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Doug Jones is one of the modern era's most accomplished monster actors, having embodied inhuman creatures in films like Hocus Pocus, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water. He was inspired by one of the most iconic horror actors of all time: Boris Karloff. While discussing his career at a panel at this year's Atl Comics Convention in Atlanta, moderated by Collider's Maggie Lovitt, Jones talked about the film that inspired his legendary performances.

Although Jones' first love was comedy, he credited a classic monster movie with inspiring his eventual transformation into one of modern cinema's most accomplished boogeymen:

"My first monster movie, in Indianapolis, Indiana, was a late-night Friday show hosted by Sammy Terry. [laughs maniacally] And it was The Mummy, with Boris Karloff. So watching that movie and the effect those haunting eyes of his had on me, and how he affected the head-to-toe performance that we're talking about.

Quick Links 'Dracula' Is a Trailblazing Masterpiece in Horror Cinema Bela Lugosi's Timeless Portrayal of Dracula

Undeniably one of the silver screen's finest masterpieces and a touchstone in horror cinema, the 1931 supernatural sensation Dracula features an incomparable performance by Hungarian-American actor Bela Lugosi, who brilliantly brought the Bram Stoker antagonist to life and set the precedent for future interpretations of the legendary vampire. The overwhelming success and impact of the cinematic staple helped shape the horror genre and led to more exciting Universal Monster movies like Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Invisible Man, while establishing Lugosi as one of Hollywood's most recognizable talents.

Though many more prominent actors like Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, and most recently Bill Skarsgård (in the Dracula adjacent Nosferatu) would tackle the role of the iconic blood-sucker, none have been able to match the menace and magic Lugosi embodied on screen 94 years ago...

Abraham Van Helsing was a prominent literary figure from Bram Stokers 1897 novel Dracula, and several actors have played the character in movies over the years. Several Dracula adaptations were great, whereas others flopped, but the book was a difficult title to get right because it was so legendary. Dracula A Love Tale was recently announced, and many were quick to voice their hopes that the project was an improvement on past attempts to bring Stokers story to life.

Van Helsing was notably the arch nemesis of Count Dracula, one of the most powerful vampires from movies and TV and the defining figure in literature. His role as a vampire slayer was often translated in many different ways, with each interpretation altering his appearance, personality, and even profession. Abraham Van Helsing was a variety of men in the cinematic world, and a huge selection of actors have slipped into his shoes.

Universal's classic monster films raised a horror subculture that fueled a pop culture phenomenon. Funko pays homage to the franchise with a relaunch of four Universal Monsters pop vinyls.

Funko will release four Universal Monsters pop figures as a reboot of the first wave of collectibles launched in 2014. Frankenstein, Dracula, Bride of Frankenstein, and Gill-Man / Creature from the Black Lagoon are now available for pre-order at retailers like Entertainment Earth, which ships the orders as early as August. In contrast to the muted colors of the initial release, the new vinyl figures come in the technicolor palette of the 80s (as they appeared in the Betamax and VHS re-releases). The Universal Monsters pop vinyls are part of Funko's Halloween lineup of horror IPs like Pet Sematary and The Addams Family. A relaunch of The Wolf Man vinyl figure is also on the way (as seen on photos of the...

In the 1930s, Universal laid claim to the two biggest horror stars of the era, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and it was only a matter of time before the pair would meet on screen. In 1932, only months after each rocketed to stardom in Dracula and Frankenstein respectively, the two were dressed in tuxedoes and brought together for a genial photoshoot that simultaneously announced their partnership and implied a rivalry. Through a series of circumstances, it was another two years before the pair would star in a film together. As one might expect, it was in the most transgressive horror film of the era, 1934’s The Black Cat, a film that remains shocking not only for the early 1930s but even more surprising as a product overseen by the newly enforced Hays Code.

The Code had been established in 1927 as a self-censoring wing of the motion picture industry and an attempt to avoid government censorship.

