The Extras - REPLAY: Universal Classic Monsters with Tom Weaver

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

This is a REPLAY podcast, where we revisit some of our early hidden gems, compilations, and most popular episodes.  Episode specific description:Classic horror expert Tom Weaver joins the podcast for a fun-filled look at some of his favorite Universal Classic Monster films.  Rather than detailing all four of the new to 4K films in the Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Volume 2 release, Tom picks a favorite scene from each movie and a “why’d they do that” moment.  We start with 1931’s classic “The Mummy” starring Boris Karloff and Zita Johann and directed by Karl Freund.  Next, we talk about the 1935 science fiction horror classic “The Bride of Frankenstein," starring Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester Colin Clive, and Ernest Thesiger and directed by James Whale.  This sequel to the 1931 “Frankenstein” broke new ground with a monster that could talk and that ultimately wanted a wife.  Next, we discuss the 1943 romantic horror film “Phantom of the Opera” starring Claude Rains and Susanna Foster and directed by Arthur Rubin.  The fourth film we review is the 1954 3D film “Creature from the Black Lagoon” starring Richard Carlson and Julie Adams and directed by Jack Arnold.  And we wrap up the discussion with a fun-filled rapid-fire segment about all eight of the films in both volumes 1 and 2.Purchase on Amazon:Universal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Vol. 2 4KUniversal Classic Monsters: Icons of Horror Vol. 1 4KThe Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hi, Tim Millard here, and this is a replay episode where we highlight noteworthy episodes from our podcast archives. And since it's October, it's a perfect time to replay my discussion with noted horror expert Tom Weaver. We have a lot of fun revisiting some of the Universal Monster movies

released in their Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror collections. Tom, welcome to The Extras. It's great to be here with you today. It's a drizzly, gray, cold day and sleepy hollow. We're two weeks out of summer and I've got the heat on already, so it's good to be inside and talking to you. Well, that's great. It's like 100's like a hundred degrees here where I am just in California. Let's split the difference. Yeah. I wouldn't mind getting a little bit of that rain out of here, which we seem to always want, but especially this time of year after a long, hot summer, but people in LA love Halloween and they love horror and they love all these things and

yet a lot of times when I take my daughter out it'll be you know 95 degrees and she's in some costume and we're trick-or-treating so it's a little bit different than uh when I used to live up in the northwest and it was almost always raining and you would be like how's that umbrella look with your costume because it's going to be a fashion accessory. Exactly. Well, this is ground. Sleepy Hollow is ground zero for Halloween. The town gets absolutely packed Halloween week with the hay rides and an actual headless horseman costumed guy riding around the town on a horse. It's so traffic-y that it'll take you a half hour to get from your house to a store six blocks away. Wow. Wow. Well, I guess it's so traffic-y that it'll take you, you know, a half hour to get from your house to a store six blocks away.

Wow. Wow. Well, I guess, you know, it's appropriate for this time of year. So, you know, it was Constantine Nasser, who's a mutual friend of ours, who said, hey, you should reach out to Tom to talk about these universal monsters. So I'm really glad to make your acquaintance and to be able to have you on to talk about this stuff. But you were kind of saying, hey, you know, these are such beloved films and there's been so much film scholarship over the years. Maybe we could do something a little bit more fun. So we're going to take a little bit more of a fun approach, I think, today than scholarship, though we'll do some of that. But before we dive into that, I was curious, how did you get into monster horror film scholarship? At the time I was born, you did you get into monster horror film scholarship? At the time I was born, you had to work hard at not being a monster kid. I was born in 58. And by the time I was five, six, seven years old, New York TV, we have like seven channels. There were

monster movies or horror and science fiction themed TV shows on like every channel. I remember I used to get the TV guide every week. And in the old days in the TV guide, there was a list of all the movies that would play that week in a special little section up front. And it was like planning out a war game where, oh, the Wolfman is on, but it's an hour into it on a different channel. You know, the Beast and 20,000 Fathoms starts. And oh, but at the same time as frankenstein 1970 on another channel it was tough to uh to see everything you wanted i mean i feel so sorry for people in other parts of the country you talk about growing up you know in a part of the country with like one tv station

or two and you know they showed a monster movie once a month or whatever and no it was it was a battle here and you know on top of the movies, you had The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits and everything else. The Munsters, The Addams Family. So you'd go to school on Monday after a monster-filled weekend, and all the boys would be talking about which ones they saw and the best scenes and all that kind of stuff. So stores were full of monster toys. I didn't stand a chance. I got hooked big time and just never lost the end to see these pictures over and over and to find more. So that's all great, you know, as a kid or whatever you watch, you know, that stuff.

