be placed in perspective. Most of the films were remakes of silent films. ALRAUNE had been remade four times. THE UNHOLY THREE was a remake. HIGH TREASON, a magnificent sci-fi glimpse into the future, was a reissued silent film with partial sound accompaniment. The horror spoof THE BAT WHISPERS was a remake of THE BAT (1926), a film about a master criminal, and THE CAT CREEPS was a remake of THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927), a haunted house tale replete with creaking doors and sliding panels. The sound version of THE GORILLA was almost identical to the 1927 silent. THE RETURN OF DR. FU MANCHU... well, been there, seen that. The eccentric Cecil B. DeMille film MADAM SATAN was
caught in the backlash of too many poorly made musicals being dumped on the public. It was a financial failure. This tedious romantic (un)comedy with forgettable songs is hard to sit through for the first three-quarters. Only when DeMille throws away the musical comedy element and plunges the audience into a terrific disaster film does it become exciting. During a bizarre, futuristic masquerade party aboard a dirigible, lightning from an electrical storm causes the airship to break loose from its moorings. The partygoers parachute to safety as the airship breaks apart and falls from the sky.
THE WINDS OF STRANGE
I’ve heard that film producer and adventurer Merian C. Cooper—who had been creating the scenario for a movie about a giant ape—first stumbled upon an idea for the climax when he saw an airplane fly past a New York skyscraper in 1930. (I don’t know if this story is true, but director John Ford once said, “When forced to choose between the truth and the legend... pick the legend.”) DRACULA, a
supernatural thriller starring an unknown
A copy of the program for the stage version of DRACULA, The Vampire Play, starring Bela Lugosi when it was performed at the Biltmore Theatre in New York.
The cover from the sheet music for Cecil B. DeMille’s MADAM SATAN
Hungarian actor named Bela Lugosi began filming at Universal Studios in September of 1930. A prison drama, THE CRIMINAL CODE, filmed in 1930, would be released on January 3rd, 1931. An actor stood out in a small but important role as a revengeful prison inmate—a role which would help catapult him into mega-stardom. His name was Boris Karloff.
1931 was the year of DRACULA, and the year of FRANKENSTEIN! It was the year that would truly change everything.
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