Greetings,
We know that some of our favorite movies introduced then-current trends from Psychology that entered the main stream of American life through the translations of Sigmund Freud's work. Larry Talbot's disintegrating world was captured in a montage of swirling images in The Wolf Man. Inner Sanctum entries are alternately praised and cursed for their scenes in which Lon Chaney Junior's inner voice narrates the action. The Invisible Man series is all about "science gone awry," as are the Frankenstein sagas.
So, we have two trends. We have the "He meddled in things man was meant to leave alone" model, and the "Man against Himself" conflict.
During the World War II period, much was made, especially by Winston Churchill, of the Nazis' experiments in perverse "Dark Science." Only when the Holocaust was made known did Americans realize the barbaric extent to which Churchill's allusions were carried out.
I am curious what contributors think Universal Horrors' part was in bringing science into the popular culture of the era.
Was Captive Wild Woman and its two sequels capitalizing on Americans' fears, or was it glandular titillation that the Breen Office could condone?
Was Rondo Hatton the embodiment of what viewers suspected Nazi experiments would produce?
Were Black Friday's characters naturally amiss, or was something else at work?
Could there really be a guy like Dynamo Dan in Man Made Monster?
We can see Dracula's situation, and the lycanthropy that infected Larry Talbot as logical outcomes of nature.
But how did true versus speculative science impact the creation of the films we love so well?
Please advise.
Sincerely,
Andy in Vancouver.
We know that some of our favorite movies introduced then-current trends from Psychology that entered the main stream of American life through the translations of Sigmund Freud's work. Larry Talbot's disintegrating world was captured in a montage of swirling images in The Wolf Man. Inner Sanctum entries are alternately praised and cursed for their scenes in which Lon Chaney Junior's inner voice narrates the action. The Invisible Man series is all about "science gone awry," as are the Frankenstein sagas.
So, we have two trends. We have the "He meddled in things man was meant to leave alone" model, and the "Man against Himself" conflict.
During the World War II period, much was made, especially by Winston Churchill, of the Nazis' experiments in perverse "Dark Science." Only when the Holocaust was made known did Americans realize the barbaric extent to which Churchill's allusions were carried out.
I am curious what contributors think Universal Horrors' part was in bringing science into the popular culture of the era.
Was Captive Wild Woman and its two sequels capitalizing on Americans' fears, or was it glandular titillation that the Breen Office could condone?
Was Rondo Hatton the embodiment of what viewers suspected Nazi experiments would produce?
Were Black Friday's characters naturally amiss, or was something else at work?
Could there really be a guy like Dynamo Dan in Man Made Monster?
We can see Dracula's situation, and the lycanthropy that infected Larry Talbot as logical outcomes of nature.
But how did true versus speculative science impact the creation of the films we love so well?
Please advise.
Sincerely,
Andy in Vancouver.