There are several faces that haunt the first cycle in the Universal horror canon. The men who played the monsters in nearly all those early entries, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, are to be expected. Dwight Frye pops up repeatedly as a succession of madmen and henchmen. Valerie Hobson played a few heroines, while poor David Manners played more than a few hapless juvenile heroes. But, if the underwritten, ineffectual young men Manners was saddled with couldn’t do much more than fret, another actor was on hand to provide Universal with effective monster hunters: Edward Van Sloan, who squared off against Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s creation, and Imhotep the mummy across four various horror films.

Although Universal had struck on big hits with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1923 and "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1925, studio honcho Carl Laemmle, Sr. was no fan of the horror genre. It was his monster-obsessed son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., that encouraged the studio to adapt the then-popular stage production of "Dracula" to film. The movie, released in 1931 and directed by Tod Browning, was stagey and nightmarish, and it deeply burned itself into the collective unconscious. Bela Lugosi, as Dracula, taught the world how vampires behave. 

"Dracula" was one of Universal's biggest hits, and Carl Jr. knew that multiple more monster projects could be instantly pushed into the pipeline. The 1930s saw the release of "Frankenstein," "Dracula's Daughter," "The Invisible Man," "Bride of Frankenstein," "The Black Cat," "The Invisible Ray," "Werewolf of London," "The Raven," and scads of others. Horror became the studio's niche.

The wave of popular horror films at Universal,...

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Celebrate Nine Decades Of Your Favorite Monsters On 4K For The Very First Time In Collectible Packaging

Available On 4K, Blu-ray™ And Digital On October 5, 2021

From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Synopsis: From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters. Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection showcases four of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man. Starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains in the roles that they made famous, these original films set the standard for a new horror genre with revolutionary makeup, mood-altering cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.

Classic Monster Films Included:

Dracula (90th Anniversary) Frankenstein (90th Anniversary) The Invisible Man The Wolf Man (80th Anniversary)

Hours Of Bonus Content, Including:

The Road to...

When it comes to classic movie monsters, there have been fewer that have seen more iterations than Bram Stoker's Dracula, but of all the actors to have played the bloodsucking Count on screen one of most iconic, recognizable and influential was Bela Lugosi, and there was no better time to remember the prolific Hungarian actor than around the 65th anniversary of his death. As the Count in Universal's 1931 version of Stoker's novel, Lugosi became an instant icon for not only his own generation but future generations, and his performance has continued to inspire filmmakers and actors who have taken on the world's most famous vampire. However, outside his occasional appearances in that role, Lugosi's life was a rollercoaster of highs and lows that made him one of the most prolific and interesting actors of his time.

Bela Ference Dezso Blasko was born in Lugos, Hungary on October 20, 1882 and...

“The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly… The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.”

Celebrate Nine Decades Of Your Favorite Monsters On 4K For The Very First Time In Collectible Packaging. Available On 4K, Blu-ray And Digital On October 5th

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters. Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection showcases four of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man. Starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains in the roles that they made famous, these original films set the standard for a new horror genre with revolutionary makeup, mood-altering cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.

Classic Monster Films Included:

Dracula (90th Anniversary)Frankenstein (90th Anniversary)The Invisible ManThe Wolf Man (80th Anniversary)

Hours Of Bonus Content, Including:...

This January, NBCUniversal is offering fans the chance to dive into some of Universal Pictures’ most gruesome classic films ever made on one of the world’s biggest horror YouTube channels, ‘Fear: The Home of Horror.’

Starting January 15th 2021 horror fans will have the opportunity to scare away the January blues and take a step back in time to watch an incredible array of classic re-mastered cult films for Free including Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Each film will premiere individually and be available to watch for seven days on the Fear: The Home of Horror YouTube channel. Additionally, during each film’s premiere week, fans will have the opportunity to add these films to their digital collection at a discounted price, allowing them to watch whenever they want, for as many times as they want!

Universal Horror Collection: Vol. 1

Blu ray

Shout! Factory

1934, ’35, ’36, ’40 / 1.33 : 1 / 66 / 61 / 79 / 70 min.

