Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
According to a pair of cinema historians, Erich von Stroheim directed either 60% or 75% of the final product that got the name, Hello, Sister! Originally titles Walking Down Broadway based on an unpublished play by Dawn Powell, Stroheim finally worked on time during production and within budget, but he ended up producing, reportedly, a… Continue reading Hello, Sister!
#7 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. The screenwriter of The Wolf Man, Curt Siodmak, had originally envisioned his take on the werewolf for Universal, perhaps akin to another horror film, Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (released by RKO a year after Universal released The Wolf Man), was a psychological exploration of a… Continue reading The Wolf Man
#4 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. The Laemmle family lost complete control of Universal Pictures to their creditors during the expensive production of Show Boat, and the new management wanted to focus on less elaborate films. So, after a few years dormant, producer and director Rowland Lee revived the Universal Horror… Continue reading Son of Frankenstein
#12 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. After the general boredom I felt throughout Werewolf in London, I felt like the best days of the Universal Horror output from the 30s was in the past, that the entirety of quality work came from James Whale, and that Carl Laemmle Jr. simply didn't… Continue reading Dracula’s Daughter
#23 in my ranking of the Classic Universal Monster movies. Without James Whale or a solid literary source, it seems like Carl Laemmle really didn't know how to put together a winning monster movie. Using bits and pieces from previous, more successful, efforts Laemmle had produced, he brought in a small host of writers and… Continue reading Werewolf of London
David Vining, Author 