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Halloween shakes and shudders settle in as TOQ salutes
two Universal horror classics; Todd Browning's DRACULA,
starring Bela Lugosi and George Waggner's THE WOLF
MAN, starring Lon Chaney Jr. Lugosi had played the
vampire on Broadway, where he was considered a matinee
idol because of his on stage sex appeal as the evil
count. Although he played everything in horror movies
from a hunchback to the Frankenstein monster, it was
Dracula that influenced and stunted Lugosi's career.
The
yak hair for Cheney's werewolf make-up took six hours
to apply and itched him constantly. Chaney came from
a background of horror. His father was the legendary
Silent Screen star Lon Chaney. Though he'd made a
huge impression as Lenny in the film version of John
Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN (1939), once Lon Jr. played
a werewolf, there was no turning back. Both films
feature terrific supporting casts; Everett Van Sloan
as Dr. Van Helsing, Dwight Frye as the maniacal Renfield
in DRACULA , and in THE WOLF MAN, Claude Rains, Ralph
Bellamy, Evelyn Ankers, the best screamer in horror
movies and the great Maria Ouspenskaya as the gypsy
fortune teller who knows too well the werewolf's fate.
So,
carve a pumpkin, grab a crucifix and curl up with
a warm monster...of some sort.
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