Starring Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi

Cinematography by John J. Mescall, Charles Stumar, George Robinson, Elwood Bredell

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, Lew Landers, Lambert Hillyer, Arthur Lubin

Like the cat who swallowed the canary, Boris Karloff made for a serenely sinister antagonist. Even when portraying bloodthirsty devils like the vampire Gorca in The Three Faces of Fear or a debauched satanist looking for trouble in The Black Cat, “Dear Boris” was the very model of a well-mannered monster.

Bela Lugosi, Karloff’s unofficial rival on the Universal lot, showed similar restraint in his star-making turn as Dracula – but the same halting, imperious manner that gave otherworldly dignity to the Count would typecast Lugosi as a kind of oddball antihero – the cultivated eccentric driven to madness or worse. He approached each of those roles with a manic intensity that might net...

Edgar G. Ulmer movies on TCM: 'The Black Cat' & 'Detour' Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 Star of the Month is Audrey Hepburn, but Edgar G. Ulmer is its film personality of the evening on June 6. TCM will be presenting seven Ulmer movies from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, including his two best-known efforts: The Black Cat (1934) and Detour (1945). The Black Cat was released shortly before the officialization of the Christian-inspired Production Code, which would castrate American filmmaking – with a few clever exceptions – for the next quarter of a century. Hence, audiences in spring 1934 were able to witness satanism in action, in addition to other bizarre happenings in an art deco mansion located in an isolated area of Hungary. Sporting a David Bowie hairdo, Boris Karloff is at his sinister best in The Black Cat (“Do you hear that, Vitus? The phone is dead. Even the phone is dead”), ailurophobic (a.

The King Baggot Tribute will take place Wednesday September 28th at 7pm at Lee Auditorium inside the Missouri History Museum (Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri). The 1913 silent film Ivanhoe will be accompanied by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra and there will be a 40-minute illustrated lecture on the life and career of King Baggot by We Are Movie Geeks’ Tom Stockman. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here

Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.

King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot was at one time Hollywood’s most popular star, known is his heyday as “The Most Photographed Man in the World” and “More Famous Than the Man in the Moon”. Yet even in his hometown, Baggot had faded into obscurity.

By 1934 Boris Karloff was certainly no stranger to great movie entrances. In 1931, under the direction of James Whale, he seared his image, and that of the monstrous creation of Dr. Henry Frankenstein, into the collective consciousness by shuffling on screen and staring down his creator, and of course the terrified audience, embodying and fulfilling unspeakable nightmares. Frankenstein, an instant phenomenon, was one of 16 pictures Karloff made that were released in 1931.

And in the following year, 1932, in addition of Howard Hawks’ Scarface, Whale’s The Old Dark House and Charles Brabin’s The Mask of Fu Manchu, Karloff had another terrifying entrance in cinematographer-turned-director Karl Freund’s horror landmark The Mummy. As the title fiend, Imhotep, Karloff is first glimpsed in full bandage, sarcophagus laid open behind an unfortunate archaeologist who, engrossed in the parchments he’s discovered, doesn’t notice the mummy’s arm slide down from its bound position.

Our series on remakes continues and since Universal Studios has announced a new version of the Mummy, set for a 2017 release, it seemed like a good time to dissect the previous attempt to redo this story. This week, Cinelinx looks at The Mummy (1999).

It’s hard to really compare the original Universal Studios version of the Mummy (1932) to the more whimsical remake (1999) because the two are so immensely different. The new version takes the seed of the first film and transforms it into something almost unrecognizable. The 1999 version meets one of the two criteria of making a good remake…Keep the spirit of the original but make it into something new and special. Well, this remake does successfully make the concept of the Mummy into something quite different, but it totally loses the spirit of the 1932 original.

The original is one of the seminal horror classics, creating one of the...

