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.

"Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!"

Before Andrew Lloyd Webber got his annoying musical hands all over this classic story and turned it into what is really a cheesy lovefest, if you take a hard enough look at it, The Phantom of the Opera was not considered a romance. In fact, the original novel by Gaston Leroux was more in the mystery/horror genre than to be considered a romance. And to be fair, how romantic is a crazily jealous, megalomanical guy who kills and kidnaps people to prove his love? Anyway, the best film adaptation of The Phantom, in my completely biased opinion, was the 1925 verison with the Man of A Thousand Faces himself, the venerable Lon Chaney.

The master of makeup in the early days of film, Chaney was famous for his silent film roles as the freaks, geeks, and frightful characters, such as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Chaney made the unmasking scene in The Phantom and no unmasking scene will ever be as grotesque as the horrifying one in the 1925 silent film. The silent film is true to form and portrays the storyline closer to that of a novel, not a total romance with song and dance but rather a terrifying mystery taking place at the old opera house. Directed by the ill-fated Rupert Julian, and staring, alongside Chaney, Mary Philbin as Christine Daae and Norman Kerry as the Vicomte Raoul de Chagy, the silent verison still manages to leap off the screen.

Like as Nosferatu, which I blogged about before, this film is also available in its entirety on Goggle Video. So, even if you don't have it home, you can just click away on your computer a few times and watch Chaney in all of his horror and glory. I will spare giving you the plot, since I'm sure you know it already. The silence does not ruin the film at all, in fact adding to the suspense of the scenes. The costumes and scenery are absolutely gorgeous, capturing the opulence and glory of the grand days of the opera. Because the film is entirely silent in some versions or only with music in the background in others, what some might consider overacting actually helps you understand what is taking place in the plot, along with the title cards. For the time period, the special effects are marvelous as well. Studios now spend millions of dollars on special effects to create the same emotions than these simple lighting and shadow effects, which help to make Phantom's eerie persona.

The film was redubbed in 1929 after the advent of sound. Chaney's voice was not used because it was not available and so the entire film was rescored and dubbed over using third party actors. Personally, I prefer the verison that is eternally silent, title cards and all. The little organ music in the background of the silent film on DVD or video makes the movie enough as it is. If you want to know more about Chaney, you can go to his official site or to PBS which has a great article and some resources about The Man of A Thousand Faces. If you want a good silent horror film with a little romance on the side for a movie night, I highly recommend watching Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera. This masterfully done film shows how early film is just as good, if not better, than more modern verisons.

Fright Fest Begins

The month of October is upon us and this month I have decided to celebrate some of the shocks, screams, thrills, and chills Old Hollywood had to offer. From the terrifying long nails of Nosferatu to the hair-tingling transformation of Lon Chaney, Jr. into The Wolfman to The Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood had us on the edge of our seats with fright and anticipation.

Unlike the horror movies of today, which rely more on straightforward gore, violence, and sexuality to draw in viewers to the box office, this movies relied more on suspense, drama, and a creation of a frightening realm through makeup, costuming, scenery, and spectacular acting to keep audiences paralyzed with fear. Though many see these films as outdated and their horror not quite as petrifying as the modern films that push all the limits and sometimes manage to desensitize us to the truly horrible, many are still relevant and still relevantly spooky if you watch them at the right time of night with the lights off. I dare you to stay up late and watch one of the old movies where Vincent Price interprets the works of Edgar Allan Poe then have pleasant dreams that night.

Of course, there are some films whose once innovative and frightening special effects now emit laughter and certain films that missed the mark, becoming more horrible than horrifying. Still, we need to explore what it was that once made these movies so terrifying to audiences, what about audiences have changed, and the major innovations these first frightening films made that allowed for modern advancement in the movies. I like to think that even the bad films did some good, even if the only good is giving us something to laugh at.

So I invite you, if you dare, to join me this month in celebrating what is scary and what is scarily funny about Old Hollywood. Who knows? We might all get a good scream out of it.