Glenn Strange As The Monster

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bromstaker	Glenn Strange As The Monster	Lead	[-]
(05/09/08 3:44 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	How do you think Glenn Strange would've done if he was givin more to do as the Frankenstein Monster? (edited for spelling) Last Edited By: Count Gamula 06/30/08 12:24 AM. Edited 1 time.
Koukol 5		#1	[-]
(05/09/08 4:01 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Better?
The Batman of Gotham		#2	[-]
(05/09/08 6:49 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Koukol 5 wrote: Better? I'd like to think so, anyway... Glenn's appearance in the monster make-up is visually frightening in and of itself. If he'd been allowed a more substantial part as the monster - instead of merely lying dormant for the majority of a movie - he might have surprised us. - GJS Last Edited By: The Batman of Gotham 05/09/08 6:54 PM. Edited 1 times.
Don Glut		#3	[-]
(05/09/08 7:16 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree. And if you watch him in any of the countless Westerns he'd done over the years, he's actually quite a good actor.
Wich2		#4	[-]
(05/09/08 8:05 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Have to agree, here. When I first saw the films, Karloff's work (I think that his first time in the makeup is just one of the best Sound Film performances, ever) so blew me away, that I didn't give Glenn his due. Seeing them agaian, older (and as an actor, who understands such things a bit better!), I realize how much he was constained by the scripts he was handed. I'd agree with Don - the man was of course no Chaney Sr., but he was a quite solid actor (see his turn as Huntz Hall!) And I think he got better every time he stepped into The Monster's boots. I think he's better than either Jr. Chaney or Bela in the role. And in fact, I'll bet if he'd had the ORIGINAL "FMTW" script, they wouldn't have had to cut the dialogue! The voice he uses in "A & C" totally fits. Great weekend, -Craig W.
Koukol 5		#5	[-]
(05/09/08 8:39 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wich2 wrote: I think he's better than either Jr. Chaney or Bela in the role. Absolutely!
Don Glut		#6	[-]
(05/09/08 8:42 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree on all counts. And in a lot of those old "cowboy pictures" Glenn has billing right under the stars' names -- hardly deserving the "bit player" label with he's so often stuck stuck with.
Rakshasa		#7	[-]
(05/09/08 8:50 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm with you guys. Glenn was great.
Cinema Bill		#8	[-]
(05/09/08 9:36 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	By the time Glenn got his turn in the black suit the Creature had become just a shadow of it's former self. It had become little more than a prop to play off. Screen time was becoming less and less with each new film. I certainly would have liked to see Glenn as the Creature in FMTW. I think he would have brought more acting and less mugging to the role. And that voice! WOW! No laughs when he spoke.
Don Glut		#9	[-]
(05/09/08 9:44 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Glenn told me once that he was actually tested to play the Creature in the first movie ... no, the "other" Creature ... but didn't get the role because he was only a "so so" swimmer. He said he also tested to play Tarzan in the first MGM movie.
Rakshasa		#10	[-]
(05/09/08 9:52 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Don Glut wrote: but didn't get the role because he was only a "so so" swimmer. Which is rather odd because Ben Chapmen didn't have to swim as The Creature From The Black Lagoon "land Creature." I think the story I read in Bob Burns and Tom Weaver's "Monster Kid Memories" was that Glenn thought he would have to swim, didn't think he was up for that, and gave up his chance to play the role.
LesDaniels		#11	[-]
(05/09/08 9:54 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree that Strange is second only to Karloff. He really seemed to inhabit the role, whereas Chaney and Lugosi seemed no more than their usual selves in monster makeup.
Don Glut		#12	[-]
(05/09/08 10:22 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yes, you're probably right about Glenn's thoughts about the Creature role. As to his Monster portrayal, two things Glenn really had going for him were 1. his size and physique and 2. the fact that -- unless you happened to be a die-hard Western movie fan -- you probably didn't really know (at least not in 1944) what Glenn actually looked like. With Lon and Bela it was their faces looking out through the make-up. Same for Karloff in 1931. Not many people knew who he was back then.
Speanistar		#13	[-]
(05/09/08 10:43 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think from the evidence the AACMF gave us is that under a decent script, Glenn Strange can be a great Frankenstein Monster.
HalLane		#14	[-]
(05/09/08 11:05 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Don Glut wrote: ... unless you happened to be a die-hard Western movie fan -- you probably didn't really know (at least not in 1944) what Glenn actually looked like. That's a good point. On top of which, he had such a great face for monsters -- it was real easy to believe that this guy had been parboiled in sulfur and quick frozen a coupla times. More than a mere ringer, he looked like he'd been put through the wringer! And speaking of great faces, you ought to check out what our old buddy Jethro has posted over at Latarnia : http://thelatarniaforums.yuku.com/reply/54199#reply-54199
blackbiped		#15	[-]
(05/09/08 11:59 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Having the Monster lie on that table throughout most of the HOUSE movies just seemed like such a waste. Surely the writers could've thought of some way to work an ambulatory Monster into the stories. I'm sure Glenn could've handled it. The only thing I don't like about his portrayal is his tendency to look like he's got a dopey smile on his face when he's emoting. I'd like to have seen Glenn play the role in FMTWM if it were a choice between him and Lugosi, but I'd actually prefer that Gil Perkins had been allowed to do the entire part. As for GHOST, Glenn would've been okay, but those rampages that Chaney goes on are some of my favorite Monster moments. And I think he was simply a better physical actor. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way. My MySpace page BumsCorner.com
HalLane		#16	[-]
(05/10/08 12:42 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	blackbiped wrote: I'd like to have seen Glenn play the role in FMTWM if it were a choice between him and Lugosi, but I'd actually prefer that Gil Perkins had been allowed to do the entire part. Are you sure it's not Eddie Parker you'd be preferring, bb? "Good 'ol Gil woulda made a good Gill Man; that little guy could swim like a fish! But Glenn an' me, we saw more "eye to eye", ifn' you know what I mean ."
skelton knaggs		#17	[-]
(05/10/08 1:01 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Who would have thunk this guy would graduate top of the class of bar-tending school.
blackbiped		#18	[-]
(05/10/08 1:16 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HalLane wrote: Are you sure it's not Eddie Parker you'd be preferring, bb? Well, I'd call him in to do the strap-bursting scene, of course! And the ones in which the script calls for the Monster to use his arms like giant chopsticks. Legend, oh legend, the third wheel legend...always in the way. My MySpace page BumsCorner.com
Joe Karlosi		#19	[-]
(05/10/08 6:46 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Glenn was great as the Monster. Too bad he did so little, although he shines in A&C MEET FRANK. Much as I love Lugosi, I do wonder how awesome Glenn would have been in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, roughing it up with the Wolf Man. Of course, you have to consider though that the script would still have called for Strange to be a blind and groping creature with odd dialogue. ---------------------- "It's MORE ... than a hobby!"
HalLane		#20	[-]
(05/10/08 7:27 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Joe Karlosi wrote: I do wonder how awesome Glenn would have been in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, roughing it up with the Wolf Man. Of course, you have to consider though that the script would still have called for Strange to be a blind and groping creature with odd dialogue. I think he could have pulled it off. He had the heavy-lidded look and that 'groping arms' way of walking, even when he could see. I think he could have sold the blindness aspect without looking quite so 'feeble' as Lugosi. An interesting conjecture.

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Glenn Strange As The Monster

Glenn Strange As The Monster