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Let's Thank Universal Pictures for Monster Movies! · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: and Jerry Gould-Roland is here with us, too. And this
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: is Stuff You Should Know, kicking off the great month
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of October.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: That's right. One of our favorite months. I just watched
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Backrooms last night. Didn't you tell me to see that?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what did you think?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: You know, I thought it was kind of cool while
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I was watching it.
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  Speaker 3: But it's one of those movies where after when I
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: thought about it, I really didn't like it very much.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: What didn't you like about it?
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: It ended up like I liked it. I thought it
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: was cool looking and like had a lot of cool stuff.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: But afterward, I was like, it felt like just some
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: kid had a bunch of cool ideas that didn't end
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: up making a movie. And then when I read the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: background of the movie, I was like, oh, that's kind
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: of exactly what it was.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I didn't take it like that at all.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I just enjoyed it on its face. I wasn't aware
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: of like the mythology behind it and everything like that,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: which apparently it built on pretty well.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I just liked it as it was, I think.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think it felt like he was like, it'd be
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: cool if I did this and this would be cool
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: and this would be cool.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And if I introduced this agency, that'd be cool. And
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: then like none of that went anywhere.
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  Speaker 3: And so I was kind of like, wait a minute,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: you can't just throw a bunch of cool things in
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  Speaker 3: a movie and have it be a movie kid.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I don't, I disagree that that's what he did.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, a lot of people liked it. So I'm, I'm, well,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I don't know about the minority because a lot of
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: people felt like I did too. So I think it's
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: devices what they say.
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  Speaker 2: That's crazy. It's such a neat movie. Everybody just needs
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: to relax and enjoy a neat movie.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Just like everything you like.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It drives me bananas. Yeah. So we are talking
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about movies in particular, which I guess is why you
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: brought up Back Rooms.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I got a couple of movies to shout out now
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: that I think about it. Have you seen Undertone? It's
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a horror movie about a podcaster. So it's really like
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: right up your alley. I finally saw Martyrs, which is
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: an amazing movie that, yeah, that's a really amazing movie.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And then I also saw The Devil's Bath. Okay. I
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: would not necessarily recommend that to everybody. It's a very
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: dark movie and it's in German and it's subtitled and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: it's set in the middle of the 18th century in
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: rural Germany.
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  Speaker 1: Tough watch?
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Not in the way that you would think. It's more
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: just like some of the gut punches that come through
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: are really hard gut punches. But if you're into like
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: really disturbing, dark, psychological horror, I would recommend it.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: All right.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. That sounds great. You want to talk about the uni-monsters?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking about the universal monsters, and we should
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: probably talk about horror films in general, because a lot
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: of people point to the universal monster movies starting in
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the 1930s as essentially kicking off at least monster movies,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: if not the horror genre itself. And there were other
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: horror movies that came first, but it wasn't until the 20s,
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  Speaker 2: pre-universal admittedly, that people started like, trying to scare audiences,
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  Speaker 2: hence the beginning of horror movies.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Specifically, the cabinet of Dr.
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  Speaker 3: Caligari and Nosferatu in the early 1920s kind of got
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  Speaker 3: that going. But like you said, it was really the
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: 1930s when we got Draculas and Frankensteins and mummies and
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  Speaker 3: wolf men and stuff like that, that things really kicked off.
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  Speaker 3: And we have a family to thank for that. If
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  Speaker 3: you I don't know if these theaters are still there.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: I really hope they are. I'm sure they're still there.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if they have been taken over by
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: a different name. But the Lamley theaters in Los Angeles
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: were always these great sort of usually independently minded or,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: you know, showing maybe not the first run big hits
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: of the day. And there were a few Lamley theaters
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: and they come from the Lamley family, which is where
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Universal Studios comes from. A German immigrant in 1906 named
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  Speaker 3: Carl Lamley. opened a Nickelodeon in Chicago, and a few
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  Speaker 3: years later opened up the Independent Motion Picture Company, and
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  Speaker 3: then merged with a few other companies to create Universal
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  Speaker 3: Pictures in 1912.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then 1915, they opened a 230-acre studio in
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles. So in nine years, that guy went from
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: opening a Nickelodeon to starting a major motion picture company.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, not major yet because the majors were the
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: big five at the time. Paramount, Fox, Warner Brothers, RKO
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: and Lowe's. It's crazy to think about Universal and Columbia
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: being and United Artists being the upstarts. But that's what
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: they were in the early 1900s film business.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it was it was actually Lemley's son who
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: really put Universal on the map, as we'll see. But
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Lemley Sr. had a part to play in that. He
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  Speaker 2: ended up. basically starting the star system in the movie
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  Speaker 2: industry by taking one actress, Florence Lawrence. Good Lord, the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Lemley family and Florence Lawrence together at last. And he
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: started a publicity campaign that focused on her. And this
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  Speaker 2: was new because up to that point, it was like actor, actor,
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  Speaker 2: I don't care who you are. I'm here for the story.
