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Frankenstein (Universal Film Series)
''Frankenstein'' is a film series of horror films from Universal Pictures based on the play version by Peggy Webling and the 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' by Mary Shelley. The series follow the story of a monster created by Henry Frankenstein who is made from body parts of corpses and brought back to life. The rest of the series generally follows the monster continuously being revived and eventually focuses on a series of cross overs with other Universal horror film characters such as The Wolf Man. The series consists of the following films: ''Frankenstein'' (1931), ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935), ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939), ''The Ghost of Frankenstein'' (1942), ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' (1943), '' House of Frankenstein'' (1944), '' House of Dracula'' (1945) and ''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'' (1948). The series was praised by film historians, such as Ken Hanke, who described the ''Frankenstein'' series as "the most famous, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankenstein (1931 Film)
''Frankenstein'' is a 1931 American Gothic film, Gothic Pre-Code Hollywood, pre-Code Science fiction film, science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell (screenwriter), John Russell. ''Frankenstein'' stars Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein (Victor Frankenstein in the novel), an obsessed scientist who digs up corpses with his assistant in order to assemble a living being from body parts. The resulting creature, often known as Frankenstein's monster, is portrayed by Boris Karloff. The makeup for the monster was provided by Jack Pierce (makeup artist), Jack Pierce. Alongside Clive and Karloff, the film's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Clive
Colin Glenn Clive (born Clive-Greig; 20 January 1900 – 25 June 1937) was a British theatre and film actor. Known for portraying individualistic, tumultuous characters which often mirrored his personal life, he is most famous for his role as Dr. Henry Frankenstein in the 1931 film ''Frankenstein'' and its 1935 sequel, ''Bride of Frankenstein''. Clive’s maniacal delivery of the words, "It's alive, it's alive!" when Dr. Frankenstein confirms his creature is moving, was listed by AFI as one of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. Early life Clive was born in Saint-Malo, France, to an English colonel, Colin Philip Greig, and his wife, Caroline Margaret Lugard Clive, a member of the aristocratic Clive family. In a 1935 interview, Clive stated his mother had moved to France to escape the tumult of the ongoing Second Boer War. His family had intended for Clive to embark on a military career, and he attended Stonyhurst College and subsequently the Royal Military College, Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Florey
Robert Florey (September 14, 1900 – May 16, 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor. Florey directed more than 50 films, the best known likely being the Marx Brothers first feature ''The Cocoanuts'' (1929). His 1932 foray into Universal-style horror, ''Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932 film), Murders in the Rue Morgue'', is regarded by horror fans as highly reflective of German expressionism. In 2006, as his 1937 film ''Daughter of Shanghai'' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, he was called "widely acclaimed as the best director working in major studio B movie, B-films". Life and work Early life Born as Robert Gustave Fuchs in Paris, he grew up near the studio of George Melies. In 1920, he worked at first as an assistant and extra in featurettes from Louis Feuillade. Hollywood Florey went to Hollywood in 1921 as a journalist for Cinemagazine. He worked as foreign publicity d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenn Strange
George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western (genre), Western films. He played Sam Noonan, the bartender on Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS's ''Gunsmoke'' television series, and Frankenstein's monster in three Universal Pictures, Universal films during the 1940s. Early life Strange was born in Weed, New Mexico, Weed, New Mexico Territory,Raw, Laurence (2012)"Glenn Strange", ''Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930–1960'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012), p. 175. Retrieved October 29, 2017. the fourth child of William Russell Strange and the former Sarah Eliza Byrd. An eighth-generation grandson of Pocahontas and John Rolfe through his maternal grandfather, he was also a cousin of actors Rex Allen and Lee 'Lasses' White. Of Irish and Cherokee ancestry through his father, he spoke Cherokee until he was about 13 years old, but in 1972 he said, "since that time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bela Lugosi
Blaskó Béla Ferenc Dezső (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), better known by the stage name Bela Lugosi ( ; ), was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931 English-language film), ''Dracula'' (1931), Igor (character), Ygor in ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902, appearing in more than a hundred productions. Beginning in 1917, he performed in Hungarian silent films. After Hungarian Soviet Republic, the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919, Lugosi was forced to emigrate to Germany due to his socialist activities. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, novel, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bud Abbott
