Creature Feature

How a flotilla of bloodcurdling creations—beginning in 1923—gave birth to a monster of a movie studio in the Valley.

Vampires, zombies, aliens… Horror movies and creature features never seem to go out of style, enjoying a perennial popularity way beyond the Halloween season. One major Hollywood movie studio – the oldest one in town – still profits from the B-movies that initially put them on the map. Today Universal Studios offers backlot tours that include a simulated shark attack from Jaws (1971), a visit to the spooky Bates Motel from Hitchcock’s slasher thriller Psycho (1960) as well as a live stage show based on their gruesome horror picture The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

It’s no stretch to assert that it was the ‘monsters’ that made the studio what it is today. Indeed, the famous large creatures such as Frankenstein’s monster and the stealthy bloodsucking killer vampire Dracula formed the grisly backbone of Universal’s  growth through the decades. ‘Horror’ was a genre that the studio essentially invented, enabling it to survive and thrive and leading to cinematic classics that continue to influence entertainment. While rival studios, such as Warner Bros., delivered highly popular gangster movies,  Universal stuck to producing monsters, giant robots, aliens and otherworldly creatures. In all, Universal Studios produced 86 classic chillers during the Golden Age of Hollywood Horror.

“People have to understand that Universal was not one of the leading studios. MGM was called the ‘Tiffany’ of movie studios—everything was ‘class.’ Paramount was considered the most sophisticated studio. But Universal was a ‘bread-and-butter’ studio; they didn’t own a chain of movie theaters as the other ‘big boys’ did, so they were a little scrappier,” shares Leonard Maltin, renowned film critic and historian.

It was 1915 when entrepreneur Carl Laemmle opened the world’s largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios. He converted 230 acres of farmland just north of Hollywood on the Cahuenga Pass into a working backlot. Ever the savvy businessman, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, raking in some revenue from curious visitors.

Universal’s first few movies were generally less flashy than those released by their rival studios but proved to be crowd-pleasing fare; mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns and serials. More often than not their flicks were screened in smaller cities and towns throughout the country. “They played in big cities too, but only when they had something out of the ordinary.” Every now and then, says Maltin, the feisty founder, Carl Laemmle, would get ambitious and “shoot the works.”

SCREEN SCREAMS

It was actually his son, Carl Laemmle Jr., who discovered actor Lon Chaney on the stage and decided to put him in pictures. 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a comparatively expensive picture. That, plus the unknown lead made it a risky venture. The property, however (Victor Hugo’s classic novel), was the draw, and the studio gambled on it.

“It was a genius performance by Lon Chaney,” claims Maltin and the movie was a hit Soon after Chaney appeared The Phantom of the Opera (1925), also based on a classic work of French literature, by Gaston Leroux. The two films proved to be the biggest movies that Universal produced during the silent era. As Maltin points out, Universal became , for the most part, a financially successful operation.

Famous for transforming himself and disappearing into his tortured and grotesque characters by his use of disfiguring make up and contorted posture, Chaney became known as ‘The Man of A Thousand Faces.’

But the movie industry was going through a dramatic upheaval. Recalls Maltin, “When ‘talkies’ came in, ‘Uncle Carl,’ as he was called, turned the reins over to his enterprising son.” Carl Laemmle Jr. (known as ‘Junior’) took a chance on something no one had made before—horror movies.

Two big changes had affected the movie industry around the early 30s. Universal had been losing money on their lavish Broadway musicals, such as King of Jazz (1930). Observes Marc Wanamaker, a film and LA historian with his company, Bison Archives, “These musicals were so big and costly, they were starting to break the company financially.”

Additionally, sound was coming in, and all the studios had to spend vast sums building sound stages and investing in new equipment—all this at the same time as the Wall Street crash. “They couldn’t afford the facilities plus the making of the films. They were in a terrible condition,” says Wanamaker. In 1931 Universal decided to do some low budget ‘shock value’ movies to make money and Dracula marked the first horror picture of the sound era.

Remembering the success of 1925’s Phantom of the Opera, Universal returned to producing creepy dramas with sinister and fantastic central characters. “People were scared and fascinated, but everyone had to see these monster pictures,” says Wanamaker. Paramount did Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both as a silent, with John Barrymore, and a talkie, but with Dracula, Wolf Man, The Mummy and Frankenstein, Universal forged a horror brand, putting their own stamp on their spooky fare.

Elaborates Wanamaker, “Lon Chaney, thanks to his stage training, developed many character personae, including playing heavies in Westerns.” The studio chiefs realized they could count on him and he gradually worked his way up in popularity at Universal. “They gave him the big chance to become a big star. He had to put on so much special makeup for those roles, that were over-the-top incredible and shocking, and the studio banked on him being successful doing this and they were correct.”