Constance Cummings in 'Night After Night.' Constance Cummings: Working with Frank Capra and Mae West (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Actress Went from Harold Lloyd to Eugene O'Neill.”) Back at Columbia, Harry Cohn didn't do a very good job at making Constance Cummings feel important. By the end of 1932, Columbia and its sweet ingenue found themselves in court, fighting bitterly over stipulations in her contract. According to the actress and lawyer's daughter, Columbia had failed to notify her that they were picking up her option. Therefore, she was a free agent, able to offer her services wherever she pleased. Harry Cohn felt otherwise, claiming that his contract player had waived such a notice. The battle would spill over into 1933. On the positive side, in addition to Movie Crazy 1932 provided Cummings with three other notable Hollywood movies: Washington Merry-Go-Round, American Madness, and Night After Night. 'Washington Merry-Go-Round...

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ca. 1935. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was never as popular as his father, silent film superstar Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in one action-adventure blockbuster after another in the 1920s (The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, The Thief of Bagdad) and whose stardom dates back to the mid-1910s, when Fairbanks toplined a series of light, modern-day comedies in which he was cast as the embodiment of the enterprising, 20th century “all-American.” What this particular go-getter got was screen queen Mary Pickford as his wife and United Artists as his studio, which he co-founded with Pickford, D.W. Griffith, and Charles Chaplin. Now, although Jr. never had the following of Sr., he did enjoy a solid two-decade-plus movie career. In fact, he was one of the few children of major film stars – e.g., Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Angelina Jolie, Michael Douglas, Jamie Lee Curtis – who had successful film careers of their own.

Katharine Hepburn movies. Katharine Hepburn movies: Woman in drag, in love, in danger In case you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to spend your night and early morning watching Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" series. Four-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn is TCM's star today, Aug. 7, '15. (See TCM's Katharine Hepburn movie schedule further below.) Whether you find Hepburn's voice as melodious as a singing nightingale or as grating as nails on a chalkboard, you may want to check out the 1933 version of Little Women. Directed by George Cukor, this cozy – and more than a bit schmaltzy – version of Louisa May Alcott's novel was a major box office success, helping to solidify Hepburn's Hollywood stardom the year after her film debut opposite John Barrymore and David Manners in Cukor's A Bill of Divorcement. They don't make 'em like they used to Also, the 1933 Little Women...

Loretta Young films as TCM celebrates her 102nd birthday (photo: Loretta Young ca. 1935) Loretta Young would have turned 102 years old today. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the birthday of the Salt Lake City-born, Academy Award-winning actress today, January 6, 2015, with no less than ten Loretta Young films, most of them released by Warner Bros. in the early '30s. Young, who began her film career in a bit part in the 1927 Colleen Moore star vehicle Her Wild Oat, remained a Warners contract player from the late '20s up until 1933. (See also: "Loretta Young Movies.") Now, ten Loretta Young films on one day may sound like a lot, but one should remember that most Warner Bros. -- in fact, most Hollywood -- releases of the late '20s and early '30s were either B Movies or programmers. The latter were relatively short (usually 60 to 75 minutes) feature films starring A (or B+) performers,...

The King Baggot Tribute will take place Friday, November 14th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium beginning at 7pm as part of this year’s St. Louis Intenational FIlm Festival. The program will consist a rare 35mm screening of the 1913 epic Ivanhoe starring King Baggot with live music accompaniment by the Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra. Ivanhoe will be followed by an illustrated lecture on the life and films of King Baggot presented by Tom Stockman, editor here at We Are Movie Geeks. After that will screen the influential silent western Tumbleweeds (1925), considered to be one of King Baggot’s finest achievements as a director. Tumbleweeds will feature live piano accompaniment by Matt Pace.

Here’s a look at the final phase of King Baggot’s career.

King Baggot, the first ‘King of the Movies’ died July 11th, 1948 penniless and mostly forgotten at age 68. A St. Louis native, Baggot...

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

Kino Classics refurbishes public domain title The Death Kiss, a 1932 release made purely to capitalize off the success of Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula by casting three of the main leads from that film. The title retains little interest except for Lugosi completists, who isn’t given much to do this time around as a rather miffed film studio manager. However, film historians may appreciate the film for its locale, set almost entirely within the back lot of what was termed a Poverty Row studio, shackled by the meager prospects of the Great Depression.

