![]() ![]() He had appeared in over fifty films by the time his Lennie Small touched moviegoers hearts in Of Mice and Men.īorn Creighton Tull Chaney on February 10, 1906, he spent his earliest years barnstorming vaudeville with his parents, Lon and Cleva Chaney, but any show business career for young Creighton was stalled by the time his parents divorced in 1913. But it was the unique talent under Jack Pierce’s Wolf Man makeup who emerged as one of the most important horror movie actors of all-time. ![]() Its success reached beyond Universal and quickly inspired titles such as The Undying Monster (1942) at Twentieth Century Fox and Cat People (1942) at RKO. The Wolf Man breathed fresh life into Universal’s horror cycle throughout the 1940s. With horror relevant again in the new decade, a new star was finally smelling some success after several years of toil.Ībove: Mary Philbin reveals Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Chaney’s death in 1930 opened the door for Lugosi and then Karloff to don capes and collodion while taking up the late master’s mantle at the box office throughout the 1930s. Before Lugosi and Karloff, Universal had had Lon Chaney, famed star of silent classics such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). After Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931), Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff appeared in several genre classics throughout the decade, but by 1941, Universal limited Lugosi to supporting roles, and Karloff was finding new success on the stage. The Wolf Man provides a major exception, the original proving so successful that its monster was soon stalking the dark alongside the studio’s more established creatures of the night. Every few years a new werewolf movie comes along, but usually they just confirm how much The Wolf Man deserves its exalted status.īuilt on the foundation of Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Mummy, Universal’s second wave of horror releases, beginning with Son of Frankenstein in 1939, was largely composed of sequels and retreads. By 1997, it was so ingrained within American culture that it was honored with an appearance on a postage stamp. Within a few months the silly little genre film pulled in over a million dollars at the box office (Weaver). Disney's big, bad wolf.” To many, The Wolf Man was a silly little genre film most notable for wasting a deep and respected cast of stars. Variety called The Wolf Man “dubious entertainment at this particular time.” Theodore Strauss of the New York Times wrote that the monster “looks a lot less terrifying and not nearly as funny as Mr. The press viewed it a few days earlier at a December 9 Universal preview, and like most horror films the immediate critical reception was typically either savage-especially given the poor timing-or mocking. ![]() The Wolf Man was released five days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. ![]()
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