Hang onto your hats, boils and ghouls, because here's a genuine, guaranteed, 100 percent...
Incredible news has just reached us at HORROR-WOOD. Film archivists at UCLA have unearthed a completely unknown classic Universal horror film of the Forties. Amazingly, this "lost" classic horror is also yet another of the classic monster meetings (a la Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man), this one involving the Frankenstein Monster and the Mummy! In this version, Boris Karloff, offered a generous fee, evidently again volunteered to essay the role of the immortal Monster, whilst Lon Chaney, Jr., filled in the role of the Mummy that he took on after Karloff's and Tom Tyler's brief stints in the role. According to deeply placed sources, the studio was trying to "humanize" the Frankenstein Monster, in order to engender an appeal to a "wider audience"--i.e., the "family" audience. Director James Whale and Screenwriter Curt Siodmak were ordered to come up with a more sympathetic role for the Mummy as well. The result can be guessed at from the following unreleased studio one-sheer poster for the never-distributed film.
Alas, the completed film was considered a bit over-the-top, even by studio execs. The spectacle of Karloff's Monster lumbering after Chaney's Mummy because the Monster's damaged aural organs confused "mummy" with "mommy" was reportedly enough to cause Karloff to forever remove the green greasepaint and electrodes. Whale and Siodmak demanded their names be removed from the picture. This disaster also purportedly increased Chaney's use of alcohol. Supporting actors George Zucco, John Carradine, and Evelyn Ankers constantly ruined scenes with helpless laughter, and Bela Lugosi, reprising his role of Ygor (now spelled "Igor"), reportedly said, "Monogram was never this bad!" (Angry studio bosses resented this remark and Lugosi had to wait years before working for Universal again. The "work" turned out to be Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein, which Lugosi claimed wasn't nearly as funny as Frankenstein Wants His Mummy. Lugosi never worked for Universal again.)
Anxious film historians and horror film fans are clamoring for the film to be finally exhibited to the public. All Universal Studios will release at this time, however, is the poster above...and the promise that the film will be released just as soon as all the actors in the original production can be located to sign releases. "We're having a bit of difficulty in that endeavor," a studio attorney has reportedly admitted.
| Bonus April Fool's Question: A flick entitled Young Doctor Jekyll Meets Frankenstein was a "film within a film." Do you know the name of the (real) film this "horror classic" appeared in? (Hint: It was Jack Nicholson's first major film appearance.) Send the answer in to us and we'll reveal it in May's HORROR-WOOD! |