As director Tom Avery (Edward Van Sloan) films his final sequence on his new film The Death Kiss at the sound stage of Tonart Studios in Los Angeles, his lead actor Myles Brent (Edmund Burns) is shot with a real bullet. All the prop guns on set are checked. Investigating Detective Lt. Sheehan (John Wray) and Sergeant...

‘Dracula’ 1931 actress Carla Laemmle dead at 104 (photo: Carla Laemmle ca. 1930) Carla Laemmle, a bit player in a handful of silent movies and at the dawn of the sound era — e.g., the horror classics The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Dracula (1931) — and a niece of Universal Studios co-founder Carl Laemmle, died on June 12, 2014, at her Los Angeles home. Laemmle, who had reportedly been in good health, was 104 years old. Born Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle on October 20, 1909, in Chicago, Carla Laemmle was less known for her movie work than for having survived most of her contemporaries and for her family connection to the Universal mogul — her father, Joseph Laemmle, was Carl’s brother. ‘Dracula’ actress was a member of Carl Laemmle’s ‘very large faemmle’ "Uncle Carl Laemmle, Has a very large faemmle," once half-joked poet Ogden Nash, in reference to Laemmle’s penchant for hiring family members. As Laemmle’s niece,...

Lupita Tovar turns 103: Actress starred in Spanish-language ‘Dracula’ and in the first Mexican talkie, ‘Santa’ (photo: Lupita Tovar in ‘Santa’) Mexican actress Lupita Tovar, best remembered for the Spanish-language version of Dracula and for starring in the first Mexican talkie, Santa, turned 103 years old on Sunday, July 27, 2013. Tovar was born in 1910 in the city of Oaxaca, the capital of the Mexican state of the same name. In an interview with author Michael G. Ankerich (Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips) published on Ankerich’s site Close-ups and Long Shots, Tovar recalled her brief foray as a silent film actress at Fox (several years before it became 20th Century Fox): "Silent films were wonderful because you didn’t have to worry about your dialogue. You could say whatever you felt. We had music on the set all the time. It was absolutely wonderful." Unfortunately for Tovar, whose English was quite poor,...

To celebrate the release of the classic horror The Black Cat on May 27th, we are offering you the chance to win one of three copies of the DVD.

The first pairing of horror greats Lugosi and Karloff, The Black Cat is a dark and macabre film.

A young couple, Peter (David Manners) and Joan Allison (Julie Bishop) are honeymooning in Hungary. Traveling by train they share a compartment with Dr Werdegast (Lugosi), a freed Pow who seeks news of his wife and daughter and vengeance on Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), the man whose betrayal lead to his imprisonment.

When the trio’s bus from the station gets into an accident, the young couple accompany Werdegast to Poelzig’s futuristic mansion, built on top of an old graveyard.

Poelzig’s attention to Joan, and her uncharacteristic behaviour, compels the couple to pack their bags until they learn they are being held captive.

Tony Awards 2013: Tom Hanks, Nora Ephron, Cicely Tyson, Tom Sturridge among nominees (photo: Tom Hanks in Lucky Guy) The Tony Awards 2013 nominations were announced earlier today. Missing in action is a whole array of film celebrities, though a few managed to be included in this year’s shortlist. (See also: “Tony Awards 2013: Scarlett Johansson, Sigourney Weaver, Jessica Chastain ‘Snubbed.’“) Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump) is in the running for Best Actor in a Play for Lucky Guy, which is also up for the Best Play Tony Award. Written by Nora Ephron, who directed Hanks and Meg Ryan in two of their biggest box-office hits, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, Lucky Guy traces the rise, fall, and rebirth of New York tabloid columnist Mike McAlary. Ephron, among whose other film credits include the Meryl Streep / Amy Adams comedy Julie & Julia and, as a screenwriter,...

