By the way, gotta give a shout-out to the legendary Svengoolie on Me-TV, he hosts a weekend show that re-runs these horror classics, keeps them alive for the fans.
Mystery of the Wax Museum, 1933. This film had an awesome atmosphere to it, very creepy. I've always been fascinated by wax museums and I have actually been to one, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When you're walking through a wax museum, you get the feeling that the wax figures are somehow alive and watching you. Of course, my favorite part of the museum is the chamber of horrors.
The man in the wheelchair is Ivan Igor (played by Lionel Atwill). He is a sculptor who was horribly disfigured, burned, and paralyzed by his partner during a fire in his London museum. He later reopens in New York, using real corpses—covered in wax—to replace his lost "children".
Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell), a fast-talking, wisecracking newspaper reporter with the police at the wax museum. Her character drives the plot by investigating the disappearance of bodies, providing a "Torchy Blane"-style performance as a relentless journalist.
The unmasking of Ivan Igor reveals a hideous monster. Now, you're probably asking yourself, how can you unmask Ivan Igor when he's not wearing a mask throughout the film? I won't ruin the plot twist for you.
House of Wax, 1953, starring Vincent Price is basically a reboot of Mystery of the Wax Museum from 1933. The face of the museum proprietor Professor Henry Jarrod is absolutely hideous. One of the great horror movie monsters.
Creature From The Black Lagoon, 1954, the infamous Gill-man is one of the great horror movie monsters. Pro-swimmers Ricou Browning and Ginger Stanley performed the underwater swimming scenes at Wakulla Springs State Park. Browning performed as a merman at Weeki Wachi along with a young, blond mermaid (Stanley). Because of his familiarity with the area, Creature film scouts hired Browning to show them around and help them find a filming location for the water scenes. At Wakulla Springs, the crew wanted to test out their underwater camera to see how well the images turned out and asked Browning to do some of his underwater swimming for them. Impressed with his prowess, they hired Browning to be the body/stunt double for land-Creature actor Ben Chapman. Julie Adams, who played Kay Lawrence, would also need a swimming double - so Browning recommended his coworker Ginger Stanley. While Adams filmed some above-water scenes elsewhere, it is Ginger Stanley who is performing the swimming scenes with Browning. Her underwater ballet moves were taken straight out of her Weeki Wachi mermaid act. Look at this shot of the Gill-man popping up out of nowhere from the underwater Sargassum, completely camouflaged.
The Gill-man surfaces. Look at the claws, can you imagine, can you just imagine something like this popping up out of the water. Legendary horror movie monster.
The Invisible Man, 1933. A mysterious man, whose head is completely covered in bandages, enters a pub during a violent snow storm and demands a room. The stranger is Dr. Jack Griffin, and he is a homicidal maniac.
The Invisible Man is another one of my favorite classic horror movie monsters, he was just an eerie bastard. He appears as a man on the outside, but underneath the bandages there's nothing.
Another thing that made the invisible man unnerving is that fact that he was totally insane and once he took the bandages off, you couldn't see him, he could be standing in the room right next to you and you wouldn't even know it.
"An invisible man can rule the world. Nobody will see him come, nobody will see him go. He can hear every secret. He can rob, and wreck, and kill!"
The big reveal, an epic scene. To create the illusion of invisibility in the film, actor Claude Rains wore a full black velvet suit and hood while performing against a black velvet background. This "proto green-screen" technique ensured the actor "disappeared," leaving only his clothes visible when filmed on high-contrast black-and-white film.
We have to get Una O'Connor in here, she was a great character actor, be it as Jenny Hall in The Invisible Man or Minnie in The Bride of Frankenstein, she always made the atmosphere of a film better.
Great article on what seperates The Invisible Man from other horror classic movie monsters, and what made him so chilling.
Bloody Disgusting!
85 Years Later, ‘The Invisible Man’ Remains One of Universal’s Most Impressive Monster
November 13, 2018
By: Meagan Navarro
After the success of Dracula and even bigger success of Frankenstein, Universal Pictures settled in to making monster features, and the Universal Classic Monsters as we know it took off. Producer Carl Laemle Jr. followed the hits up with Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Old Dark House, The Mummy, and Secret of the Blue Room. It was the theatrical release of The Invisible Man on November 13, 1933, however, that would unleash one of the best and most influential Universal Monsters of them all. Based on H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel of the same name, The Invisible Man has a standout villain and an endearing blend of humor and horror that’s withstood the test of time, even 85 years later.