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  Speaker 2: He made Florence Lawrence like the point to go see
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  Speaker 2: a movie. And he did it in fairly dastardly, amusing fashion.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he created a fake story about her dying in
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: a car crash and then blamed her former employer, Biograph,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: for creating that fake story to begin with because they
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: were mad that they lost her to Universal. So this
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: created a lot of publicity buzz and, you know, kind
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: of helped create that star system.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Sure. And it's just such a great indicator of like
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: how kind of rogue do yourself underground the early days
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: of film were yeah especially when you compare it to
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: how the whole industry is today it's neat to just
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: think of it as created by initially by artists who
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: were dedicated to their art and were coming up with
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: neat innovative things to do is really well portrayed in
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: the shadow of the vampire with john malkovich where they're
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: making nosferatu Yeah, there are.
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  Speaker 3: Quite a few movies about this era because I think
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: it's just so fascinating.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But moving on, getting back to the monster stuff,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Universal had already done a couple of monster pictures that are,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: depending on who you ask, part of the Universal monster canon.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: The first one is pretty highly debatable. Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Hyde came out in 1913. It was the first universal
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  Speaker 2: monster movie of any kind. But it was 26 minutes long.
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  Speaker 2: So a lot of people are like, that's not feature length.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if we can count that.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: 1920s, you got The Hunchback of Notre Dame and then
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: The Phantom of the Opera two years later in 1925.
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  Speaker 3: These are noteworthy because Lon Chaney Sr., the man of
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: a thousand faces starred in these and the Chaney family
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  Speaker 3: would figure heavily in his son's life for the Universal
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  Speaker 3: Monster series.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Lon Chaney Sr. is a really interesting guy in
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  Speaker 2: and of himself. He was in 157 or 150 films
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: from the 20s to the 30s. And he did his
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: own makeup, right? He was known as the man of
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: a thousand faces. And he was such an expert on
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: makeup that he wrote the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for makeup.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: And there was a joke from the 20s. It was,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: don't step on that spider. It might be Lon Chaney.
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  Speaker 2: That's how good he was considered in getting into weird
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  Speaker 2: different characters.
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  Speaker 1: That's pretty fun.
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  Speaker 2: I thought so too.
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  Speaker 3: All right, so the studio is putting out spooky movies
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: at this point. They're in haunted mansions sometimes. They're in
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  Speaker 3: strange places. This is between like 25 and 30 when
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: the talkies are happening. And then in 1931 when Carl
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Lamley Jr., I think he's taken over a couple of
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  Speaker 3: years by this point. He started as head of production
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  Speaker 3: in 1928 at just 21 years old and then won
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: an Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front. Um,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: even though they were like, this is a Nepo baby kid, uh, he,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: he really was putting out some pretty good movies. And
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: as far as the monsters cannon goes, hit it out
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  Speaker 3: of the park, out of the gate with Dracula.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. From 1931, which turned out to be a really
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: big year for monster movies. Um, it kicked off with
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Dracula and Valentine's day, 1931, and it was marketed as
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: a romance, which it is. It's a tragic romance in
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  Speaker 2: a lot of ways. And Nosferatu, the actual 1920s film
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  Speaker 2: starring Max Schreck, was not authorized by Bram Stoker's estate.
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  Speaker 2: So it wasn't based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. It was
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Nosferatu instead. This was based on Bram Stoker's version, but
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  Speaker 2: they adapted it from a stage play. And they hired
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: a director named Todd Browning, who made what I think
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: is one of the great revenge movies of all time, Freaks,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: in 1932. But this was the year before he was
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: directing Dracula.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: We didn't do a whole episode on Freaks, but we
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: mentioned it, I guess, in our– we did an episode
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: about that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: About Freak Shows.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Freak Shows. I didn't know how to say it
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in 2026.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: I think that's still how they say it.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: So Todd 1D Browning is a big shot director at
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: this point. He's making spooky movies. He's working with Lon
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Chaney Sr., It probably would have been Lon Chaney Sr.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: as Dracula, but he died in 1930 of bronchial cancer.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: So he looked around and he said, who can I
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: pick to be Dracula?
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  Speaker 1: Who, who, who?
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And this scary looking Hungarian said, why don't you pick me?
