How To Make A Monster, Homage Or Swipe At Pierce? in '50s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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How To Make A Monster, Homage Or Swipe At Pierce?

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Robert Andrew	How To Make A Monster, Homage Or Swipe At Pierce?	Lead	[-]
Feb 14 11 6:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Watched How To Make A Monster the other day, and was wondering if the film was intended as an homage to or a swipe at Jack Pierce.
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Sid Terror		#1	[-]
Feb 14 11 7:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I consider it a homage to Pierce and other men like him, perhaps more notably the greatly unsung Jack Dawn (Wizard Of Oz, head of the M-G-M make-up department) who was responsible for huge advances in developing foam latex appliances. For sure a homage, but taking the angle of "what if one of these guys went wacko?". (SIDE NOTE: Wasn't it Jack Dawn that committed suicide and the only way that the secrets to many of his make-up formulations were saved was by someone going through his garbage cans after he was dead? Or am I thinking of a different story about someone else?) "It's better to have accomplishments remarkable enough to be put in question, than to have no accomplishments at all."
oglebee		#2	[-]
Feb 14 11 9:16 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think maybe that Herman Cohen came up with the idea to make a buck off of the 'teenage craze' that was popular with I was A Teenage Werewolf, ect. tried to have Landon play the werewolf, bit a no go. A phone call with Nicholson, Cohen used what had been a good thing, teenage monsters. Herman Cohen and James Nicholson were pretty good making these type of movies, all following the misguided teenager storyline. Did Cohen pay homage to anyone, maybe someone knows.
Bill Warren		#3	[-]
Feb 14 11 9:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I doubt that anyone connected with HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER thought of Jack Pierce at all while making the movie; probably almost none of them had even heard of him.
skelton knaggs		#4	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Bill Warren wrote: I doubt that anyone connected with HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER thought of Jack Pierce at all while making the movie; probably almost none of them had even heard of him. First senseable thing I've read all day. Certainly it be a few more years till Pierce's pic would even show up in the pages of Famous Monsters. I think it would take even a few more years for fans to ingest, digest, and start the legend rolling. "You can't smell any reefer, can you"?
TomWeaver999		#5	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wellllll, many in the crew had surely heard of Jack Pierce, not allllll that much earlier, one of the best-known makeup men in Hollywood (and in the '50s a familiar face on the Ziv lot where HOW TO MAKE was shot). HOW TO MAKE scripter Aben Kandel worked at Universal in the '30s, including WEREWOLF OF LONDON, its d.p. Maury Gertsman worked on a bunch of Universal Horrors (again including WEREWOLF OF LONDON), and its makeup man Philip Scheer surely knew of one of the top guys in his own field. Whether Pierce crossed the minds of any of them as they made this movie is anybody's guess, but I'd say it's possible; how could characters in a movie talk about the creator of the great Frankenstein and Wolf Man makeups and members of the crew familiar with Pierce NOT think of the actual creator? Hoping to get Pierce to do the makeup for HIDEOUS SUN DEMON, Robert Clarke had a dedication page in the script describing him as Hollywood's #1 Monster Man, or something like that. The thing in HOW TO MAKE that makes me smile is the casting of the two studio heads -- one kinda handsome and slick and dark and a smooth talker, the other shorter and heavier and rougher. In other words, Nicholson and Arkoff. Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Feb 14 11 10:37 PM. Edited 2 times.
Sid Terror		#6	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:21 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	skelton knaggs wrote: Certainly it be a few more years till Pierce's pic would even show up in the pages of Famous Monsters. I think it would take even a few more years for fans to ingest, digest, and start the legend rolling. And I'd be heartily inclined to agree with you, except that this film wasn't made by readers in the "Monster Kids" generation. It was made by people who had been in the industry long enough to be aware of the great studio make-up artists and be as in awe of their character creations as the rest of the public. That's why our villain was a make-up artist and not a craft services guy. Pierce had appeared with Karloff on the "THIS IS YOUR LIFE" T.V. program on November 20, 1957... Just about the same time they would have come up with the idea for and started writing this (released on July 1st) 1958 movie. "It's better to have accomplishments remarkable enough to be put in question, than to have no accomplishments at all." Last Edited By: Sid Terror Feb 14 11 10:25 PM. Edited 1 times.
Saturday8pm		#7	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	A good gimmick for a story. Anybody see AMC's butchered version? The "15 Minute Movie Edit"? "Lord I love Spring! The birds, the fair weather, the new flowers. It doesn't get any better than this. HOLY CRAP! what's THAT?!?" Last Edited By: Saturday8pm Feb 14 11 10:57 PM. Edited 1 times.
Rakshasa		#8	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:45 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Interesting that they used many of Paul Blaisdell's creations to represent the creations of the make-up guy in the film, some of which got burnt-up/damaged in the final scene, if I recall? Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
Robert Andrew		#9	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I had read that Pierce took his art very seriously and that he could be, at times, a little on the imperious side. As to whether this is true or just rumor I can not say, but it does seem, to me at least, to be a stretch to think that the Pete Dumond character wasn't, in some small way, based on Pierce. I was just curious, given the Dumond's character's near megalomania, that perhaps some negative gossip about Pierce may have influenced that character. Last Edited By: Robert Andrew Feb 14 11 10:52 PM. Edited 1 times.
Robert Andrew		#10	[-]
Feb 14 11 10:54 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Rakshasa wrote: Interesting that they used many of Paul Blaisdell's creations to represent the creations of the make-up guy in the film, some of which got burnt-up/damaged in the final scene, if I recall? I remember seeing "Bula" from It Conquered The World and an Invasion of the Saucer Men head in his private exhibition chamber.
