[suspense music]
(host) Some monsters call to mind very specific images.
Their iconic onscreen personas overshadow
their earlier histories.
I'm talking about Frankenstein and his creature, Dracula;
the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man, the Mummy.
Why is this?
Universal Pictures.
These famous Universal monster faces
inspired decades of Halloween costumes
and make up a distinctive brand of horror
that defined early Hollywood cinema.
With strategic decisions in wardrobe and special effects,
uniform marketing, innovative cinematography,
and casting that turned everyday actors into stars,
Universal Pictures forever changed the game
for onscreen monsters.
[suspense music]
At the turn of the 20th century,
early silent horror films were largely
macabre European creations featuring ghost skeletons
and wizards set against gothic backdrops.
The 1922 German film "Nosferatu" was a fitting fulfillment
of the Eastern European vampire's legacy
and the first horror film with an original score.
[ominous music]
But what is now considered to be the canonical period
of horror cinema didn't come about until Universal emerged
as a powerhouse motion picture studio.
Founded in 1912, Universal Film Manufacturing Company
initially saw critical and financial success
but like most of America,
struggled during the Great Depression.
The solution to the studio's woes
came in an unexpected form, monsters.
Universal's 1930s business strategy started with a plan
to make movies on as tight a budget as possible,
and horror fit the bill nicely.
The elements of gothic storytelling combined swimmingly
with the low lighting and imaginative camera tricks
that disguised budget conscious sets.
Unknown actors could be concealed
behind creative makeup effects, and hiring
veteran European crew members familiar with gothic work
made adapting spooky stories for Hollywood easier.
With the horrors of World War I and the Great Depression,
America adopted isolationists policies alongside patriotism.
The monstrous figure embodied outside threats
to these modern constructions, literally entering the homes
of families to tear them down from the inside.
[monster roars]
[Elizabeth screaming]
Other common themes in Universal's golden age
of horror films included the mad scientist hell bent
on playing God, the crumbling ancestral home or castle,
class tensions, failed marriages,
and challenges to traditional gender roles,
all amidst a gothic setting that alluded
to the historical but evoked present day fears--
a clever way for a studio to appeal
to what's already in the minds of the people.
Universal's first venture into horror began in 1931
with the infamous undead blood sucker himself, Dracula,
an established character in folklore and literature.
Both "Dracula" and "Nosferatu" predate Universal's version
but Universal's "Dracula" was the first to legally adapt
Bram Stoker's famous text.
After purchasing the rights to both the novel
and theater adaptation of "Dracula" in 1929,
studio executive Carl Laemmle, Jr. green lit the film version
with a few caveats, a tight budget,
prioritization of elements from the stage play
and a short enough runtime to use in a double feature.
Tod Browning was hired as director and Charles D. Hall
was tapped for set design,
but the studio still needed the star.
While other more famous actors were considered,
Bela Lugosi stood out as the logical choice.
He had played Dracula on Broadway and he was cheap,
and thank the fates for that.
Lugosi's portrayal of the count in Universal's makeup
and wardrobe became the most influential visual portrayal
of vampires to this day.
The pale skin, dark, slick back hair, aristocratic wardrobe,
an infamous cape, became the iconic depiction
we frequently associate with Dracula.
And even though many modern interpretations of vampires
have moved past this portrayal,
the countless imitations of the Universal brand,
not to mention the Halloween costumes,
made this vampire an icon.
After the success of "Dracula",
Universal was thirsty for another home run.
They offered prominent director James Whale
a slew of different project concepts to choose from
and he went with another monster property,
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein".
Like "Dracula" before it, the movie success hinged
on the commercial appeal of the monster.
Whale insisted on casting Boris Karloff,
a noted but under-recognized character actor
as the creature.
The neck bolts, the exaggerated brow
and the suit were a notable departure
from Mary Shelley's original creation.
Yet the emotion that Shelley wrote into the character
was still present thanks to Karloff.
Universal's interpretation would define both the actor
and Shelley's character into the 21st century.
Take care, now, Frankenstein! Take care.
(host) And in the "Frankenstein" film's final iconic face-off
between Henry and his creature,
Universal continued to use innovative cinematography
as a hallmark of the genre.
When the two gaze at each other through the spinning wheel
of the windmill, the slats' broken revelation of their faces
mimicking a film projector and its precursor, the zoetrope.
[monster roars]
"Frankenstein" was the first movie promoted by a studio
as a horror picture and that decision was not met
without resistance,
primarily from Catholic and conservative leaders.
Critics condemned a controversial hanging scene
and some of the film's dialogue as heretical.
Trying to address these concerns,
Universal included a unique prologue to the feature
condemning Frankenstein's actions and warning the audience
of what they will see.
We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein,
a man of science who sought to create a man
after his own image without reckoning upon God.
(host) Still, some newspapers refused to publish ads for the film,
and censors demanded edits.
But the saying, any publicity is good publicity worked here.
Made for less than $300,000,
"Frankenstein" outperformed "Dracula,"
grossing $12 million domestically,
and Universal had another successful monster.
In 1932, Universal drew inspiration from recent events--
the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
His shrunken mummified corpse captured the world's attention,
as did the rumored accompanying curse.
"The Mummy" told a tale of forbidden love
using the now recognizable Boris Karloff
as a titular character.
With a powerful score and clever shots of miniature sets,
viewers were transported to an exotic interpretation
of Egypt that paid homage to the undercurrent of magic
that fueled so many of film's earliest gothic stories.