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So Bela Lugosi, every single Dracula idea or impression
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: like you just did That all comes from Bela Lugosi's
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: 1931 performance. And the reason they picked him is, remember,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: this was adapted from the stage adaptation. And Bela Lugosi
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: had already made a name for himself starring in the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: stage adaptation on Broadway. They were like, we think you
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: got the chops for this. And it was a very
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: good casting decision because I watched it last night for
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the first time. And he does an astounding job.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: It's great. And by chops, you mean literal fangs.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: So what did you think of it, watching it today?
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Do you ever watch old, old movies like that?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Sometimes. So last night, for work, which is pretty awesome,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I watched Dracula. I watched The Bride of Frankenstein. And
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: I watched The Invisible Man. All three for the first time.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The Invisible Man is good.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Yes. So was The Bride of Frankenstein. I think it
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: was the best of the bunch.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: It made me more open to watching movies. old films
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  Speaker 2: as well. Yeah. They were amazingly done, like the lighting,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the direction, the shots, like all this stuff, but also
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the storytelling. It was really, it sucks you in. And
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: if you look at the runtimes of these things, they're
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: just barely over an hour.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: And they're still getting everything across in beautiful fashion. So, yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: there's a couple of movies that came up in this
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: research that I want to go watch now. Yeah.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you watch movies from the 30s, that
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: black and white, if you have like a good TV,
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: it still looks incredible. It's not like this old grainy,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: like weird looking thing. Like it is sharp and it
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: looks amazing. Yeah.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: But you want to put your motion smoothing on your
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: TV to make sure you can enjoy it to its
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: maximum potential. Yeah.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: All right, so Lugosi is doing his thing.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: In the 1930s when the talkies were starting to become
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: really popular and they didn't have other film industries yet,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: it was kind of like Hollywood was the thing. They
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: would oftentimes shoot the same movie in a different language,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: sometimes multiple languages.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: And that was the case with Dracula.
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  Speaker 3: Like when they were shooting Dracula on the uni lot
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: during the day, they were– by the way, I keep
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: saying that.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: It's obnoxious.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: That's what– when I worked out there, that's what everyone
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: called it. who worked in the film business, so I'm
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: not trying to be like, that was an insider, but
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: it's just ingrained in me.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It hasn't come across as obnoxious at all.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, good. So the uni lot, everybody.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: They were shooting Dracula during the day, and then at
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: night they had a completely separate crew and cast and
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: director and everything shooting a Spanish version of Dracula. Its director,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: George Melford, was American, so didn't speak Spanish, had a translator,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: and a lot of people are like, This version's better, actually,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: because they saw what was going on during the day
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: and improved on it at night.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, I think it has a longer runtime, too,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: because when they re-released Dracula a few years after its premiere,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the Hays Code existed now, which was censorship, so they
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: had to cut it down even further. And the Spanish
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: version didn't have to undergo that same thing. So I've
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: not seen that one, but I can imagine it's pretty good.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd like to check it out. All right, so
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Dracula was a big hit. I promised we were going
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: to introduce you to a little guy named Frank.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I lied. It's actually a big guy named Frank. Frankenstein.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: This was released Thanksgiving 1931, directed by the great James Whale.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: He was a Brit. I mentioned other movies made about
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: this era. There's a great, great film called Gods and
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Monsters about the final days of James Whale that I
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: highly recommend.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't know that was about him.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I noticed there's a huge difference, you can tell, between
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Todd Browning's Dracula, the way that's directed, and the way
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: that The Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, which
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: James Whale did both of those, are directed. And I'm much— like,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I love freaks, but I'm now a big James Whale fan.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: He was amazing.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, nice. You should check out Gods and Monsters.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I will.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Good money.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I will.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: So Frankenstein adapted also from a stage play. And, you know,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: like you said, he had a lot of flair as
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: a director, right? I think he was influenced by like
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: German cinema at the time, which, you know, the time
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: was probably a little more interesting than what was going
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: on in Hollywood.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So lots of like really cool stuff.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: And especially in The Invisible Man, which we'll talk about,
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: like that invisible, like for the 1930s, the little trick
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: he did to make him seem invisible, like still holds
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: up pretty well, I think.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I agree. I was very impressed by it. There's only
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: a couple of times where you're like, the thing he's
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: holding looks a little invisible too. But for the most part,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: it was, I imagine it just knocked everybody's socks off
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: back then if it still holds up today. Yeah. But
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: that was a, it was a really cool, interesting movie.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And it did kind of go to show just what
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: this studio was capable of now and the kind of
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: things they were doing. And this is all pretty quick, right?
