THE FIRST TIME FRANKENSTEIN ALMOST MET A WOLFMAN

And other lost films from an alternate Universal monster Universe

An exclusive article for The Horror Drunx

Story and photos by Sid Terror

LON CHANEY AS DRACULA

Lon Chaney and his favorite director Tod Browning long wanted to bring the story of DRACULA to the screen. The story, based on the novel by Bram Stoker had already been popular on the stage overseas and an unofficial version of it filmed at least once already (the 1922 German film NOSFERATU), so it was considered a prime project for development by Chaney and Browning. Many even think that their warm-up for the project may have been in 1927 with Chaney’s vampiric character in the film LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT. As it happens, in 1927 a stage production for DRACULA also opened in the United States... First in New Haven, Connecticut and then in New York City... This version of DRACULA became a huge hit and starred a little known (in this country anyway) Hungarian stage actor named Bela Lugosi.

Universal was definitely interested in the project and sent development people to scout the play. There is evidence that Universal executives may have led Bela into believing he had a chance at the part and they even put him into service to negociate with Stokers widow, Florence Stoker, for rights to the novel. Lugosi, who had become close to Florence, was successful in the negotiations for the studio and a deal was struck. Only then did Bela Lugosi discover the news that they had intended the role for Lon Chaney all along.

Had the team of Chaney and Browning paired for Dracula in 1931, one can only imagine that a role in FRANKENSTEIN would have followed for Chaney and the direction of horror history would have been quite different today. However, that course changed forever in 1930 with the death of Lon Chaney.

ABOVE: What might have been.  A peek at what LON CHANEY could have looked like as Frankenstein's Monster.

While those projects and how they may have developed may be a great topic to expound upon and be very titillating to imagine, one has to remember that Lon Chaney had already left Universal Studios for the greener pastures of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is doubtful that he would have returned to the studio where he had made the classic PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, or that MGM would have loaned out one of their biggest stars.

With the death of Lon Chaney, director Browning had quite a task to fill the role of DRACULA when he was finally attached to the project at Universal. Several other actors were considered for the Count Dracula part, but Lugosi greatly believed in the role and wanted the part bad. The clincher to the deal seemed to be when he made an offer to the financially troubled studio, that he would do the part at a greatly reduced rate of only $3,500 for the 7 week shooting schedule. This was only about half the amount that was to be made by his Dracula co-star David Manners. The ruse worked and Bela Lugosi finally won the much coveted role.

The film became a huge hit for Universal, pulling them back from the brink of bankruptcy, much to the credit of Lugosi who had not only negotiated on behalf of the studio for the rights of the book and had given them a cut-rate deal on his acting services, but had also been electrifying in the role.

LUGOSI AS FRANKENSTEIN

The studio immediately made plans to follow up DRACULA with FRANKENSTEIN. With the void left by the death of Lon Chaney, their new horror sensation Bela Lugosi was a sure in for the part with director Robert Florey attached to helm and advertisements were soon distributed by the studio.

ABOVE: Actual advance advertisment announcing Bela Lugosi in FRANKENSTEIN

A reel of test footage was soon shot featuring Bela Lugosi as the monster (in a make-up that he himself had created) and his Dracula co-stars Edward Van Sloan and Dwight Frye using the still standing sets from Dracula. Lugosi’s make-up reportedly looked very much like the monster in the silent film THE GOLEM, which would have been quite a departure from the look of Frankenstein’s creation as we know him today.

For whatever reasons, the studio was not happy with this test footage, nor was Lugosi. Bela was never completely happy with the part, wanting more dialog (the monster part was mostly mute) and was also not enthralled with having his face obscured by the heavy make-up. Bela had become a romantic heart throb in Dracula and playing the Frankenstein role as a heavily made up grunting brute seemed like it may work against all that he had recently gained. In what may be one of the worst career decisions recorded in the history of acting, Bela Lugosi apparently let his displeasure be known to the studio.

