The Mummy (1932) Cast and Crew
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- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Karl Freund, an innovative director of photography responsible for development of the three-camera system used to shoot television situation comedies, was born on January 16, 1890, in the Bohemian city of Koeniginhof, then part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire (now known as Dvur Kralove in the Czech Republic). Freund went to work at the age of 15 as a movie projectionist, and by the age of 17, he was a camera operator shooting shot subjects and newsreels. Subsequently, he was employed at Germany's famous UFA Studios during the 1920s, when the German cinema was the most innovative in the world.
At UFA, Freund worked as a cameraman for such illustrious directors as F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. For Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) (aka The Last Laugh), screenwriter Carl Mayer worked closely with Freund to develop a scenario that would employ the moving camera that became a hallmark of Weimar German cinema. One of the most beautiful and critically acclaimed silent films, The Last Laugh (1924) is considered the perfect silent by some critics as the images do most of the storytelling, allowing for a minimal amount of inter-titles. The collaborative genius of Murnau, Mayer, and Freund meant that the images communicated the integral part of the narrative, visualizing and elucidating the protagonist's psyche. Freund filmed a drunk scene with the camera secured on his chest, with a battery pack on his back for balance, enabling him to stumble about and produce vertiginous shots suggesting intoxication.
Director Ewald André Dupont gave credit for the innovative camera work on his masterpiece Variety (1925) (aka Variety) to Freund, praising his ingenuity in an article published in The New York Times. Freund was one of the cameramen and the co-writer (with Carl Mayer and director Walter Ruttmann) on Berlin: Symphony of Metropolis (1927) (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City), an artistic documentary that used a hidden camera to capture the people of the city going about their daily lives. Always technically innovative, Freund developed a high-speed film stock to aid his shooting in low-light situations. This film also is hailed as a classic. Other classic German films that Freund shot were The Golem (1920) (aka The Golem) and Lang's Metropolis (1927).
Now possessing an international reputation, Freund emigrated to the U.S. in 1929, where he was employed by the Technicolor Co. to help perfect its color process. Subsequently, he was hired as a cinematographer and director by Universal Studios, where he cut his teeth, uncredited, as a cinematographer on the great anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Universal's first Oscar winner as Best Picture.
Universal's bread and butter in the early 1930s were its horror films, and Freund was involved in the production of several classics. Among his Universal assignments, Freund shot Dracula (1931) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), and directed The Mummy (1932). The Mummy (1932) was Freund's first directorial effort, and co-star Zita Johann, who disliked Freund, claimed he was incompetent, which is unfair, seeing as how the film is now considered a classic of its genre. The film uses the undead sorcerer Imhotep's pool with which he can impose his will over the living by spreading some tana leaves on the water, as a visual metaphor for the subconscious. The film is arresting visually due to Freund's cinematic eye that created a sense of "otherness." The film is infused with a dream-like state that seems rooted in the subconscious mind. Freund's other directorial efforts at Universal proved less satisfying.
Moving to MGM, Freund directed just one more motion picture, Mad Love (1935) (aka The Hands of Orlac) a horror classic that utilized the expressionism of his UFA apprenticeship. With the great lighting cameraman Gregg Toland as his director of photography, the collaboration of Freund and Toland created a European sensibility unique for a Hollywood horror film. The compositions of the shots featured arch shapes and utilized the expressive shadows of the best of the European avant-garde films of the 1920s.
But MGM wanted Freund for his genius at camera work. He shot the rooftop numbers for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), another Best Picture Oscar winner, and worked with William H. Daniels, Garbo's favorite cameraman, on "Camille" (1936). He shot Greta Garbo's Conquest (1937) solo, though he never worked with Garbo again. That same year, he was the director of photography on The Good Earth (1937), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Other major MGM pictures he shot were Pride and Prejudice (1940), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, Tortilla Flat (1942), and A Guy Named Joe (1943). He also worked for other studios, shooting Golden Boy (1939) for Columbia. In 1942, he pulled off a rare double: he was nominated for Best Cinematography in both the black and white and color categories, for The Chocolate Soldier (1941) and Blossoms in the Dust (1941), respectively.
One of the last films he shot for MGM was Two Smart People (1946), starring Lucille Ball. In 1947, he moved on to Warner Bros, where he shot the classic Key Largo (1948) for John Huston. His last film as a director of photography was Michael Curtiz' Montana (1950), which starred Gary Cooper.
Always the technical innovator, Freund founded the Photo Research Corp. in 1944, a laboratory for the development of new cinematographic techniques and equipment. His technical work culminated in his receipt of a Class II Technical Award in 1955 from the Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for the design of a direct-reading light meter. That same year, he had the honor of representing his adopted country at the International Conference on Illumination in Zurich, Switzerland.