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I think The Invisible Man just came out two years
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: after their first movie, Dracula. So they were gaining by
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: leaps and bounds very quickly.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and establishing sort of the tropes or the standby
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: stuff that these movies would be known for forevermore, like
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: a mad scientist lab, a hunchback assistant.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. It was Fritz in the first one.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Igor came along a little bit later, I think in
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: 1939 with Son of Frankenstein. But this Frankenstein played by
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Boris Karloff was only grunted.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like the book version, Mary Shelley's version.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yes. Until they made The Bride of Frankenstein. Have you
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: seen that one? Oh, yeah.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Okay. Okay.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: In this one, the monster learns to talk. And Boris Karloff,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: who played Frankenstein and made his career, started his career
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: by playing Frankenstein, he was like, I don't think we
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: should have let the monster learn to talk. Because he's
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: like friend good to start and ends up like telling Dr. Frankenstein,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: like you can sleep after you're done working by the
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: end of the movie. They also teach him to smoke
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: and drink.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Which is kind of.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Funny to see. And I saw that it's basically described
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: by a lot of people as campy, like James Whale
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: intentionally made The Bride of Frankenstein a little sillier than
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: the original Frankenstein was, and that it kind of comes across.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: And that also Dr. Pretorius, who's the He's even more
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: mad than Dr. Frankenstein. He's the real bad guy of
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: this movie, Bride of Frankenstein, that he's a clearly gay
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: or queer character, I guess, is how film buffs put
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: it today. Yeah.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Well, James Whale was gay. So the gay community in
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: camp maybe have always gone hand in hand.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Have you seen The Bride, the latest Maggie Gyllenhaal's film?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I have, but without sound. I watched it over someone's
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: shoulder on an airplane. And it looks pretty good.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: So you really saw it, huh?
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: It looks good. You know what's funny, though? I noticed
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: there's a conversation between Dr. Pretorius and Frankenstein's monster in
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: a crypt. And they're talking basically about how You know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the dead are good. The living are bad. And I
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: think that's kind of like the premise of The Bride,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: isn't it?
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I didn't think it was that great.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I like it was a big swing.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: And I like I love that she made this movie
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: and that the studio put money behind her to make
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: this kind of weird movie. Sure.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But a lot of this stuff didn't work for me, unfortunately,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: is my review.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, we've always got Secretary.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I love that movie.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Man, that's a good movie. All right.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Well, speaking of movies, let's talk about a few more
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: of these monster movies because they start churning these things
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: out in the 1930s because they realized they had an
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: audience that was rabid for this spooky stuff. And so
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: the first mummy movie came about in 1932. Keep in mind,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: this is just about 10 years later after King Tutankhamen's
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: tomb had been opened. So, you know, we've talked before
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: about Egypt fever striking the United States, and that was
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: why they released the mummy. But this was not yet
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: The bandage-wrapped mummy monster at this point.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: That would come later.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: No, he was a very smart, very evil Egyptian high
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: priest that was reborn, reanimated, I guess, into modern times,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: wearing a fez.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: That's right. Boris Karloff again in this case.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yes. And it's hard to understate how big a star
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and some of the supporting actors
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: became from these movies, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And they
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: were also, they were knocking them out. And some of
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: them you can definitely tell this thing was shot in
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: two weeks. Others, it's amazing what they were able to
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: do over very short periods of time and at first
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: fairly limited budgets. But these movies like were really coming
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: on strong. I think Frankenstein ended up being the top
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: grossing movie of 1931, not only beating out Dracula, but
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: beating out Charlie Chaplin's City Lights too. So people had
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: an appetite for this like right out of the gate.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: There was one in 1932, a Poe, and we'll see,
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. Murders of the Rue Morgue with
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Bela Lugosi.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Again, in 1932, there was White Zombie, which is where
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: obviously where the Rob Zombie got his band name from.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Not an official Universal movie, but it was an independent
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: shot on the Universal Stages. And it did have Bela Lugosi,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: so it's worth mentioning.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, and it also gave us a lot of the
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: tropes about essentially like a person who has been resurrected
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: from the dead and is now under the spell of
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: a magician of some sort who uses them to carry
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: out evil deeds. Not brain-eating, not walking, shambling around collectively,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: or even more terrifying, running at top speed at you.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: But the funny thing is it was based on a
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: book called The Magic Island. By W.B. Seabrook, which is
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: a nonfiction travel log. So I guess I don't know
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: if those were presented as fact or what, but that's
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: what the movie was based on. Yeah.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: So you're Invisible Man that you saw and loved and
