Mego reveals from tonight's live chat

[Liu Bei]

I never understood why Lady Frankenstein was done in white when the Monster was in green. If I find one I am going to make DC Comics Lady Frankenstein:
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The Monster was supposed to be a sickly pale/tallow color. Dracula too was supposed to have a very pale, deathly white color. Some of the Frankenstein (and Dracula) marketing material incorrectly portrayed them as green, because that’s the color the makeup (grease paint) had to be in order to produce the white/grey/tallow looks the director(s) were going going for.

For Frankenstein’s monster the association with green never really went away, thanks in large part to the Munsters. Dracula at least, thankfully, was able to escape relatively unscathed, despite some of the early marketing material portraying him as a hideous green monster.

[phil]

The color test footage for Son of Frankenstein shows the monster with a greenish tint.

[Werewolf]

The color test footage for Son of Frankenstein shows the monster with a greenish tint.

The monster's make up was always green. The green make up gave him a corpse like pallor on B&W film and by Bride the monster was intended to be green.

[thunderbolt]

The monster's make up was always green. The green make up gave him a corpse like pallor on B&W film and by Bride the monster was intended to be green.

Universal was contemplating doing Son of Frankenstein in color. The test footage was intended to be in color.

[Liu Bei]

Universal was contemplating doing Son of Frankenstein in color. The test footage was intended to be in color.

The “test footage” you guys are referring to was actually home video footage, not screen tests. Any footage shot in technicolor, if it even survives (which is doubtful), still remains to be discovered.

There’s lots of material out there on the makeup techniques used during the silent and early black and white era, and lots of articles specifically about why Frankenstein’s monster was green.

https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/5342-how-frankenstein-s-monster-turned-green

https://silentology.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/silent-film-makeup-what-was-it-really-like/

https://aminoapps.com/c/monsters-facts/page/blog/why-is-frankensteins-monster-green/aX4j_pvt0uKgEXBYeDeLVPZ3d6qx8mXN7W

There’s no argument from me about his color now. He is clearly green and has been for decades. He just didn’t start out that way.

[phil]

Universal shot color film footage as a test of Karloff in make up as the Monster. Early planning for Son of Frankenstein was to film it in Technicolor. About a minute of footage exists and has appeared in various things and has been posted on YouTube and I am sure other places.

[Liu Bei]

Universal shot color film footage as a test of Karloff in make up as the Monster. Early planning for Son of Frankenstein was to film it in Technicolor. About a minute of footage exists and has appeared in various things and has been posted on YouTube and I am sure other places.

As I said in my previous post, the footage you’re referring to was from private home video (Karloff’s home movie collection, to be exact), not technicolor footage shot by Universal. These kinds of home videos are fairly common. There are some good examples of this in Warner’s extras on the 2-disc special edition of the Adventures of Robin Hood, as well as on the Star Trek TOS Blu Ray editions.

No footage from Universal’s technicolor footage for Son of Frankenstein has been released to the public, if it even exists. Claims to the contrary are erroneous, unfortunately.

It’s a moot point, anyway. No one is arguing the monster isn’t green now. The argument is simply that he didn’t start that way.

[thunderbolt]

Its an argument because you keep beating a dead horse.

[Liu Bei]

Its an argument because you keep beating a dead horse.

I think you’ve misunderstood my use of the term “argument”. I’m not referring to argument as a heated disagreement, but argument as a logical reason given for or against a matter under discussion. I wasn’t aware anyone considered this discussion to be an example of the former. Nor was I under the impression that a discussion that is about a half a page’s worth had suddenly and unexpectedly veered into dead horse territory. Thank you for letting me know. I will step aside out of respect for a fine horse who sadly and unexpectedly met his end.

[MIB41]

Sarah is someone I have gotten to know quite well over the past 25 years during her convention runs here in Louisville. We've sat over many a candid discussion about life and some that involved her dad's work. Wonderfest was the first to reveal the monster in color to the public before it was released on home video format for the rest of the world to see.