William Alexander "Bud" Abbott (October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974) was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known as the straight man in the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. Early life Abbott was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on October 2, 1897, into a show business family.The year of birth has been reported as 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898 in different sources. The 1895 date was perpetuated by sources copying from earlier sources. His birth certificate and World War I draft card both use "October 2, 1897". https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCB1-1FP His parents, Rae Fisher and Harry Abbott, had met while working for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. She was a bareback rider of German Jewish background and he was a concessionaire and forage agent. Bud was the third of the couple's four children. When Bud was a toddler, the family relocated to Harlem, then to the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, and his father became a longtime advance man for the Columbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), better known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with Bud Abbott and their routine " Who's on First?". Abbott and Costello, who teamed in burlesque in 1936, were among the most popular and highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II. During a national tour in 1942, they sold $85 million in war bonds in 35 days. By 1955, their popularity waned from overexposure, and their film and television contracts lapsed. Their partnership ended in 1957. Early life Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Sebastiano Cristillo, an insurance sales agent, and Helen Rege, a silk weaver. His father was Italian, from Caserta,Costello, Chris and Raymond Strait."Lou's On First." New York: St. Martin's Press. while his mother was an American of Italian, French and Irish ancestry, with her grandfather Francesco R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Ferguson
Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1899 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was born in Ferndale, California, the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish merchant, and his American wife Annie Boynton. He graduated from Ferndale Union High School in 1917. He earned a bachelor's degree in speech and drama at the University of California and a master's degree from Cornell University. He also taught at UCLA and Cornell. As a young man, he became connected with Gilmor Brown, the founder and director of the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and became one of its first directors. He directed as well as acted in many plays there.Alexander, Diane. ''Playhouse'', Los Angeles, California: Dorleac-MacLeish, 1984 He also taught at the Playhouse. He made his film debut in 1939 in ''Gambling on the High Seas'' (released in 1940), and appeared in nearly 200 feature films and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wolf Man (1941 Film)
''The Wolf Man'' is a 1941 American Gothic horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role. Claude Rains, Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers, and Maria Ouspenskaya star in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood's depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful ''Werewolf of London'' (1935). This film is one of the Universal Monsters movies, and garnered great acclaim for its production. After this movie's success, Lon Chaney Jr. would reprise his role as "The Wolf Man" in four sequels, beginning with '' Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' in 1943. Plot Larry Talbot returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales, to bury his recently deceased brother and reconcile with his estranged father, Sir John ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned over 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and his film work included leading roles in several adapted literary classics. Early life Hardwicke was born in Lye, Worcestershire (now West Midlands) to Edwin Webster Hardwicke and his wife, Jessie (née Masterson). He initially attended Stourbridge Grammar School moving to Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire in September 1907 until July 1911. He intended to train as a doctor but failed to pass the necessary examinations."Hardwicke, Sir Cedric Webster" ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, |
Lon Chaney Jr
Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film ''The Wolf Man (1941 film), The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various fictional crossover, crossovers, Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backward) in ''Son of Dracula (1943 film), Son of Dracula'', Frankenstein's monster in ''The Ghost of Frankenstein'' (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in Universal Monsters, many Universal horror films, including six films in their 1940s ''Inner Sanctum'' series, making him a horror icon. He also portrayed Lennie Small in ''Of Mice and Men (1939 film), Of Mice and Men'' (1939) and played supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including ''High Noon'' (1952), ''The Defiant Ones'' (1958), and numerous Westerns, musicals, comedies and dramas. Originally referred to in films as Creighton Chaney, he was later credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935, and afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was an Anglo-South African actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films. Rathbone frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Mr. Murdstone in ''David Copperfield'' (1935), Tybalt in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938). His most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. Rathbone's later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. In 1948, he shared the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play with two others. He was also nominated for two Academy Awards and honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Rathbone was born in Johannes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
