"I saw what I saw when I saw it..."

What do Bud Abbott, Groucho Marx, Rex Reed, and Mahatma Ghandi all have in common? It could be a joke, given today's topic but it isn't. All four of these great men were born on October 2, and in a belated celebration of Bud Abbott in particular, I am going to talk about a few of the wonderful horror and mystery parodies that Bud and his partner, Lou Costello did. Before Scary Movie and all of the other modern parody films, Bud and Lou were using a mix of satire, parody, comedy, slapstick, straight man/funny man, and over all hijinks to create tons of classic movies, all of which remain hilarious to this day.

Perhaps the first purveyors of horror parody, Bud and Lou came out with such gems as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Africa Screams, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a list of films longer than that of some modern Hollywood A-listers, yet only a portion of the Abbott and Costello films. Bud and Lou took their routine into the backdrops of these frightening horror films, using many of the actual cast members from the real movies themselves.

In Meet Frankenstein, they meet Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster. In Meet the Killer, they team up with a frightening Boris Karloff and do so again when he plays the other lead role in Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The films Meet the Mummy and Meet the Invisible Man do not use actual actors from the film, though some original footage is used in Meet The Invisible Man. These two films are strictly parodies of the originals. Africa Screams could easily be a King Kong parody, but instead has Bud and Lou mining for diamonds and encounter lions, headhunters, and giant apes. Who Done It? is a radio mystery near scary movie where Bud and Lou have to solve the murder committed at the station they hope to work at in a climatic, almost Hitchcock style ending filled with drama and suspense.

To me personally, Bud and Lou are the end-all, be-all of comedic teams. I love all of their films, but since it is Fright Fest and all, I can only focus on these select horror films. Somehow, they manage to make these films frightening and at the same time, laugh your pants of funny, which is a difficult thing for any film to do. Comedy and horror are genres that never really seem to exist, except when something is so horrible its funny or so funny its horrifying. These films I mentioned manage to cross genre lines and at the same time, be excellent examples of film. I could probably do an entire blog on the comedy of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, but I will limit myself to this one post for the time being.

Those of you who want to know more about Bud and Lou or are big fans yourself can check out the excellent web page their families created here, which totes itself as helping "Abbot and Costello Meet the Internet". The movie Africa Screams is public domain and can be watched here. The other films you will have to track down yourself. And just because, here is the entire "Who's On First Routine", since I cannot mention Bud and Lou without thinking of the routine of theirs that everyone recognizes.

Unrequited Love Comes Back from the Dead

There have been several incarnations of films about Mummies and Egyptian lore, but the first one that started it all was The Mummy in 1932, staring the legendary Boris Karloff. The script was written by John L. Balderston who contributed to the scripts of Dracula and Frankenstein, and was directed by Karl Freund, the Dracula cinematographer. One of the Monster Movie elite, Karloff was Bela Lugosi's main rival for the title of Horror King after the death of Lon Chaney, Sr. The movie is also in the pantheon of great horror films that overall add to our pop culture imagery of certain horror stereotypes. I found a version the film online that you can watch here, for those of you that are interested.

The premise of the movie is that Ancient Egyptian priest Imhotep (Karloff) is accidentally revived by an archaeological expedition, lead by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron) that uncovers his mummy. Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists and goes through Cairo, looking for the reincarnation of his long-lost lover, the Princess Ankh-hes-en-amon (Zita Johann). Imhotep was mummified alive after trying to resurrect the dead princess and when he finds her, he intends to mummify her, make her his bride, and the two of them will live forever in a sort of Corpse Bride bliss. Ten years after Whemple originally set the mummy loose on an unsuspecting Egypt, he returns with son Frank in tow (David Manners) and use the help of Ardath Bay (Karloff) to help them locate the mummy's whereabouts. Bay abducts the beautiful Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann) and it is up to Frank and Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan) to uncover the mystery of the mummy and save the day.

Karloff's Mummy isn't you're average last minute Halloween costume where you wrap yourself up in a bunch of toilet paper. His mummy is actually pretty convincing as a the revived soul of an ancient Egyptian priest. Again, make up magician Jack Pierce helped Karloff create his creature's iconic costume. Cotton, collodion, and spirit gum were attached to Karloff's face and clay into his hair. The linen bandages that create the long-staying image of the Mummy were previously treated with acid and burned in an oven before being wrapped around Karloff. The make up took eight hours to apply and only two to take off. The removal of the gum was painful to Karloff and he was quoted as saying putting on and taking off the Mummy costume was "the most trying ordeal I ever endured".

The success of the first Mummy movie spawned a good dozen or so sequels and spin-offs, most b movies such as The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Ghost, and The Mummy's Curse. Comedic duo Abbott and Costello also poked fun of The Mummy and these b-sequels in the spectacular comedy Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Recent versions of The Mummy have been made in the past ten years or so, little of the original scripts and characters surviving. These new Mummy movies are more action/thriller films than actual horror films, as the original The Mummy was intended to be.

"I am Dracula..." And So Much More

Even in today's Hollywood, few stars can say they hold an iconic or cult position in mainstream culture. When you first hear the word "Dracula" or "vampire", most do not think of the hideous creature of Nosferatu. Modern followers of vampire lore think of the suave, well-dressed sophisticate who mixes his lust for blood with an almost romantic aura about himself. The idea of the romantic vampire comes to us not from literature, but from one man who will forever be identified as the creator of the modern vampire ideal: Bela Lugosi. The Lugosi version of the famed vampire has penetrated our culture in the way the way the vampire Dracula's own fangs penetrated his victims. Ironically, Lugosi's Dracula bit no one on camera and left no bite marks on any necks.