It was perhaps inevitable that the technical and innovation-minded Freund would get to work for a brand new visual medium, television. Lucille Ball, whom he had photographed when she was a contract player at MGM, became his boss when he was hired as the director of photography at Desilu Productions, owned by Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. Desilu hired the great Freund as its owners were determined to shoot the show I Love Lucy (1951) on film rather than produce the show live, as was standard in the early 1950s. Most shows were shot live, while a film of the program was simultaneously shot from a monitor, a process that created a "kinescope." The kinescope would be shown in other time zones on the network's affiliates. Desilu's owners disliked the quality of kinescopes, and needed Freund to come up with a solution to their problem of how to maintain the intimacy of a live show on film.
Freund agreed that the show should be shot on film rather than live, as film enabled thorough planning and allowed for cutting, which was impossible with live TV. Freud knew that film would allow Desilu to eliminate the fluffs which were a staple of early television, and would allow the producers to re-shoot scenes to improve the show, if needed.
I Love Lucy (1951) had to be filmed before an audience to retain the immediacy of a live TV show, which meant that the traditional, time-consuming methods of studio production with one camera would not work. Freund decided to shoot I Love Lucy (1951) with three 35mm Mitchell BNC cameras, one of each to simultaneously shoot long shots, medium shots and close-ups. Thus, the editor would have adequate coverage to create the 22 minutes of footage needed for a half-hour commercial network show.
The then-innovative, now-standard technique of simultaneously shooting a situation comedy with three 35mm cameras cut the production time needed to produce a 22-minute program to one-hour. The cameras were mounted on dollies, with the center camera outfitted with a 40mm wide-angle lens, and the side cameras outfitted with 3- and 4-inch lenses. The resulting shots were edited on a Movieola. A script girl in a booth overlooking the stage cued the camera operators. Due to extensive rehearsal time before the show was shot live, the camera operators had floor marks to guide them, but Freund's system was enabled by the script girl overseeing their actions via a 2-way intercom. The system made the shooting, breaking-down, and setting-up process for the next scenes on the three sets of the I Love Lucy (1951) stage very economical in terms of time, averaging one and one-half minutes between shots.
Freund worked out the lighting during the rehearsal period. Almost all of the lighting was overhead, except for portable fill lights mounted above the matte box on each camera. In Freund's system, there were no lighting changes during shooting, other than the use of a dimming board. Since the lighting was mounted overhead on catwalks, power cables were kept off the floor, which facilitated the dollying that was essential for making the system work fluidly.
Freund's solution to the problem of shooting a show on film economically was to make lighting as uniform as possible, taking advantage of adding highlights whenever possible, since a comedy show required high-key illumination. Due to the high contrast of the tubes in the image pickup systems at the television stations, contrast was a potential problem, as any contrast in the film would be exaggerated upon transmission of the film. To keep the film contrast to what Freund called a "fine medium," the sets were painted in various shades of gray. Props and costumes also were gray to promote a uniformity of color and tone that would not defeat Freund's carefully devised illumination scheme.
In a typical workweek, the I Love Lucy (1951) company engaged in pre-production planning and rehearsals on Monday through Thursday. I Love Lucy (1951) was filmed before a live audience at 8:00 o'clock PM on Friday evenings, and Freund's camera crew worked only on that Friday and the preceding Thursday. Freund, however, attended the Wednesday afternoon rehearsal of the cast to study the movements of the players around the sets, noting the blocking and their entrances and exits, in order to plan his lighting and camera work. Thursday morning at 8:00 o'clock AM, Freund and the gaffers would begin lighting the sets, which typically would be done by noon, the time the camera crew was required to report on set to be briefed on camera movements. Then, Freund would rehearse the camera action in order to make necessary changes in the lighting and the dollying of the cameras.
It was during the Thursday full-crew rehearsal that the cues for the dimmer operator were set, and the floor was marked to indicate the cameras' positions for various shots. For each shot, the focus was pre-measured and noted for each camera position with chalk marks on the stage floor. Another rehearsal was held at 4:30 PM with the full production crew. Though a full-dress rehearsal was held at 7:30 PM, with the attendance of the full crew, the cameras were not brought onto the set. The director would take the opportunity to discuss the plan of the show and solicit input from the cast and crew on how to tighten the show and improve its pacing.
The next call for the entire company was at 1:00 PM on Friday to discuss any major changes that were discussed the previous night. After this meeting, the cameras would be brought out onto the stage, and at 4:30 PM, there would be a final dress rehearsal during which Freund would check his lighting and make any required changes.
After a dinner break, the cast and production crew would hold a "talk through" of the show to solicit further suggestions and solve any remaining problems. At 8:00 PM, the cast and production crew were ready to start filming the show before a live audience. Before shooting, one of the cast or a member of the company had briefed the audience on the filming procedure, emphasizing the need for the audience's reactions to be spontaneous and natural.
Shooting was over in about an hour due to the rapid set-ups and break-downs of the crew, which shot the show in chronological order. Due to the thorough planning and rehearsals, retakes were seldom necessary. Camera operators in Freund's system had to make each take the right way the first time, every time, to keep the system working smoothly, and they did. An average of 7,500 feet of film was shot for each show at a cost that was significantly less than a comparable major studio production.