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: that I loved, 1933, based on the H.G.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Wells novel.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: You had another Poe adaptation in The Black Cat in 1934.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: And this one is notable because it was the first
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: time they were like, hey, we got these stars. Why
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: don't we put them together in the same movie? Yeah.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: And see what happens. See if we get some Chris Tucker,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Jackie Chan magic. And they put Bela Lugosi and Boris
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Karloff together in this film for the very first time.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I have not seen it. I was reading about it.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: And it sounds pretty amazing. I saw somebody describe it
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: as one of the progenitors of psychological horror.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Okay. Have you seen it?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I have not.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Okay. We'll watch it together then.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: That Bride of Frankenstein you mentioned, the first one was
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: in 1935. And then along with that Mummy movie, The
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Werewolf in London came about in 1935, even though the
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: werewolf thing didn't really get its legs until Lon Chaney Jr.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: starred as the Wolfman in 1941. That's where it really
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: took off.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Its legs covered only in ripped short pants.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And hair.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: And yeah, Lon Chaney Jr., again, another Nepo baby, but
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: really made a name for himself, portraying the Wolfman and
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: some other scary people. And just like, you know, Boris
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Karloff and Bela Lugosi, as they would kind of go
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: on and become part of pop culture, they would just
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: be tapped for like guest appearances or to play like
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: a spooky, scary character or something like that. I would
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: direct you no further than the Riff Treks, Hillbillies in
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: a Haunted House series. Episode where Lon Chaney Jr. plays
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a big, scary guy along with John Carradine and I
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: think Basil Rathbone. Oh, man.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, Basil Rathbone's great.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So Lamley Jr. is running the studio, but not
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: for too long. He was pretty loose with the pocketbook. He,
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: you know, not in a huge way, but enough to
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: put them in financial peril, at least. But they say
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: that he might have raised the typical mid-level film budget
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: a From $ 200, 000 to $ 260, 000, which is like $ 4. 7 million
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: to $ 6. 1 million today, but it's sort of apples to
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: oranges as far as movie budgets are concerned.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: It's not like exactly one-to-one.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: But his big mistake was he made a really good
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: movie from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Show Boat. also directed
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: by James Whale. It costs about 1.3 mil. And it
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: did well. It was a critical hit and a financial hit,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: but they just spent too much money and they were
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: in arrears and in trouble.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: And on top of that, Lamley Sr. had put the
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: studio up as collateral for a loan, almost like remind
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: you like of a, of some tycoon putting his studio
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: up in a poker game or something like that.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: This is a little more legit than that. There was
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: a company called Standard Capital. Under the terms of the loan,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: if the loan was not repaid in a timely manner,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: they were able to buy Universal Studios for $ 5. 5 million,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: Universal Pictures.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Lamley missed some payments. The loan was called in. And
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Standard Capital bought the studio out from under the Lamley family.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: And I guess Lamley Jr. took the blame because he
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: had potentially put the studio in these dire straits by
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: raising production costs. And he said, OK, it's me. I'll resign.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: But Universal kept putting monster movies out, even without the
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: family that really kickstarted them.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: That's right. I want to look up. I don't know
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: when they started the theater, their theater stuff.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Look that up. Should we take a break and go look?
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: All right. We'll take a break regardless. But I was
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: just teasing. I'm not going to go look right now.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we're back. And Chuck still will not tell
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: me when the Lemleys opened their theater. He claims to
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: not know, but I think he knows as a matter
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: of fact. But speaking of theaters, this wasn't a Lemley theater.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: This was the Regina Wiltshire Theater. Is that how you
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: say it, L.A. boy?
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Wiltshire maybe.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: That's right. Like in the British way.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: In 1938, so this is still in the midst of
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: monster movie fever. The Regina Wiltshire Theater was like, hey,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: let's just start showing some of these smash hit monster
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: movies again. And they did. And they were smash hits
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: all over again. So the studios were like, we should
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: just keep making monster pictures.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: And they were successful because people loved them, but also
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: because they were like, hey, Bella, how'd you like to
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: come to some of these screenings and appear?
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: And he said, what is the pay?
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And I guess they paid him enough to support his
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: very sad drug habit.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And he came out and they were smash hits.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: The Hollywood executives saw the writing on the wall and
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: they were like, hey, these things like they have legs. Maybe,
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: you know, it's not over for this franchise, these multiple franchises.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: So they started cranking these things out again, like new movies.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: And Bela Lugosi got more work again, thankfully. And he
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: was in five movies in 1939 again. including Son of
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: Frankenstein opposite Karloff. And then this kind of fed the.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: 1940s, right?
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the things that really characterized the 1940s
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: is what Universal called monster rallies. Not monster truck rallies,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: just monster rallies, right?