But then, you know, you become an adult. And did you move into writing or did you you know, what was kind of the path that got you into, you know, doing all these audio commentaries that you do and all the articles and things of that nature? you know, doing all these audio commentaries that you do and all the articles and things of that nature? Around 1980, 82, I don't remember now. I got so tired of the fact I liked reading about these old movies, but nobody ever interviewed the people who made them or very rarely. When a few monster magazines that were out, either they didn't interview people or they'd interview the same famous people over and over like Roger Corman and Ray Harryhausen. And I was just never reading about the movies I wanted to read about. And I said to myself, just for fun, let me do one interview. And I contacted a guy named Richard Kuna, who directed Giant from the Unknown and

Frankenstein's Daughter and She Demons. And he agreed to an interview. He wanted to get the producer involved also. And that created a delay. And I thought to myself, I don't know if this guy's ever going to come through for me. So at the same time, I also contacted somebody named Edward Burns, who directed World Without End and Return of the Fly. And I asked him for an interview. And then they both came through at the same time. I got to go back and mention this is this was at a time when you couldn't afford to talk to these people on the phone. You know, here I was with a job that paid, you know, like $2.50 an hour or whatever.

I mean, it was the late 70s or early 80s. And you make a call to California and you get the phone bill and it's like 50 bucks. And that's like, you know, that's like a week's pay. So I couldn't afford to talk to the people. So I would send them lists of questions and audio cassettes. Burns went back to his diaries and told me everything about his old movies. He had facts and figures, and it was just amazing, the fabulous job he did. And Kuna, he threw away my little audio cassette.

He set up a video camera, and he made a movie of himself and the producer talking about the movie. And I'm like, wow, I wonder if all these guys are this nice. So, you know, I was going to do one interview. I ended up with two. Let me do a third and then I'll retire. The third guy, Herbert Strzok was just as nice. I was hooked again. And now it's 40 years later and I've done, I don't know how many people I've talked to, a thousand? I don't know, but a lot. Wow. Wow. Well, that's awesome. And it just was kind of came out of your own just interest, which is a story I keep hearing from a lot of people who got into the film history right around that same era as you, right?

Where in the 70s, there was kind of a need all of a sudden to look back at the films and the, the stars were getting a little bit older and, but they were still alive. So you could talk to them and the people who had done the films and everything. Yeah. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. And what, what it feels like is that Halloween continues to gain in popularity every year. People love the modern horror films. People love the classic monsters as well.

And they have a huge place in our film history. And even for young people who maybe don't know these films that we're going to talk about today as well, they still know the names. They still know Dracula. They still know Frankenstein. They still know the mummy, things of that nature. And Hollywood is always going to recycle some of these every decade or every few years. So the volumes that are coming out from Universal,

these Universal classic monsters, icons of horror, volume one of that collection came out, I think last year. We're going to talk about primarily volume two, just for the sake of time. Yeah. Well, and because it's coming out in seven days, seven days from today, October 11th. Yeah. And it's coming out, you know, obviously a lot of people have already purchased the different collections over the years that were in Blu-ray, but what makes this one unique is that they have the 4Ks

and as that becomes more and more popular, I think people are going to want to add that to their collection because these are older films, they're in black and white and when they're restored so that they look pristine, it's great to see them on the modern TVs and to revisit them