Freund also served as the cinematographer on the TV series Our Miss Brooks (1952), which was shot at Desilu Studios, and Desilu's own December Bride (1954). It was no accident that Desilu productions turned to Karl Freund to realize their dream of creating a high-quality show on film. Freund had the broadest experience of any cameraman of his stature, starting in silent pictures, and then excelling in both B&W and color in the sound era. With his penchant for technical innovation, he was the ideal man to develop solutions for filming a television show. Freund met the challenge of creating high quality filmed images in a young medium still handicapped by its primitive technology.
Freund became the dean of cinematographers in a new medium, with Desilu's I Love Lucy (1951) and its other shows recognized as the gold standard for TV production. His work ensured the fortunes of Desilu Productions, and the personal fortunes of Desilu owners Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, as he provided them with quality films of each show that could be easily syndicated into perpetuity, whereas the live shows filmed secondarily off of flickering TV monitors as kinescopes could not.
After retiring as a cinematographer, Freund continued his research at the Photo Research Corp. He died on May 3, 1969.- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Carl Laemmle Jr. was an American film producer and studio executive from Chicago, Illinois. He was the son and the intended heir of the film producer Carl Laemmle (1867-1939), co-founder and studio head of Universal Pictures (1912-). Carl Junior served as Universal's head of production from 1928 to 1936. He either personally produced or greenlit the production of several hit films of the early sound era.
Carl Junior is primarily remembered for producing the war film "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), and the horror films "Dracula" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931), "The Mummy" (1932), "The Old Dark House" (1932), "The Invisible Man" (1933), and "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935). In an effort to modernize the studio, Carl Junior invested in "state of the art" technology for sound films, and high-quality production values. He also produced some of the studio's early color films, most of them being musicals. In several cases, the money invested in a film's production exceeded the revenue from its release and distribution. By the mid-1930s, the studio was cash-strapped.
The final film Carl Junior produced was the ill-fated romantic musical "Show Boat" (1936), based on the 1927 musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The film was intended to be a prestigious "big-budget" production for Universal, but the company did not have sufficient funds at the time. At the insistence of company shareholders, the Laemmles (father and son) took a production loan from the Standard Capital Corporation. They pledged the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. When the production of the film went over budget, Standard called in the loan before the film's completion and release. The Laemmle family was unable to pay, and Standard ceased control of Universal in April 1936.
Carl Junior fully retired from the film industry in 1936, at the age of 28. The new studio head at Universal was the financier John Cheever Cowdin (1889-1960), who soon instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Part of the new regime at Universal were the British film distributors Charles Moss Woolf (1879-1942) and Joseph Arthur Rank (1888-1972), who bought a significant stake in the studio.
Carl Junior spend the rest of his life in relative obscurity. In September 1979, he died from a stroke. He was 71-years-old at the time of his death. He was buried in the Chapel Mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Los Angeles. His father had been buried in the same cemetery. Carl Junior is fondly recalled by horror fans for producing some of the earliest hits in the genre, but his historical reputation is otherwise overshadowed by more influential studio executives of the sound era.- John L. Balderston was an American playwright, screenwriter, and journalist from Philadelphia. He specialized in creating horror and fantasy stories. He is primarily remembered for the time travel-themed play "Berkeley Squarte" (1926), the 1927 American adaptation of the play "Dracula", the screenplays for the horror films "The Mummy" (1932), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and "Dracula's Daughter" (1936), the screenplay for the adventure film "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937), and the screenplay for the psychological thriller "Gaslight" (1944).
Balderston received his college education at Columbia University, a private research university located in New York City. In 1912, he was hired as a journalist by the daily newspaper "The Philadelphia Record" (1877-1947). He served as the newspaper's New York City correspondent.
During World War I, Balderston served as a war correspondent for the for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. He also served as a director of information in England and Ireland for the United States Committee on Public Information. In 1916, Balderston co-wrote "The Brooke Kerith", a biography of Jesus. In 1919, he wrote his debut play, "The Genius of the Marne".
From 1920 to 1923, Balderston served as a magazine editor for the London-based publication "The Outlook" (1898-1928). The magazine was founded by the British Conservative politician George Wyndham (1863-1913), and was closely aligned with the Conservative Party for most of its existence.
From 1923 to 1931, Balderston was the head of the London bureau for the daily newspaper "New York World" (1860-1931). The newspaper was owned at the time by the Pulitzer family, heirs of its former publisher Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911). In 1931, the Pulitzer family sold the newspaper to their competitor Roy W. Howard (1883-1964). The new owner decided to shut down the newspaper, and to fire its 3,000 employees. Balderston decided at the time to retire as a journalist, in order to work as a full-time screenwriter.