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was not lost on me.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: And that was when there were crossovers between some of
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: their Universal monsters. So I think the first one was
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. That was 1943. 1944 was House
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: of Frankenstein, and that had not only Frankenstein and the Wolfman,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: but also Dracula, the Hunchback, and the Mad Scientist all together.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: So Abbott and Costello say, hold my beer, because in 1948,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: they did a comedy mashup, Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: And what it should have been called was Abbott and
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Costello meet Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Invisible Man,
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: because that all happened in that movie. And I think
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: they sort of had a little string of those sort
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: of comedy horror crossovers with those two guys.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The plot of that movie, I looked it up.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: The Wolfman warns Abbott that Dracula wants to use his
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: brain to make a new monster.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, it writes itself.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: It's hard to keep something like this up, especially when
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: your monsters start appearing with comedy legends in their comedy movies. Like,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: that's a pretty clear sign that, like, the thing is
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: going off the tracks. Jump the shark, as Fonzie would
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: later do, right?
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: And Bela Lugosi, again, started to hit on hard times.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: He very, very famously, his last movie was Plan 9
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: from Outer Space, and he died during filming, which was
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: directed by Edward Jr. And I can't imagine him at
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: that age as anything but Martin Landau now because that
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: movie ruined me. Pull the string. Exactly. But a cool
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: little fact about Bela Lugosi was buried in his black
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: cape that he wore in Dracula.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And by the way, folks, if you haven't seen Ed
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: Wood from Tim Burton, it's well worth watching. Yes.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: And if you haven't heard the great Bauhaus song, Bela
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Lugosi's Dead, go listen to that, too.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Well worth listening. Do it all in one night. You
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: can do it, everybody.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: You really could.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Pretty easy. Beautiful black and white, too, from Tim Burton,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: by the way.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: It is, I think, his last great movie.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: I would have to look, but I may agree with you.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: I have a mixed relationship with Tim Burton, for sure.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: I can tell you it ain't Dark Shadows.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: No, I wasn't even a big fish guy, and a
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: lot of people love that movie.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see that having a cult following, for sure.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I did think the Beetlejuice sequel was, like, good. It
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't great, but it was good.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: I thought it was eye-bleedingly bad.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was good enough.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: But that's okay. I don't like it, and you do.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Hey, I feel that way.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I do, too.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Uh all right so you got my text that said
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: you know yeah okay.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Good i didn't think you're gonna bring it up but
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: yes i did and i'm trying to behave.
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: All right 1950s roll around we get the creature from
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: the black lagoon which is it gets included in the
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: canon of monster movies for sure but it's a little
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: more science fiction than the rest Because it's, of course,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: about a prehistoric humanoid that they discover in the Amazon.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: It was a 3D movie.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: And I could have sworn we did a short stuff
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: on Millicent Patrick.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: We did not. But we did mention her before, though.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Did we, like, sing her praises as a very undersung
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: woman of Hollywood at a time when men were taking
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: credit for her great work?
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And I think it was in special effects, colon,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: a short history episode.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: All right. That makes sense because I was wondering if
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: it was movie crush. But, yeah, the great Millicent Patrick
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: basically created the Gilman suit, which still looks amazing from
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Creature of the Black Lagoon or from the Black Lagoon.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Excuse me.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: But it was like I said, men took credit for
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: her great work. And in this case, it was Bud Westmore.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: So thumbs down.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: That produced two sequels. Revenge of the Creature is worth
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: mentioning because this is the first time Clint Eastwood is
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: on film. Yeah. Although he was just a bit part.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: And then this was also the only actual classic Universal
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Monster movie that Mystery Science Theater 3000 did. It was
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: also very noteworthy for being the first episode with Bill
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Corbett as Crow.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: Lots of MST3K stuff and Rift Trek stuff coming up
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: in this episode, thankfully.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Why haven't we done a full episode on that?
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: That's weird.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: That's an oversight.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do it, Chuck, okay?