The breakout star of the film was Claude Rains as Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist eventually driven mad by his own experiments with injections of a drug that renders him invisible. It’s an astonishing accomplishment, considering Rains’ face is only on screen for a brief half minute at the end of the film; his performance is almost entirely relegated to his voice. It was his first American film role, but Rains wasn’t the studio’s first choice. Laemle Jr. wanted Boris Karloff in the lead, but Karloff walked after Laemle Jr. tried to undercut the actor’s contractual pay. Director James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein) was then tasked with hiring the studio’s next choice; Cyril Gardner. Whale really wanted Rains for the role, though, and used Gardner’s planned trip back to Britain as a means of getting his way.
Despite no real experience and rumors of a bad screen test, Rains proved Whale’s hunch correct on his choice of lead. Rains spends most of the film heard and not seen, not in the traditional sense, but the actor still had to contend with tough physical demands. At least for him. The amazing special effects that rendered the character “invisible” was clever camera work. Any part of the character’s exposed skin that was to be invisible was covered in thick black velvet. This was shot against a black backdrop, which would essentially make the black velvet disappear into it, and this shot was overlaid with the normal set to give the illusion of invisibility.
For trickier scenes, like the one in which the Invisible Man looks at his reflection in a mirror, this meant 4 different shots would be combined. Velvet is a heavy, thick material that would be hot for any actor to be covered in, and Rains also happened to be claustrophobic. It added a level of difficulty to an already difficult character to portray.
On the surface, the Invisible Man doesn’t quite seem as fantastical as his monster counterparts. Compared to the blood-sucking Dracula, poor Frankenstein’s monster, the cursed Wolf Man, or even the imposing mummy Imhotep, Dr. Jack Griffin is just a man who successfully pulled off the act of disappearing. Except, Dr. Jack Griffin is the most monstrous of them all. He’s corrupted by the power of being invisible, gleefully killing anyone at whim and taking whatever he wants. Whereas most Universal Classic Monsters find empathetic humanity within their monsters, the Invisible Man proves there’s no monster scarier than man. Or at least a corrupt, amoral man.
Griffin starts out entertaining enough; watching him toy with his victims while maniacally giggling is humorous. But the longer he remains invisible, the more he loses his grip on his sanity. Whale has a knack for balancing the horror with the humor, though, bringing levity when needed. Most of which comes in the form of Una O’Connor’s Jenny Hall, the innkeeper’s wife who has a talent for hysterics. Rains may have been the breakout star, but O’Connor is a scene-stealer as the comedic relief.
Wells famously took issue with the fact that his character was turned into a lunatic, but Whale countered that only a lunatic would want to make themselves invisible. From a cinematic perspective, Whale’s instincts were spot on. The descent into madness from the corruption of power made for a captivating story whose themes still resonate today. The Invisible Man is perhaps the most terrifying monster of all the Universal Classic Monsters. The special effects, performances, and blend of humor with horror still inspires pop culture today, 85 years after initial release.
Ok, I guess that's enough of the classic horror movies, I've had a blast posting about it these past few days, but it's time to get back to boxing. But I do want to post this video of a phenomenal wrestling match that I watched last night, a match between CM Punk "The Second City Saint" and Drew McIntyre "The Scottish Psychopath", Hell In A Cell, WWE Bad Blood, 2024. These two had a bitter, hate-filled feud, and Hell In A Cell is the type of match that takes years off of careers. This is one of the most physically punishing, brutal matches I've ever seen. I like to entertain and I want to leave this here for anyone that might be reading this thread in the future and could use some good entertainment, well worth the watch. Caution to the viewer, there will be blood.
Comments
The Phantom in his masks.
The Phantom looks stark mad in this photo.
By the way, gotta give a shout-out to the legendary Svengoolie on Me-TV, he hosts a weekend show that re-runs these horror classics, keeps them alive for the fans.
Mystery of the Wax Museum, 1933. This film had an awesome atmosphere to it, very creepy. I've always been fascinated by wax museums and I have actually been to one, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. When you're walking through a wax museum, you get the feeling that the wax figures are somehow alive and watching you. Of course, my favorite part of the museum is the chamber of horrors.