Balderston had written several plays in the early 1920s, to little success. His first major hit was "Berkeley Squarte" (1926). Its main plot concerned a 20th-century man who time travels back to late 18th-century London and interacts with his own ancestors. The plot was loosely based on the unfinished novel "The Sense of the Past" (1917) by Henry James, though most of the characters were originally created by Balderston. The play enjoyed 179 performances at London's West End theaters, and 229 performances in Broadway.
In 1927, Balderston was retained by stage producer Horace Liveright (1884-1933) to write a revised version of the play "Dracula" (1924) by Hamilton Deane. Balderston reduced the total cast from eleven characters to eight, combined the main female characters Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray into a single character, and revised the origin of Dracula himself. He clearly identified the fictional vampire with the historical ruler Vlad the Impaler, something only hinted at the original novel by Bram Stoker. Balderston's version enjoyed 261 performances at Broadway, and turned lead actor Bela Lugosi into a rising star.
At a later point, actor-producer Hamilton Deane hired Balderston to write a revised version of the play "Frankenstein" (1927) by Peggy Webling. Balderston's version never made it to Broadway, but Balderston sold the film rights to the film studio Universal Pictures. Balderston's plays served as the basis for the hit horror films "Dracula" (1931) and "Frankenstein" (1931). Universal decided to directly hire Balderston as a screenwriter for the horror film "The Mummy" (1932). Balderston in turn decided to move the film's setting to Egypt, figured that the main villain should be motivated by immortal love (rather than revenge), and invented the concept of the magical Scroll of Thoth (loosely based on the historical "Book of the Dead").
Throughout the 1930s, Balderston worked as a screenwriter for various film studios. He was one of the team of writers who collaborated on the film adaptation of "Gone with the Wind" (1939). He wrote screenplays for several films in the early 1940s, but his only major success in this period was "Gaslight" (1944). With his screenwriter career at its end, he tried his hand at writing his own novels. He wrote the novel "A Goddess to a God" (1948), which depicted the relationship of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII.
In 1952, Balderston was appointed as a lecturer in drama at the University of Southern California. In 1953, he settled a law suit with Universal Pictures over the "Frankenstein" sequels. Based on his original contract, Balderston should have received part of the revenue of any sequel to the original "Frankenstein". Universal had reneged on the deal, and Balderston had sued them.
In March 1954, Balderston suffered a heart attack at his residence in Beverly Hills. He died shortly after, at the age of 64. His enduring fame since then is based mostly on his screenplays to popular films. Several of his works received new adaptations following his death. He is considered one of the most successful screenwriters of the interwar period. - Starting out as the breadwinner for her family, Nina Wilcox Putnam made many sacrifices to succeed. Although she is most known today by her connection to the 1932 classic, "The Mummy", throughout her long life Nina had many claims to fame. In her early career as an accountant she is attached to the origins of the 1040 tax form. Her name made headlines as the wife of Robert Faulkner Putnam, the publisher. In the world of comic books, she had the series, "Sunny Funny Bunny". Beginning in 1929 Nina invaded the land of the comic strip with, "Witty Kitty". However, the career she stayed the longest with was as a novelist. Her most popular work, based on the many editions printed throughout the years, is the children's book, "Sunny Bunny". It didn't hurt that the illustrator was Johnny Gruelle ("Raggedy Ann & Andy"). Her other books include: "Paris Love", "Believe You Me", "Tomorrow We Diet", Winkle Twinkle and "Lollypop". The film Golden Harvest (1933) was based on a play she had written. She was also known as an avid traveler.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Script and Continuity Department
Richard Schayer was an American screenwriter from Washington, D.C., active from 1916 to his death in 1956. He wrote or co-wrote the scripts for nearly a 100 films, and he was a prolific writer of Westerns. He is primarily remembered for scripting the Gothic horror films "Frankenstein" (1931) and "The Mummy" (1932), which were both box office hits.
In 1880, Schayer was born in Washington, D.C. His father was Colonel George Frederick Schayer, Deputy Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C.. His mother was Julia Schayer (1842-1928), a professional writer who is mostly remembered for her short stories. Schayer was a younger, maternal half-brother of the poet Leonora Speyer (1872 - 1956). Leonora won the the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Through Leonora's marriage, Schayer was a brother-in-law of the British financier and music patron Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet (1862-1932).
Schayer worked for various film studios in Los Angeles. He served as an executive of Universal Pictures, when the studio was under the control of its co-founder Carl Laemmle (1867-1939). Laemmle lost control of the company in 1936, and several of his associates were pushed out by the new management.