It is thought that in attempts to appease Lugosi, his part was switched to the role of Dr. Frankenstein instead of the Monster, however these are unconfirmed. As often happens in the development process, one director (Robert Florey) was removed and the project was reassigned to director James Whale. There have also been reports of possibly another screen test, now featuring Lugosi in the doctor role. Whale’s vision of the project had changed quite a bit from Florey’s original concept for the film and Lugosi was deemed by Whale as inappropriate for the part. Another possible (and very viable) conclusion has also been extrapolated is that Bela Lugosi’s initial second thoughts about doing the Monster role were seen by the studio as him being "difficult to work with", which may have caused an early rift between himself and the front office.

James Whale’s production of FRANKENSTEIN eventually cast Boris Karloff in the role that made him a star and the film was Universal’s biggest hit of 1931. Now the studio had a new horror star from the deal as well. Casting the then largely unknown actor (and truck driver) Boris Karloff in the part may have also been a very deliberate move on the part of Whale and the studio, considering any real or imagined difficulty they may have been having with new star Lugosi... Who some may have considered had become arrogant and swell headed after his huge success in Dracula. There is no doubt, Bela’s own difficulties negotiating with the studio (he could still barely speak English as his second language) may sadly have contributed to this. More on this later.

It is interesting to note though that two of Lugosi’s co-stars in DRACULA, who also appeared in the FRANKENSTEIN test footage with Lugosi (Edward Van Sloan and Dwight Frye) both DID appear in the finished film. Unfortunately, any test footage that was shot of Lugosi has been lost or destroyed over the years, so it is yet again another one of those great projects that we can’t even have a glimpse of, only imagine.

At the same time that Whale’s Frankenstein had been filmed, its former star Bela Lugosi and former director Robert Florey were filming an adaption of Edgar Allen Poe’s MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.

Never ones to let a successful hit franchise linger for long, the studio announced the development of sequels to both Dracula and Frankenstein a short time after their release, but it would take several years for either to go into production.

BELA LUGOSI AS THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

In the meantime, several more films would also go into development at Universal that would never see the light of day, one being a proposed remake of the Lon Chaney silent THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME which Bela Lugosi was attached to in the role of Quazimodo. That film project stalled and was obviously never made, the closest Bela may have come to it being another unforgettable role in 1939. But to keep our story chronological, it is best to safe that story for later and another article of its own.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON

Now if you were to ask any well versed Horror fan worth their salt "When did FRANKENSTEIN MEET THE WOLF MAN for the first time?" they would probably answer 1943 when Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein’s monster met Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man in the first of the great Universal monster mash-ups. They would not only be correct, but they would also be wrong, sort of. It actually happened eight years earlier in 1935. Well, in a manner of speaking...

For four years Universal tried to get director James Whale to do a sequel to his 1931 hit Frankenstein, but it was a film he really didn’t want to do unless he could make it with complete artistic freedom and without studio interference. Several drafts of the screenplay using various titles went through development... The Return Of Frankenstein... Frankenstein Lives Again... Until a screenplay for THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN that Whale was happy with finally was hammered into shape. This was actually another film that Bela Lugosi was attached to early on for the Dr. Pretorious role, but again James Whale had other ideas (are we starting to notice a pattern here with Whale and Lugosi?) and Bela was replaced by Earnest Thesiger. To insure that he also had the creative freedom he needed, Whale waited until he knew Universal studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. had scheduled an extended vacation overseas before going into production.

Because of the strange scheduling, the non-monster female lead, seventeen-year-old Valerie Hobson (as Elizabeth, the real "Bride" to Colin Clive’s character of Henry Frankenstein in the film) was also slated to work on another horror film being made at Universal at the exact same time. It was Universal’s first Werewolf film, the underrated WEREWOLF OF LONDON starring actor Henry Hull in the lead role, with Valerie Hobson cast as his young wife.

ABOVE: Henry Hull, Valerie Hobson and Lester Mathews behind the scenes in THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON

To try and better accommodate Hobson’s double-booked schedule, both films were made on adjoining sound stages and a special corridor passageway was built between the two stages, so that she could move with ease between the two concurring productions. Hobson was not the only one to use this connecting hallway however. As it happened, Boris Karloff and Henry Hull were close friends that socialized in their private lives. Boris was even known for sneaking over to the Werewolf set in full monster make-up between takes.