Born in what was at the time Austria-Hungary and now Romania, Bela had an unusual rise to stardom. He served in the army during World War I for the Austro-Hungarian army and then branched into Shakespeare on stage and films in Hungary and Germany. He illegally immigrated to the US in 1920 and then legally gained entrance in 1921. He married a San Franciscan socialite only to be divorced three weeks later after an affair with famed silent film flapper and "It" girl, Clara Bow. Bela received his studio contract with MGM after the death of Lon Chaney and had his first commercial success with Dracula.

The original Dracula was billed with the slogan: "The story of the strangest passion the world has ever known". The film itself was released on Valentine's Day of 1931, which some might consider a little ironic for a horror film. Lugosi delivers his lines in the movie with a wonderful accent that portrays the foreignness of the creature in a way no American-born actor could have. So many of his famous phrases such as "Listen to them, the children of the night, what music they make" and "I never drink wine" have become so intertwined with our culture that we know them before many of us even know Lugosi was the famed actor who created the modern version of Dracula. Unfortunately, many people know little of Lugosi past his infamous role as the vampire defeated by Van Helsing.

Accent and appearance type cast Bela into the mysterious European, usually of some sort of supernatural or otherworldly origin. Because of changes in Hollywood, Bela's success wavered and he was soon resigned to doing B-movies and taking roles less than suited to a man of his talents. He delved into drug use and became so obscure, many thought he was already dead. His last major motion picture was Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, where he recreated the role that made him famous. After this, he began doing less and less work in film.

However, Bela's career was reserected by notoriously strange cult director Ed Wood, a major fan of Bela's, hired him to do work in his famous B-movies. In 1959, Bela died of a heart attack in the midst of filming Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, causing Wood to replace him with a thinner, non-accented lookalike. The brave or mildly curious of you can watch Plan 9 here if you like, though it is often listed among the worst films ever made due to Bela's untimely death and replacement, not to mention Wood's directorial... skills... On request of his wife, Bela was buried wearing his vampire costume, further adding to his legend.

In addition, two other public domain movies of Bela's are available online for those who want to watch as well. The 1932 White Zombie is a great horror film and one of Bela's last "A" pictures. It can be found here. The full length version of the 1939 serial The Phantom Creeps, is more on the B-movie side and you can decide for yourself whether it is good or bad, since opinions tend to vary on this picture. It was featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000, if that gives you any indications about anything at all. Those of you who want to see The Phantom Creeps can view it here. I highly recommend checking out Bela's other films if you have time, good, bad, and ugly, just to get a broad sense of his acting spectrum.

Creating an icon like Bela Lugosi's Dracula is something very few can claim to have done. Our modern image of the vampire comes directly from this character he created and he has influenced more popular culture in America than perhaps he ever intended to. The man was even given his own stamp by the US Postal Service as part of the monster movie collection, a honor few people have ever had. We owe a lot to this Eastern European actor who spawned not only a cult following but a culture.

A Symphony of Horror

I had the pleasure of discovering that Google Video has the complete silent film of Noseferatu posted for viewers to see in its enterity. The film itself is short compared to most modern day features, running at around an hour and twenty-four minutes. Officially titled in English Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, the 1922 German film, directed by F.W. Murnau, is the closest any film interpretation has come to recreating Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula on the silver screen. Before Bela Lugosi turned Dracula into a sauve, sophisticated, man about town, Nosferatu was the terrifyingly devilish impression people had of vampires.

The film was actually made in Germany, but since it is silent, the title cards were easily translated into English for a wider audience. This translation is a true testament to how the art of film can transcend the language barrier. More than reading the title cards, though, you find yourself relying on the expressions and actions of the characters to propel you through the story. Without the added music in the background, you can still understand completely what is going on. However, I would recommend keeping the music on and turned up since the score, done by the Silent Orchestra, is particularly haunting. Several scores for the film exist and are widely available, even fragments from the original score by Hans Erdmann remain and can be heard, thanks to the Phoenix Wind Project.
Now, I know a lot of people are not big fans of silent movies and they would much rather hear the lines from the actors than read the title cards on the screen, but this film is definitely a classic and any film buff, lover of horror or vampires, or just someone looking for a little culture and exploration can get into this film. Sure, the dreaded Count Orlok may not be as terrifying to modern audiences as he was to the first generation of movie-goers, but he is still the closest to Stoker's description of Dracula and terrifying in his own, silent right. And yes, the "werewolf" towards the beginning is in fact a hyena.

Some of the scenes you might fine a little cheesy since we're used to a word of modern filming techniques, CGI, and computers, but you have to learn to appreciate the abilities they had in the time period. And even if some scenes are a little dated, there are scenes, such as the entrance of the Nosferatu himself that will still chill you to the bone, especially if its after midnight and all the lights are off. For its day, the film is wonderfully acted. The hauntingly talented Max Schreck takes the title role of Nosferatu/Count Orlock in stage makeup that rivals modern horrof film costuming. The other stars of the film are the angelically handsome Gustav von Wangenheim as Jonathan Harker and Greta Schröder as his tragically beautiful wife, Mina.

At any rate, Nosferatu is not only a classic film but a classic horror film, one of the must haves on any ultimate horror movie list.