The Lon Chaney silent movies paved the way for horror pictures, even though they were Gothic melodramas more than anything. “When Junior took a risk with Frankenstein and Dracula (both released in 1931), it was a daring move,” says Maltin. Once again, in launching these two movies of this untested genre, Junior lacked the draw of marquee power to back him up; the leads were unknown. Bela Lugosi was far from being a movie star even though he had created the role on Broadway. And for his iconic performance as Frankenstein’s monster, Boris Karloff didn’t even get billing! Today the film’s credits still read: The Monster?. This was done to preserve the mystery of the creature’s true identity, that of a mere actor. Recalls Maltin, “Those were the days before Hollywood gave all their tricks away, quite unlike today.”

When both films caused a sensation, the die was cast. While today it’s standard to produce sequels to anything that performs at the box office, that was not the case back then. “They would do copycat films, though. They weren’t above that. They would do another one just like the one that had succeeded,” Maltin laughs. “They’d be clones but not actual sequels.”

That Universal kept going back to the well was indicative of the enormous box office pull and power of their spooky films and their creepy characters. Comments Maltin, “People really were scared by those early pictures. They’d never seen anything quite like it.”

Next came The Mummy (1932) starring a terrifying Boris Karloff as the bandaged animated corpse and also Werewolf of London (1935)— the first Hollywood mainstream werewolf flick. It paved the way for 1941’s The Wolf Man, which starred the son of ‘The Man of A Thousand Faces’ – Lon Chaney Jr., who carried on his father’s legacy through talking pictures.

During the 40s, the ‘sons’ and ‘brides’ pictures hit the screen: Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), Son of Frankenstein (1939), House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and various ‘Mummy’ movies.

HI TO SCI FI

Based on H. G. Wells’ science fiction novel about a hapless scientist, Universal released The Invisible Man in 1933. Claude Rains provided the disembodied though mellifluous voice when he wasn’t obscured by bandages. Says Maltin, “I suppose you would call him sci-fi, but it landed in the midst of these films because Universal was the home of fantastic story-telling. They did that one extremely well, and of course it had progeny as well. Return of the Invisible Man, The Invisible Woman, The Invisible Ghost. Universal really knew how to milk it.”

Additionally, the original Frankenstein and Dracula movies were continually  resurrected. They were re-screened at picture houses all over the country many years after their first release, often as a double feature, with the prints being reissued to cinemas. As Maltin points out, “This, of course, was long before television and home video was even a gleam in anyone’s eye.” The only place to get your thrills and chills was at your favorite picture palace.  He adds, “These films had enormous staying power.”

MONSTER RE-MIX

Universals’ monsters experienced a rebirth when television came along. The widespread success of the package of old horror movies syndicated to American television in 1957 spawned the hugely popular magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. Originally conceived as a one-off publication put out by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman, the magazine enjoyed a decade of hard-core prosperity.

This symbiotic association led to a whole new wave of interest in horror, fantasy and science fiction. The Famous Monsters magazines were avidly devoured by Stephen King, Spielberg and George Lucas – writers and filmmakers who went on to thrill audiences and break new ground with their blockbuster  works.

ALL ABOUT ALIENS

The 1950s was the post-war, post atomic bomb era, and audiences were fascinated by the extra-terrestrial thrill of the space race. Universal released It Came From Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Tarantula (1955)— all B-movie creature features.

In It Came From Outer Space, based on a short story by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, an astronomer encounters extra terrestrials in the Arizona desert. Universal International contacted Bradbury in the summer of 1952 in the hopes that he would create a story for them that would feature some large, frightening space monsters. Bradbury agreed to do it, but with a caveat. He told the studio executives he’d actually write two stories for them; one with all the aspects of a full-on alien invasion, and another, more thoughtful version that he said he’d prefer to see them do on the big screen. If the studio preferred the first one, he’d accept the money and be on his way. But if they were willing to try his other approach, he promised to stay on and work on a fuller treatment. To his astonishment, the studio chose the latter option. Bradbury reportedly became so enthused that he pounded out a 90-page outline of the story, which was then turned into the resulting film directed by Jack Arnold.

THE LEGACY LIVES ON

More than a half century after their golden years of monster movies, Universal has continued to capitalize on its homegrown creatures. Three of Universal Studios’ more recent releases  broke box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. All were “creature features,” namely Jaws (1975), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993).

As Maltin sums it up, “For Universal, monsters became their hallmark. Here we are, still talking about this, eighty or so years after their creation. That’s pretty amazing!”