As luck would have it Henry Hull later moved to a farm in Old Lyme, Connecticut and was a neighbor to my Uncle who also lived nearby, so I was fortunate enough to meet the aging Hull on a few occasions. Hull once told me a story about his wife Juliet coming to visit him at the studio one day during the filming of THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON. Apparently she was misdirected to the wrong sound stage and ended up on the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN set by mistake. Given directions to just follow the connecting hallway she was horrified to come face to face with Karloff in full monster make-up in the dark passage as he was returning from a visit with Henry on the other stage! Despite the couples (Karloff and his wife and Henry and Juliet) knowing each other well socially "It scared the Bejesus out of poor Juliet!" Hull laughed.

It is generally accepted that this was where it was first thought by studio executives that there could someday be a cinematic meet up between the two monsters. Here is my own rendition of what a poster for that monster mash-up may have looked like...

ABOVE: Coulda, woulda, shoulda... Frankenstein Meets The (First) Wolf Man

Though no script was written at this time, this idea of a meeting of the monsters was always bubbling just beneath the surface, waiting for the chance to resurface when the time was right.

This meeting of the monsters wouldn’t happen until several years later when FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN was made in 1942 starring Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein’s Monster and Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man.

Though extensive photos seem to have been taken on both the Bride and Werewolf sets and with all the visiting friends Karloff and Hull had done during filming, search as I may for all these years I have never been able to find a candid shot of both Karloff and Hull’s monsters together. You have to admit, pictures of The Monster, The Bride and The Werewolf together would have been a motion-picture publicity department dream come true! The only viable reason that I’ve been able to figure out that it never happened was scheduling. Universal make-up maestro Jack Pierce would have been spread pretty thin had all three monsters needed to be made up on the same days. It is a pity, but just another in a long line of missed chances. Still, I never give up hope that some may exist out there someplace and might one day come to light.

ABOVE: If only...  The picture the still photographers never caught,

I can however share some other rare photos with you...

ABOVE:(LEFT) Hull in the final makeup used in WEREWOLF OF LONDON, (MIDDLE)The unused test make-up that Jack Pierce did on Hull during pre-production from Pierce's own scrapbook. (RIGHT) Lon Chaney Jr. in THE WOLF MAN (1940).

Hull's unused early make-up design looks amazingly like Lon Chaney Jr’s make-up five years later in THE WOLF MAN doesn’t it?!

ANOTHER BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

We’ve already talked a little about THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN while it was in its development stages at the studio. Script and title changes from FRANKENSTEIN LIVES AGAIN to THE RETURN OF FRANKENSTEIN... One of these scrapped stories even featured Dr. Frankenstein and his new bride having to run from the authorities and hiding out in a Gypsy wagon where they would bring the monster’s mate to life!

When a screenplay was finally settled on, director James Whale seemed to have a lot of fun in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN with plenty of in-jokes loaded into the story. One of these seemed to be the duality theme that seemed to be present throughout the film... It was the second film in the series, Elsa Lanchester had two roles in the film as did Una O’Connor, Dwight Frye who had been in the original film (his character as Fritz the Hunchback assistant had been killed) returned as a new assistant "Karl", Marilyn Harris who had played Maria the flower girl and been killed in the original film was also back as a second character in Bride.

ABOVE: Director James Whale and Earnest Thesiger during a tea time break on the crypt set of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Then we have the issues of the title itself... THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN referred to which bride (Elsa Lanchester or Valerie Hobson?) of which Frankenstein (Clive’s Doctor or Karloff’s Monster?). Then there was the issue of the bride being created by two Doctors, Colin Clive and Earnest Thesiger. Film theorists have had a field day with the homosexual subtext analogy of two men creating life, in a film made by openly gay director James Whale. And to top it off Mae Clarke who had played Elisabeth in the original film had been replaced by Valerie Hobson.

