1930-1939

1930: Chaney finally becomes one of the last great silent stars (along with Charlie Chaplin) to make the transition to talkies in a remake of The Unholy Three. It is a resounding success and unlike many silent stars he makes the transition brilliantly and to much acclaim. The same year however he loses his battle with cancer, in great pain, unable to speak and forced to mime gar during his last performance Chaney dies and in a cruel twist of irony remains a truly silent star.

1931: Deprived of his long time collaborator Lon Chaney, Tod Browning needs to find a new actor for Universal’s second vampire movie. He turns to Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi and together they make Dracula. The film is a box office smash and Universal announces that it will make ‘another horror film’, this is the first time that the term has been used. The studio is now in the hands of Carl Laemmle Jr. The second film becomes another instant classic. After the title role is rejected by Lugosi and the directors role is turned down by Frenchman Robert Florey, Frankenstein is picked up by English filmmaker James Whale. Whale from Dudley near Birmingham in England’s West Midlands casts an unknown actor William Henry Pratt in the role of the monster. Pratt is better known to us as Boris Karloff. Jack Pierce designs Karloff’s stunning makeup with its iconic square head and neck bolts and a cinema legend is born. However, a scene where the monster kills a child is removed from the cinema print as it is considered too disturbing. Afraid that they will miss the boat Paramount releases a new version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Frederick March in the title role. March wins an Academy Award for his performance.

1932: Universal releases it’s third horror movie Edgar Allan Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue. Once again Lugosi stars. Tod Browning returns to the circus for the first time since his silent The Unholy Three and makes Freaks. The film featuring a cast of real ‘freaks’ is banned outright in Britain and MGM the company that Browning shot the film for ‘lose’ it in their vaults. Dr X is released in two colour Technicolor. James Whale releases The Old Dark House a horror movie laden with comedy. Carl Laemmle releases The Mummy Universal’s next foray into horror. Once again Karloff stars and Jack Pierce provides the stunning makeup. Karloff has now become the successor to Lon Chaney’s crown and given the epithet ‘Karloff the Uncanny’. The Island of Lost Souls an adaptation of HG Wells’ Island of Dr Moreau is released and becomes the second film of the year to be banned by the British Board of Film Censorship (BBFC).

1933: RKO release King Kong Willis O’Brien recreates his work from the Lost World (1925) and the film becomes yet another genre classic. So much so that a sequel the less successful Son of Kong is released in the same year. This sequel has a lot of comedy in it and is sold as ‘A Serio-Comic Phantasy’. Universal and James Whale release another horror movie with big comic moments and stunning special effects when Claude Rains appears as HG Wells’ Invisible Man. Fresh from her appearance in Kong Fay Wray appears with English actor Lionel Atwill in a full length two colour Technicolor movie The Mystery of the Wax Museum.

1935: Universal, Whale and Karloff team up again for Whales’ masterpiece The Bride of Frankenstein. Jack Pierce returns with his iconic makeup and Whale’s camp humour lifts the horror genre to new levels. Boasting a musical score by Franz Waxman the film establishes many of the musical norms that we take for granted in horror movies to this day. It is Whale’s last horror movie and he disappears into a world of alcohol and scandal. Universal also releases it’s second werewolf movie Werewolf of London stars Henry Hull and has makeup again by Jack Pierce. A small independent British studio called Hammer Films releases it’s first feature, a comedy called The Public Life of Henry the Ninth.

1936: MGM releases it’s last horror movie, Tod Browning’s The Devil Doll. It marks the end of Browning’s commercial career. Universal brings the golden age of horror to a close by releasing Dracula’s Daughter a controversial and rarely seen sequel to their 1931 classic. In the UK British gore master and last remnant of English melodrama Tod Slaughter appears in Sweeney Todd.

1937: The BBFC introduces it’s new ’H’ certificate. The ’H’ stands for Horrific and replaces the old ’A’ (Adult) rating. Under the old system anyone could watch films as long as they were accompanied by an adult. The new ‘H’ certificate means that only audience members aged sixteen or above can view the films in question. The new system is three tiered; U for Universal aimed at children, A for adult aimed at adults and children together and H for adults only.

1938: In an attempt to generate income Universal re-releases Dracula and Frankenstein (1931) as the world’s first ever horror double bill. The format is a resounding success and becomes standard practice for decades to come. The income generated calls for another sequel.

1939: January sees the release of The Son of Frankenstein. Once again Karloff dons Jack Pierce’s makeup and plays the monster for one last time. The film’s sets are huge and impressive, all angles and moody lighting and in their conception recall the expressionist sets of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The monster now has a sidekick, the hunchbacked Ygor played by Bela Lugosi. The film inspires a new wave of horror movie remakes and launches Universal’s ‘Classic Monsters’ as a franchise. Among the first releases is The Invisible Man Returns. World War 2 breaks out in Europe.