"Heroes of Horror" Questions. in Horror Film Stars Forum

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"Heroes of Horror" Questions.

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FRANNY	"Heroes of Horror" Questions.	Lead	[-]
May 21 10 6:38 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Can anyone tell were these documentries originated, were they actually part of a tv series as I have been led to believe or are they especiallyy commissioned for dvd release? Still think "Peter Lorre" is a poor choice over "Peter Cushing." Really enjoyed th Bela one, but poor Bela,a very sad end to his career and Hollywood's shabby treatment of him is so annoying to hear about. Would it had turned out differently if he had played the creture in Frankenstein I wonder?
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Mora		#1	[-]
May 22 10 8:04 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ah, if only to glimpse into the parallel universe. I've often wondered the same thing, Franny. How would have things turned out for Bela had he "humbled" himself and played the "dumb brute"? If we parallel it to what happened with Boris, we would maybe have to see Bela playing another "dumb brute" in "The Old Dark House". Now would Bela have agreed to that? Once - maybe, and grudgingly. But I seriously doubt Bela's ego would have permitted him to play another scarred mute. And could Bela have really played Im-ho-Tep? A Hungarian-accented post-mummified Egyptian. The mind boggles. Beyond the Universal horror output: Bela as the gangster in "Scarface", or the crazed religious fanatic in "The Lost Patrol". "House of Rothschild". Of course, Bela could have easily taken over the roles Boris played in "The Black Cat" and "The Invisible Ray". But if things *had* turned out different in 1931, I feel that Universal and the other majors would have had a much harder time coming up with roles for Bela than they did for Boris. So . . . what would have eventually become Bela's career destiny? Possibly it might even have petered out quicker than it did.
todmichel		#2	[-]
May 23 10 3:04 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Incidentally, playing the Monster as "a dumb brute" was probably only in Bela's mind, or perhaps in the original screenplay offered by Florey. For, in the finished movie, and in spite of the "abnormal brain" vignette, Boris plays magnificently a character far beyond the "dumb brute" announced.
Jameson281		#3	[-]
May 24 10 12:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	FRANNY wrote: Can anyone tell were these documentries originated, were they actually part of a tv series as I have been led to believe or are they especiallyy commissioned for dvd release? They were episodes of the TV series BIOGRAPHY that aired on the A & E Channel.
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Mora		#4	[-]
May 24 10 10:00 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Indeed, todmichel. Karloff's work as the monster is truly "art". Something that the more highly-theatrically trained Bela failed to recognize. But I suppose given Bela's premier Hungarian stage background it's understandable he would react rather snobbily to playing what he perceived as a grotesque simpleton part. But as has been said many times by many Bela biographers, he later DID highly regret his poor judgment in that matter.
kochillt		#5	[-]
Nov 11 11 3:03 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My opinion is that Lugosi never really had the chance to actually turn down the Monster part, he was simply passed over once director James Whale came aboard and bumped Robert Florey off the project. It would be Whale's vision, and he found an actor he had seen in THE CRIMINAL CODE, and who was fortunately working on the Universal lot at that time, Boris Karloff, filming GRAFT, in which he played a murderous gangster. Lugosi would tell many different stories over the years, none of which endeared him to Karloff, but the incident certainly humbled Bela, who just the following year accepted a small part with heavy makeup as the Sayer of the Law in Paramount's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.
PhantomXCI		#6	[-]
Nov 11 11 3:55 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	kochillt wrote: Lugosi would tell many different stories over the years, none of which endeared him to Karloff, but the incident certainly humbled Bela, who just the following year accepted a small part with heavy makeup as the Sayer of the Law in Paramount's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. The following year, Lugosi was on Poverty Row shooting WHITE ZOMBIE and THE WHISPERING SHADOW. He had fallen so far, so fast, that his role in ISLAND was probably a huge feather in his cap.
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