0:00:05 > 0:00:07How do you do?
0:00:07 > 0:00:12Mr Mark Gatiss feels that it would be unkind to present
0:00:12 > 0:00:18this programme without just a word of friendly warning.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22We are about to unfold the story of horror films,
0:00:22 > 0:00:26of the men and women of the motion picture community
0:00:26 > 0:00:31who sought to create monsters, without reckoning upon God.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36I think it will inform you,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38it will entertain you,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42it might even horrify you.
0:00:42 > 0:00:48So if any of you feel that you do not wish to subject your nerves to such excitement,
0:00:48 > 0:00:50now's the time to...
0:00:52 > 0:00:55Well, we warned you.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03The cinema was made for horror movies.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15No other kind of film offers that same mysterious anticipation
0:01:15 > 0:01:17as you head into a darkened auditorium.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22It's alive! It's alive! It's alive!
0:01:25 > 0:01:29No other makes such powerful use of sound and image.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42The cinema is where we come to share a collective dream, and horror films
0:01:42 > 0:01:47are the most dreamlike of all, perhaps because they engage with our nightmares.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50I hear something. Stop! Stop!
0:01:50 > 0:01:54CHAINSAW SOUNDS
0:01:54 > 0:01:56In this series, I'm going to revisit
0:01:56 > 0:01:58the three greatest eras of horror pictures
0:01:58 > 0:02:02and explore what made their finest films so special.
0:02:05 > 0:02:10I'll venture onto the locations of unforgettable horror moments,
0:02:10 > 0:02:16and invite leading actors, writers and directors to share their stories.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18There's a little shrine to me here.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21This should be an eternal flame.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26Or a huge knife! So whether you're a dyed in the blood horror fan
0:02:26 > 0:02:28or a nervous newcomer,
0:02:28 > 0:02:29I bid you welcome.
0:03:06 > 0:03:12Of all the things that have inspired me as a writer and actor, horror films have been the most important.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17I still have very vivid and very happy memories
0:03:17 > 0:03:24of staying up late in the 1970s to watch double bills of Hammer films and old Universal films.
0:03:24 > 0:03:31I was always, as my mam used to say, a very morbid child, and I was totally crackers about horror films.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34I even used to watch Pro-Celebrity Golf
0:03:34 > 0:03:37just in case Christopher Lee used to pop up, as he occasionally did.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40I think what always appealed to me most
0:03:40 > 0:03:47was just the sense of going into a different realm, a realm of shadows and suggestion and spookiness.
0:03:51 > 0:03:57Because horror is such a personal passion of mine, this series will be unashamedly selective.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03I'm going to build my account around my favourite films and periods.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And I'd like to start with the era when I believe horror cinema
0:04:13 > 0:04:18really came into its own - the first great age of Hollywood horror.
0:04:21 > 0:04:27An age which begins with this moment from 1925's silent Phantom of the Opera.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41The Phantom, played by Lon Chaney, has warned Mary Philbin's character never to look beneath his mask.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54It's a classic, shocking reveal.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57And it captures the essence of being a horror movie fan.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01It's about knowing you shouldn't look but wanting to see.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04And then maybe getting more than you bargained for.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Horror cinema is replete with pioneering film-makers.
0:05:14 > 0:05:21Few more so than the man beneath the Phantom's make-up, Lon Chaney, the godfather of horror actors.
0:05:23 > 0:05:28Chaney was one of the giants of 1920s Hollywood,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and among his few surviving contemporaries
0:05:31 > 0:05:35is a fellow cast member from the Phantom, Carla Laemmle.
0:05:35 > 0:05:41The niece of the founder of Universal studios, she's now a spry centenarian.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44I can only say he was a genius.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Whatever part that he played,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49he was that part.
0:05:51 > 0:05:58There's a story that Mary Philbin fainted when she took off his mask.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05It could have been true because it was enough to make anybody faint!
