Very selective in its subject matter but interviews with some of the actors in Universal monster films helps it succeed. – Will
A History of Horror is a three-part series focusing on three seperate periods of horror in film.
Directed by – John Das
Written by – Mark Gatiss
Starring – Mark Gatiss, Jonathan Rigby, Michael Roberts, John Carpenter, Donnie Dunagan, Sara Karloff, Carla Laemmle, Gloria Stuart, Sheila Wynn
Sorry guys but lately I’m addicted to episodic documentaries. It happens sometimes! While I’m currently waiting for the next episode of Moguls and Movie Stars (previous reviews here and here) I stumbled across A History of Horror. That basically just combined my two favorite things right there, the history of film and my love of horror. How could I pass it up. This episode covers the Universal era of films, focusing mainly on Dracula and Frankenstein as well as the careers of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Tod Browning, James Whale and Val Lewton. It wasn’t the most informative show I’ve seen but there are some fun interviews with Gloria Stuart and Sara Karloff that I felt highlighted a great show.
Right from the start we’re informed that Mark Gatiss isn’t about to cover it all. In fact he states that it’s a very personal selection of films he’ll be looking at. I haven’t watched all the episodes yet but I’ve read some people complaining about his choices for the third episode. Gatiss pretty much addresses that from the start and while his opinion may not match everyone’s, at least we know it’s his opinion. While he may not cover a very wide variety of films, he does manage to get some up close time with some amazing pieces of history.
Mark Gatiss and the Monster.
He gets right to it by beginning with Lon Chaney and his role in The Phantom of the Opera. The focus here is on the amazing work Chaney did with makeup and I was surprised to learn that Chaney did much of his own makeup on films. Gatiss gets to snap on some rubber gloves and check out Chaney’s personal makeup kit, complete with a very uncomfortable looking glass eye that he used in one performance. Just to make sure that he always had the best look for his makeup, Chaney had a life cast done of his head so he could practice his effects on that before applying them to himself. It’s kind of creepy to think that Chaney carried his own head in a bag from movie to movie!
Boris Karloff is a large part of episode one.
Gatiss then moves on to Dracula and Frankenstein and he spends the majority of the hour-long episode following the career of Boris Karloff and, to a lesser degree, Bela Lugosi. There’s nothing really in-depth here but I’m a huge fan of the Universal films myself with Karloff being one of my favorites of the time. There’s a great interview with Gloria Stuart who starred in The Old Dark House with Karloff and she manages to crack a few jokes in between stories of what a great man Karloff was. Stuart only recently passed away so I have to imagine that this may be one of the last interviews with her.
Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
The coverage of Lugosi is much thinner and he seems to have been trapped by his role in Dracula. Bela Lugosi was set to make a very small sum of money for his performance in Son of Frankenstein until Karloff and Basil Rathbone demanded that he receive a larger salary. That shows just where the careers of the two greatest Universal monsters had gone. Covering both the films allows for Gatiss to explore a few films from Frankenstein director James Whale and Dracula director Tod Browning, in particular Browning’s work Freaks. Slightly controversial in its use of actual circus sideshow performers, Freaks quickly tanked at the box office but has certainly gone on to become a classic.
As you can see, Gatiss is quite selective in what is presented. He has a quick little interview with John Carpenter as they discuss the work of Val Lewton like Cat People. Carpenter doesn’t think very highly of the film but Lewton was only producer for the film so I’m not sure why so much focus on him. Again, this is what Gatiss wants to present so we either accept that and enjoy what he has to offer or change the channel. I was sticking around and I’m looking forward to the second episode which covers the Hammer years of horror. That’s an area that my knowledge is very slim in so I’m hoping to learn a thing or two.
Under the marquee – Will
I really like the bit about Lon Chaney. From doing his own make-up, to practicing on ‘his’ own face is just cool and creepy. It is nice to see these classics, though they were waaaaay before my time. It’s still nice to seem ‘em around again. Actually, where is the Frankenstein love? All these werewolves and vampires, heck even mummys, nobody loves the Monster? For shame…
Just a note, Will. If you had links up in the top paragraph “here and here,” they are not showing up on my screen as links. Just text. I even clicked them to make sure they weren’t hiding on me, just wanted to let ya know.
HAHA! Thanks for pointing that out. I wrote the post but then posted it later and I totally left out the links there! I’m gonna fix that right now.
There was tons of Frankenstein love in the episode and the Monster is my personal favorite of the bunch. I had watched the batch of Frankenstein films they made last year for Halloween and posted it up here. Great flicks. The bit about Chaney was great and they showed just a sample of some of the make-up he had done through some films, very impressive. I think London After Midnight was my favorite looking one. Sadly this film is now lost with the last print being destroyed in a fire or something like that. Too bad.
No problem man, just read it and was like “uh…am I failing with a mouse today, or something?” But I can see the telltale blue text so they are up and working again, yay.
That sucks about losing the last print. Man, in current times it is nearly impossible to ever lose something forever like that. Sooo many back up copies, torrents, youtube videos of other identical youtube videos. Too bad they didn’t get that one copied before it happened, but then again who could have predicted the fire setting the last copy ablaze in the first place?
Yup, it happened in one of their warehouse so who knows what else is gone for good now. Brings a tear to my eye since those old films are usually some of the best. I did get to watch Edison’s Frankenstein though and that was pretty cool. I’ll have to put a review up for it soon to fill up some of the space around here.
I really enjoyed the whole series. It is a personal recollection of his favourite horror movies so understandably some films aren’t mentioned or don’t play as big a role in the narrative but he picks some fine examples of the genre. The third episode features all the usual suspects, the only thing I would have liked to have seen was more interviews with those involved, especially with the films of the 60s and 70s where directors and actors are still alive and kicking. But a good series overall.
I particularly liked how these films influenced Gatiss’ own work, especially with the League of Gentlemen.
Thank you for the mention. It pleases me to learn that my audience continues to grow.
By the way, boo.
Best wishes,
L. C.
I finally got around to watching the final episode and enjoyed it. It seemed like it was the most selective of the series but it was still worth it.