Although his death was announced in 1944, director Todd Browning didn’t actually die until 1962. The premature announcement was engineered by the director himself who wanted to live out his final years in anonymity.

Browning directed a string of films with Lon Chaney during the 1920′s but it is with Universal’s 1931 Dracula and the banned movie, MGM’s, The Freaks (1932) that he is best remembered. Freaks was not seen in the UK until some thirty years after its release and even today the film is deeply troubling.Freaks told the story of a group of carnival freaks with the parts played by actual carnival performers or, as they were known at the time, freaks.

Browning was hired by Universal Pictures to direct Dracula  (1931). Although Browning wanted to hire an unknown European actor for the title role and have him be mostly offscreen as a sinister presence, budget constraints and studio interference necessitated the casting of Lugosi and a more straightforward approach.

“Stop staring at me, you fool,” the invisible man tells his companion at one point in this film – I kid ye not. The script is pepper with such  humorous lines which are something of a trademark of director, James Whale. Originally Boris Karloff was to play the invisible man but after a disagreement with the studio he walked off the project. Colin Clive was also considered and indeed had not the film production been temporarily suspended, Clive would have played the part. However when the movies started up again Colin Clive was unavailable and so British actor, Claude Rains took the part.

Rains is only seen briefly at the film’s climax and for the most part of the movie his performance is by disembodied voice alone. And what a vocal performance and Rains together with some clever special effects creates the illusion of an invisible mad man. Once nice touch is with Una O’Conner playing essentially the same character she played in Whale’s Frankenstein and providing suitable hysterics.

Black body suit against a black background was used for this shot

The special effects were cleverly done – for the most part wires were used to hurl things about, but the scene where the invisible man undressed was done by Claude Rains wearing a black body suit beneath his clothes, while the scene was filmed against a black background. The shot was then superimposed onto a shot of the location where the action takes place – this technique was groundbreaking for the time, and thrilled audiences which helped to make the film one of the studio’s biggest money earners of the year.

Another excellent horror classic from Universal.

This film has been completely overshadowed by the 1941 remake which starred Lon Chaney Jnr. as the doomed Larry Talbot who finds himself turning into a werewolf during each full moon. It’s a pity because Werewolf of London deserves rediscovery – Jack Pierce provided the make up for both movies and although his work here is far more basic than his definitive work on the  remake, it is nonetheless eerily effective, even to a modern audience.

Werewolf of London holds the distinction of being the first sound film made of the werewolf legend – there had been at least three silent movies dealing with the legend, with the most well-known being the 1913 Canadian production, The Werewolf.

When the movie was originally released it was considered too similar to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Fredrick March which had only been released three years previously, and it was something of a flop but over time the film has become to be regarded as an imaginative classic of the genre. Initially Jack Pierce’s make up was identical to that used later on Lon Chaney for The Wolfman, but Henry Hull felt his performance was inhibited by the lack of facial movements, and so a more minimalistic make up was selected, which was something of a mistake, as the make up, although effective when in shadow, looks bland in comparison to later efforts. Henry Hull also plays a less sympathetic character than Lon Chaney, and this results in the audience finding it difficult to empathise with the doomed botanist who has been cursed with the bite of the werewolf.

The sounds of the werewolf howling in the movie is still effective today and was created by recording the sound of an actual Timber Wolf and mixing this in with the howls of actor, Henry Hull.

It’s a pity that Werewolf of London is one of those movies that has been obliterated by a definitive remake, because it has many merits and is essential viewing for any serious student of the genre. Without this movie there would have been no Lon Chaney Jr’s The Wolf Man, and it did prove that Jack Pierce was correct with his original make up. The werewolf in this movie often looks like a man who hasn’t shaved for three months, rather than the half man, half beast he is supposed to represent. Still it’s a great movie and Henry Hull dead serious performance makes the whole thing believable.

The film is available on DVD, doubled with 1941′s The Wolf Man as part of the Universal Monsters Series, and as always the discs come with a wealth of special features, though most of the emphasis is on the Chaney movies. It’s an excellent transfer of the original negative to digital disc though and I can not recommend this release highly enough.

How different this movie could have been – Bela Lugosi was originally intended to play the part of the monster, and indeed the actor even filmed screen tests in a make up that was far less effective than Jack Pierce’s groundbreaking final make up. It is believed that the footage of Lugosi as the monster has been destroyed, but film historians live in hope that one day this footage will turn up. What we know about Lugosi’s monster comes from an advertising poster that was produced before he left the project,and it is clear from this poster that it would have been a very different movie had Lugosi remained with the project.