in the 4K. Well, let's get into it. And as we mentioned a little bit, we're not going to talk about everything in these films. So we'll kind of start off for the listeners. We're just going to talk about a favorite scene in the movie and something about the movie that made Tom kind of say, Hey, why'd they do that? That way we can kind of focus in on these movies. And again, we're going to talk about the volume two movies, which includes The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The Bride of Frankenstein. Let her cage. The Mummy is a 1932 supernatural horror film directed by Karl Freund and stars Boris Karloff, Zita, Johan, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan, and Arthur Bryan. And in the film, Karloff stars as Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian mummy who was killed for attempting to resurrect his dead lover. mummy who was killed for attempting to resurrect his dead lover. After being discovered and accidentally brought to life by a team of archaeologists, he disguises himself as a modern Egyptian named Ardeth Bey and searches for his love whom he believes to have been reincarnated in the modern world. So, Tom, what's your favorite scene in this movie? My favorite scene by far is the opening scene in which an archaeologist reads from the scroll of Thoth. He's just reading it aloud and translating it, unaware that it will bring a mummy to life. And behind him in a sarcophagus, very slowly, Karloff's mummy opens

its eyes, moves its arms. If you see it under the right conditions, it's still, 90 years later, a very, very creepy and effective scene. I should mention that over the weekend, The Mummy and Bride of Frankenstein played theatrically in a lot of theaters across the United States. And the copy of the movies the theaters got had music where there used to be no music. And in other spots, there was music over the existing music. So you were hearing both at once. And that was like a Hurricane Ida sweeping through a Monster Kid fan. The shock that these movies, a lot of people had looked forward to seeing theatrically last weekend, had the new music.

And I contacted Universal to make sure that these crummy versions weren't what we were going to get on this new 4K set. And I was assured that they are not. Just to give you an example of how much damage the music did to it, the scene of the movie coming to life, they put music over it so you can't hear the guy reading the score with his mouth anymore. But anybody who thought about not buying the 4K, because maybe it'll have that terrible music, has nothing to worry about. So that is the best scene in the movie. So what do you know about that music and why would they have put that in there for the screening? Monster Kids are still trying to figure that out. Our first thought was that it was new music, newly composed for this last weekend's theatrical screenings of these pictures. But it turns out that this music has been on foreign prints of these movies for a long time now. We still don't know when it was written. I don't care as long as I never have to hear it, see that version and hear that music. I don't care when it was written, but some of the theaters got this alternate foreign version of the movie. And, um, hopefully when theaters show Phantom

and Creature later this month, uh, that stuff will all be straightened out and people will hear the original audio. Well, going back to the, to the scene that you mentioned, I mean, it starts the film. It's very understated. And Boris Karloff's just kind of slowly awakening and everything. It's terrific acting. It really is creepy. And just what I expect in the, you know, in the mummy, when you want to watch the mummy, that's what you expect to see. And yet you don't really see him wrapped up in too much of the mummy garb later after after that scene. him wrapped up in too much of the mummy garb later after after that scene no no in later years mummy movies meant the guy wrapped from head to toe in bandages going around killing people but no carloff mummy he wakes up as a mummy obviously but then he goes out and gets i guess a shave and

a shower and everything else and dresses up in more modern clothes and then he plays a very very elderly looking wrinkled wizard through the rest of the movie and you know goes out into society into you know modern uh 1932 Cairo and works his evil ways yeah so yes it's a very different kind of movie yeah it's a it's a lot of fun love that scene so then let's go to the second question we're going to ask today. What in the movie made you say, why'd they do that? You know what? I gave a lot of thought to that. And every little thing I could think of just is too nitpicky to mention.

For the kind of movie it is, it's almost a perfect movie. And what's funny about that is it has the same sort of story and some of the same types of events and even some of the same cast members as Dracula made the year before, which is a very flawed movie. And yet the mummy did everything right. Suddenly the basic framework of Dracula turned into a really good, effective, I've gotten zero complaints movie. So I did want to ask you about the importance of this film as it came out right after Dracula and Frankenstein, which came out, I believe, in what, 1931. But these three films are often talked about together, aren't they? Absolutely. They were they were the three forerunners.

All three have at least one cast member who is in all three. Yep. They are linked in a lot of ways and they are the vanguard of universal monsters. And I was, you know, rewatching these as well. And I agree that while you watch Dracula and as great as the moments are in that film, you know, then you watch the mummy and just the storytelling and everything's much smoother.