The man in the wheelchair is Ivan Igor (played by Lionel Atwill). He is a sculptor who was horribly disfigured, burned, and paralyzed by his partner during a fire in his London museum. He later reopens in New York, using real corpses—covered in wax—to replace his lost "children".
Ivan Igor up-close, dude was totally mad.
Really good shot of Ivan Igor holding a mask.
Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell), a fast-talking, wisecracking newspaper reporter with the police at the wax museum. Her character drives the plot by investigating the disappearance of bodies, providing a "Torchy Blane"-style performance as a relentless journalist.
A publicity still showing Glenda Farrell with the director of the film Michael Curtiz.
Florence Dempsey poking around.
Ivan Igor doing his sinister work.
A wax statue of Joan of Arc, but is it really wax?
A scene with Ivan Igor and Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray).
Arthur Edmund Carewe stars as Sparrow, Ivan Igor's henchman.
Sparrow is apprehended by the police.
The unmasking of Ivan Igor reveals a hideous monster. Now, you're probably asking yourself, how can you unmask Ivan Igor when he's not wearing a mask throughout the film? I won't ruin the plot twist for you.
House of Wax, 1953, starring Vincent Price is basically a reboot of Mystery of the Wax Museum from 1933. The face of the museum proprietor Professor Henry Jarrod is absolutely hideous. One of the great horror movie monsters.
Look at this shot of Vincent Price as Professor Henry Jarrod after being unmasked. Just wow, what a great movie monster.
Creature From The Black Lagoon, 1954, the infamous Gill-man is one of the great horror movie monsters. Pro-swimmers Ricou Browning and Ginger Stanley performed the underwater swimming scenes at Wakulla Springs State Park. Browning performed as a merman at Weeki Wachi along with a young, blond mermaid (Stanley). Because of his familiarity with the area, Creature film scouts hired Browning to show them around and help them find a filming location for the water scenes. At Wakulla Springs, the crew wanted to test out their underwater camera to see how well the images turned out and asked Browning to do some of his underwater swimming for them. Impressed with his prowess, they hired Browning to be the body/stunt double for land-Creature actor Ben Chapman. Julie Adams, who played Kay Lawrence, would also need a swimming double - so Browning recommended his coworker Ginger Stanley. While Adams filmed some above-water scenes elsewhere, it is Ginger Stanley who is performing the swimming scenes with Browning. Her underwater ballet moves were taken straight out of her Weeki Wachi mermaid act. Look at this shot of the Gill-man popping up out of nowhere from the underwater Sargassum, completely camouflaged.
The Gill-man swimming underwater in the Lagoon.
Epic photo of the Gill-man swimming up to grab his victim, Helen Dobson.
The Gill-man surfaces. Look at the claws, can you imagine, can you just imagine something like this popping up out of the water. Legendary horror movie monster.
The Invisible Man, 1933. A mysterious man, whose head is completely covered in bandages, enters a pub during a violent snow storm and demands a room. The stranger is Dr. Jack Griffin, and he is a homicidal maniac.
The Invisible Man is another one of my favorite classic horror movie monsters, he was just an eerie bastard. He appears as a man on the outside, but underneath the bandages there's nothing.
Another thing that made the invisible man unnerving is that fact that he was totally insane and once he took the bandages off, you couldn't see him, he could be standing in the room right next to you and you wouldn't even know it.
"An invisible man can rule the world. Nobody will see him come, nobody will see him go. He can hear every secret. He can rob, and wreck, and kill!"
Epic shot with the darkness behind him.
Once he started to remove the bandages, you were screwed.
A total madman.
The big reveal, an epic scene. To create the illusion of invisibility in the film, actor Claude Rains wore a full black velvet suit and hood while performing against a black velvet background. This "proto green-screen" technique ensured the actor "disappeared," leaving only his clothes visible when filmed on high-contrast black-and-white film.
Such great illusion for a 1930s film.
We have to get Una O'Connor in here, she was a great character actor, be it as Jenny Hall in The Invisible Man or Minnie in The Bride of Frankenstein, she always made the atmosphere of a film better.
Great article on what seperates The Invisible Man from other horror classic movie monsters, and what made him so chilling.
Bloody Disgusting!