Schayer continued working in the film industry until his death. He died in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where he had spend much of his career. He received several writing credits following his death. In part due to the reuse of his scripts in remake films, and in part due to the filming of his unused scripts.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
James Dietrich was born on 30 October 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Leopard Men of Africa (1940), The Carnation Kid (1929) and Angela's Ashes (1999). He died on 7 November 1984 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Charles J. Stumar was born on 28 August 1890 in Budapest, Hungary. He was a cinematographer, known for The Mummy (1932), Bombay Mail (1934) and The Abysmal Brute (1923). He died on 29 June 1935 in Agoura Hills, California, USA.- Editor
- Director
- Writer
Milton Carruth was born on 23 March 1899 in Coronado, California, USA. He was an editor and director, known for Shadow of a Doubt (1943), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Dracula (1931). He died on 7 September 1972 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's perception of the "Monster" from the classic Mary Shelley novel "Frankenstein". William Henry Pratt was born on November 23, 1887, in Camberwell, London, England, UK, the son of Edward John Pratt Jr., the Deputy Commissioner of Customs Salt and Opium, Northern Division, Indian Salt Revenue Service, and his third wife, Eliza Sarah Millard.
He was educated at London University in anticipation that he would pursue a diplomatic career; however, he emigrated to Canada in 1909, joined a touring company based out of Ontario and adopted the stage name of "Boris Karloff." He toured back and forth across the U.S. for over 10 years in a variety of low budget theater shows and eventually ended up in Hollywood, reportedly with very little money to his name. Needing cash to support himself, Karloff secured occasional acting work in the fledgling silent film industry in such pictures as The Deadlier Sex (1920), Omar the Tentmaker (1922), Dynamite Dan (1924) and Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927), in addition to a handful of serials (the majority of which, sadly, have not survived). Karloff supplemented his meager film income by working as a truck driver in Los Angeles, which allowed him enough time off to continue to pursue acting roles.
His big break came in 1931 when he was cast as "the Monster" in the Universal production of Frankenstein (1931), directed by James Whale, one of the studio's few remaining auteur directors. The aura of mystery surrounding Karloff was highlighted in the opening credits, as he was listed as simply "?". The film was a commercial and critical success for Universal, and Karloff was instantly established as a hot property in Hollywood. He quickly appeared in several other sinister roles, including Scarface (1932) (filmed before Frankenstein (1931)), the black-humored The Old Dark House (1932), as the namesake Chinese villain of Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu novels in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), as the undead Im-ho-tep in The Mummy (1932) and as the misguided Prof. Morlant in The Ghoul (1933). He thoroughly enjoyed his role as a religious fanatic in John Ford's The Lost Patrol (1934), although contemporary critics described it as a textbook example of overacting.
He donned the signature make-up, neck bolts and asphalt spreader's boots again to play the Frankenstein Monster twice, in the sensational Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and the less thrilling Son of Frankenstein (1939). Karloff, on loan to Fox, appeared in one of the best of the Warner Oland Charlie Chan films, Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936), before beginning his own short-lived Mr. Wong detective series. He was a wrongly condemned doctor in Devil's Island (1938), shaven-headed executioner "Mord the Merciless" in Tower of London (1939), another misguided scientist in The Ape (1940), a crazed scientist surrounded by monsters, vampires and werewolves in House of Frankenstein (1944), a murderous cabman in The Body Snatcher (1945) and a Greek general fighting vampirism in the Val Lewton thriller Isle of the Dead (1945).
While Karloff continued appearing in a plethora of films, many of them were not up to the standards of his previous efforts, including appearances in two of the hokey Bud Abbott and Lou Costello monster films (he had appeared with them in an earlier, superior film, Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949), of which theater owners often added his name to the marquee), the low point of the Universal-International horror film cycle. During the 1950s he was a regular guest on many high-profile TV shows, including The Milton Berle Show (1948), Tales of Tomorrow (1951), The Veil (1958), The Donald O'Connor Show (1954), The Red Skelton Hour (1951) and The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956), to name a few, and he appeared in a mixed bag of films, including Sabaka (1954) and Voodoo Island (1957). On Broadway, he appeared as the murderous Brewster brother in the hit "Arsenic and Old Lace" (his role, or rather the absence of him in it, was amusingly parodied in the 1944 film version) and 10 years later he enjoyed a long run in "Peter Pan," perfectly cast as "Captain Hook."
His career experienced something of a revival in the 1960s thanks to hosting the TV anthology series Thriller (1960) and indie director Roger Corman, with Karloff contributing wonderful performances in The Raven (1963), The Terror (1963), the ultra-eerie Black Sabbath (1963) and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Die, Monster, Die! (1965). Karloff's last great film role was as Byron Orlok, an aging horror film star on the brink of retirement confronting a modern-day sniper in the Peter Bogdanovich film Targets (1968). In 1970, he played the blind sculptor Franz Badulescu in Cauldron of Blood (1968) which was produced, directed and written by Edward Mann, who had also come to the art of film from the stage and the theater. His TV career was capped off by achieving Christmas immortality as both the voices of the titular character and the narrator of Chuck Jones's perennial animated favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966). Four low-budget Mexican-produced horror films starring an ailing Karloff were released in the two years after his death; however, they do no justice to this actor. In retrospect, he never took himself too seriously as an actor and had a tendency to downplay his acting accomplishments. Renowned as a refined, kind and warm-hearted gentleman with a sincere affection for children and their welfare, Karloff passed away on February 2, 1969 from emphysema. Respectful of his Indian roots and in true Hindu fashion, he was cremated at Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey, England, UK, where he is commemorated by a plaque in Plot 2 of the Garden of Remembrance.- Zita Johann was born on 14 July 1904 in Temesvar, Austria-Hungary [now Timisoara, Timis, Romania]. She was an actress, known for The Mummy (1932), The Sin of Nora Moran (1933) and Tiger Shark (1932). She was married to Bernard Edward Shedd (Schetnitz), John McCormick and John Houseman. She died on 20 September 1993 in Nyack, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
A dapper, debonair, darkly attractive leading man of 1920s stage and '30s screen, actor David Manners was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom on April 30, 1900, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A highly serviceable, if sometimes overshadowed, co-star opposite Hollywood's top 1930s female superstars, It seems ironic that, out of all these beautiful leading lady co-stars, his best-remembered pairings were opposite Dracula and the Mummy!