And the music, Dracula had no music. Right. And the mummy's got a lot of music and it's very funereal. And it's a huge part of the appeal of the music. Dracula had no music. And the mummy's got a lot of music and it's very funereal. And it's a huge part of the appeal of the mummy. And again, that's why people who went to see the mummy over the weekend in theaters were so upset because, you know, they know every note of the mummy music the same way they do every word of the dialogue in the best scenes. But like I say, my contact at Universal sent me an email promising

me that the 4Ks would have the original audio and all. And he said, he said in his email, I believe with the Fathom screenings, something went wrong. And that was such, that was such an understatement. It made me laugh. That's like a, like a, like a cavalry soldier surviving little Bighorn and going back to the fort and saying you know i believe that something went wrong yeah yeah well that's good to hear and um so that's reassuring for the fans who are purchasing or pre-ordered uh this new release absolutely going back really quick boris karloff stars in the mummy but he just the year before it starred in frankenstein how do you compare those two performances i mean it's amazing how how he really set the standard for two very distinct monsters. Oh, yeah. Well, obviously, the Frankenstein monster was non-speaking and he was made a tremendous amount of makeup and non-speaking

and made to look much taller than he was and more, you know, a brute and yet a sympathetic character because, you know, he comes into the world and right away everybody wants to kill him. Everybody's chasing him. So you feel sorry for the monster, which was the part of the key to Universal's success. A lot of their monsters didn't deserve the lives they led and garnered a lot of sympathy. And that separated them from, you them from the movies that other studios were making, like Jekyll and Hyde was just simply a fiend. There was King Kong. The Universal Monsters,

a lot of them had very special qualities. And Frankenstein was a pantomime performance, and The Mummy, he has a lot of dialogue, Karloff, and delivers it magnificently. Well, let's go to our next film because it really does tie into Frankenstein. And that's The Bride of Frankenstein, which is a 1935 science fiction horror film. And it's the first sequel to the 1931 film Frankenstein. As with that first film, it's directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as the monster. And the sequel features Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the bride. Colin Clive reprises his role as Henry Frankenstein and Ernest Thesiger plays the role of Dr. Septimus Pretorius. And this is taking place immediately after the events of

the earlier film. The plot follows a chastened Henry Frankenstein as he attempts to abandon his plans to create life, only to be tempted and finally coerced by his old mentor, Dr. Praetorius, along with threats from the monster into constructing a mate for the monster. So what's your favorite scene in this movie? I think the monster is at his most sympathetic in the scene with the hermit. He got burned in the windmill. He's chased by the mob.

He's been shot and he ends up in the hut of a blind hermit who obviously doesn't know he's a monster. And the hermit teaches him to speak. The hermit brings him into the house, feeds him, gives him a place to sleep. They smoke together. They have a lot of laughs together. And it's nice to see the monster finally get a break, to finally put his big feet up and have a haven, even if it is only for a few minutes in this movie.

And it's a magnificently done series of scenes. And some of the best music in the movie. Again, just like the mummy, the music is a huge part of the appeal of Bride of Frankenstein. It's a score by Franz Waxman and some of the best passages are in that hermit scene. Yeah, because the hermit is playing the violin and that's what is kind of attracting Frankenstein to the little cottage, right? Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group

for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers Catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. Yeah, yeah. The music draws the monster to the cottage. And then unfortunately, his respite doesn't last long. A couple of hunters show up and they could see that it's the monster and all hell breaks loose. But it was it was nice that the monster got a break for a change.

And it's a key area for dialogue as well, because the interchange there, I mean, one of the big things in this movie compared to the first Frankenstein is that he talks, right? And then a blind man says to him, friend? And the concept of like friend, which that leads into later on

when he wants to have a bride, I guess. And he's like friend or a companion, right? Somebody, somebody to be with. Yeah. Wife. Yeah, exactly. All right. So then what in this movie made you say, why'd they do that?

