Although their characters have become iconic, the now classic fantasy monster films of Universal Studios have suffered a reputation of creakiness, cheap thrills, poor characterization and logic gaps. While the images of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster, and Elsa Lanchester’s Bride of Frankenstein dominate magazine covers, notebooks, posters, mugs and other collectibles, the series of movies that introduced these characters seems to get very little respect from film historians. A step in the right direction to correct this is the excellent new book The Monster Movies of Universal Studios by James L. Neibaur, published by Rowman and Littlefield. In this fascinating new study, the author puts Universal’s horror series into proper historical context. Unlike other books on the subject, Neibaur has limited his focus to films that feature one or more of Universal’s line up of monsters. This book focuses on the classic era, with the range of focus highlighting movies from 1931 through 1956. Any movie made by Universal Studios during this period with Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man and The Creature From The Black Lagoon is discussed in depth with a chapter devoted to each feature, twenty nine movies in all. These include all of the sequels and films that blended fantasy and comedy elements when Universal paired up their monsters with their house comedy duo Abbott and Costello. The book is an impressive work of film scholarship and shines a spotlight on classic Hollywood studio moviemaking by looking at one of the longest film series at a major studio.
Readers disappointed that Neibaur didn’t discuss such mystery and horror offerings from Universal during this period such as The Old Dark House and Murders in the Rue Morgue (both 1932) shouldn’t be. The focus on the monsters makes the book a one of a kind study devoted to characters that seem to always be taken for granted. While Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat (1934) is celebrated for it’s daring, unconventional storyline, the films that feature the monsters seem to get lumped in with low budget movies from a later era. In fact, movies such as The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Dracula’s Daughter (1936) share more in common with The Black Cat then just being made at the same studio. The author restores these films to their proper place as valuable works of cinematic art.
This isn’t to say that when there are jumps in narrative logic, especially evident in the later movies, Neibaur doesn’t point them out. However, even these assembly line B films are given more respect in this book then in previous studies of the Universal genre catalog. The usual pattern of writers discussing movies made during The Great Depression and World War II is to highlight the escapism and lighthearted nature that many of those films exhibit. Examples that prove this pattern include the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers cycle at RKO, the Topper films, etc. In this work Neibaur presents a different argument- that the monster series presented something very real to fight against, a threat that personified the evils of economic crisis and foreign fascism. Given this argument, it is somewhat less hard to believe that the horror series at Universal would decline in popularity after the war ended.
Each chapter is full of behind the scenes information and welcome analysis into the filmmaking process. It’s clear that Neibaur has studied the screenplays for these films, as he points out in The Wolf Man (1941) chapter that the script written by Curt Siodmak never mentions Larry Talbot turning into a werewolf. Another example is the chapter on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) where the author points out that the exchange banter between Lou Costello and the character of McDougal wasn’t originally in the screenplay. He also details the director’s choices and how that affects each film. Things like shot construction, use of negative space and lighting are discussed and are welcome additions to movies that are sometimes seen as just assembly line end products. Many of the chapters contain rare trade ads, which give insight into how Universal marketed these films to theater owners. In addition to contemporary reviews of each movie, some of the chapters reference a series in the Motion Picture Herald called “What The Picture Did For Me,” in which theater exhibitors wrote in to the Herald and discussed how well certain films did at their theaters. This is a viewpoint of film history that sometimes gets ignored and it is to the credit of the author’s research that he has included these very welcome additions in certain chapters.
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