Tony Awards 2013: Stage-Movie connection ranges from Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Kinky Boots to Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (photo: Emilia Clarke, Cory Michael Smith in Breakfast at Tiffany’s) [See previous post: "Tony Awards 2013 Nominations: Tom Hanks, Sigourney Weaver Among Potential Contenders."] Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, possibly up for a 2013 Tony Award in the Best Revival of a Play category, was made into an Academy Award-nominated movie in 1966. Mike Nichols directed Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, from a screenplay by Ernest Lehman. Taylor and Dennis won Oscars as, respectively, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. In this latest Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the stars are Tracy Letts, Amy Morton, Madison Dirks and Carrie Coon. Peter Masterson’s 1985 film version of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful, another possible Best Revival nominee, earned Geraldine Page a Best Actress Academy...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated last year on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and I’ve been writing a regular movie-related column since. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I post all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks as well. When Steve informed me that this month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1934, I jumped at the chance to write about the...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated last year on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and I’ve been writing a regular movie-related column since. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I post all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks as well. When Steve informed me that this month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1934, I jumped at the oppurtunity to write about the...

Dracula

Directed by Tod Browning

Written by Garrett Fort

U.S.A., 1931

Sound on Sight’s 31 Days of Horror series makes a decisive switch of gears on Tuesdays with a look at some of the horror genre’s unmistakable gems: its classic monsters. These films will all be from the 1950s, 40s and even the 30s, the decades which saw some of the most well known, most beloved and, of course, most terrifying monsters arrive on the silver screen to freak out the others other in the films…and audiences.

Bram Stoker’s most recognized literary effort is undoubtedly the story of Count Dracula, a vampire who preys on his victims through unnatural powers of seduction. The number of films which take cues from the book, either as direct adaptations or indirect inspirations, are practically innumerable. Perhaps the most well known version of the past 20 years or so was from the early 1990s,...

By Doug Gerbino

The Warner Archive has released two more volumes in their “Forbidden Hollywood” series. Marijuana, Lesbians -And-William Powell speaks Yiddish!

Forbidden Hollywood-Volumes 4 & 5 have been released by Warner Archive Collection. I have been a big fan of this series since The VHS/laser disc days. These pre-code films are a hell-of-a-lot-of-fun to watch, and no one did them better than Warner Brothers. As my cinema guru , Tom Dillon ["The Sage of Grammercy Park"] once said: “You wanna take a shower after watching a good pre-Cceighte Warner Bros. film!” These 8 films are great examples of that genre.

Volume 4-all 1932

Jewell Robbery-William Powell and Kay Francis star in this story of a high society jewel thief who uses marijuana, amongst other things, to get what he wants. Directed by William Dieterle

Lawyer Man- William Powell and Joan Blondell. Powell stars as a lawyer who workds his way up from the lower east side to Park Ave.

Universal will mark its 100th anniversary in 2012, and will commemorate its centennial with a yearlong celebration honoring the studio's rich film history and cultural legacy. The campaign draws its inspiration from Universal's extraordinary and diverse library of films, many of which will be highlighted throughout the year, and is designed to engage fans of all ages in the art of moviemaking.

A significant element of the centennial includes the extensive restoration of 13 of the studio's most beloved titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front, Jaws, The Sting, Out of Africa, Frankenstein and Schindler's List.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment will kick off the celebration in January with a special 50th anniversary release of To Kill a Mockingbird, debuting on Blu-ray for the first time ever. Throughout the year, Universal will pay tribute to other influential films in the Universal library with special events and Blu-ray...

Beginning a series looking at obscure pre-Code Hollywood films, made between the advent of sound and the strict enforcement of the Production Code. Some of these movies are rightly celebrated and frequently screened: Baby Face (1933), Red Headed Woman (1932), even to some extent Bed of Roses (1933). But others are trapped in copyright limbo or locked in vaults by studios too blind to exploit their holdings. That's the kind we're going to look at.

