abbott & Costello monster mashes even though these movies are referenced at one time or another throughout the book. But, I guess if they opened up the book to those movies they’d have to include all of the ’50s sci-fi/monster movies and everything would get way out of hand and they were already stretching the limits of what you could call “horror” with this book.

Then again, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein was released in 1948. I’ve always considered that movie to signify the “end” of Universal’s great horror run. I think ’48, instead of ’46, would’ve been a good cut-off point for the book.

Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931-1946 is essential reading for fans of the Universal Monsters and fans of the golden age of horror in general. It’s a well put together collection that is sure to please the Famous Monsters demographic of horror fans. Just don’t expect to get it cheap. It’s going for around $50 new or used on Amazon. Luckily, you can get it on Kindle for around $19.

Buy the book at Amazon.com!

College Swing & Big Broadcast of 1938 Bob Hope Double Feature DVD Review!

College Swing / The Big Broadcast of 1938
(2002, Universal Studios)

Another Bob Hope Double Feature DVD Review! I was pretty excited to check this disc out as it features Bob’s first two feature films. He previously appeared on screen in two shorts from 1934: “Going Spanish” and “Paree, Paree”.

College Swing
(1938, Paramount Pictures)

When I think of “college swing”, I think of something entirely different. Something like Girls Gone Wild: College Swing. As you can see from the billing, Bob Hope was not the star of this film. Top billing went the the husband-wife comedy duo of George Burns & Gracie Allen (who is much cuter than I ever realized). There is a loose story revolving around Gracie trying to pass an exam in order to become owner of the college but it’s all just an excuse for love, screwball comedy, dance and song.

There’s typical college hi-jinks and some fun physical comedy here. The cast is very good. In addition to Burns & Allen and Hope, we also get Martha Raye, Betty Grable (looking as hot as ever), comedian Ben Blue, Jackie Coogan (who would later play Uncle Fester on The Addams Family television show) and future Bob Hope radio program cast members Jerry Colonna & Skinnay Ennis. There’s even a brief cameo by Mary Livingstone (wife/cast member of Jack Benny). It’s so brief I didn’t even notice it! I’ll have to go back and look for it.

Not a great piece of work but it’s very interesting for the cast alone and there are a few legit laugh out loud moments.

The Big Broadcast of 1938
(1938, Paramount Pictures)

Bob’s first picture already has him working with a few gals he would go on to work with a number of times in his career: Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour and Shirley Ross. Bob doesn’t play a major role in this movie. The Big Broadcast of 1938 is another variety picture featuring music, dancing, love and comedy. W.C. Fields is the star and while he was a big name comedian in his day, I’m not really a fan. Maybe it’s just how the print has been preserved but I find it’s hard to understand what he’s saying sometimes. He seems to mumble so much.

Much like College Swing, this is another one of those movies that may not be a true highlight but it’s entertainng given that it features a young talented cast that would go on do to so much more in films. I do believe this movie is historically important for another reason — it debuts “Thanks For the Memory” which is sung by Bob Hope & Shirley Ross. That song would follow Hope throughout his career and would be considered his signature (or even theme) song until his passing.

Overall:
This DVD is definitely a must-own for fans of classic Hollywood comedies & musicals.

Buy the DVD at Amazon.com

Caught In the Draft & Give Me A Sailor… Bob Hope Double Feature DVD Review!

Caught In The Draft / Give Me A Sailor
2002, Universal Studios Home Video

This double feature DVD was “lost” in my collection for about a year or so. I felt like I owned it but I didn’t even have it checked off in my “Bob Hope DVD” Word document! Luckily, I found it a few weeks ago while sorting through the DVDs in my closet. I had rented this collection from Netflix before but I don’t think I ever watched the movies once I owned them. I had seen Caught in the Draft a few times courtesy of AMC (Remember when American Movie Classics used to show classic movies… in B&W no less?) but I had viewed Give Me A Sailor just the one time when renting it.

Caught In The Draft
1941, Paramount Pictures

This is a typically funny Hope movie from the 1940s. Other than Hope, this is a great cast: Lynne Overman (who previously was in The Big Broadcast of 1938 with Hope) & Eddie Bracken (who would later be in Star Spangled Rhythm) are great as Hope’s friends and flunkies and Dorothy Lamour brings her usual mix of class & sex appeal to the screen. She’s super-adorable in this one and I love the scene where she’s down at the Army recruiter’s office and they do a close-up of her winking.

