Scripts from the Crypt by Scott Gallinghouse

Author:Scott Gallinghouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BearManor Media
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ultimately, it is the soul that makes the face beautiful.

Then we can all be sure, Rondo Hatton is beautiful, now and forever.

The Brute Man: Production History

By Tom Weaver

The Classic Universal Monsters era (1931-1946): What was its banner year?

There are a couple likely-sounding answers to that question, but some fans might choose an unlikely-sounding one, 1944, long after the cycle’s glory days. For these fans, 1944 may be attractive as it was the only year that every one of the studio’s sequel-worthy creeps and monsters strut their hour upon the stage: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man (House of Frankenstein), the Mummy (The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse), the Invisible Man (The Invisible Man’s Revenge) and Paula the Ape Woman (Jungle Woman). And, to really stretch a point, also the unblinking spectral head in the crystal ball that welcomed fans to the Inner Sanctum. At one point during that year, every feature in production at the San Fernando Valley plant was in the “Universal Horrors” category.

And why shouldn’t Universal keep milking the cash cow? The company projected in July 1944 that by year’s end, their fright flicks would have poured $10,000,000 profits into their coffers in the 13 (count ’em!) years since Dracula bid us welcome and Frankenstein subjected our nerves to such a strain. (Ten million in 2019 dollars: over 144 million.) According to a July 1944 Variety article,

Brood of screen monsters with the U copyright brand—“Frankenstein Monster,” “Dracula,” “The Wolf Man,” “The Invisible Man,” “The Mummy” and their eerie satellites and ghoulish comrades, have been paying off at the rate of around $750,000 net annually, with some years showing considerable excess over that figure.

Because of the genre’s box office reliability, even the company’s Sherlock Holmes mystery series was hijacked by horror: As of July 1944, the newest five ranged from borderline-horror (Sherlock Holmes Faces Death and The Spider Woman) to horror-heavy (The Scarlet Claw, The Pearl of Death, The House of Fear). Universal even began adding psychological crime-horror titles to their lineup: Phantom Lady (1944) with Ella Raines, The Suspect with Charles Laughton and Uncle Harry (1945) with George Sanders.

It was high time to hatch a new monster in the writing chambers of the Studio That Horror Built.

***

With a grain of salt, check out this November 8, 1944, Variety blurb:

Ben Pivar Upped to Top Budget Films

Ben Pivar has been upped in his producer status at Universal to handle only top-budget pictures hereafter, after having supervised program material for several years. At the same time Pivar has been assigned to develop new horror pic character under title “The Creeper,” to be used in series.

Monster Kids will find the story laughable because then, now and forever, producer Pivar’s name was synonymous with B- (and C-) movies and we all know it. The suggestion that the pictures in his then-future (the remaining Inner Sanctums, She-Wolf of London, more) would be “top-budget” is representative of the kind of reality-challenged squibs that infiltrated trade papers back in that era (and perhaps to this day).

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