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Lon Chaney, the man of a thousand faces,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13played a succession of maimed and monstrous characters
0:06:13 > 0:06:15during the silent era,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19in films like The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and London After Midnight.
0:06:23 > 0:06:28His self-taught make-up skills drew on his background in travelling vaudeville and theatre.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33Chaney described his talent as "extraordinary characterisation."
0:06:33 > 0:06:39He did all his own make-up and it was pretty horrible.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45- Yes, all that!- I don't know
0:06:45 > 0:06:49how he did it himself, but he did.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57Exactly how Chaney achieved his make-up effects has always intrigued me.
0:06:59 > 0:07:06Fortunately, just as the Phantom lurked below the Paris Opera, the relics of Chaney can be found
0:07:06 > 0:07:10in the bowels of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14under the custodianship of Beth Werling.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17So Beth, what treasures do you have for us here?
0:07:17 > 0:07:20We have Lon Chaney's make-up kit.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23There he is, Lon F Chaney, Hollywood, California.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Wow, it's extraordinary.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Holy relics.
0:07:36 > 0:07:42- What's in here?- This is one of the glass eyes
0:07:42 > 0:07:44that Chaney had especially made.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52It's particularly gruesome in its own little box, isn't it?
0:07:52 > 0:07:59- Mm-hmm!- When I was a kid, I kind of grew up with the stories of the lengths he went to
0:07:59 > 0:08:05to create these things. He put himself through an unbelievable amount of pain.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07And that's an example of that.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13To wear something that thick, covering over almost your entire eye, couldn't have been comfortable.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18- It's not exactly a permeable lens, is it!- No, definitely not.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20It's like putting a billiard ball in your eye.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27It's now believed that Chaney achieved the Phantom's famous missing nose effect
0:08:27 > 0:08:33using thin wire to pull his own nose back, creating that truncated, snout-like look.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Remarkably, he did much of this working on his own,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40but it turns out he had something to practise on.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45Wow...
0:08:48 > 0:08:54This is a life cast that Chaney had made of his own face,
0:08:54 > 0:08:56with glass eyes inserted.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01He used this to practise some of his make-up techniques.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06He would take a look, see if he needed a little more here, a little less there.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10If he didn't like the look entirely, it was much easier to scrub it off
0:09:10 > 0:09:14and to decide, looking at yourself in a mirror, so to speak,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17than to actually apply it on his own face.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21It's quite fitting that someone so obsessed with bodily dismemberment
0:09:21 > 0:09:24ends up with his own head in a box!
0:09:24 > 0:09:26THEY LAUGH
0:09:35 > 0:09:37According to Hollywood legend,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41Chaney's ghost still haunts the Paris Opera set at Universal Studios,
0:09:41 > 0:09:47which, remarkably, has survived as a grand monument to the silent age.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55It's also a reminder that for all Chaney's astonishing transformation,
0:09:55 > 0:10:01The Phantom of the Opera is as much an exercise in epic spectacle as it is a claustrophobic horror picture.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09That's probably because Universal's founder, Carl Laemmle,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11was no fan of horrific material.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14But The Phantom's success helped his ambitious son and partner,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18Carl Laemmle Junior, to persuade him otherwise.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Carl Laemmle Junior now set his sights
0:10:20 > 0:10:23on an even more chilling property,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Bram Stoker's sensational vampire novel, Dracula.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Junior envisaged another extravagant production.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33But he was about to have his wings clipped.
0:10:40 > 0:10:461929 saw the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.
0:10:48 > 0:10:53Like other Hollywood studios, Universal had cash flow problems
0:10:53 > 0:10:57which meant it had to scale down its productions.
0:11:00 > 0:11:07Fortunately, Junior came across another, more cost effective way of telling the Dracula story.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Stoker's novel had been adapted for a modest British touring production
0:11:16 > 0:11:20which had gone on to become an unexpected hit.