The same thing that makes me say, why'd they do that in The Invisible Man, Una O'Connor. She plays Minnie the maid and she screeches and she howls and she makes faces when she's scared. And I guess that was James Whale's idea of comedy relief and he had her do it. And I almost want to hit the fast forward every time Una O'Connor goes into her crazy act in both Invisible Man and Bride, to be honest with you. Yeah, I agree with you. It really kind of takes you out of the film, right? You just put so much focus on her hysteria rather than just, you know, adding to the story. Yeah, I agree. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 All right, well, let's go to our next film.

romantic horror film directed by Arthur Lubin, loosely based on Leroux's 1910 novel, The Phantom of the Opera, and the 1925 film adaptation starring Lon Chaney. The film stars Nelson Eddies, Susanna Foster, and Claude Rains. And the music was composed by Edward Ward. And this film was filmed in Technicolor. So what's your favorite scene in this movie, Tom? Probably the scene where Claude Rains, he's the Phantom. He's the title character.

Right. He's a Paris Opera House violinist, but he's impoverished and he writes a concerto and he takes it to a music publisher. And he thinks the music publisher is going to steal it. He thinks the music publisher is cheating him and he just snaps and he strangles the guy. And that's the point at which the publisher's secretary, to save her boss, picks up a tray full of acid and throws it in Claude Rains' face. And that's why he becomes disfigured and why he becomes the Phantom. And I think that's my favorite scene in the movie. But at the same time, unfortunately, you lose sympathy for the Claude Rains character at that point, because, you know, you did feel for him up to that point. But then he goes to the

publisher's place and the publisher is rude. Yes. But and he hears his music being played from the next room and that sets him off. I mean, and he kills the publisher. And I'm like, I want to go to this guy's trial where he says, I went to the publishing house to ask about my concerto and somebody was playing it on the piano in the next room. So I had to kill him. I mean, that would have to be the shortest trial in French judicial history, I would think. So he deserved his face full of acid. Let me put it that way. Yeah, that is a really good good scene and it's a pivotal scene obviously and before i jump in with my comment i'm curious what in the movie made you say why they do that one thing the movie does wrong well if you got all the monster kids in the universal

monster kids in the world together and said we have to destroy all prints of one classic horror monster movie. Which one should it be? I think Phantom of the Opera 43 would be the one they would vote off the island. There's so much opera in it that that turns off a lot of fans, to be honest with you. But it doesn't bother me. As a matter of fact, I halfway enjoy the opera scenes, especially when Susanna Foster is singing. But the thing the movie does

wrong that annoys me is a lot of times you don't see the Phantom, you see his shadow, and it's slinking along, and suddenly it makes a jackrabbit start and starts running. And it's almost mischievous. It's almost cartoon-like. And they should make the Phantom ominous. They should make the Phantom threatening. And when you see this shadow just running around like a kid playing, it ruins it, to be honest with you. Well, the whole living in the sewer thing as well is, I mean, obviously that's where he has to live. But when he jumps in the sewer, he has to get the acid off. But wow, I was thinking about all the stuff that was in there. Yeah.

Funny. I was too when I rewatched it the other night. Acid face or sewer water? Acid face or sewer water? I think I'd have to flip a coin. Please, anybody, a bottle of water, please, but not sewer water. Yeah.

Another thing the movie does right is it saves the unmasking till the end. In the Lon Chaney Phantom, he gets unmasked maybe halfway through the movie. And, you know, after a little while, I don't know about everybody else, but I get used to him. I get like, you don't look that bad. Come on, put on a false nose and get a life, get a job. You know, you don't look all that bad.

And Claude Rains had a more horrific makeup and it was saved for the very end. And we didn't have to see him with that face for half the movie. So I think that's a change they made that i approve of yeah well let's go to our last film here and that's a creature from the black lagoon which is 1954 black and white and it's uh is it 3d and 2d is that is that how it goes it was 3d originally in uh in the movies although i'm sure some theaters showed it in 2d way back then also but the um upcoming 4k set will have both versions okay great and this one's directed by jack arnold and Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Pava, and Whit Bissell. And the film's plot follows a group of scientists who encounter this amphibious humanoid in the waters of the Amazon, the creature which is also known as the gill man and the gill man was played by ben chapman on land

and by rico browning uh for the underwater scenes so what's your favorite scene in this movie i used to think as a kid i used to think it had too much underwater but now when i watch the movie i can't get enough of it they have fights underwater they're like cat and mouse um encounters underwater my favorite scene is everybody's favorite scene where the creature sees the girl for the first time. He's at the bottom of a lagoon. She jumps in off the boat just to take a dip and he falls in love immediately and starts swimming directly underneath her

so that she doesn't see. And he touches her and she goes diving down to see what's touching her and he hides. And the music is terrific in that scene. I can just watch that scene over and over, partly because of the music and partly because it's such an amazing scene with Rico holding his breath. He played the creature by holding his breath underwater so he wouldn't need tanks or anything hidden in the costume. And it's just a perfect scene in my book. anything hidden in the costume. And it's just a perfect scene in my book.