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll definitely do a Mystery Science Theory 3000 ep.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: That'd be a lot of fun.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it would.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: All right, so 1960s are coming along. Things are changing
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: in the world. Things are changing culturally. Things are changing
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: in the media and creatively at Universal. So they're like,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: you know what? Let's park it. Let's start doing some
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: more fun movies. Let's do some rom-coms. We love Doris Day.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: We love Rock Hudson. The movies find new life on TV,
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: on reruns, with people like Elvira hosting these late night
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: horror movie watches. And they still remain even through the 60s,
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: even though they're not cranking these out, like very firmly
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: in the cultural zeitgeist.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw Vampyra was the first horror TV host
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: in 1954. Elvira came along in 1981. Sven Gulli's been
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: around for a really long time, too. And then you
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: mentioned it being all the way into the 60s as
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: part of the cultural zeitgeist. I think, Chuck, you're probably
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: referencing the Monster Mash, that song.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that's one of the things for sure.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: Okay. That was Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crip Kickers
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: who originally recorded that. And he was doing an impression
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: of Boris Karloff, right? Right. I turned up evidence of
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: a ABC teen music show called Shindig from the 60s
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: that Boris Karloff appeared on. And not only did he
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: sing Monster Mash, he sang the Peppermint Twist.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: This is what I was talking about, where these people
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: were so known to be like just creepy in pop culture.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: They just appeared everywhere, especially starting in the 60s when
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: it really became campy and silly everywhere. That's when it
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: stopped being serious in any way, shape, or form. At
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: least people like Boris Karloff and, well, not Bela the
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Ghost anymore, but they had just expanded, transcended beyond just
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: their status as universal movie horror stars. They were something
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: bigger now.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally, which is super cool.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: Obviously, we have to mention How the Grinch Stole Christmas,
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: in which Boris Karloff lent his voice in 1966, but
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: three years before he passed away. Other film companies came
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: along to do different kind of wacky versions of these
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: universal monsters later. The Hammer Film Productions in the UK,
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: they did a mummy movie. They did The Curse of Frankenstein.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: These were in color, and a lot of them starred
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: the greats. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, which, man, talk
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: about great, creepy acting.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Usually Christopher Lee was Dracula and Peter Cushing was Van
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Helsing in any of the vampire movies. I also turned
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: up some other notable Hammer entries using Dracula. One was
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: the Satanic Rites of Dracula, where Dracula is doing his
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: thing in modern London in 1970s, early 70s. All right.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: And then get this, The Legend of the Seven Vampires
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: in 1974 was a Dracula slash martial arts movie. It
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: was a co-production with the Shaw brothers, Run Run Shaw
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: and his brothers, the Hong Kong Kung Fu producers. They
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: made a crossover movie between martial artists and Dracula fighting.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: They should do that today. I want to see that one.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: They should do it today. It'd be pretty cool.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Agreed.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: You got some Western mashups with Circle Productions with Billy
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: the Kid versus Dracula and Jesse James meets Frankenstein's daughter,
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: not Frankenstein.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: This is in the mid-60s.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: And then when Blaxploitation comes along, we did a great episode,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: I think, on Blaxploitation films. And I know we mentioned
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Blackula from 1972 in that movie.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Sorry, in that podcast.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: I think it was Exploitation films in general, if I'm
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: not mistaken.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, I thought we did one on Blaxploitation. Was it
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: just a part of that one?
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh. Yeah, definitely. But that was a great, fun episode.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: But I didn't remember that the backstory to Blackula is
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: that he's a centuries-old African prince who originally met Dracula
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: because he went to go ask him for his help
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: in ending the slave trade. And Dracula's like, how about
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: I turn you into a vampire instead? And he wakes
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: up in the 20th century, Blackula does.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Have you seen it? I don't think I've seen it.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen Blackula.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: How do you rate it?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's good.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: It's like I think any of those blaxploitation movies, you
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: just got to go into it within the right headspace
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: to enjoy it. It's like you can't compare it to like,
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: you know, some like modern film, like, you know, a
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: lot of that sort of. I mean, I think it
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: holds up in the way that blaxploitation movies hold. Sure.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: I gotcha.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Do you remember this? They came up before you, but
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: I'm sure they were still around. Do you remember the
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Groovy Ghoulies?
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Why does that sound familiar? It sounds familiar.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: I think it was only on for a season in 1970,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: but it was the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and Dracula in like
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: a groovy band together in their adventures with all these
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: other like monsters that were in their orbit.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there has to be some weird memory
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: seed in my brain because that does sound familiar.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And then also, I don't remember the
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: company that made it, but there was a company that
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: made models that you put together that were of universal
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: monster like scenes and settings like you you could do
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: frankenstein's laboratory or whatever but that was around the same
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: time too.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Wow i used to be a model kid i'm surprised
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: i didn't get into that.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: I never had one of those either i usually was
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: putting airplanes together.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah i still i do a model every spring break now.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Do you do you sniff the glue sometimes.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: That's for me to know and you to find out.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: We have to mention Young Frankenstein from the great Mel
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Brooks in 1974.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: And don't sleep on.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: Frank Langella's Dracula from 1979 either. It's a little slow,
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: but like kind of a cool movie still.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: It looks good, especially for it just it looks like
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: a good dark 1979 Dracula movie for sure. Yeah.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: And Frank Langella is great. I was I waited on
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: his table one time in New Jersey.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. And how was he in real life?
