Carl's 26th Birthday Party in 1934.I neglected to mention it last year and almost forgot again this year but yesterday, April 28th, marked the 101st birthday of Carl Laemmle, Jr, son of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures and Head of Production from 1928 to 1936, the Golden Years of the studio. I'm sorry I didn't write it up last year on his 100th but this year he was fresh on my mind thanks to a post by Arbogast concerning two little movies done under his guidance, Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), both directed by the great James Whale. Carl, known as Junior to friends and family, died of a stroke in 1979 but his legacy will live on forever.
During his years as Head of Production, Universal produced an amazing output of film art with a fraction of the money a studio like MGM had to throw around. And while that included some big award winning prestige films like All Quiet on the Western Front and Waterloo Bridge, the main thing Junior did was make Horror a respectable genre for a studio to hang its hat on. The Cat Creeps (1930), Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) all came under Junior's supervision. In 1935 the studio was losing money despite the box office results of the Horror hits and Junior put favorite director James Whale at the helm of Show Boat (1936). It was a huge success but not enough to save the studio. The two Laemmles were bought out and Junior never produced again. But while he was producing he gave us some of the great works of thirties cinema (and of all time) and helped define the look and feel of Horror for years to come. Happy Belated Birthday Junior, and thanks for the movies.
Carl and Junior in 1931, the year both DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN were released.
23 comments:
Yes, we horror fans owe him a great debt. What a miserable world we would live in had he not seen the potential.
And not cheap murky low budget stuff but high class, big budget productions. That's why they lost money because Junior put so much into them, despite their just being lowly horror movies. He loved Westerns, Horror, Action - all the subgenres but other studios like RKO and Warners had the monopoly on those so he put everything into high-end Horror movies. And I have all except The Cat Creeps on DVD.
I have all but The Cat Creeps and The Old Dark House, the latter of which I keep meaning to order.
Those Universal films aren't actually my favorites from the era (30s through the 40s), but without Laemmle there wouldn't have been a Val Lewton, whose films ARE my favorite of that time. What would Lewton have done? What B-movie branch would RKO have dumped him into if horror hadn't proved to be profitable? Who knows? Who knows if Lewton would have even had any kind of career, or been able to make any mark in films?
Maybe Lewton would have been the guy that started it. I mean, I know horror was around before Laemmle, but you're right, he did make it possible to make high-end horror because he proved it could be well made and successful outside of cheap b-movies.
I love Lewton as well but the Universal's are among my favorites. I just got the Special Edition of The Wolf Man last week and even though I've seen it twenty times it was so exciting to get a brand new copy of it with special features. Woo hoo!
I have the "Legacy" (I think that's what they're called) collections for Wolf Man, The Mummy and Frankenstein. They're pretty good, and have the same commentary tracks as the stand-alone discs, and some of the same documentaries, plus several more films in each of the series. The only real drawback that I can find is that each one is burdened with a brief video featuring Stephen Sommers explaining how these movies inspired him, and boy howdy, if you liked The Wolf Man, you're going to love Van Helsing! What embarrassing little time capsules those videos are.
Has any movie ever had a worse man/vampire/wolf transformation scene than Van Helsing? Boy, it's like they got a CGI program from the neighbor's kid or something.
The whole movie is really like some bad (or great, maybe) joke. She's in the fucking clouds at the end!! Her face...is a fucking cloud!!
And not even a good cloud. It's like Mufasa talking to Simba from Heaven in The Lion King .
And then he smiles and puts on his Scarecrow hat to ride off into the sunset.
Man, that movie blows!
The thing about Sommers that kills me is that he seems to have his heart in the right place. He wants to bring back a kind of old-fashioned adventure and horror film, the kind that he and everyone else with good taste loves. But he has no idea how to do it. Every single instinct he has seems to be wrong.
Every single instinct he has seems to be wrong...
It's funny because it's true. He's like Ed Wood only with more talent. But like Wood he does have a real desire to make that type of old fashioned monster movie popular again while at the same time has an incredible knack for modern era sentimentality, cliche and CGI sheen that absolutely betrays the very idea of it before it's begun.
Why are we the only two people online today?
modern era sentimentality...
The key there is "modern era". And it's true. His movies feel and sound so awkwardly and obnoxiously modern. He has no feel for what's good about those old films, or he wants to take the "old" stuff out, or something. I don't know. He's a mess.
I don't know why it's so dead today. I exchanged a couple of comments with Rick over at his place, but other than that, you and I are it.
And I exchanged a couple with Piper and Flickhead but they've not shown up here. And Rick, Ed and Fox chimed in at the Edge but I guess they hate the Laemmles or something here. I know Arbo's gone and Marilyn's doing the Ebertfest and you and I are engaging in small talk at your place, although you never responded to the pie line. And now I have to leave in about 15 minutes so that should be around the time everyone's blogs start hopping if history has taught me anything.
I didn't check "The Edge" (you love calling it that, don't you?). Maybe I'll do that now, now that everyone's gone.
I do love calling it that. And now I have to go. Damn.
No comment.
Damn you Nellhaus! Comment!
I suppose everyone in the pic is a Laemmle relative on the studio payroll. I love the cake with the Universal airplane and globe logo! And notice the guy, upper right, doing a bunny ear V sign behind someone's head.
Pierre, it goes without saying, that cake is FREAKIN' AWESOME! I mean, damn, would I love to have someone design a cake like that for me, with the globe and plane and everything, and I don't even work for Universal.
And I didn't even notice the bunny ear guy until now! Thanks for that. I think I was too focused on the chef, who has apparently been hit with a paralyzer dart.
I'll have you know that Steve Sommers is my cousin thrice removed on my mother's side (ok, he's twice removed, but I like to say "thrice").
And at our last Olson/Sommers reunion, Steve jetted in and after a few cold ones started whining about how "you bloggers" are always on about what a shitty filmmaker he is, and I reassured him (I am a pastor, after all):
"Steven, I understand how you feel. I really do. But they laughed at Laemmle. They laughed at Lewton. Or they would've, if there'd been computers around. But they were proven in the end, they were vindicated. Someday, Steve-o, you will be a grand old man of horror, and those bloggers will be selling blood to pay their DSL bills. And THEN they'll be sorry."
He started to sob uncontrollably, and I had to comfort him -- "there, there, Stevie" -- and he was so grateful he gave me a Porsche. Which I immediately sold to pay for my DSL bills.
I'm moved by your words Rick. Moved. Oh wait, that was a bowel movement, totally different thing. Sorry.
Always glad to help. Constipated? Just read this latest from Olson ... it'll get your shit moving!
I actually kind of like the first Mummy movie he did. Yeah, it's corny and clumsy at places, but it was pretty fun.
Everything else? No comment.
KH, I kind of liked it too in parts. Believe it or not I was a part of a preview audience for the film before it opened. I gave it pretty harsh marks on my card at the time but looking back it was probably more enjoyable than I let myself believe.
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