Of well-to-do stock, David was the son of British parents Lilian Manners Acklom and writer George Moreby Acklom, who was, at the time, the headmaster of Harrow House School, a renowned private boarding school in Halifax. His mother's lineage alleges Lady Diana Cooper and the Duke of Rutland as descendants, while his father's family tree includes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moving to New York City in 1907, his father found work as a major editor and literary advisor for the publishing firm E.P. Dutton. Employed while young as an assistant publisher, it seemed David might follow into his father's career footsteps. Instead he returned to Canada to study forestry at the University of Toronto. While there he joined the university's theatre group and, through them, made his debut at the city's Hart House Theatre in the Euripides' play "Hippolytus".
Against his father's steadfast objections, Manners left college in early 1923, with only months away from graduation, when he was invited to join Basil Sydney's Touring Co. Firmly dedicated now to performing, he settled in New York City after the tour and enrolled at the Trinity School of drama where he first performed as Fernando in "The Tempest". He subsequently became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Co. in New York. One theatre highlight was appearing in the 1924 Broadway play "Dancing Mothers" with legendary Helen Hayes at the Booth Theatre.
In Los Angeles from 1927, David made an uncredited film debut in the action adventure The Sky Hawk (1929) headlining lovely Helen Chandler. It was famed director James Whale who opened the doors wide open while searching out a film cast for Journey's End (1930) after its highly successful Broadway run. Witnessing David's work in a New York play, Whale hired him to portray idealistic, innocent-eyed 2nd Lt. Raleigh opposite star Colin Clive's Capt. Stanhope. The film was critically acclaimed and it paved the way for David to play glossy romantic co-stars.
Following David and lovely Frances Dade played the third and fourth-billed love interest behind stars Lowell Sherman and Alice Joyce in the romantic comedy He Knew Women (1930), the nascent film actor moved right to the head of the class with the crime drama Sweet Mama (1930) opposite Tessa Wells, who tries to save him from a gangster's life. He next played Caliph Abdallah opposite Loretta Young's Marsinsah in the musical fantasy Kismet (1930) and then found himself entangled in a romantic quartet with Young, Conway Tearle and Myrna Loy in the romancer The Truth About Youth (1930). By this time David had reached heartthrob status playing these well-bred gents, finding himself occasionally on the "top 10" list of popular film actors.
Reunited with Helen Chandler in the family drama Mother's Cry (1930), David's next role as John Harker (opposite Chandler playing the ill-fated Mina) would become his most famous. As the nagging nemesis to Bela Lugosi's lethal Count in Universal's granddaddy of horror classics, Dracula (1931), the Harker role would follow him the rest of his life. This visibility allowed a permanent "in" as a glitzy movie charmer opposite Hollywood's finest lady divas. His bevy of beautiful stars included Barbara Stanwyck in the Frank Capra drama The Miracle Woman (1931); Constance Bennett in Lady with a Past (1932); Kay Francis in Man Wanted (1932); Katharine Hepburn in A Bill of Divorcement (1932); and Loretta Young once again in They Call It Sin (1932).
David reunited with his "Dracula" stars Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan (who played Van Helsing) with the murder mystery The Death Kiss (1932), then hopped aboard the "horror express" once again in his second classic, The Mummy (1932), wherein he plays a similar damsel-saving Harker role (Frank Whemple) out to outdo Boris Karloff's nefarious creature. As usual, David continued with ritzy co-leads and second leads in such films as From Hell to Heaven (1933) starring Carole Lombard; The Devil's in Love (1933) with Loretta Young once again; and The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) starring Claudette Colbert. A third terror opus had Dave joining both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in the horror stars' first pairing). In The Black Cat (1934), David and his newlywed wife are menaced by Karloff's Satanic architect.