0:11:22 > 0:11:28For ease of staging, this was a kind of drawing-room Dracula, set largely in a Hampstead house.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33And the play had transformed Stoker's hairy, moustached, rank-breathed old count
0:11:33 > 0:11:37into a more elegant figure who could be welcomed into London society.
0:11:40 > 0:11:45As for me, I am a stranger in a strange land.
0:11:45 > 0:11:50Yet I have grown to love this great London with its teeming millions,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54so different from my own land of Transylvania.
0:11:54 > 0:12:00After all, the walls of my castle are broken, the shadows are many,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06The play ruthlessly cut back the action
0:12:06 > 0:12:10and locations of Stoker's novel and added rather a lot of talking.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13But that didn't bother Junior Laemmle.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Dracula was going to be the first horror picture with sound.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31You're in the very first scene of Dracula.
0:12:31 > 0:12:38Oh, yes, the opening scene, and I say the first lines of dialogue.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42- Can you remember them?- I'll try!
0:12:42 > 0:12:48"Among the rugged peaks that frown down upon the Borgo Pass
0:12:48 > 0:12:53"are found crumbling castles of a bygone age."
0:12:53 > 0:12:58Among the rugged peaks that frown down upon the Borgo Pass
0:12:58 > 0:13:01are found crumbling castles of a bygone age.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06- Hooray, I did it! - I can't remember lines that I was supposed to learn yesterday.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12As well as basing itself on the play's script,
0:13:12 > 0:13:19the film also took on the play's Broadway lead, a Hungarian actor called Bela Lugosi.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26I am Dracula.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34A veteran of Budapest's leading theatres, Lugosi's American career
0:13:34 > 0:13:38had previously been limited by his accent.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Listen to them.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Children of the night.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47What music they make!
0:13:50 > 0:13:55Lugosi's somewhat drawn-out delivery
0:13:55 > 0:13:59helps render the film's many dialogue scenes rather ponderous.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04Hollywood was still getting the hang of talkies, and director Tod Browning was on surer ground
0:14:04 > 0:14:07in the film's wordless sequences.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15Here Lugosi becomes a shadowy figure who comes to get you while you sleep.
0:14:15 > 0:14:21You can see why people might have found this terrifying and in some cases, illicitly thrilling.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Were you aware of anyone finding him
0:14:30 > 0:14:33exotically attractive in a Valentino way?
0:14:33 > 0:14:37He had a charm.
0:14:37 > 0:14:43I mean, you could call him handsome, his dark eyes and all of that.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48He had this tremendous power of
0:14:48 > 0:14:55attracting you. Almost, you couldn't resist the guy, you know?
0:14:56 > 0:15:01Lugosi's charisma aside, the film rarely rises above its stage origins.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05We never even see a drop of blood or the flash of a fang.
0:15:09 > 0:15:14That's why it's a particular treat to get a closer look at another surviving cast member.
0:15:14 > 0:15:18- Not so frightening looking now. - I'm not so sure!
0:15:20 > 0:15:24- What's it made of? - It's basically a wire skeleton
0:15:24 > 0:15:30or frame and over it they stretched some heavy duty cotton fabric.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I assumed it would be rubber or something.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37No, it gave it a much more realistic look flapping in the wind
0:15:37 > 0:15:39with the fabric than it would with rubber.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47No, Master, I wasn't going to say anything.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49I told him nothing.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51I'm loyal to you, Master!
0:15:54 > 0:15:58- Do we know what this hair's made of? - No, but I wouldn't be surprised
0:15:58 > 0:16:01if it turned out to be some kind of domesticated animal.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03One of Chaney's old hairpieces!
0:16:06 > 0:16:12For all its limitations, Dracula had the supernatural, it had sound, it had Lugosi.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15The combination was a box office smash.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19You could say Dracula was the first modern horror film. But it lacks something.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35Dracula features some atmospheric settings - dark, decaying castles and cobwebby crypts -
0:16:35 > 0:16:39but it doesn't really capture that gothic sensibility, the heightened
0:16:39 > 0:16:43atmosphere of romance and morbidity that makes the novel so thrilling.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Now take a look at this.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52The moon's rising. We've no time to lose.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54CLANGING
0:16:54 > 0:16:58- Careful!- Within the first minutes of Frankenstein,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02we find ourselves in one of the grimmest graveyards in cinema...