The studio and the censors office were not quite as amused with the film however and demanded many changes before the film could be granted a certificate for exhibition. THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is in itself two different movies, the one that was ultimately released into theaters and is as we know it today at a running time of 75 minutes, and the original movie as it was shot, which no prints still exist of, that was a very different film with a running time that has been reported at 2 hours.

The changes that were made were numerous, including a body count of 21 deaths that was later reduced to 10 in the final edit. Some very good hints are there for those who watch carefully though...

Two of the killings that were later edited out of the final print were the parents of Dwight Frye’s character "Karl". Karl had killed his parents himself in the film and had blamed their murders on The Monster. Therefore when he died at the hands of the Monster near the films conclusion, it was a fitting end.

Two more characters that died in the original cut of the film were Valerie Hobson’s character Elizabeth, and Colin Clive’s character of Dr. Henry Frankenstein. In the original print Elizabeth had been kidnaped by the monster and was killed by Dr. Pretorious and Karl so that her heart (all unknown to Henry Frankenstein) could be used in Lanchester’s BRIDE. This is part of why in the final film The Bride seems so attracted to Henry (Elizabeth’s love for him from her heart) and why she is repulsed by the Monster. Henry himself was originally killed in the climactic explosion when the monster pulled the final electrical switch in the lab. For those that watch the final print closely, Henry is still in the laboratory, trapped there when the explosion takes place. Note screen capture below...

ABOVE: Screen grab of the lab explosion from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.  Note Colin Clive still visible, cowering against the wall to the left.

Extensive reshoots were ordered by the studio to concoct the "happy ending" seen in the final version of the film. Elizabeth now lives, having stayed in contact with Henry via telephone until she escapes. She the meets up with Henry as he himself escapes from the exploding lab. The two happy lovers, now reunited, watch the destruction of the lab from a distance. Fade out. The end.

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN even with all its tinkering and reshooting still became a huge hit for the studio and is recognized to this day as one of the very few cases in which a sequel became a better film that possibly surpassed the original.

The much underrated WEREWOLF OF LONDON did not fair as well for the studio however. Though it did fair business, it never became the hit that Bride was and no sequel of follow-up was ever planned. The world would have to wait another five years for the studio to return to a werewolf story.

BELA LUGOSI RETURNS in DRACULA’S DAUGHTER!

In the meantime, Bela Lugosi was to return in a sequel to his hit Dracula, called DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. Based on "Dracula’s Guest", a chapter that had been removed do to length from Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel (and only printed after his death and the success of the book) it had taken years to go through the development cycle at Universal as well. Universal was in dire shape financially at this time and this project was very problematic. It also turned out to be one of the most expensive films in the horror genre that Universal ever produced in the 1930's.

PHOTO

Almost directly on the heels of his film THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, director James Whale was then also attached to DRACULA’S DAUGHTER. The story, which was to take place directly following the events of the first film (much as Bride Of Frankenstein had done) was not without its problems with the censors as well.

Whale finally delivered a script with a greatly reduced role for Lugosi (what is it with Whale constantly trying to get rid of him?) and large portions of things that must have driven censors of the day and the Universal front office batty.

The script featuring scenes of Dracula throwing lavish and decadent parties in his castle, an outlandish amount of murders, S&M references with Dracula and his Daughter whipping his vampire brides, blatant lesbian overtones, a satanic occult slant explaining how Dracula got his powers, and hinted incestuous scenes between the Count and his offspring were only the beginning. The script was considered far too weird and extreme by the studio brass and James Whale was eventually taken off the project.

Whale was then replaced by another one of Universal’s top directors, A. Edward Sutherland, whose job it was to take what Whale had left behind (the development process rarely takes a step backwards, only forward) and somehow hammer the story into shape so that it was useable.

Finally an almost completely different script was agreed on which all but ignored the "Dracula’s Guest"story on which it was to be based, but delay after delay had set the production behind even more. Sutherland finally had to leave do to another film he had previously been signed to direct (the W.C. Fields film POPPY at Paramount) taking $17,500 with him due to his play or pay directing contract, without having to direct a frame of film on Dracula’s Daughter. ...And this was at a time when the troubled Universal was already hemorrhaging money that it couldn’t afford to spend.