At the time we were entrusted with the enormous responsibility of holding all of that raw home video footage to show just the portions of Boris in costume to those who attended the convention. I can assure everyone, what is public is just excerpts from what is otherwise a very personal log of a standard day-in-the-life for Boris. His love for his daughter is really something to behold here and the monster footage contextualized is nothing more than a kind of "dad at work" moment thrown in for his daughter to have.

It is accurate that Son of Frankenstein was initially considered as a Technicolor feature before filming started. But those considerations did not coincide with this footage. I think that was one of the first questions we asked Sarah who clearly would not have her own memory of that since she was a newborn. But she indicates everything her dad told her suggests this was a regular work day in filming. So what you see is how he was prepped for the movie we have. If any suggested test footage exists, it has never been released by the studio.

[Liu Bei]

Sarah is someone I have gotten to know quite well over the past 25 years during her convention runs here in Louisville. We've sat over many a candid discussion about life and some that involved her dad's work. Wonderfest was the first to reveal the monster in color to the public before it was released on home video format for the rest of the world to see.

At the time we were entrusted with the enormous responsibility of holding all of that raw home video footage to show just the portions of Boris in costume to those who attended the convention. I can assure everyone, what is public is just excerpts from what is otherwise a very personal log of a standard day-in-the-life for Boris. His love for his daughter is really something to behold here and the monster footage contextualized is nothing more than a kind of "dad at work" moment thrown in for his daughter to have.

It is accurate that Son of Frankenstein was initially considered as a Technicolor feature before filming started. But those considerations did not coincide with this footage. I think that was one of the first questions we asked Sarah who clearly would not have her own memory of that since she was a newborn. But she indicates everything her dad told her suggests this was a regular work day in filming. So what you see is how he was prepped for the movie we have. If any suggested test footage exists, it has never been released by the studio.

Thank you for that excellent post. Did Sarah ever indicate how much footage like that is part of the Karloff estate, and have any efforts been made to preserve them for posterity?

[MIB41]

Thank you for that excellent post. Did Sarah ever indicate how much footage like that is part of the Karloff estate, and have any efforts been made to preserve them for posterity?

Thanks Liu Bei. The footage that is public is all that Sarah has acknowledged and I feel confident in stating she is not likely withholding anything of that nature. I personally know its all the footage that was on that family tape, because we watched every second of it which the public has probably only seen about a third of. Documentaries on Boris have utilized some of that footage such as him watering his garden in a top hat and being dressed in his finest with Sarah as a newborn.

I do not recall what she was doing to preserve it, but as meticulous and business minded as I know her to be, I guarantee you that consideration was likely amongst the first items looked at (given its historical value). We were supposed to see her again last year before this pandemic kicked in and scuttled everything for everyone on the convention front. While I doubt she will touch any public appearances this year under the best of conditions, I will check and get an answer for you.

When it comes to preserving film related artifacts, her dad was a very humble man who unfortunately did not commemorate much of his career with props from his movies. He even used his Grammy award from the Grinch as a door stop. I'm not terribly surprised on the Frankenstein front though because he suffered allot, especially during that first film. In fact it played a big role in why he was amongst a small group who pushed for a union, which was a dangerous endeavor back in those days.

As much as we celebrate his role as the monster, the studio and director were quite indifferent to him during the first film. He was forced to wear a paper bag over his head whenever he went into the commissary for breaks (even on days when the temperature was over 90 degrees). He developed debilitating back problems for the rest of his life from being forced to carry Colin Clive repeatedly up the latter while being strapped into a brace that gave him that stiff look. And if none of that was enough, he was not even invited to the premiere of the film. Its worth noting that while most people see a question mark next to the monster in the opening credits (as a gimmick for the day to prop up the mystique of the monster), its also considered another slight Karloff endured because he was not a named actor at that moment. You can see the leverage he gained soon after and how his name was never understated again.