HOLLYWOOD’S GOLDEN AGE: NOT JUST BAD, BUT HORROR-ABLE ACTORS
November 8 is an especially appropriate day to unveil this post. Why? Because it’s the birthday of both VLAD DRACUL and BRAM STOKER, author of DRACULA, the famous horror novel “inspired” by the lore of Vlad Dracul — badder known as Vlad the Impaler (for badder details, click links below — the second of which is not for the squeamish):
https://www.onthisday.com/people/vlad-the-impaler
https://allthatsinteresting.com/vlad-the-impaler
This sets the stage for the first of our “horror-able” actors: BELA LUGOSI, one of movie history’s most iconic character actors, who played Count Dracula in the classic DRACULA film released in February 1931. Here is the trailer:
As if unleashing one monster on the public in 1931 wasn’t enough, November brought….
Frankenstein’s monster was of course played by the equally “horror-able” and iconic character actor, November-born Boris Karloff:
Next we have The Wolf Man, Lon Chaney Jr. (son of the legendary silent film star who played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the phantom inย The Phantom of the Opera, and other leading roles in early classics)….
For our closer, the Price is right….Vincent Price, that is. Although most of Price’s horror-able roles came after Hollywood’s Golden Age, he wasn’t entirely invisible during it (or was he?):
That’s The End for now, but never fear. We, too, shall return….
obbverse 2:29 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Dracula… no es-cape.
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mistermuse 12:22 pm on November 9, 2019 Permalink |
Like Dracula, like Trump.
But at least the former offers escapism from the latter.
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calmkate 6:28 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
what a horror-able collection of bad actors and C grade movies … good to watch for a laugh ๐
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mistermuse 9:34 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
“They don’t make ’em like that anymore!”, Kate.
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calmkate 6:51 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink
lol no they are definitely hysterical pieces never to be repeated ๐
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masercot 7:44 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I never felt that Lon Cheney wanted to be in movies. He was kind of clumsy as an actor. But, he was also kind of love-able, so he gets a pass from me. I did enjoy his interaction with Lou Costello in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. I think one of his best roles was in Spider Baby…
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mistermuse 9:41 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
You mean Jr, of course. He. probably wouldn’t have become an actor if his father, Lon Chaney, hadn’t been one — and a famous one, too — in the silent era.
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scifihammy 8:16 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I used to love watching these old horror movies on late night TV as a kid, with my brother. Classics! ๐
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mistermuse 9:43 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
They were a hoot — and still are, scifi.
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scifihammy 10:42 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink
Yes! ๐
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Rivergirl 9:05 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Oh, I used to loooove those when I was young! Now? Pure camp. Delightful.
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mistermuse 9:48 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
They really knew how to “make camp” in those days, Rg. Nowadays we don’t need horror movies as long as Trump is around — he’s a horror reality show.
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Rivergirl 10:39 am on November 8, 2019 Permalink
I prefer Karloff.
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magickmermaid 1:01 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I’m not a horror film fan but for some reason I really liked these! Maybe because the acting was so over the top that I found them funny ๐
I enjoyed your Bad Actors series!
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mistermuse 1:21 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Thanks, mm. I think we appreciate them more as adults because we don’t take them seriously….or should I say, we can take them seriously as “camp” classics.
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Ashley 1:21 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Great fun. These had me laughing, again!
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mistermuse 2:59 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Thank you, Ashley. May all your horrors be only horrors that you can laugh at.
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America On Coffee 5:20 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I cannot imagine how scary these all were compared to Freddy Krueger and our government today!๐ฑ
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mistermuse 8:26 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
Trump and his administration are certainly scarier than any horror movie. At least we don’t have to watch Freddie Krueger, but you can’t turn on the news on TV or read a newspaper without being confronted by the hideous orange monster.
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America On Coffee 12:55 am on November 9, 2019 Permalink
Pray for Trump, Congress and our Judicial branch.๐
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mistermuse 1:38 am on November 9, 2019 Permalink
Sorry to say I can’t think of anything more futile than praying for Trump. I think we both know he is what he is — it’s “baked in” — and he isn’t going to change. Far be it from me, however, to discourage anyone else from wasting their time praying for a man who’s the very personification of a lost cause.
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Elizabeth 5:51 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I think those old horror films were a lot less horror filled than more recent ones. Maybe it’s just because blood looks less dreadful in black and white.
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mistermuse 8:32 pm on November 8, 2019 Permalink |
I think much of the horror in old horror films was suggested or implied compared to how graphic (made more so by Technicolor) horror films are today.
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