Like its Universal precursors,
"The Mummy" cinematic creativity significantly contributed
to its historical permanence.
Pioneering cameraman Carl "Papa" Freund moved the camera
in ways previously unseen.
He freed the camera from the typical static tripod,
strapping it to his chest for resting angles
and placing it on a crane for expansive frames.
In 1934, Hollywood instituted the self-imposed Hays Code,
responding to industry scandals of the 1920s
and increasingly boundary-challenging films.
These censorship guidelines aimed to curtail
anything that didn't depict the correct standards of life
as defined by the rich men in charge at the time.
As a result, horror didn't disappear on screen
but became a bit more subdued.
Universal, in spite of the Hays Code, however,
still marketed their films as shocking,
meant to astound and horrify,
which continued to draw in audiences.
Universal went on to add "The Invisible Man"
and "The Werewolf of London" to their horror lineup,
bringing striking and memorable special effects
to the screen--
not to mention two more iconic monsters.
The monster genre couldn't solve
all of Universal's financial struggles.
Burdened with debt, Universal was bought out
by the Standard Capital Bank in 1936,
and the existing studio heads were canned.
New execs cut budgets further, prioritizing musicals
and halting production on new horror content,
leading to an exciting development--
the introduction of the horror sequel.
Eager to capitalize on their earlier successes in the genre,
Universal produced a whole host of sequels.
"Bride of Frankenstein," "Dracula's Daughter,"
"Son of Frankenstein," "The Invisible Man Returns,"
"The Mummy's Hand," "The Mummy's Tomb," and "Son of Dracula."
These burgeoning franchises were financially strategic
and further established Universal's looming presence
in horror cinema.
Using a now established cast and crew from makeup artists
to set designers, the visual style of the Universal
horror film stayed consistent and immediately recognizable.
Repeated visual and technical cues like violent storms,
operating room or lab sets, offscreen female screams,
large ancestral homes, heavy use of shadows,
and creative cinematic framework solidified the style.
Also in the 1940s, Universal introduced
back-to-back crossover films to the industry--
"Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man," "House of Frankenstein,"
and "House of Dracula."
These in-universe collaborations
put the recognizable figures of Frankenstein's creature,
Dracula, the Wolf Man,
the Mad Doctor and the Hunchback assistant
together on screen, like an Avengers-style universe
with fewer rules and no shared history.
In the years following the conclusion of World War II,
movie-going audiences seemed to lose their appetite
for monster movies.
Perhaps needing a break from violence and horror in general,
they opted for more uplifting content at the box office.
The monster movies that were made during this period
backed away from horror elements
and leaned into the comedic potential of the genre.
In the 1950s, while Universal Studios,
now Universal International,
continued to produce horror films,
they prioritized science fiction in response to world events
and audiences' shifting favor.
While the quality of these films is debated,
there is little denying that the decade contributed
at least one more unique and iconic universal monster,
the "Creature from the Black Lagoon."
They marketed the film as the strangest
science fiction thriller of them all,
hoping to attract audiences enthralled
with the newly popular genre and who were comfortable
with monster stories from the previous two decades.
This monster isn't based so much on existing lore
but does rely on a familiar monster-as-human trope.
Set in the Amazon, the half-fish, half-human monster
struggles with very human feelings
of isolation and loneliness.
Called the Gill Man, the notable and beautifully designed
character suit and sophisticated makeup,
under the direction of noted actress
and special effects artist Milicent Patrick,
stand up as a hallmark of Universal's monsters.
The film was also notable for its underwater photography
not common for the time.
[suspense music]
It's not only a story that makes a monster iconic.
All the creators who contributed
to Universal's classic monsters did so
with a specific intention.
The writers, actors, directors, cinematographers,
marketing executives, special effects teams,
and costuming departments-- they formed the beating
or undead heart of these silver screen interpretations.
I can't help but wonder if the commercial
and critical failure of some of the reboot attempts
is because they strayed too far
from the original Universal monster formula.
Take 2017's "The Mummy"--
big-name, A-list Hollywood actors,
huge budgets, too heavy a reliance
on digital special effects,
and an obvious eye on franchise tie-ins,
it neglected to honor the monster and its meaning.
In my opinion, the magic of the original films
comes from the forced creativity necessary
of a smaller budget, the gothic themes,
and letting the monster and its story sell the film.
2020's "The Invisible Man" came closer to this formula.
With a $7 million budget, a fraction of "The Mummy"'s,
it uses the absence of the monster's form--literally--
in favor of atmospheric tension
and some pretty horrifying practical effects.
Universal's monsters pushed back against societal norms,
often embracing the taboos that rigidly defined
conventional American social structures of family,
patriarchy, gender, and class.
While the golden age of Universal classic monsters
is long gone, its legacy has become monstrous itself,
enduring, frightening and always there
to scare our imaginations into action.
Ahoy, matey, the newest show over on PBS Origins
will take you on an enlightening voyage
through the pirate history you've been missing.
"Rogue History" unravels historical myths,
unearths lost narratives, and champions unsung heroes.
It's the pirate history you were never told.
Hit the link in the description and explore it now.
- (speaker)Rolling? - (host) Yeah.
(speaker) And action.
- Oh, no.
Oh, God. [laughs]
(speaker) And action.
[host laughing]
I'm terrible.
- No! - That was amazing.