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Did our annual viewing of this last night. This time I watched it with my 9 year-old son (who has seen it several times) and my 3 year old daughter. I’ve mentioned before that this movie freaked me out around that age, but I know my girl is not a weinie like her old man was at that time.
It made me realize a couple of things. One, that I raised my son right. He asked me of the monster, “Is that Boris Karloff?”. He also pointed out how different the Wolfman’s makeup was in this movie, and that he didn’t have on his usual matching shirt and pants outfit. Almost brought a tear to my geeky eye.
Two, my daughter is wise beyond her years. She told me “This doesn’t freak me out Daddy. It’s not real”. You go girl.
As for the movie, it’s just the quintessential Halloween flick to me. Even with A&C yucking it up I think it’s a better flick monster-wise than the two “House of” flicks. HOF had Karloff going for it, but HOD was pretty dull, and a crappy end for the Wolfman (and Chaney’s pencil-thin mustache is just distracting). The Monster got to do a lot more in A&C, and we get to see Glenn Strange in action, not just lying around (of course he did a lot of that too). And then there’s Lugosi. In the “House” flicks you couldn’t help wonder what they’d be like if Lugosi was there as he should have been. Since the Monster was more of a set piece in these flicks, I don’t miss Karloff as the Monster as much as I missed Lugosi as Drac.
A few things I noticed this year. When Larry Talbot confronts Dr. Latos with “Hello Dracula, we meet again”, Drac acts innocent of knowing him, but later calls him Mr. Talbot, although no one properly introduced him! I love stuff like that.
I tried to spot the scenes where Chaney subbed for the Monster after Strange was injured throwing the girl out the window. The only one I really noticed was immediately following that scene, when A&C run out of the lab and the Monster lumbers after them.
This movie caused my son to get out his EMCE Wolfman and Frankenstein, and play with them while the movie was running (and after). When I pointed out that Strange was the basis of that particular Frakenstein figure, that made it all the better.
I actually bought the movie this year, after borrowing it from the local library in previous years. The NBC/Universal Store has pretty good prices on all the classic Universal stuff if your collection has any holes.
Chris
It made me realize a couple of things. One, that I raised my son right. He asked me of the monster, “Is that Boris Karloff?”. He also pointed out how different the Wolfman’s makeup was in this movie, and that he didn’t have on his usual matching shirt and pants outfit. Almost brought a tear to my geeky eye.
Two, my daughter is wise beyond her years. She told me “This doesn’t freak me out Daddy. It’s not real”. You go girl.
As for the movie, it’s just the quintessential Halloween flick to me. Even with A&C yucking it up I think it’s a better flick monster-wise than the two “House of” flicks. HOF had Karloff going for it, but HOD was pretty dull, and a crappy end for the Wolfman (and Chaney’s pencil-thin mustache is just distracting). The Monster got to do a lot more in A&C, and we get to see Glenn Strange in action, not just lying around (of course he did a lot of that too). And then there’s Lugosi. In the “House” flicks you couldn’t help wonder what they’d be like if Lugosi was there as he should have been. Since the Monster was more of a set piece in these flicks, I don’t miss Karloff as the Monster as much as I missed Lugosi as Drac.
A few things I noticed this year. When Larry Talbot confronts Dr. Latos with “Hello Dracula, we meet again”, Drac acts innocent of knowing him, but later calls him Mr. Talbot, although no one properly introduced him! I love stuff like that.
I tried to spot the scenes where Chaney subbed for the Monster after Strange was injured throwing the girl out the window. The only one I really noticed was immediately following that scene, when A&C run out of the lab and the Monster lumbers after them.
This movie caused my son to get out his EMCE Wolfman and Frankenstein, and play with them while the movie was running (and after). When I pointed out that Strange was the basis of that particular Frakenstein figure, that made it all the better.
I actually bought the movie this year, after borrowing it from the local library in previous years. The NBC/Universal Store has pretty good prices on all the classic Universal stuff if your collection has any holes.
Chris
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