0:17:02 > 0:17:04Here he comes.
0:17:04 > 0:17:11..watching a freshly buried coffin exhumed, and caressed with necrophilic tenderness.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17He's just resting, waiting for a new life to come.
0:17:17 > 0:17:22This is a film with no inhibitions about embracing the dark and macabre.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Frankenstein was shot only a few months after Dracula.
0:17:25 > 0:17:30But in its daring tone and stylish execution, it's a massive leap forward.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34It's alive. It's alive.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38It's alive. It's moving.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42It's alive. It's alive! It's alive!
0:17:42 > 0:17:46It's alive!
0:17:46 > 0:17:47In the name of God,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50now I know what it feels like to be God!
0:17:50 > 0:17:52THUNDER
0:17:52 > 0:17:56But exactly who was alive under all those bandages?
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Universal originally wanted Bela Lugosi to play the creature,
0:18:02 > 0:18:06even promoting the film with him in the role before it had been shot.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13But after what would now be called "creative differences", Lugosi left the project.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18The picture was handed to an up and coming English director, James Whale.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20He needed to find a monster.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22Fast.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28Sitting in the Universal canteen one day, Whale spotted a fellow diner and beckoned him over.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33"Your face", he said, "has startling possibilities."
0:18:36 > 0:18:39The owner of that face was another ex-pat Englishman,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42whose birth name was William Henry Pratt.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47Pratt's distinctive features owed something to Indian blood in his family.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51After more than two decades of theatre work and bit parts in films,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55he'd become resigned to never having a major role.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58His stage name was Boris Karloff.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05It was my father's 81st film.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09And no one had seen the first 80, essentially.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12So, after 20 years in the business,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16my father became an overnight success.
0:19:35 > 0:19:43In August 1931, James Whale began filming Frankenstein at Universal, on sets such as this very one.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46But for the first week of shooting at least, one key player
0:19:46 > 0:19:50was conspicuous by his absence - the monster himself.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54He was undergoing a fittingly gruelling process of creation.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58But the result would be one of cinema's most enduring icons.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Here he comes. Let's turn out the light.
0:20:07 > 0:20:10APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS
0:20:39 > 0:20:44Karloff had been placed under the auspices of Universal's head of make-up, Jack Pierce,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47who spent two weeks working directly with him
0:20:47 > 0:20:50on top of the six months he had already spent researching ideas.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58Pierce's monster is surely one of the greatest make-up designs in cinema.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Visionary, but credible.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Thought through with a chilling logic.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07The top of the head is misshapen and stitched
0:21:07 > 0:21:11because a different brain has been placed in another man's cranium.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16It also adds to Karloff's height.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20The bolts in the neck,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23often thought of simply as screws holding the head on,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27are in fact the electrodes used to reanimate the corpse.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31This is a face which really does tell a story.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40But the heart of the film, what has made it immortal, is Karloff's performance.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47In his hands, the monster becomes so much more than just a brilliant piece of make-up.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49It understands this time.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52- It's wonderful. - Frankenstein, Frankenstein! Where is it? Where is it?
0:21:52 > 0:21:56HE SCREAMS Quiet, you fool!
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Get away with that torch!
0:22:01 > 0:22:06Initially childlike and gentle, he's only later goaded into violence.
0:22:10 > 0:22:17Do you think he identified with the monster as society's outsider?
0:22:17 > 0:22:21I think that, probably due to his own personal experiences...
0:22:23 > 0:22:30..as a young boy in school, he experienced a lot of prejudice because of his dark colouring.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35He understood that looking different makes a difference.