These days the Boris Karloff make up has become so universally recognised that this monster remains the definitive version of Frankenstein’s creation. This is partly due to the effective make up as well as Karloff’s excellent performance which made the monster sympathetic as well as terrifying. The famous lightning eyes poster can be seen to the left – not the monster does not have the now famous flat head and seems to resemble the creature from an earlier stage play.

“We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation – life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even – horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance to – uh, well, we warned you.“

Those words were spoken by actor, Edward Van Sloan before the movie played – this was done for two reasons – firstly Universal were building anticipation in the audience, but also there was some genuine concerns that much of the imagery in the movie would prove too much for the audience. Indeed there were reports in the New York press after the premiere of several audience members fainting and more than one person was reported to have fled the cinema screaming.  The movie received universal acclaim from critics and is widely regarded as one of the best films of 1931, and indeed it is listed (rightly so) among the best movies ever made. Even today the film hasn’t aged, apart from Colin Clive’s overly theatrical performance, and it rewards viewers with a still stunning cinematic experience. Today’s gore soaked, CGI horror movies could learn a lot from this little masterpiece.

Over the years the film has suffered much censorship – most famously the scene where the monster innocently tosses the little girl into the lake, was not show fully until 1986 when the movies was fully restored by Universal.

The cuts originally made to the movie were:

• Frankenstein’s line, “Now I know what it feels like to be God!”, was obliterated by a clap of thunder on the soundtrack.
• Some footage of Frankenstein’s assistant Fritz taking sadistic glee in scaring the monster by waving a lit torch near him while the monster is shackled in chains.
• Close up of needle injection was removed.
• In the scene of the monster and the little girl tossing flowers into the lake, the second part of the scene was cut, beginning at the moment he extends his hands to pick her up

The version currently available on DVD as part of the Universal Creature Features Collection is the complete movie with all cuts reinstated. The film is part of a double pack with the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein. Both movies are all time classics and belong in the collection of any self repsecting horror fan.

“Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make.”

When viewed today Tod Browning’s Dracula seems plodding and overly theatrical, but upon its original theatrical release audience members were reported to faint away in sheer terror. The movie had originally been intended as a vehicle for Universal’s top horror star, Lon Chaney but when the star succumbed to throat cancer the production was thrown into disarray.

The famous source material, namely Bram Stoker’s novel had already been filmed unofficially in 1922 as Nosferatu but Universal’s remake would be official and permission was obtained from Stoker’s estate. However with the death of Lon Chaney the producers found casting the title role to be problematic – Paul Muni, Chester Morris,  Ian Keith were all considered. Director Todd Browning was not at all interested in Hungarian actor, Bela Lugosi who had played Dracula in the successful Broadway play based on the  novel. However against the tide of studio opinion, Lugosi lobbied hard for the part and ultimately won the executives over, thanks in part to him accepting a paltry $500 per week salary for seven weeks of work, amounting to $3,500.

The shoot was apparently troubled with the director finding himself unable to garner much interest in the movie. He had originally intended the project to be a collaboration between himself and his friend, Lon Chaney. And the loss of the actor seemed to sour the entire project for the director who would often delegate much of the work to cinematographer Karl Freund  who actually directed much of the movie. In fairness Freund should have been credited as a co-director, but it was the disinterested Browning who gained the kudos for the movie.

The film though benefitted greatly from Bela Lugosi and he is arguably the best thing in the picture – perhaps the fact that the film was shot in a theatrical style suited the actor who was able to transport his stage performance into the movie. Parts of the movie reflect Browning’s greatness as a director of silent movies and much of the acting is done in the style of the silents, which again can make the film a tough viewing experience for the modern audience. But the movie is definitely worth sticking with and is a true classic of the genre. It was a massive hit for Universal and kicked off the cycle of creature features for which the studio is forever known.

The film finally premiered at  The Roxy  Theatre  in New York on Feb. 12, 1931.  Dracula was a big gamble for a major Hollywood studio to undertake. In spite of the literary credentials of the source material, it was uncertain if an American audience was prepared for a serious full length supernatural chiller. Nervous executives breathed a collective sigh of relief when Dracula proved to be a huge box office sensation. Within 48 hours of its opening at New York’s Roxy Theatre, it had sold 50,000 tickets.

There are several DVD editions of the movie available but by far the best is the Universal Monsters collection in which the film was released as a two disc package along with The House of Dracula which starred John Carradine as the bloodsucking vampire. The set contains a wealth of special features including both a commentary and an all new documentary.