Celebrating 90 Years of Fright with UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in time for the season of spookiness are four memorable faces with UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS ICONS OF HORROR COLLECTION.

In 1931 Garrett Fort wrote a screenplay all about the monster created by Bram Stoker in the 1897 novel DRACULA. The vampire creature from Transylvania would terrorize victims because of his need for human blood. Universal Pictures would find their vampire in Hungarian born actor Bela Lugosi and audiences ran to theatres to be frightened and thrilled.

Lugosi spent years of his career continuing to entertain in the monster genre leaving a lasting mark by just saying his name alone. Now an icon, DRACULA became recognized in 2000 by the United States Library of Congress to be preserved in the National Film Registry.

That same year, another creature created by author Mary Shelley in 1818 would come to the screen in the film FRANKENSTEIN. Director James Whale along with Universal Pictures brought the creature who was created by scientist Frankenstein to life. Finding their Frankenstein’s monster came with Indian-British actor Boris Karloff who would return again in 1935 for BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and 1939 for SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.

THE INVISIBLE MAN arrived in theatres in 1933 with the return of James Whale in the director seat. Universal Pictures brings the H.G. Wells story to the screen finding their Dr. Jack Griffin in Claude Rains. A man in glasses and bandages lives alone until he is discovered to be invisible and when he is offered help, tragedy strikes again and again.

Rains’ career is filled with roles such as MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, CASABLANCA, NOTORIOUS and my personal favorite NOW, VOYAGER.

He returned to the genre again in 1941 with THE WOLF MAN as director George Waggner and Universal Pictures brought the story to the silver screen. Actor Lon Chaney Jr. would bring the story of a man who is bitten by a wolf and during a full moon discovers that his life will never be the same.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

The Classic Monster Films include: The 90^th Anniversary of DRACULA, the 90^th Anniversary of FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN and the 80^th Anniversary of THE WOLF MAN.

There is hours of Bonus Content including: The Road to DRACULA, The FRANKENSTEIN Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster, Karloff: The Gentle Monster, Monster by Moonlight, THE WOLF MAN: From Ancient Curse to Modern Myth, Now You See Him THE INVISIBLE MAN Revealed, 1931 Spanish Version of DRACULA, Behind-The-Scenes Documentaries, Featurettes on Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr., Feature Commentaries, Theatrical Trailers and More!

As a young kid (without giving my age away), my mother use to have us gather around the television on Friday and Saturday nights to watch Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney Jr. and Rains give us chills. It began my love of what I would call ‘thrillers’ because I never saw these creatures as monsters.

Instead, I saw them as a reflection of our own fears and the potential we all have of a dark side. Hidden behind pointy teeth, body hair, or bolts in the neck, it would be the invisible man who would prove that what is ‘monstrous’ does not always have to be in plain sight.

The story of monsters were written down in the 1800’s with DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN showing us that even 200 years ago people were aware of what scares us. Stoker and Shelley also gave us a glimpse of the possibility that there may be something more than evil driving their actions.

H.G. Wells took the idea even further by taking away the outward appearance of fright by making the monster invisible. Presenting the question of ‘if you can not see it, is it still evil?’ has brought many conversations among my film friends.

THE WOLF MAN is a little different because here is a man who was not born, created or whipped up in a lab but instead became a monster. Chaney Jr. is torn (no pun intended) by what has happened to him and the fight to regain his soul.

Universal Pictures has brought a powerful, thoughtful and belief in helping us to remember what a classic film looks and feels like. Even 90 years later, we talk about the genre, performances and what the films have come to mean. Having this collection in a home entertainment library means pop that popcorn and gather up like minded horror-thriller fans to re-live the greatness of cinema.

In the end – celebrate our monsters!

 

 

Frankenstein’s Story is Told Through MARY SHELLEY

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres from director Haifaa Al Mansour and IFC Films is the story of Frankenstein told from his lovely creator MARY SHELLEY.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning) is a young girl who misses the mother she never knew and deals with step-mother Mary Jane (Joanne Froggatt) she wishes she didn’t. Her father William (Stephen Dillane) is a renown philosopher who sees something wild in his daughter. Consistently putting her thoughts to paper, she is looking for a life that is not the norm.