85 Years Later, ‘The Invisible Man’ Remains One of Universal’s Most Impressive Monster
November 13, 2018
By: Meagan Navarro
After the success of Dracula and even bigger success of Frankenstein, Universal Pictures settled in to making monster features, and the Universal Classic Monsters as we know it took off. Producer Carl Laemle Jr. followed the hits up with Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Old Dark House, The Mummy, and Secret of the Blue Room. It was the theatrical release of The Invisible Man on November 13, 1933, however, that would unleash one of the best and most influential Universal Monsters of them all. Based on H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel of the same name, The Invisible Man has a standout villain and an endearing blend of humor and horror that’s withstood the test of time, even 85 years later.
The breakout star of the film was Claude Rains as Dr. Jack Griffin, a chemist eventually driven mad by his own experiments with injections of a drug that renders him invisible. It’s an astonishing accomplishment, considering Rains’ face is only on screen for a brief half minute at the end of the film; his performance is almost entirely relegated to his voice. It was his first American film role, but Rains wasn’t the studio’s first choice. Laemle Jr. wanted Boris Karloff in the lead, but Karloff walked after Laemle Jr. tried to undercut the actor’s contractual pay. Director James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein) was then tasked with hiring the studio’s next choice; Cyril Gardner. Whale really wanted Rains for the role, though, and used Gardner’s planned trip back to Britain as a means of getting his way.
Despite no real experience and rumors of a bad screen test, Rains proved Whale’s hunch correct on his choice of lead. Rains spends most of the film heard and not seen, not in the traditional sense, but the actor still had to contend with tough physical demands. At least for him. The amazing special effects that rendered the character “invisible” was clever camera work. Any part of the character’s exposed skin that was to be invisible was covered in thick black velvet. This was shot against a black backdrop, which would essentially make the black velvet disappear into it, and this shot was overlaid with the normal set to give the illusion of invisibility.
For trickier scenes, like the one in which the Invisible Man looks at his reflection in a mirror, this meant 4 different shots would be combined. Velvet is a heavy, thick material that would be hot for any actor to be covered in, and Rains also happened to be claustrophobic. It added a level of difficulty to an already difficult character to portray.
On the surface, the Invisible Man doesn’t quite seem as fantastical as his monster counterparts. Compared to the blood-sucking Dracula, poor Frankenstein’s monster, the cursed Wolf Man, or even the imposing mummy Imhotep, Dr. Jack Griffin is just a man who successfully pulled off the act of disappearing. Except, Dr. Jack Griffin is the most monstrous of them all. He’s corrupted by the power of being invisible, gleefully killing anyone at whim and taking whatever he wants. Whereas most Universal Classic Monsters find empathetic humanity within their monsters, the Invisible Man proves there’s no monster scarier than man. Or at least a corrupt, amoral man.
Griffin starts out entertaining enough; watching him toy with his victims while maniacally giggling is humorous. But the longer he remains invisible, the more he loses his grip on his sanity. Whale has a knack for balancing the horror with the humor, though, bringing levity when needed. Most of which comes in the form of Una O’Connor’s Jenny Hall, the innkeeper’s wife who has a talent for hysterics. Rains may have been the breakout star, but O’Connor is a scene-stealer as the comedic relief.
Wells famously took issue with the fact that his character was turned into a lunatic, but Whale countered that only a lunatic would want to make themselves invisible. From a cinematic perspective, Whale’s instincts were spot on. The descent into madness from the corruption of power made for a captivating story whose themes still resonate today. The Invisible Man is perhaps the most terrifying monster of all the Universal Classic Monsters. The special effects, performances, and blend of humor with horror still inspires pop culture today, 85 years after initial release.
Ok, I guess that's enough of the classic horror movies, I've had a blast posting about it these past few days, but it's time to get back to boxing. But I do want to post this video of a phenomenal wrestling match that I watched last night, a match between CM Punk "The Second City Saint" and Drew McIntyre "The Scottish Psychopath", Hell In A Cell, WWE Bad Blood, 2024. These two had a bitter, hate-filled feud, and Hell In A Cell is the type of match that takes years off of careers. This is one of the most physically punishing, brutal matches I've ever seen. I like to entertain and I want to leave this here for anyone that might be reading this thread in the future and could use some good entertainment, well worth the watch. Caution to the viewer, there will be blood.
I meant to post this earlier but forgot, excellent book about the legendary Hollywood make-up artist Jack Pierce.