After playing the title role in the mystery horror Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), a starring role as an ex-con arrested for a syndicate murder in the crime mystery The Perfect Clue (1935), a featured role in a lesser Katharine Hepburn feminist film A Woman Rebels (1936), and a lead role in the "B" level Canadian crime drama Lucky Fugitives (1936), David, tired of the Hollywood grind and pretentiousness, called it quits in films. Returning to stage tours and summer stock, he showed up on Broadway in the short-lived plays "Truckline Café" (with a cast including a young Marlon Brando) and "Hidden Horizon", both in early 1946. At the end of the year he served as a Broadway replacement in a revival of "Lady Windemere's Fan". In 1953, Manners retired from acting entirely.
Early back in 1933, Manners had bought and designed a ranch in the Mojave desert, which he called Rancho Yucca Loma. After Hollywood, he spent much time there making home movies, writing and painting. In 1941 he published his first novel Convenient Season, which was followed by a second, Under Running Laughter, in 1943. Both were published by E.P. Dutton. David was once married briefly (1929-1932) to Suzanne Bushnell. In 1948, he established a long-term personal relationship with playwright Frederic William ("Bill") Mercer (1918-1978). The couple remained together in California until Bill's death.
After his Hollywood years, David re-intensified his strong spiritual interest and took a path that resulted in a number of philosophical writings. Look Through: An Evidence of Self Discovery was published in 1971 and his esoteric book Awakening from the Dream of Me came out in 1987. His journal writings, from 1973 on, were published posthumously as The Wonder Within You in 2006. The nonagenarian's health began to decline in 1993 and on December 23, 1998, he died at a Santa Barbara facility at the age of 97.- Arthur Byron was born on 3 April 1872 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Mummy (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and Marie Galante (1934). He was married to Kathryn Byron and Lillian Hall (actress). He died on 17 July 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- US character actor; he of the close-cropped gray hair, thick spectacles and clipped, ominous tones who would serve most memorably as the nemesis of evil-doers and monsters in 30's and 40's horror movies and suspensers, antagonizing first the likes of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff and then, years later, Erich von Stroheim.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bramwell Fletcher was born on 20 February 1904 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Mummy (1932), Raffles (1930) and Daughter of the Dragon (1931). He was married to Lael Wertenbaker, Susan Agathe Robinson, Diana Barrymore and Helen Chandler. He died on 22 June 1988 in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
African-American movie actor and producer Noble Johnson was born on April 18, 1881, in Marshall, Missouri. His family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, when Noble was very young, and it was there that he met Lon Chaney at school. They became friends as children, and later got re-acquainted when both were making movies in Hollywood and became friends all over again (surprisingly, they never made any movies together).
Johnson was built like a bull, standing 6'2" at 215 pounds. His impressive physique and handsome features made him in demand as a character actor and bit player. In the silent era he essayed a wide variety of characters of different races in a plethora of films, primarily serials, westerns and adventure movies. While Johnson was cast as blacks in many films, he also played Native American and Latino parts and "exotic" characters such as Arabians or even a devil in hell in Dante's Inferno (1924) (the old black and white orthochromatic film stock of the early days was less discriminating about a person's color, as were B+W stocks in general, permitting some African-American actors a break, as their "color" was washed out or less obvious when photographed in B+W. As late as the early 1960s, there were very few African-American members of the Screen Actors Guild, since there was a lack of opportunity for them as black performers were confined mostly to race films until the 1960s). In all his roles, Johnson lived up to his Christian name: his was a noble and dignified presence that exhibited great power and substance.
Johnson also was an entrepreneur. In 1916 he founded his own studio to produce what would be called "race films", movies made for the African-American audience, which was ignored by the "mainstream" film industry. The Lincoln Motion Picture Co., which was in existence until 1921, was an all-black company, the first to produce movies portraying African-Americans as real people instead of as racist caricatures (Johnson was followed into the race film business by Oscar Micheaux and others). Johnson, who served as president of the company and was its primary asset as a star actor, helped support the studio by acting in other companies' productions such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916), and using the money he made in those films to invest in Lincoln.
Lincoln's first picture was The Realization of a Negro's Ambition (1916). For four years Johnson managed to keep Lincoln a going concern, primarily due to his extraordinary commitment to African-American filmmaking. However, he reluctantly resigned as president in 1920, as he no longer could continue his double business life, maintaining a demanding career in Hollywood films while trying to run a studio.
In the 1920s Johnson was a very busy character actor, appearing in such top-notch films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) with Rudolph Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille's original The Ten Commandments (1923) andThe Thief of Bagdad (1924). He made the transition to sound, appearing in the 1930 version of Moby Dick (1930) as Queequeg to John Barrymore's Captain Ahab. He was also the tribal leader on Skull Island in the classic King Kong (1933) (and its sequel, Son of Kong (1933)) and appeared in Frank Capra's classic Lost Horizon (1937) as one of theporters. One of his last films was John Ford's classic She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), in which he played Native American Chief Red Shirt. He retired from the movie industry in 1950.