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: He's a nice guy. He ate steak for lunch and
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: left a good tip.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: I loved him in The Ninth Gate, which is one
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: of my favorite movies.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's great. I love Frank Langella.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, so that's basically up to the 80s. As a
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: matter of fact, we just came right up to the
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: 80s and kissed him on the shoulder because we stopped
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: at 1979. And the 80s were a huge time. turning
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: point really for all horror because the emphasis became really
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: heavy on slashers, right? They may or may not have
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: a supernatural bend to them, but they are definitely not
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: a Wolfman or Dracula or something like that. That became
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: kind of passe. And then in 1999, everything kind of
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: came roaring back for the universal monsters because the mummy
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: was put out with Billy Zane and Brendan Fraser and
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Rachel Weisz and And it was a huge out of
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: nowhere smash hit.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a big hit. And everyone's kind of like,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: are these things back? There was a Van Helsing movie
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: that was not good in 2004. I don't remember it
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: being not good.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: It was just so-so. Oh, yeah.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: I think it was pretty bad.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Well, I saw it in theater. So that was 20
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: years ago. I don't remember, I guess. Or maybe I
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: liked it and you didn't like it and that's okay.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Look at us.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: There was a Wolfman movie in 2010. Again, not a
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: big thing hit wise. I think Jack Nicholson was in
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: the movie Wolf, but that was less universal monster than
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: just like a guy who turns into a wolf.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Like sexy wolf, right? He likes to. sleep with the ladies.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, it was Jack.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: The wolf man, though, was Benicio Del Toro, and he
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: was really trying, and apparently it didn't do well.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of... Things weren't looking good.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: They had, once the Marvel Cinematic Universe came out, they
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: had big plans in the 2010s to do the Dark Universe, which...
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, it would have been super cool, I think.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: They were going to have Johnny Depp. I remember reading
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: about this. Johnny Depp was going to be the Invisible Man.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: Angelina Jolie was going to be the Bride. Javier Bardem
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: was going to be the Monster from Frankenstein. And I
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: was super stoked at reviving the monsters. But Tom Cruise
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: put out the 2017 Mummy, which was going to be
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: sort of the kickoff.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: And it was a big flop. And they just scrapped
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: the whole idea.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just immediately. And all the ones that they already
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: had in production and lying to be part of this,
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: they're like, these are standalones from now on.
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: And they have. I mean, there's been some. Probably the
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: highlight of the last 10 or 15 years was The
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Invisible Man. that Jason Blum, I think, directed with Elizabeth Moss.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: And it's become, I haven't seen it, but I know
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: that it's very well regarded, especially for being almost an
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: indie movie as far as I can tell.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really good.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: And they sort of look at it through the lens
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: of domestic violence starring Elizabeth Moss. And, you know, she
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: stands her ground. So it's a bit of a like
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: a rallying cry, I guess.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: And then probably I said the high point was Invisible Man.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: I know, like I said, it's very well regarded. I
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: should take that back. I think The Shape of Water
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: is probably the high point of the last like 10
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: or so years as far as Universal Monsters go. I
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: didn't see that one either, but I know that it
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: was everybody was crazy for that movie.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I did not care for it, but it was
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: a big, big hit and a big critical hit. Guillermo
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: del Toro is trying to revive all these monsters because
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: he did the Frankenstein movie this past year, too, that
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: I also didn't love that one.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: But it was it was OK.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And just for those not in the know, Shape
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: of Water was a tale of the creature from the
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Black Lagoon.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. A take on that.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: That's what I was going for. Thanks, man.
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: You got anything else on Universal Monsters?
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: No.
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: Go out and see some of these old movies, though.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: If you think you can't sit through a movie from
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: the 1930s, I bet you'd be surprised. Yeah.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: I strongly suggest you start with The Invisible Man.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Okay. Well, since we just agreed on that and we
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: just kicked off the spookiest month in style with this episode,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: I think we can treat ourselves to Listener Mail.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: This is about reggae. It's kind of a cool little email.
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: Hey, guys, I really enjoyed the August 6th episode on
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: reggae music. Early in the episode, you mentioned the mobile
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: discos known as sound systems. Now they help lead to
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: the development of toasting. That brought back a special connection
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: for me because my paternal grandfather started a sound system
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: called Maritone Music in the 1950s, and it recently celebrated
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: its 75th anniversary. Maritone Music has the distinction of being
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: the longest continuous sound system in Jamaica. And while Maritone
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: music has passed its peak of the years of the
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: 70s and 80s, it still draws crowds and remains an
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: important part of Jamaica's musical history.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: That's cool.
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: Thanks for all you do and keep me company over
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: the years, guys. I've truly enjoyed listening. And that is
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: from Roger Blake.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Roger, that was a great email. I was not expecting
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: that one.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, I got to look up Maritone music and
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: find out a little bit more about this.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: For sure.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Maybe we'll even take a trip down to check it out.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Let's do it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: Well, if you want to be like Roger and let
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: us know something awesome that your ancestor did, we love
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: to hear about that kind of thing. They're seriously interesting
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: basically every time. You can send it in an email
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: to stuffpodcasts at iheartradio.com.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 43:32
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• 43:36
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