In this one, Bob plays a big Hollywood actor that is trying to dodge the draft by getting married to Dorothy’s character Tony (whose father is a colonel), whom he recently met on set while filming a war movie. Problem is, she figures out his true motives, gets mad and then when Hope tries to win her back and impress her by setting up a fake enlistment, it turns out he signs on for real!

Comedy ensues as Hope gets his buddies to sign up too and as they try to make it through basic training, Bob tries to win the love of Tony while also also trying to impress her father.

One of Bob’s better movies that doesn’t feature Bing (not even a cameo this time!).

Give Me A Sailor
1938, Paramount Pictures

Not really a Bob movie at all this is more a vehicle for Martha Raye though Hope does co-star with her. It’s based on a play called Linger Longer Betty and has Letty (Raye) longing for Jim’s (Hope) brother Walter and Jim longing for his brother’s girlfriend Nancy (a hot Betty Grable). They try to break them up and eventually succeed. Letty gets engaged to Walter and Jim dates Nancy but then Letty & Jim discover what they really want is each other. Reading that back, they don’t really sound like likable characters and neither really suffers any consequences for breaking up Walter & Nancy but oh well. It worked for the time. I don’t think you could pull something like this off in a movie today without the characters coming across as huge jerks.

Not a great movie but worth watching once or twice to see Bob acting instead of constantly spitting out one-liners. Martha Raye is pretty cute in an odd way.

Overall:

A worthy DVD to add to the collection of any Bob Hope fan!

Buy ‘Caught in the Draft/Give Me A Sailor’ at Amazon.com

The Ghoul

The Ghoul (1933)

The Ghoul is one of Boris Karloff’s lesser known movies but still pretty good. I caught it on Turner Classic Movies a few years back and liked it. It’s not a great movie but it’s still good fun. It is a British film, released by Gaumont, but they were obviously aiming squarely at fans of Universal’s horror output. This film has the same eerie silence and moody lighting of those early Universal classics and even reunites Karloff with Ernest Thesiger. Both had played in the 1932 Universal movie The Old Dark House and of course would go on to even greater success when they shared screen time again in 1934′s Bride of Frankenstein.

What is really interesting about this movie is that it was considered to be a lost film for 31 years and then in 1969 a worn out, subtitled, and edited copy of the film was found in Czechoslovakia. Finally in the early ’80s a perfectly stored copy was discovered in a British movie studio vault. Fast forward to 2003 and MGM released that version on DVD to the masses.

DVD cover

It has been said this film combines elements of Universal’s The Mummy and The Old Dark House. Having not seen The Old Dark House yet, I can’t comment on that but The Mummy element is certainly there. Karloff’s character believes if he dies with an amulet on his person as an offering to Anubis, he will be granted eternal life. The amulet is stolen before he is entombed and of course Karloff comes back from being “dead” to wreck havoc and get revenge. Is it essential horror? No but I still recommend it for fans of classic horror. It might as well have been made by Universal.

Oh, I forgot one thing! Here’s an exchange between two characters that I really loved the first time I saw this movie:

Broughton: I advise you to be very careful, Laing.
Laing: I’ve a careful nature.
Broughton: You may be putting yourself perilously near dishonesty.
Laing: I’ve seen men nearer.

I don’t know why but I’ve always thought that was a really cool exchange.

If you would like the see the Czech print of this film, it can be downloaded for free at the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/TheGhoul but as far as I know, only MGM holds the rights to the cleaned up full version so you’ll have to get your hands on the DVD for that. It’s also available for streaming from Netflix.

Jack Benny for… Jell-O Freezing Mix Ice Cream ?!?

I’ve had Benny on the brain lately (more on Jack Benny and his old time radio program at another date) and came across this swell little ad. Jell-O ice cream, huh? Okay, doesn’t sound so bad at first if they just slapped their name on some fruit-based ice cream or sherbet but maple walnut “freezing mix”? I don’t know about that…

Ad is from sometime between the mid 1930s and early 1940s back when Jell-O was Benny’s sponsor.