ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE question for Tom Weaver

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thehorrorboy	ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE question for Tom Weaver	Lead	[-]
(09/12/08 2:33 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Tom, based on your research, did Karloff wear the Hyde makeup, or mask, for any scenes besides the actual Jekyll intyo Hyde transformations?
Joe Karlosi		#1	[-]
(09/12/08 3:55 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Don't tell, Tom! I want to be surprised on your DVD commentary! ---------------------- "It's MORE ... than a hobby!"
TomWeaver999		#2	[-]
(09/12/08 4:08 PM) Vazec Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Wellllll, the answer is what you'd expect so I don't want to let this just hang. Going by the production paperwork, Karloff only wore the makeup for a day or so when he worked with the "trick unit." Going by memory, I think that stuff was shot while the main unit was shooting A&C and the rest of the cast doing all the chase stuff that dominates the last couple reels. The nice surprise in the production paperwork was seeing that one day the supervisor on the special photography was "Fulton" (HAS to be John P. Fulton, who'd left Universal in '45 but came back for this).
scottie52		#3	[-]
(09/12/08 6:16 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Tom--without indulging in another "spoiler" of what I am sure is another great commentary, was there anything that you discovered regarding Gil Perkins possibly acting as stunt double for Hyde at any point? I don't want to annoint Gil as the new Eddie Parker and see him everywhere, but he IS in the movie briefly, he had done the doubling of Hyde in the Tracy film, and it was a habit of Universal's to use their stuntmen in other small bits in their films. And Hyde does a sort of fall at the end that , from Gil's story, might have been beyond Parker's supposed abilities (although he does a nice fall in WOMAN IN GREEN). Is it clear from the production reports that it's Eddie as Hyde all the way? Or maybe Gil was ANOTHER one of the Hydes at the gag climax? As usual, thanks!
TomWeaver999		#4	[-]
(09/12/08 7:48 PM) Vazec Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	The only days Gil Perkins' name showed up on the production reports was when he played the guy on the tandem bike. (I think he worked two days -- don't hold me to this, I'm going by memory here! One day in front of a projection screen, the other day outdoors.) No, he was never Hyde, nor one of the many monsters at the end.
Ted Newsom		#5	[-]
(09/12/08 8:22 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	awww. Can we just say he was and start a rumor for a few years?
TomWeaver999		#6	[-]
(09/12/08 8:49 PM) Vazec Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Not my job.
thehorrorboy		#7	[-]
(09/13/08 1:05 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Tom, I'm sure you noticed Dave Sharpe in the park fight near the beginning of the film. Wouldn't he have made a great stunt Wolf Man? Imagine him, in the werewolf getup, doing a standing back flip and kicking Frankenstein's Monster in the jaw! Fun, fun, fun!
TomWeaver999		#8	[-]
(09/13/08 1:13 PM) Vazec Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	<< I'm sure you noticed Dave Sharpe in the park fight near the beginning of the film. << Oh, absolutely! And Ken Terrell, the brawling butler from ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, and John Daheim, boxer "Rocky Hanlon" in A&C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN. And all about as British as the late edition of THE BROOKLYN EAGLE!
Ted Newsom	GIL PERKINS: THE MYSTERY MONSTER MAN	#9	[-]
(09/13/08 10:15 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Burly Australian Gil Perkins is the "Unforgotten Monster," the face who launched a thousand shrieks, played every movie monster known to man, and yet, nobody knows him except his mother-in-law. A noted stunt man and bit player who had a major role in KING KONG as one of the gas bombs, Perkins rarely received credit on the dozens of horror films in which he appeared. However, professional stunt-recognizer Sid "Bart" Schreckmeister has uncovered proof that Gil Perkins deserves to be enshrined with movie-great monster men like Karloff, Lugosi, Skeggs, Hatton, Gemorra, Paiva and Silverheels. Professional eel-wrestler Bart "Terror" Parla first noticed the peculiar S-shaped head coincidentally visible in many "science fiction" films. An avid movie-goer when doing mescaline, Parla received a spirit-guide voice telling him all the monsters were the same guy. Through deductive reasoning and lucky guesswork, he narrowed the field to three