31 Days of Halloween Kickoff!

It's back! Longtime TMR readers will surely recall that this blog began five years ago with me doing a Halloween and/or horror-related post every day of October. I was unable to do that the past couple of years, as work and real-life responsibilities got in the way, and I missed it quite a bit. Unfortunately, those things that eat up my time haven't gone away, but I decided to make a concerted effort to return to daily posting this year. To help things work with my hectic schedule, I'll stick to posting on weekdays(aside from the 31st, which is on a Saturday), which will technically make this 23 days of Halloween, but we'll stick with the 31 Days tag on all the posts for simplicity's sake. You'll only get some cool photos or something along those lines more often than not. I'll make sure it's something worth stopping by for though, so no worries there! I'll also include links to past entries that were posted on the same day in years past. Speaking of, on this day one year ago, we similarly kicked off the month of October, four years ago I had a feature on the Ray Bradbury classic From the Dust Returned, and five years ago, the inaugural post featured the 1933 classic The Invisible Man! I'll mostly stick to a theme for each day of the week; for instance, tomorrow will be Frankenstein Friday! (I do love my alliteration, after all.)

For today, enjoy this assortment of photos from classic horror movies to ease you into that Halloween mood! Here's an awesome shot of Bela Lugosi in full Dracula regalia, from his stage days!

Here are a couple of shots of makeup wizard Jack Pierce working on Boris Karloff.

Peter Lorre looks appropriately macabre with a bald head in 1935's Mad Love.

Glenn Strange's Frankenstein Monster is pretty freaked out by his Batman comic!

Lon Chaney is captivating as always as the tragic clown in 1924's He Who Gets Slapped.

That's it for today. Hope to see you again tomorrow, and each day thereafter! 

31 Days of Halloween: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

  Today, we're revisiting the Man of a Thousand Faces, with one of his greatest triumphs: 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

Deaf hunchback Quasimodo(Lon Chaney) lives in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, under the protection of benevolent archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo(Nigel De Brulier). Jehan Frollo(Brandon Hurst), the archdeacon's no-good brother, desires the gypsy dancer Esmeralda(Patsy Ruth Miller), adopted daughter of Chopin, the king of Paris' beggars(Ernest Torrence). Jehan convinces Quasimodo to kidnap her, and Quasimodo is captured in the act by Captain Phoebus de Chateaupers(Norman Kerry). Sentenced to a public lashing, Quasimodo is humiliated before the heckling crowd. When Esmeralda takes pity on him, bringing him water, he becomes infatuated with her. As the young woman is now desired by three men, each of them powerful in their own way, you can well imagine how events quickly escalate from here!

Hunchback, obviously, is Chaney's show from the get-go. This was the film that propelled Chaney, the popular character actor, into the stratosphere, and helped make him the most popular actor of the silent era. His elaborate makeup and uncanny pantomime skill create a performance that transcends the often stagy, overly-exaggerated performances of most actors of the silent era. Chaney's magnificent career is nearly unrivaled in film history, and this performance is one of its cornerstones.

Hunchback is nearly as well known for its incredible sets as for Chaney himself. This was a production on a massive scale, with a cast of thousands, and some of the photos I've included will give you a pretty good idea of the scope of this film.

Unfortunately, no 35mm print of Hunchback is known to exist. It was common practice at that time for studios to destroy the film once it had completed its theatrical run, and Hunchback was no exception. The existing copies come from a 16mm "show at home" version produced by Universal in the '20s and '30s, and duplicates of those prints produced by Blackhawk films in the '60s.

Despite numerous adaptations in the decades since its production, Chaney's version of Hunchback has yet to be equalled(although some, such as the Charles Laughton version, are quite good on their own merits). The Hunchback of Notre Dame may not be a horror film through and through-- at best, it's a historical epic with elements of horror-- but as one of the greatest classics of the silent era, and one of the finest showcases for the tremendous skill of Lon Chaney, it earns its spot here as we count down to Halloween.

31 Days of Halloween: The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

 In 1925, Lon Chaney was the biggest star in the world. Audiences waited with baited breath for his next cinematic spectacle, and the unique and mesmerizing characters he created were a big contributing factor. Of all these iconic characterizations, not one can challenge Erik from 1925's The Phantom of the Opera for supremacy. It is quite possibly the best-remembered character from the silent era, and the role with which Chaney is most strongly identified to this day.

The plot revolves around a series of attacks and disasters perpetrated by the Phantom in order to force the managers of the Paris Opera House to make Christine, the woman he loves, the opera's star. Subplots abound, but that is the meat of the story.

Chaney is absolutely riveting in this film. A master of pantomime, he was a natural for the silent film, delivering one marvelous performance after another. Although he is primarily remembered for his horror films, they actually only made up a fairly small percentage of his total body of work. From gangsters to soldiers, world-weary cops to con men, and yes, hunchbacks to unhinged criminal masterminds, Chaney could do it all.

For all his versatility, however, it is still little surprise that the Phantom is the role for which he is best-remembered. In the Phantom, Chaney created one of the screen's immortal villains, a diabolical fiend who will go to any lengths to get what he desires.

In the 1925 film, of course, what he desires is the love of Christine(Mary Philbin). Naturally, her would-be suitor Raoul (Norman Kerry) is none to pleased with that, and becomes the nominal hero of the film. He's a good deal more hardy and effective than the leading men Universal would be throwing at us in a few years, so ya gotta give him that much.

The remarkable set designs were based on the actual Paris Opera house, including the catacombs that lie beneath it, which serve as the Phantom's lair.

Unfortunately, most of us who think we've seen the original silent version of The Phantom of the Opera have actually seen the silent version of 1930's sound reissue. This version includes many re-shot scenes, and alternate takes of shots from the original film. There has also been about a half hour trimmed from the film, resulting in many plot holes. Some of these cuts are so severe that they can make certain aspects of the film rather hard to follow at times. For a few more details, check this out.  For the entire story, this book is highly recommended.

Chaney's performance survives in the truncated version, and it is the centerpiece of the film. Silent movies aren't for everyone, but for the fan of the classic horror film, The Phantom of the Opera is absolutely required viewing. There are many DVD copies out there, many of them bargain-basement versions with lousy pictures. I recommend the version linked to at the bottom of this post, as it includes the 16MM version of the 1925 original, as well as a version of the 1930 reissue. It's not perfect, but it's the best we have for now.