0:22:35 > 0:22:42I think he brought some of his own personal experience to his interpretation of this role.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46He always said that children got it.
0:22:46 > 0:22:54They understood that the creature was the victim and not the perpetrator.
0:22:54 > 0:23:01The little girl in Frankenstein was never afraid of him in his make-up.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Ah, yes. The little girl.
0:23:05 > 0:23:12This was where James Whale's risk-taking got a little too far ahead of the times.
0:23:14 > 0:23:19Malibou Lake is scarcely half an hour's drive from Hollywood, but it feels like a different world.
0:23:19 > 0:23:26And it was in this idyllic setting that the first truly controversial scene in horror cinema was shot.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32I can make a boat.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34See how mine floats?
0:23:45 > 0:23:47HE GRUNTS
0:23:54 > 0:23:57No! You're hurting me! No!
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Even today, the killing of a child on screen is shocking.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Back in 1931, it was considered by many to be wholly unacceptable.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Censors in several American states and countries, including Britain,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17insisted on cutting away before little Maria is thrown into the lake.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Universal themselves re-edited all the prints of the film when it was reissued a few years later.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The original scene wouldn't be restored for another 50 years.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37Frankenstein's heady content didn't stop it from storming the box office.
0:24:39 > 0:24:45With two hits in a row, horror was now well and truly established as a proper cinematic genre,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and Lugosi's Dracula and Karloff's monster were the twin pillars upon which it had been built.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Other Hollywood studios were quick to respond. The result was a flowering
0:25:06 > 0:25:09of imagination and innovation.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Paramount's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde featured a dazzling,
0:25:14 > 0:25:17single shot transformation sequence,
0:25:17 > 0:25:23heightened by a subjective camera that enables us to experience it through Jekyll's own eyes.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26HE CHOKES
0:25:29 > 0:25:33The secret to the trick was a rotating filter on the camera
0:25:33 > 0:25:36which revealed layers of different coloured make-up.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42The sequence helped Fredric March win the best actor Oscar in 1932.
0:25:45 > 0:25:50Warner Brothers were best known for their gritty gangster pictures, so it's not surprising that they
0:25:50 > 0:25:54broke with the gothic tradition and set their horror films in the present day.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03Mystery Of The Wax Museum was shot in early Technicolor,
0:26:03 > 0:26:04which gives disturbing,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07lifelike flesh tones to these melting wax figures
0:26:07 > 0:26:10in the film's striking opening sequence.
0:26:17 > 0:26:24In a sensationally creepy plot which would later inspire the wonderful Carry On Screaming,
0:26:24 > 0:26:30Lionel Atwill plays a sculptor who steals corpses and embalms them in wax to exhibit in his museum.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36When Atwill decides to try his technique on Fay Wray,
0:26:36 > 0:26:41the film achieves a memorable variation on The Phantom's unmasking.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44It still makes my hair stand on end today.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Let me go! Let me go, let me go!
0:26:51 > 0:26:54SHE SCREAMS
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Splendid films, both.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02So why aren't they as well remembered as Universal's?
0:27:02 > 0:27:09Perhaps it's because their monsters just weren't as rich and nuanced as Dracula and Frankenstein's creature.
0:27:11 > 0:27:18Universal also had another great asset, one of the most stylish directors of his time - James Whale.
0:27:19 > 0:27:25To use a much later term, I think that Whale was the first horror auteur.
0:27:27 > 0:27:28He followed up Frankenstein
0:27:28 > 0:27:31with a series of increasingly idiosyncratic films
0:27:31 > 0:27:35which reflected his own rather complex personality.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43In 1932, Whale made The Old Dark House,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47perhaps the definitive take on that classic scenario
0:27:47 > 0:27:54in which lost strangers stumble across an isolated house, and open a Pandora's box of menace.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56The road's blocked on both sides, landslides.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59HE GROANS
0:28:01 > 0:28:05Even Welsh ought not to sound like that.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The brutal butler was played by Boris Karloff,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14once again unrecognizable under Jack Pierce's make-up.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18And the film's leading lady was Gloria Stuart.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23She remembers how, unlike many directors of the day,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26Whale exerted exceptional control over the production.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32He had said several times, "I go over the script
0:28:32 > 0:28:37"the night before the morning I shoot."
