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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 monsters 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 described the ''Frankenstein'' series as "the most famous, influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankenstein (1931 Film)
''Frankenstein'' is a 1931 American pre-Code 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; 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. ''Frankenstein'' stars Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, 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 make-up for the monster was provided by Jack Pierce. Alongside Clive and Karloff, the film's cast also includes Mae Clarke, John Boles, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan. Produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film was a commercial success up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Clive
Colin Clive (born Colin Glenn Clive-Greig; 20 January 1900 – 25 June 1937) was a British stage and screen actor. His most memorable role was Henry Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, in the 1931 film ''Frankenstein'' and its 1935 sequel, ''Bride of Frankenstein''. Early life Clive was born in Saint-Malo, France, to an English colonel, Colin Philip Greig, and his wife, Caroline Margaret Lugard Clive. He attended Stonyhurst College and subsequently Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where an injured knee disqualified him from military service and contributed to his becoming a stage actor."Colin Clive," ''The Stage'' (1 July 1937), p. 7. bituary/ref> He was a member of the Hull Repertory Theatre Company for three years. Clive created the role of Steve Baker, the white husband of racially mixed Julie LaVerne, in the first London production of ''Show Boat''; the production featured Cedric Hardwicke and Paul Robeson. Clive first worked with James Whale in the Savoy Theatre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Florey
Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor. Born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, he became an orphan at an early age and was then raised in Switzerland. In 1920 he worked at first as a film journalist, then as an assistant and extra in featurettes from Louis Feuillade. Florey moved to the United States in 1921. As a director, Florey's most productive decades were the 1930s and 1940s, working on relatively low-budget fillers for Paramount Pictures, Paramount and Warner Brothers. His reputation is balanced between his avant-garde expressionist style, most evident in his early career, and his work as a fast, reliable studio-system director called on to finish troubled projects, such as 1939's ''Hotel Imperial (1939 film), Hotel Imperial''. 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, ''Murde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenn Strange
George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who mostly appeared in Western films and was billed as Glenn Strange. He is best remembered for playing Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s and for his role as Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's ''Gunsmoke'' television series. Early life Strange was born in 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. 13 years prior to New Mexico gaining statehood. Strange grew up in the West Texas town of Cross Cut. His father was a bartender and later a rancher. Strange learned by ear how to play the fiddle and guitar. By the time he was 12, he was performing at cowboy dances. By 1928, he was on radio in El Paso, Texas. He was a young rancher, but in 1930, he came to Hollywood as a member of the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', 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. After playing in 172 different productions in his native Hungary, Lugosi moved on to appearing in Hungarian silent films in 1917. He had to suddenly emigrate to Germany after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 because of his former socialist activities (organizing a stage actors' union), leaving his first wife in the process. 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 novel, mo ... [...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 half of 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". 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 Columbia Burlesque Wheel. During the summer, when burles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), professionally known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with straight man 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 Helen Rege and Sebastiano Cristillo, a silk weaver and insurance sales agent. His father was Italian, from CasertaCostello, Chris and Raymond Strait."Lou's On First." New York: St. Martin's Press. in Campania, Italy, and his mother was an American of Italian, French and Irish ancestry (he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Ferguson
Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television. Background Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish merchant, and his American wife Annie Boynton. He grew up in his native Ferndale. He graduated from Ferndale Union High School in 1927. 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. 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 hundreds of TV episodes subsequently. Career Ferguson's best known role was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wolf Man (1941 Film)
''The Wolf Man'' is a 1941 American 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 part of the Universal Monsters movies and is of great cinematic 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 nearly 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 attended Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire. 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) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dracula spelled backward) in '' Son of Dracula'', Frankenstein's monster in ''The Ghost of Frankenstein'' (1942), the Mummy in three pictures, and various other roles in many Universal horror films. He also portrayed Lennie Small in ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939) and supporting parts in dozens of mainstream movies, including '' High Noon'' (1952), and ''The Defiant Ones'' (1958). Originally referred to in films as Creighton Chaney, he was later credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935, and after ''Man Made Monster'' (1941), beginning as early as ''The Wolf Man'' later that same year, he was almost always billed under the name of his immensely more famous father, the deceased cinema giant Lon Chaney, at the studio's insistence. Chaney had English, Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English 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. His later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. He received a Tony Award in 1948 as Best Actor in a Play. He was also nominated for two Academy Awards and was honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Afri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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