dozen "classic" films in which Ed Perkins played the monster roles. Beginning with his stunt doubling of the man in the gorilla suit who played KING KONG (1934), Perkins alternated between western movies and Transylvanian terrors. He doubled Boris Karloff during the chase scene in THE BLACK CAT (1933) when Maria Ouspenskya broke Karloff's foot, running over it with a wheelbarrow; Perkins also doubled Chester Morris as THE BAT MAN, the original comic book adaptation in 1930, nine years before the character made his debut in Adventure Comics. With time out for three dozen cowboy movies (including fist fights and gun battles with Buck Jones, Tom Jones, L.Q. Jones, Sunset Carson, Jack Carson, Lash LaRue, Fuzzy St. John and Aldo Ray), Gil Perkins played the "Monster" in WOLF MAN MEETS FRANKENSTEIN. He was the natural choice, a 6'5" tower of Aussie manhood with an S-shaped head and chin slot you could insert a dime in and get nine cents change. He was chosen because he looked nothing like any other actor who ever played Frankenstein. Universal Pictures, the studio who made only horror pictures, offered Perkins a contract and he continued to play the monster in sequels like SON OF FRANKENSTEIN RETURNS, GHOSTS OF FRANKENSTEIN, and DAUGHTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, the last with Perkins' ex-wife, Hungarian beauty Ilona Twentybucks, long rumored to be Lebanese. "It took five days to put on the make up to make me into Frankenstein," Perkins once told Curt "Lying Sack o'Crap" Hobgoblin. "They'd strap me to a gurney and knock me out with injections of ethanol. I'd wake up with bolts on my neck and a dry mouth. I did one picture with Eddie Parker playing Woofman, who couldn't jump to save his life. We ran through the woods in another picture, then they stuck him in an ice cube. I had to take over for Eddie on that shot, because his butt froze. Then they cut out all my close-ups and put Bella Loogosy in instead of me. That's show biz!" Perkins then played "The Creature from the Lagoon" in the famed television series. "They wanted a swimmer," he recalls, "but Buster Crabbe crabwalked away from the role. They took one look at my S-shaped skull and said, 'You're in.'" He also appeared on live television in a "comedy" sketch as the Creature, popping out of a box of Wheaties while comedians Stan Laurel and Bob Ball did their famed "Who's On Top?" routine. Among the many scary creatures Perkins recalls playing are "Mr. Hyde" in a Three Stooges feature (Basil Fonebone played Dr. Jekyl), "the Mutation" in THIS ISLAND CALLED PLANET EARTH, "The Arm" in Steven Speilberg's frightening debut feature, DUEL ON THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, and the lower half of "The Man without a Body," a nightmarish movie about a man without a head. Perkins was charactistically modest about his achievements. "I'd rather not have my name on all that crap," he slurred with an uneven grin. "I told 'em to put Tom Tyler's name on instead." But he did get star billing in the cult classic TEENAGE MONSTER FROM SPACE, in which he payed a roaring, growling, drooling imbicile. "The original script had my character talking a blue streak," he said, checking his biographical notes. "They cut out all my mental retard dialogue and had Bella Loogoosy dub my growls in, because my butt had froze to the ice. Or maybe it was Paul Frees who froze." In the 1960s, Perkins busied himself with television shows like SUNSET STRIP #77, FAMILY AFFAIRS, I WANTED SONS, and BEULAH. "Any time one of the actors had to take a pratfall, I doubled for them," he laughs, rubbing his rear end slowly, sensuously, with the soft touch of a practiced lover. In drag, he doubled for Shirley Booth, Shirley Jones, Patty Duke and Duke Moore; on the distaff side, Perkins took the falls for Johnny Whittaker, Johnny Weismueller, Jon Hall and Johnny Eck. "No one could ever tell it was me," he says proudly. "I was called The Man of A Thousand Bum-Busters." "I've got a thousand and one stories," he claims, "and four are true. But I'm not going to give any more of my trade secrets away. I'm saving them for my book, which all my fans will want to buy." Note: Perkins died without finishing the book, a great loss to all "monster" fans. Last Edited By: Ted Newsom 09/13/08 10:32 PM. Edited 3 times.
MYST0		#10	[-]
(09/13/08 10:44 PM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite	Ted, You have my vote for the funniest post this year. I was howling! M Martucci

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ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE question for Tom Weaver

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE question for Tom Weaver

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