Tags: jack pierce

Thanks to Mark Shostrom for the heads-up on this one. John "The Unimonster" Stevenson has posted a petition online, asking the executives at Universal Studios to fund a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame for makeup guru Jack Pierce. Pierce created the legendary designs for Frankenstein's Monster, Ardath Bey, and The Wolf Man, before getting unsummarily booted during the studio's transition to Universal-International in the late 1940s.(read more...)

Karl Freund's 1932 classic The Mummy, featuring Boris Karloff and Zita Johann, will be released in a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD set on July 8th, 2008, as part of the Universal Legacy Series. The set comes out just a month before the theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (a sequel to Stephen Sommers' 1999 Mummy remake). According to DVDTimes.co.uk, Freund's original will be presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio with the soundtrack in mono. No word yet on whether these will under go any further restoration/remastering like the recent 75th Anniversary editions of Dracula and Frankenstein. (read more...)

Universal studio's next horror film after Bride of Frankenstein was Werewolf of London, directed by Stuart Walker. The film was the first film dealing with Lycanthropy made by a major studio. The film follows Dr. Glendon (Henry Hull), who is bitten by a strange animal while in Tibet. In Tibet, he obtains the mariphasa lupina, a flower which only blooms under the moon. When Dr. Glendon returns to England the mysterious Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland) warns him that there are two werewolves in London right now. Yogami tells Glendon that the mariphasa is the only known cure for werewolfism. Dr, Yogami also warns him that a werewolf, instinctively kills what he loves the most.(read more...)

In 1935, Universal Studios made their next horror spectacular, the sequel to Frankenstein titled Bride of Frankenstein. It is considered by many to be the greatest horror film ever produced by Universal. A prologue featuring Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester), Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton), and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) starts the film. The story picks up right at the end of Frankenstein, at the burning windmill. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is brought back to Frankenstein manor and the monster (Boris Karloff) climbs from the ashes of the windmill.(read more...)

The success of Dracula caused Universal to believe that a second horror film would be remarkably profitable. The next logical film to make would be an adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." The film was released in December of 1931. Frankenstein told the story of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) who, with his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye), robs graves. He uses the body parts for his experiments. Henry needs a brain for his experiments, so he sends Fritz to Goldstadt University to acquire a brain. Fritz breaks in and steals a normal brain, but a loud noise frightens him and he drops it.(read more...)