Boris Karloff Frankenstein

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I saw , last night , this theatrical re-showing of the first two of the James Whale-directed Frankenstein movies starring Boris Karloff as the Monster , FRANKENSTEIN and THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN ( Was this event outside the USA ~ In Canada , anyway ? The UK ? ) .
It occurs to be that , frankly , at my age , far above many on this board I suppose , especially in THIS forum , many may not be familiar with them ( Or " golden age of Hollywood " horror movies in general , really...) , they're not really shown on TV much anymore ~ Due to being in B&W , for one thing ~ So , um , DOES anyone here have anything to say about them - or " old-style " horror/monster movie , especially the Universal ones - before I say anything about it ?????????

~Ahem, yes.~
The original idea was for Universal to adapt the stage play into a movie after they had success doing this with Dracula. But for reasons unknown, they didn't have any concept for what the monster ought to look like. (Perhaps they didn't want to copy the make-up used in the play. I could be wrong, but there don't seem to be any photos of the actors in the play.) Since Bela Lugosi did such a good job with Dracula (which he also did on the stage) they offered the part to him. There was some discussion about whether the monster would talk in the movie. But Bela was interested. So Jack Pierce made up Bela like the Golem. No one seems to know why. Perhaps it was because the Golem was a well known German film monster. So Pierce put a broad wig on Bela and made up his skin to look like clay. Bela went before a camera and did some test footage. When shown the footage Laemmle (the head of Universal) was reported to have laughed out loud. Bela was dissatisfied, Pierce was disappointed, and Mr. Laemmle was unimpressed. A poster had already been done by the art department showing a fifty foot tall green monster shooting laser beams out of his eyes. The director originally chosen bowed out, but James Whale was interested and worked with Pierce to come up with something suitable. Later Pierce would say Whale only offered suggestions, and Whale would remember that he invented the monster and told Pierce how to do it, but the fact remained that an odd looking actor was chosen for the make-up tests. Legend says it was because he looked cadaverous. Karloff wanted to be a famous actor and had up till then not had success. Karloff was patient and put up with the tests. Pierce was a genius but was a bit on the cruel side, insisting that actors should suffer to create character.

Well, I'm older than you! There are a few of us who never found out who/what we really were until very late in life. And yes I love those old horror and Si-Fi movies. You see, growing up I always wanted to be that mad scientist. I have been told by many people, even a few "shrinks", that I have successfully accomplished the first half of my ambition. I am still working on the second half, but I am a retired engineer at least.
There are a LOT of the old 50's TV Si-Fi shows on YouTube that I watch while I am doing my daily workout. My favorite is Space Patrol. The commercials are just as much fun as the shows! And I really love the Flash Gordon rocket ships. They were really neat! And the flood of UFO invasion movies were, well . . . . . . . just out of this world!

Those films actually played on TV recently, like about a month ago. A horror TV host from Chicago who calls himself Svengoolie presents those iconic films every Saturday night. That's my chance to see oldies but goodies like Creature From the Black Lagoon and so on.

So was Dr. Frankenstein a Christian?

...Well , my life never really had a start
See my other recent posts . (about non-arts stuff)
Thank you , Red , for the information . Isn't that host resuming an old name/character ?


quote="AspieWolf"]Well, I'm older than you! There are a few of us who never found out who/what we really were until very late in life. And yes I love those old horror and Si-Fi movies. You see, growing up I always wanted to be that mad scientist. I have been told by many people, even a few "shrinks", that I have successfully accomplished the first half of my ambition. I am still working on the second half, but I am a retired engineer at least.
There are a LOT of the old 50's TV Si-Fi shows on YouTube that I watch while I am doing my daily workout. My favorite is Space Patrol. The commercials are just as much fun as the shows! And I really love the Flash Gordon rocket ships. They were really neat! And the flood of UFO invasion movies were, well . . . . . . . just out of this world![/quote]