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Bill Warren		#11	[-]
Feb 15 11 1:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Most of those on the film had probably heard of the Westmore family; beyond that, they probably knew SOMEONE had created the makeups in the classic Universal movies. But those movies were just then being released on TV, so again, the chances of anyone on the show knowing who Jack Pierce even was seem rather remote to me. They probably didn't know the names of the major cinematographers, editors, art directors, etc. In the 1950s in particular, but also earlier, movies credited the heads of each department generally rather than those who did the actual work. If the makeup artist was suggested by any real person, it probably was Paul Blaisdell; the idea of a craftsman regarding himself as an artist being overlooked by his employers is a long-time plot in melodramas.
Sid Terror		#12	[-]
Feb 15 11 1:16 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Paul Blaisdell built monster suits and props, but did he do much make-up? I understand the dramatic licence of using his mask and suit creations at the end of the movie. ...In the low budget world you use what you can get and those things were available to them and flashy, but thinking he was the "make-up" guy the movie was based on makes logic fall apart. Did he ever get an actual "Make-Up" credit in anything? "It's better to have accomplishments remarkable enough to be put in question, than to have no accomplishments at all." Last Edited By: Sid Terror Feb 15 11 2:09 AM. Edited 2 times.
skelton knaggs		#13	[-]
Feb 15 11 1:21 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HOW TO MAKE UP A MONSTER "You can't smell any reefer, can you"?
telegonus		#14	[-]
Feb 15 11 3:45 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm inclined to agree with Bill on this (leaving aside the fact that he knows everything ). It's understandable long after the fact that someone might think that Pierce might have been the inspiration for the mad makeup artist in How To Make a Monster , however I think it's just a plot gimmick and no more. Also, if there was a Pierce "connection" in the film, its script, its planning, this woudl have long since become public knowledge. To movie buffs, I mean.
Sid Terror		#15	[-]
Feb 15 11 4:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	If Herman Cohen or Abe Kandel were sitting around smoking cigars and flipping channels one night in November of 1957 when they are trying to think of an idea for a script... And saw an episode of THIS IS YOUR LIFE, they wouldn't even have to know who Peirce was to run with the idea of a mad make-up man. I mean think about it, if it is 1957 and you are a writer of Horror movies and a popular show comes on TV with Boris Karloff as that nights guest (oh and some old make-up fogey, I fergit his name), wouldn't YOU have watched it? It doesn't even have to specifically be about Peirce to be inspired by him. The timing is a bit too on the nose to rule it out that quickly. It ain't exactly reaching for the stars here. "Member that guy on that show with Karloff around Thanksgiving?" "Nope" "Well, that don't matter... I gots me an idea we can write." "It's better to have accomplishments remarkable enough to be put in question, than to have no accomplishments at all."
TomWeaver999		#16	[-]
Feb 15 11 5:58 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Some of the more farout books and articles on Ed Wood insist he came up with the plot of HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. I forget the details.
TomWeaver999		#17	[-]
Feb 15 11 6:08 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< they probably knew SOMEONE had created the makeups in the classic Universal movies. << Bright bunch! << But those movies were just then being released on TV, so again, the chances of anyone on the show knowing who Jack Pierce even was seem rather remote to me. << Jack Pierce was one of the most famous makeup men in the biz a few years before, the head of makeup at a major studio, and in 1958 was STILL working. Why are you talking about him like he was John Bunny's makeup man at the old Astoria, Queens, studios in 1911, and then vanished? This is like saying that a guy who was the head of makeup at a major Hollywood studio throughout the entire 1980s and 1990s, got tons of publicity at that time, and still does hands-on work on movies and TV shows all the time today, is no doubt completely unknown to pretty much everyone now working in Hollywood, cast and crew. Ummmmm ... how could that be even remotely possible? Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Feb 15 11 10:05 AM. Edited 2 times.
doctor kiss		#18	[-]
Feb 15 11 6:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: Some of the more farout books and articles on Ed Wood insist he came up with the plot of HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. I forget the details. Well, Ed maintained that in 1955/56, he'd submitted a draft outline to Arkoff for a movie starring Lugosi as an out-of-work horror movie actor (i.e., not a make-up guy) who unleashed his vengeance on the studios that had forgotten him. Unlike so many of Wood's other unrealized productions from the 1950s and 1960s, there's absolutely zero paperwork to support the existence of this project on any level. But Ed surely ranted for years thereafter about Arkoff having ripped him off by stealing his story idea and transforming it into HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER, to the extent that Kathy Wood and Paul Marco were absolutely convinced it had happened just as Ed suggested, since he'd ranted to them at length about it so many times.
thehorrorboy		#19	[-]
Feb 15 11 7:50 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It's said that if you repeat the same lie enough times it becomes the truth.
TomWeaver999		#20	[-]
Feb 15 11 9:21 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	From Felix D. Katz's FILM ENCYCLOPEDIA: Jack Pierce: Head of the makeup department/hands-on makeup man at the Hollywood studio renowned for its monster movies. Creations include the classic Frankenstein and Wolf Man makeups. Left the studio abruptly when a new regime came in and took the studio in a new direction, curtailing the production of monster movies. Pierce's credits include FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN. Pete Dumond: Head of the makeup department/hands-on makeup man at the Hollywood studio renowned for its monster movies. Creations include the classic Frankenstein and Wolf Man makeups. Left the studio abruptly when a new regime came in and took the studio in a new direction, curtailing the production of monster movies. Dumond's credits include WEREWOLF MEETS FRANKENSTEIN.
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How To Make A Monster, Homage Or Swipe At Pierce?

How To Make A Monster, Homage Or Swipe At Pierce?