Johnson died on January 9, 1978, in Yucaipa (San Bernardino), California, at age 96. He is buried in the Garden of Peace at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, California.- Kathryn Byron was born on 4 May 1879 in Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Mummy (1932) and Arthur Byron and Company in a Famly Affair (1929). She was married to Arthur Byron. She died on 8 December 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Leonard Mudie was a stalwart acting veteran who made nearly 150 appearances before the camera. He was from the Midlands of England and began on stage in 1908 at the Gaiety Theater (1884-1959) in Manchester. This was the first regional repertory theater in England and well noted for the spectrum of plays produced and the patronage of new plays by local writers. Mudie was well accomplished when he came to America and Broadway in 1914, where he first appeared in the original play "Consequences". He was active there off and on through 1948 in some twenty-five roles. Later in 1921 Mudie was lured to Hollywood and silent films, sampled two for a year and then returned to Broadway. But after late 1931 Mudie returned to Hollywood, not to return to the Great White Way until his last appearance in 1948. Hollywood sound era could use his efficient, somewhat nasal British intonation and did - profusely. He managed to appear as at least a featured extra - not always with lines - in many of the great and historic films of the mid 1930s. About half his roles to 1946 were uncredited, but his was a steady voice of realism in whatever the part: stiff British official, doctor, lawyer - lots of judges - but also many an everyman role. In 1935 alone he was in thirteen films. And in one of these he was a particularly noteworthy judge. Warner Bros. was gambling on a dashing but relatively untried and unknown Australian (well Tasmanian) actor named Errol Flynn for a hoped hit remake version of the Rafael Sabatini novel Captain Blood (1935). Production was combing Hollywood for character actors for the huge cast, and Mudie was picked for one of the most villainous yet historical characters of the film, Chief Judge George Jeffreys, Baron of Wem, the "Hanging Judge", who presided over the "Bloody Assizes", the wholesale trials of the followers of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion at the beginning of the film. Flynn's first big dramatic scene is his confrontation with Jeffreys, bewigged and looking ashen with the kidney disease killing him. It is a great scene with great lines for both actors. Mudie was busy with over ten roles per year from 1937 thru 1941 before he began to slow down, age bringing about fewer character roles -- four or so per annum in the ensuing years. He had a somewhat prophetic line playing an old traditional actor Horace Karlos in a Charlie Chan whodunit The Scarlet Clue (1945) when he makes a reference to appearing in the still infant television as "Well, it's a living!" Indeed by 1953 Mudie got his feet wet in TV, and by later 1955 he was more a fixture of that medium than film and visiting all the varied series with a full sprinkling of character roles-including judges. In fact in the super cast of Hollywood who's who in the film The Story of Mankind (1957), he was the Chief Inquisitor for the cosmic aliens putting humanity on trial. That bit of fantasy was director by future sci-fi and underwater adventure showman Irwin Allen. He finished off his long, busy life with a few more TV roles at 82 - it certainly was a living.
- James Crane was born on 9 August 1889 in Rantoul, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Mummy (1932), A Dark Lantern (1920) and Sinners (1920). He was married to Alice Brady. He died on 2 June 1968 in San Gabriel, California, USA.
- Henry Victor was born on October 2, 1892 in England, but was raised in Germany. He began his film career in 1914, eventually playing leads in literary adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1916) and H. Rider Haggard's She (1916), both in 1916. When talkies appeared in the late 1920's, Victor's thick Teutonic accent was a detriment as a leading man in Hollywood, but he enjoyed a substantial career as a character actor in American and British films, specializing in brutish Nazis during World War II.
He is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the sadistic strongman Hercules in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), a role that was originally considered for Victor McLaglen, whom Browning had worked with previously, along with Harry Earles, in The Unholy Three (1925). He also excelled as the beleaguered Nazi Captain Schultz in the Ernst Lubitsch classic To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. From 1914 to 1945, he appeared in over 100 films.
Henry Victor prematurely died of a brain tumor on March 15, 1945 at the age of 52. He is buried at Oakwood Memorial Cemetery in Chatsworth, CA. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Distinguished-looking C. Montague Shaw came to personify the somewhat tweedy but intellectual British scholar or professorial type in many of his more than 150 films, but he was actually an Australian, born in Adelaide in 1884. He began his stage career in Australia with a repertory company, and after touring that country the company traveled to Great Britain. Eventually he began appearing in plays on the London stage. He was also what was known as an "elocution" teacher, instructing actors, business executives and others on the best ways of expressing oneself through language and speech exercises. He became quite respected in this field, traveling throughout British Colonial Africa, Canada and the US in these endeavors. His film career began in 1926 in two-reel shorts, but he soon graduated to full-length features. He appeared in many of the more distinguished productions of the 1930s, such as David Copperfield (1935) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935), but more often than not his roles were smaller and sometimes unbilled. However, he did much better in the serial field, where he had substantial parts as scientists, villains, the heroine's father, etc., in such classic chapter plays as Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939), Ace Drummond (1936), Undersea Kingdom (1936) and Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939). He made his last film in 1949 (The Pilgrimage Play (1949)) and died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, on February 6, 1968, at age 85.