I mean, a couple of thoughts I had about that is a lot of people, of course, talk about the kind of, I don't want to say love scene, but it's kind of got that artistry. Is that correct? Yeah. I would say so. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's really romantic, but I also, I mean, personally, I had to think about that kind of that shot when you're looking up and she's swimming. Also in Jaws, it's got the menace, too, in it. Yeah, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Steven Spielberg had Creature in his mind when he was planning some of the scenes in Jaws. It's tremendously well done. And those scenes were shot in Florida. One way to, if you were ever curious, well, when is it Ben Chapman and when is it Rico Browning?

All you have to do is say, if the camera is underwater, it's Rico Browning. They went to Florida to shoot those scenes because they wanted to find the clearest water they can find in the whole country. And they found a spring in Florida where it's like the water's not there almost. And so that's where they shot all the underwater scenes for Creature with Rico, who's still with us, by the way. where they shot all the underwater scenes for Creature with Rico, who's still with us, by the way. Rico Browning, you know, of all the hundreds of people who made Creature from the Black Lagoon, all the hundreds of people who were involved,

I think the only two people left today are the two people in that great scene, Rico Browning and Ginger Stanley. When the camera's underwater, it's not Julie Adams, it's Ginger Stanley. And they're the only two people left. The two people from the best scene are the only two people left out of hundreds. Yeah. And the 4K collection, I'm sure we'll have those bonus features that were a part of the previous collections. And there is a really good one on there called Back to the Black Lagoon, which has interviews and footage and explanation of that whole scene and really goes into it. an explanation of that whole scene and really goes into it. And that's a, you know, if you don't own the volumes and you're going to get it on the 4k, you can look forward to all of these great extras

that are on here for each of the releases. I know Universal is also releasing the individuals from the volume one this month as well. And I'm sure they also have the extras on there. So that's a great wealth of information for the fans. And of course, one of the bonus features is your audio commentary, which you did a number of years back. What do you remember about doing that audio commentary and some highlights? Well, actually, I'd done so many audio commentaries by the time I'd done Creature that I'm afraid off the top of my head, I can't think of any particularly interesting comment to make about my Creat creature commentary.

I do remember the first commentary I ever did was for the Wolfman. That was back in the 1990s. And nowadays, I record them at home. Back then, you had to go to a recording studio. So I jackass down to New York City and meet David Scow at a recording place. And he records me doing my Wolfman audio commentary. And I was so nervous. I don't know if you'd be able to hear it,

but I'm, I was so nervous. I could hear my voice shaking during the opening credits because, you know, people in a recording booth and time is money. And, um, and I'm trying to read my,

my script clearly and keep an eye on the screen, which had a time code. And it was scary, like 12 different ways. And my voice was shaking. But David Scowl also did all the Back to the Black Lagoon and all the documentaries that you just mentioned are also David Scowl's work. And they're terrific. And they're on all four of these movies. I listened to some of that audio commentary on The Wolfman. And having been on the other side where people come in to do the audio commentaries, I thought you sounded great. And I thought all the information you were giving was fantastic. The only thing maybe now that I think about it, and you've just said that story that kind of triggers that is you were talking fast.

I do talk fast. You know, that in and of itself doesn't say that you were nervous when I was listening to it. I was enjoying it a lot. Walter Winchell is famous for talking fast. And somewhere in an article, I read how many words a minute he spoke. And I went to one of my commentary scripts and I played the commentary and I speak faster than Walter Winchell. So I should I should try to slow down. I should, I should try to slow down, but once you get into, um, once I get into reading the script and being into the movie and being into the experience of trying to do it, I got faster

and faster. And what can I tell you? That's funny. Well, for the sake of an audio commentary, it's not bad because you really get in pack and a lot of information. And since people have already seen the film, you know, the understanding is that you're listening to the audio commentary to try to get as much information as you you can so it actually works pretty well i do get a lot out but like i some people have said i have to listen to it twice because you talk too fast so um i'll try to talk slower and um and you try to listen you try to listen quicker and we'll meet in the middle that's great well hey we we skipped kind of the why did they do that for Creature. So we should probably go back to that question.