Seeing all this, Mary’s father sends her to visit Isabel Baxter (Maisie Williams), family who understands her in a surprising way. When the Baxter’s hold a gathering, Mary sees Percy Shelley (Douglas Booth) and is moved to hear he is a poet. They begin spending time together discussing things she has not been able to with anyone else.

But their time is short lived when Mary is recalled home to sister Claire (Bel Powley) who misses her. The tension that was there before has returned and the only light is a gentleman caller who wishes to be mentored by Mr. Godwin. Mary is stunned when it is Percy who comes through the door.

Wanting to be together, Mary’s father is outraged and Claire only begs to go when she does. Packing up to start a new life, the two meet with Percy moving into a place of their own. Mary and Percy’s happiness is hanging by a thread as she tries to recover from tragedy as well as the cruel gossip.

Out for a night, they all meet Lord Byron (Tom Sturridge) who invites them to come to his country estate for a visit. Claire is more than thrilled as she tells Mary that she’s not the only one that can land a poet. There is constant drinking and discussion but Mary can not find her words. That is when Byron throws a challenge for them each to write a ghost story.

The only horror is when Claire is devastated by Byron and Mary doesn’t want to live the craziness of a poet’s life. Returning to London, she puts pen to paper and creates Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus yet no one will publish her works. Even friend John Polidori (Ben Hardy) writes his ‘ghost story’ and it was stolen from him.

Mary wonders if anything is going to change when the two people she needs to stand by her most do just that. She made her own rules and wrote her own way to being Mary Shelley.

Fanning as Mary is delicate, determined, soft-spoken, fierce attitude and lyrical in her writings. It is easy to forget that this was life in 18^th century London and Mary’s role as a woman was carved in unmovable stone. Fanning’s performance gives us all and more with her alabaster and frail appearance. Underneath that is a fire this actress gives to a woman who knows that she doesn’t fit in to the mold. Her thought process and creativity are bursting and only the distraction of Shelley slows her down. Taking her life experiences to further her quest is not only staggering but breath taking at the same time.

Booth as Percy is everything a rogue poet would look like to me. He is dark in his writings and seductive when he focuses on something – singularly Mary. Believing he can have the bohemian life with her, it is his narcissism and entitlement that gets in the way of them both. Booth gives that performance from beginning to end with a hope of redemption for the man he is portraying.

Dillane as Godwin is a father who sees his daughter has not been happy most of her life. Dreaming of a mother she never knew, he can only encourage her to find the words to make her life have meaning. Froggatt as Mary Jane does a fantastic job in getting me not to like her which is so weird because she was one of my favorite Downton Abbey characters.

Powley as Claire is a young woman who wants the same thing as Mary and the only way to get it is to live in her shadow. Sturridge as Lord Byron plays a man who has no conscious at all and has no qualms in using anyone for anything he needs. What a strange place 18^th century London was!

Williams has a small role as Isabel, the cousin who seems to understand the wild side of Mary and encourages it. She is swift and charming as only Williams can be.

Other cast include: Ben Hardy as John Polidori, Hugh O’Conor as Samuel Coleridge, Ciara Charteris as Harriet Shelley, Sarah Lamesch as Eliza and Jack Hickey as Thomas Hogg.

MARY SHELLEY is a deep and intense period drama about a woman who was clearly born in the wrong century. Her grasp of the written word came at an early age with her desire to get out everything hiding within her. Trying to live the best life by her terms, it seemed her terms were even to difficult for those around her to grasp.

Falling in love with Shelley could be considered the step off of a difficult life but who are we to judge that. How many of us have chosen to be with a person we know is wrong for us or will challenge our sanity – yet we still do it? That is exactly what happened to Mary to the day Percy died.

I have read books about Mary Shelley’s life and to say it was a difficult one is an understatement. Deaths of family, children and constantly being questioned about the authorship of Frankenstein, I have long admired her tenacity to put all of it at bay and continue with her work while raising her son.

The film gives only a powerful glimpse of her life as a young woman but it is so well and beautifully done. The cinematography and costuming lend itself to bringing me into the story quickly and keeping me until the very end.

Mary Shelley wanted a life different than the women of her time and the difficulty in doing so is putting yourself in harms way with society. Like today, chatterboxes and gossipers can destroy a person with word and Mary couldn’t escape that. The truth is that it would take many Mary’s to get where we are today and that is enough reason to want to know more about this rare woman.

In the end – her greatest love inspired her darkest creation!