Tay Garnett was a typical tough-guy director, working in every genre but with a feeling for exotic climes (usually reproduced on the backlot). His reputation—that of a seventh-rate Howard Hawks, maybe—has never been hugely prestigious, and despite his frequently working on the screenplays of Hawks' films, and even making cameo appearances, the notion of Garnett as auteur never really took hold. Maybe, just maybe, this is partly due to the scarcity of some of his most interesting work.

Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Three on a Match Ann Dvorak on TCM Part I: Scarface, I Was An American Spy Another cool Ann Dvorak performance is her drug addict in Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match (1932), which features a great cast that includes Warren William, Joan Blondell, and a pre-stardom Bette Davis. Never, ever light three cigarettes using the same match, or you'll end up like Ann Dvorak, delivering a harrowing performance without getting an Academy Award nomination for your efforts. As Three on a Match's young Ann Dvorak, future Oscar nominee Anne Shirley is billed as Dawn O'Day. (And for those who believe that remakes is something new: Three on a Mach was remade a mere six years later as Broadway Musketeers: John Farrow directed; Ann Sheridan, Marie Wilson, and Margaret Lindsay starred.) I've never watched David Miller's family drama Our Very Own...

The daughter of silent-film actress Anna Lehr and director Edward McKim, Ann Dvorak began her film career at the dawn of the sound era. The pretty, wide-eyed Dvorak was one of those performers who not only could but should have become major stars — yet, thanks to studio politics, didn't. Those unfamiliar with Dvorak's name and/or work will be able to check her out all day Tuesday, August 9, on Turner Classic Movies. TCM will be presenting 16 of her films. [Ann Dvorak Movie Schedule.] Considering that TCM generally picks the usual suspects for their "Summer Under the Stars" film series — people like Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis — I find it refreshing when they select someone like Ann Dvorak. Of course, as a Warner Bros. player in the '30s, most of Dvorak's best work has been frequently available on TCM; but to have a whole day devoted to an actress most people...

Finally, a new Dracula film for vampire fans to sink their teeth into. With sexy, angsty teen vampires infiltrating our pop culture, it seems like it's been a while since there's been some hardcore stake and holy water style vamp films released.

Well, no longer. According to Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way will produce an upcoming adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel called "Harker" for Warner Bros.

Unlike previous incarnations of the book, "Harker" will focus on Scotland Yard detective Jonathan Harker who is tracking Dracula. The script sets him up as a potential new franchise character. And no, before you ask, DiCaprio is not planning to star in the film.

In the 1897 novel, Harker is actually a solicitor who travels to Transylvania to act as a real estate agent for a foreign client named Count Dracula. While there, he finds himself a prisoner of Dracula, who reveals himself as a vampire.

For the last week or so, FanGirlTastic has been going "Back to Basics," examining movies from horror's past to discern what relevance they have in the present. So far, we've looked at Dracula and Frankenstein, the first two major films from the golden age of Universal Studios.

These movies not only helped form the foundation of modern horror, they also feature two of the most enduring horror icons. Coincidentally, both of these flicks are also based on novels that are classics of the genre. That The Mummy managed to join Dracula and Frankenstein in that vaunted horror hierarchy is something of a mystery, because The Mummy is easily the weakest film of this diabolical trinity of terror.

When all the sand has cleared, I suppose the staying power of The Mummy is most likely explained by the haunting dual performance of Boris Karloff, who plays Imhotep, a lovelorn ancient Egyptian...

By George D. Allen

Recently, I wrote an article for the Movies Unlimited home blog, MovieFanFare, offering my quickly selected picks for 10 “desert island” movies, those films which, were I forced to choose, I felt (in those moments writing the article, anyway) I would be carting along with me to enjoy during my eternal vacation/banishment on said remote locale.

Now, monsterfans, wipe those memories of Stephen King’s gruesome short story “Survivor Type” from your mind and assume all of your other creature comforts are as normal as they could possibly be (so that you don’t have to worry about minor concerns like hacking off your own body parts for food!), and pick those 10 masterworks of the horror genre you’re going to be forced to live with for the rest of your days. I completed my own “Rorschach test” in this regard below. It was tough. I...