What from that movie made you say that when you're thinking back on it? Again, like the mummy. Any complaint I might make about Creature would just be nitpicking for the sake of answering your question. Of its type, it's a perfect movie. Now, in the later movies, I do want to mention in the later movies, they didn't take as much care with the presentation of a creature. Rico Browning would be underwater breathing through a hose and then they'd start shooting. When they shot Creature, they'd take a minute and they'd press his head and they'd press his head and they'd get all the bubbles out of the mask. And that's why the creature swims around and looks like an

underwater creature in the first movie. But in the later ones, they didn't do that. So you see him swimming around, but the top of his head is just swarming, teeming with bubbles. Bubbles are coming out of his head. That is the worst part of the other movies. Gotcha. I would just rewatch that movie. And I mean, it'd been a long time since I'd watched some of these movies until I was rewatching them.

And I really enjoyed that movie a lot. And probably, you know, it's a little bit newer, of course. So the style of the filming and everything was a little bit more modern, but I really liked that film. And that's also why I've been able to write two books about the Creature movies, because it is that much newer and that much more production paperwork still existed. And that many more people who worked on the movie still existed when I started writing back in the 80s. So Creature sort of became a regular stop for me. What do I want to do next? Who do I want to interview next? I would keep going back to Creature since there were so many

people left alive. Well, last year, I think I mentioned Universal released the volume one of the series on 4K, and that included Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolfman, which you mentioned and has your commentary. But since we didn't get a chance to really talk about those films, I thought we'd wrap up our conversation today with some rapid fire questions I'll throw at you. That includes the films from both volumes. All right. And kind of like the whole episode, this is not for scholarship. This is really just for fun and a celebration of these movies. This is a question.

Number one, if you could be any of the monsters in these films, which one would it be and why? Well, I guess I'd be the creature only because being Dracula doesn't appeal to me. Being the mummy wrapped in bandages and just wandering around because being Dracula doesn't appeal to me. Being the mummy wrapped in bandages and just wandering around in the woods doesn't appeal to me. The one that appeals to me the least would be the invisible man because you're naked. You can't eat. It's winter.

Good Lord. It's winter. Yeah. If your feet get dirty, people can follow you. You can't steal anything because everybody still see what you're stealing and they can chase you well what advantage does the invisible man have i mean you want to kill somebody all you can do is like go up to them and start hitting them plus you're invisible i mean what when you're a kid it sounds like fun you're like i'm invisible i can see everything but um yeah but it gets old you can't even walk down the street because you have to keep looking behind you to make sure somebody walking faster wasn't going to bump into you.

There's nothing good about being invisible. That's hilarious. All right. Well, next question here. Of the leading ladies of these films, which would you, as the monster, want as your co-star? The lovely Julie Adams. Out of the ones you named, I would say Julie Adams. And that's partly because I knew her a little in real life and she was just as,

she was as sweet as in real life as she is beautiful in the movie. So make it Julie. And of course of these films, she probably, you know, with the more modern attire and everything she's wearing, she comes across beautifully. And, and, you know, if you watch these when you're younger, there's a kind of an attraction there as well. Oh, absolutely.

You didn't even mention the bathing suit. So, yeah. That's what I was referencing. Next question. And again, this is not for scholarship. This is just for fun. But which is the better film, Frankenstein or Bride of Frankenstein?