0:28:37 > 0:28:44He made it very clear to all of us that he had prepared the script.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47And it was unusual.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53He took very special care of me and was very critical.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Hurt my feelings a couple of times.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58He was very sharp.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00What sort of things did he criticise you about?
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Diction, approach to the speech.
0:29:04 > 0:29:12He could stop you cold. "No, Gloria, that's not it."
0:29:12 > 0:29:16SHE WHIMPERS
0:29:18 > 0:29:22Whale's cultivated precision belied his origins.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24He'd been born into a working-class family
0:29:24 > 0:29:30in the black country town of Dudley, and he carefully concealed his background behind a sardonic manner.
0:29:30 > 0:29:36He was also gay, and this may have further encouraged his arch and rebellious sense of humour.
0:29:36 > 0:29:43As a result, The Old Dark House is both menacing and blackly comic.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47You're wicked, too. Young and handsome, silly and wicked.
0:29:47 > 0:29:53You think of nothing but your long, straight legs and your white body and how to please your man.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58You revel in the joys of fleshly love, don't you?
0:29:58 > 0:30:00That's fine stuff. But it'll rot.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03That's finer stuff still, but it'll rot too, in time.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06Don't! How dare you?
0:30:06 > 0:30:10I think Whale was pioneering what we now think of as camp -
0:30:10 > 0:30:14a knowing excess which is as much about humour as shock.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18Maybe somewhat off-putting if you're just expecting a straightforward horror film,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23but it may also explain why Whale's films have aged so well compared with those of his contemporaries.
0:30:23 > 0:30:25THUNDER
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Mr Penderel! Miss DuCane!
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Mr Penderel! Miss DuCane!
0:30:42 > 0:30:44SHE SCREAMS
0:30:44 > 0:30:49This is a very famous scene in which Boris menaces you.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53How was it to actually make that scene with Boris Karloff?
0:30:53 > 0:30:58How do you get grabbed by Karloff and look happy?
0:30:58 > 0:31:01HE LAUGHS
0:31:01 > 0:31:05You don't look happy. You look like you've been grabbed and you're scared.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10- I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.- It's acting.
0:31:10 > 0:31:11SHE LAUGHS
0:31:18 > 0:31:23- Did you feel frightened by being approached by him?- Boris?
0:31:23 > 0:31:26He was a pussycat. Come on!
0:31:28 > 0:31:31No, I didn't feel frightened at all.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35He was always very gentlemanly.
0:31:37 > 0:31:44Carl Laemmle Junior now pleaded with Whale to make a follow-up to their most successful collaboration.
0:31:44 > 0:31:47But Whale laid down a key condition.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51January 1935 saw James Whale back on the Universal lot,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53making another Frankenstein movie.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55He'd been tempted back by the promise
0:31:55 > 0:31:57of complete creative control.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01It's hard to believe the studio knew what they were letting themselves in for.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Whale wasn't interested in simply repeating himself.
0:32:04 > 0:32:09The film he had in mind was highly personal, eccentric and quite extraordinary.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19In Bride Of Frankenstein, Whale makes the monster
0:32:19 > 0:32:22an even more sympathetic victim of a brutal society,
0:32:22 > 0:32:28at one point bringing this home with a scene that's almost blasphemous in its blatant symbolism.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35But Whale's main focus of interest in the film
0:32:35 > 0:32:38seems to be neither the monster nor Frankenstein,
0:32:38 > 0:32:43but a new character - a masterly camp creation.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47He's a very queer looking old gentleman, sir.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51"I must see you, on a secret grave matter", he said.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53"Tonight. Alone."
