GLORIA STUART BY ROMAN FRUELICH

Roman Freulich (1898–1974) was born in Poland to Jewish parents. He immigrated to the United States in 1912 at the age of 14 to live with family who had immigrated there earlier. It is reported by at least one source that the rest of his family in Germany later died in the Holocaust.

Following in the footsteps of his brother, Jack, Roman became interested in photography as a career and studied under professional portrait photographer Samuel Lumiere in New York.

In the 1920s, he moved to Hollywood, where Jack was already working for the Laemmle's at Universal Pictures in their portrait department. After recovering from tuberculosis in the early 1920s, Roman was hired at Universal where he worked alongside his brother. Jack continued to work mostly on portraits while Roman expanded his talents to include still photography.

Roman left Universal in 1944 and worked at Republic studios as head of the stills department until Republic closed its doors in the 1950s. After that, Freulich freelanced for United Artists and other studios until he retired.

The following photographs of Gloria Stuart were taken by Roman Freulich in the early 1930s, around the time she starred in THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) and THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933).

Roman Freulich in his studio.

LILLIAN BOND IN THE OLD DARK HOUSE

Together with THE CAT AND THE CANARY, Universal's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) was a model for the "haunted house" films that followed. With superb performances by Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesiger, Charles Laughton, Gloria Holden, Lillian Bond, and, of course, Boris Karloff, it exemplifies the motif of the stranded travelers caught in a storm with no way out except to ask for shelter in a creepy, out-of-the-way house filled with bizarre characters, mystery and the uneasy threat of physical violence. Directed by James Whale, it is second only to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in his oeuvre.

The lovely Lillian Bond proves herself a worthy scream queen along with Gloria Holden. Miss Bond, a British actress that got her start in Hollywood with the famous Ziegfield Follies, also appeared in THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.

Today MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD features a Lillian Bond gallery (with many photographs by the famed Hollywood photographer, George Hurrell) and THE OLD DARK HOUSE filmbook from FAMOUS MONSTERS #66 (June 1970).

WEIRD! OLD DARK HOUSE AD

Proclaiming it to be "Weird!", this ad for Universal's The Old Dark House appeared in the August, 1932 issue of The New Movie Magazine. It depicts virtually the entire cast -- and what a great cast it was.