Frankenstein. For my taste, Frankenstein, because Bride of Frankenstein is such a seesaw ride between sometimes eerie scenes, sometimes scenes full of pathos like The Hermit, and all that damn comic relief. There's too much comic relief in Bride of Frankenstein for me. And also, it has the reputation of, well, this is the movie where the monster is really at his most sympathetic. You really feel sorry for him. I don't. I mean, I feel sorry for him

in the scene with the hermit and when the bride rejects him at the end and he looks all sad. Yeah, I feel for him there. He probably kills more people in Bride of Frankenstein than in any other Frankenstein movie, including a little girl, including one of Pretorius' own assistants, who's trying to send up the kites to catch the lightning to bring the bride to life. He's just killing people left and right. To me, the monster is his most monstrous in Bride of Frankenstein. So put Frankenstein at the top of my list. And I think a lot of people really speak highly of Bride of Frankenstein, but I'm with you. I just prefer that first one as well. Yeah. And as good as Franz Waxman's Bride of Frankenstein score is, silence enhances Frankenstein as much as Franz Waxman enhanced Bride of Frankenstein. I think silence is perfect

for a lot of the scenes in the original Frankenstein. Well, it's fun. Of course, everybody has their opinion on these things, but it's kind of fun to hear your take on these. Now, I know all of these films are important in film history, but of the eight films in volumes one and two here that have been released, which do you think is the best film or stands the test of time the best? I can't speak for 2022 moviegoers because I haven't, I've probably gone to the movies four times in the last 20 years. For me, the ones that I love the best and that have stood the test of time for me the best are Frankenstein, Mummy, and Invisible Man.

And if you're going to ask me to choose between those three, it would be awful tough. Because when I'm in the middle of watching any one of them, it's the best, if you know what I mean. Right. So with a gun to my head, I'm going to say either Mummy or Invisible Man. Wow. Because you just kind of were talking about how there are things in Invisible Man you didn't like in terms of the comic relief and things. But there's a whimsical tone to a lot of scenes in the movie.

So it's not as disruptive there for me as it is in Bride of Frankenstein. And you got the special effects, which are amazing. And yeah, Invisible Man and Mummy. Those are my two. Next, what film of these eight have you watched the most? Oh, because I've written about it so much and done audio commentary. It would be Creature. I don't even like to think about how many times I've seen some of my favorite movies. I mean, I'm 64 now and I've been watching them since I was a kid. And

once video came along via beta and VHS with each of these movies, I got up into double digits real quick. And that was 40 years ago. So when I'm on my deathbed and somebody says to me, did you really need to see House on Haunted Hill 56 times? I might regret it then, but not yet. All right. And finally, this is a little bit out of left field here, but which of these monsters have you dressed up like for Halloween over the years? Oh, God, what a question. I've got to disappoint you. I don't know that I've ever dressed as any one of them. What? But all the brain cells devoted to my own life and my own childhood have been crowded out by trivia about monster movies.

I don't remember my own childhood particularly clearly. But all I can tell you is I don't remember ever dressing as a universal monster. Well, I thought maybe we might get, you know, like Dracula or something, because that one is a little bit easier. Well, that certainly is. You don't even need a mask. You need a cape and some teeth. Those Barnabas plastic fangs in your mouth.

Exactly. I mean, some of the others are a little bit like Wolfman. OK, that's going to be a little bit of work. Mummy, I guess you could wrap yourself and that one would be OK. But I think the easiest one is either Phantom or directly for the reasons we just talked about now there's still time halloween is in a few weeks when i was a kid there was a dark shadows game and if you won you got to put the fangs in your mouth that was the um you know quote unquote prize or goal and i'm like how many people have played this game? And how many times have these things been washed?

Anytime I played it with friends, I so didn't want to win. That's so funny. Yeah, that's not that great of a real word. Well, hey, Tom, this was hopefully fairly painless for you. You know, this was a lot of fun. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

It was a real treat to talk these universal monsters of horror again with you. My lap lines are hurting. I had a great time. Thank you so much. Well, I hope you enjoyed this replay episode. It was terrific fun talking with Tom Weaver. For more details on the Universal Monster releases we discussed, look for the links in the podcast show notes. And coming up,

we'll have an all new episode with George Feltenstein discussing the Warner Archive Blu-ray release of director Todd Browning's 1936 horror classic, The Devil Doll. And we'll also discuss the new Criterion Collection release of Todd Browning's Sideshow Shockers. That includes Freaks, The Unknown, and The Mystic. And we'll have several special guests joining us for that episode, so be sure to follow or subscribe so that you don't miss it. Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed. media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.