0:32:53 > 0:32:57- Bring him in.- Henry, who is this man?
0:32:57 > 0:32:58Dr Pretorius.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Baron Frankenstein now, I believe?
0:33:06 > 0:33:13Pretorius was played by Ernest Thesiger, an old friend of Whale's from his theatre days in England.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19Between takes on set, Thesiger practised needlepoint, at which he was highly accomplished.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22Alone, you have created a man.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26Now, together, we will create his mate.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29You mean...?
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Yes. A woman.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36That should be really interesting.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41Pretorius is one of the most subversive figures in 1930s cinema,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43a quite obviously homosexual character
0:33:43 > 0:33:49pursuing a grotesque substitute for heterosexual reproduction and loving every minute of it.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54To a new world of gods and monsters.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59The film builds to the climactic unveiling of the bride,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03heralded by Pretorius with a suitably queenly flourish.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07Resplendent in Jack Pierce's Nefertiti-inspired make-up,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10she's a perverse idea of womanhood.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13The Bride of Frankenstein.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22A stitched together combination
0:34:22 > 0:34:24of daughter and mate,
0:34:24 > 0:34:25the bride is beautiful -
0:34:25 > 0:34:27in a wholly insane way.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31Bride Of Frankenstein was Whale's greatest achievement as a director.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34It was also his last horror picture.
0:34:34 > 0:34:42Having pushed the genre as far as he wanted, Whale was perhaps happy to let it symbolically collapse.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49And Hollywood horror really was in an increasingly unstable position.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57In the early 1930s, America had nothing approaching effective censorship
0:34:57 > 0:35:03and some films were pushing well beyond the camp and the gothic
0:35:03 > 0:35:05into remarkably twisted, sadistic territory.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10There was Mad Love, in which a shaven-headed Peter Lorre
0:35:10 > 0:35:14grafted the hands of a murderer onto a mutilated concert pianist.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24In Island Of Lost Souls, Charles Laughton experimented on animals
0:35:24 > 0:35:27to create a race of half-human creatures.
0:35:27 > 0:35:34And then there was The Black Cat, which climaxed with Bela Lugosi flaying Boris Karloff alive.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39We only see it in silhouette, but nevertheless...
0:35:39 > 0:35:44However, one film above all others from the era remains notorious to this day.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49When I was about eight, I got the best Christmas present I had ever received.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54In fact, it's the only Christmas I can remember where all my other presents lay unopened
0:35:54 > 0:35:56because I was given this wonderful book.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Alan G Frank's The Movie Treasury Of Horror Movies, which for many years became my absolute bible.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05And there was a time when I knew every single page and every single picture.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10But there was one photograph that I used to hurry past. In fact, I can remember
0:36:10 > 0:36:13paperclipping two pages together in order to avoid looking at it.
0:36:13 > 0:36:19And it's no wonder. It was a still from the 1932 film, Freaks.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23Freaks is a lurid but wholly original saga
0:36:23 > 0:36:28of sexual manipulation and revenge, set in a travelling sideshow.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31It was made by Tod Browning, the director of Dracula,
0:36:31 > 0:36:36who boldly decided to use actual carnival performers in the film.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42It was that blurring of fantasy and reality that made the picture in the book so disturbing for me.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45This isn't a brilliant Jack Pierce make-up job.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47These are real people.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55An early bad omen for the film's reception came when the novelist and screenwriter F Scott Fitzgerald
0:36:55 > 0:36:59walked into the MGM canteen, saw a pair of Siamese twins
0:36:59 > 0:37:03having their lunch, and ran outside to throw up his own.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09For much of the film, Browning presents the carnival characters sympathetically.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12But he also establishes an uncomfortable sexual tension
0:37:12 > 0:37:14with the passion of the midget, Hans,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17for the statuesque trapeze artist, Cleopatra.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22She strings him along and poisons him so she can inherit his fortune.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28When they discover Cleopatra's deception,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31the other performers exact a terrible revenge
0:37:31 > 0:37:36in a vividly staged sequence that's like a primal, oozing nightmare.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40Characters who were earlier portrayed with sensitivity
0:37:40 > 0:37:44and are now depicted as crawling, squirming and menacing.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47It's a shameless case of double standards from Browning.