Production delays caused Bela Lugosi to have to leave the project as well, as he had previously signed a contract and was scheduled to go to England and appear in the film THE MYSTERY OF THE MARIE CELESTE. At a time when Lugosi most needed a great part to get his career back on track and would have reprised his greatest role ever in Dracula’s Daughter, fate had stepped in again to snatch the part from him. He hated to leave, but a legal contract was a legal contract.

Lugosi made $10,000 for his work on The Mystery Of The Marie Celeste. It was agreed that Lugosi would try and make it back toward the end of production on Dracula’s Daughter to film all of his scenes as pick-up shots for a week soon after the scheduled principal production had wrapped.

These scenes would use a plot device that had been used in Boris Karloff’s THE MUMMY in 1932, when a large section of the story was relayed in flashback as we gazed into the waters of life. Except in the case of Dracula’s Daughter the flashbacks (featuring Lugosi) would be told while Gloria Holden gazed into an ancient tapestry in Castle Dracula.

ABOVE: Detail from the hanging wall tapestry now only seen briefly in the last part of DRACULA'S DAUGHTER clearly shows Bela Lugosi as Dracula,

Just in case Lugosi would not be able to return in time to film these scenes, the Garrett Fort script for Dracula’s Daughter was quickly restructured, rewritten with uncredited contributions by screen writers Charles Belden, Finley Peter Dunne and R.C. Sherriff. Everyone would hope for the best though.

Lambert Hillyer, a director known for his work in mostly "B" westerns was brought in last minute to direct the troubled film, with Hillyer being paid only $5000, a fraction of the $17,500 that director Sutherland (who had left without shooting a foot of film) had been paid. On the ninth day of filming on this ill fated production (unsurprisingly on a Friday the 13th) Hillyer had to be hospitalized and most of a shooting day was lost when a freestanding fill light tipped over, crashing into his head.

Lugosi made it back for the final week of principal photography, but only to visit the studio for a day to participate in a series of publicity photos with the Dracula’s Daughter cast. For these photos alone he was paid $4,000. Compare that with the $3,500 he was paid for a full seven weeks of work on the original Dracula!

ABOVE: Publicity photo showing Bela Lugosi on the DRACULA'S DAUGHTER set with star Gloria Holden.

However, there would be no scenes of Lugosi himself shot later as pick-ups or otherwise in Dracula’s Daughter. Four days after principal photography wrapped, Standard Capitol Corp. who assumed the debts of the troubled Universal, unceremoniously took control of the studio and kicked out studio head Carl Laemmle. It would be the last horror film produced under his supervision at the studio and the end of an era. Standard Capitol surely wouldn’t approve additional shooting with Lugosi and set about to finishing post production for the film as cheaply as possible.

ABOVE:Lugosi's wax stand-in glimpsed for only a quick two second insert shot in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER.

Universal did however have to pay Bela Lugosi and additional sum in February of 1936 for use of his likeness in the film... The wax manikin used as his stand in for a quick pick-up scene of him in the coffin, then used when Dracula’s corpse is burned on a funeral pyre, as well as his likeness on a tapestry that appeared at the end of the film (only fleetingly) and was going to tie in a series of unfilmed flashbacks.

Though the film gets a bum rap for not including Lugosi’s Dracula, the finished version of Dracula’s Daughter is still surprisingly effective and underrated today, with some great scares, amazing performances, and very creepy overtones. Gloria Holden for example (who portrays Dracula’s Daughter) only blinks her eyes once in the entire film, which gives her part an added off kilter dreamlike quality.

Volumes have also been written about the subtle lesbian overtones that remained in the story. Still, one only wonders how much greater this film would have been with the active addition of Lugosi at his height, portraying his most powerful character ever. Another lost film in an alternate universe of Universal horror.

Until next time, a good cast is worth repeating...

"My name is Sid Terror and I am a Horror Drunx"

Sid Terror

Culver City, California

October 1, 2008