0:37:49 > 0:37:50SHE SCREAMS
0:37:50 > 0:37:52But it can't be denied that Freaks has one of the most
0:37:52 > 0:37:55memorable pay-offs in horror cinema,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59when we find out the true nature of the revenge exacted on Cleopatra.
0:37:59 > 0:38:05It plays as both a grotesque reveal and as the punchline to the blackest of jokes.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Believe it or not, there she is.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11SHE SQUAWKS
0:38:11 > 0:38:16How can you fail to warm to a film in which somebody is turned into a giant chicken woman?
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Well, ask the 1932 audience.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23Browning's film bombed at the box office and MGM
0:38:23 > 0:38:27plucked it from the movie theatres within a month of its release.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32Following costly controversies like Freaks,
0:38:32 > 0:38:34backlashes from morality campaigners
0:38:34 > 0:38:38and actual bans in lucrative foreign territories like Britain,
0:38:38 > 0:38:45Hollywood's enthusiasm for horror began to wane almost as quickly as it had arisen.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50But seeking to earn extra cash from its two original horror hits,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Universal re-released Dracula and Frankenstein as a double bill
0:38:54 > 0:38:57and was astonished by their popularity.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Even if the studios were losing their appetite for horror,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03the public was hungry for more.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13The result was a second wind for horror at the end of the '30s.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Universal took the lead with Son Of Frankenstein.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Boris Karloff returned with a remarkable cast,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23but James Whale's high gothic camp was replaced
0:39:23 > 0:39:26by a more family-friendly, swashbuckling approach.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30The film also introduced a new face -
0:39:30 > 0:39:34four-year-old Donnie Dunagan, who played Basil Rathbone's son.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37The grandson of Frankenstein, if you will.
0:39:42 > 0:39:46- Well, hello!- Good morning, son.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48- Did you have a nice sleep?- Yes.
0:39:48 > 0:39:51So, Donnie, great pleasure to meet you.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54I think I really should just say, "Well, hello!"
0:39:54 > 0:39:55Well, hello!
0:39:55 > 0:39:56THEY LAUGH
0:39:56 > 0:39:58Right on.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03Donnie's biggest claim to fame is that he would later be the voice of Disney's Bambi,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05but for me, the thrill lies in meeting someone
0:40:05 > 0:40:09who can give a first hand account of working with perhaps
0:40:09 > 0:40:12the greatest cast of any classic horror film.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18The first time I met Boris Karloff, the first thing he did was bought me ice-cream.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22Now how can you possibly be afraid of somebody who bought you ice-cream, right?
0:40:22 > 0:40:24The first time I saw him then, in costume,
0:40:24 > 0:40:27and I shouldn't have done this cos it disrupted things,
0:40:27 > 0:40:32I busted out laughing. "Cut. Take four." "Donnie, quit laughing."
0:40:32 > 0:40:34"Cut. Take six."
0:40:38 > 0:40:41This playfulness on the set is reflected in the film,
0:40:41 > 0:40:43which has sparkle and humour,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47particularly in the form of Bela Lugosi, who,
0:40:47 > 0:40:52as the bodysnatcher Ygor, slides nimbly between menace and mischief.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56I think it's the best performance he ever gave.
0:40:56 > 0:40:57He's alive!
0:41:03 > 0:41:05How long has he been here?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Long time.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10It's my friend.
0:41:10 > 0:41:16He...he does things for me.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19Has he always been here?
0:41:19 > 0:41:24Nearly always. This is place of the dead.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27We're all dead here.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Some of the crew would applaud him.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34I don't remember getting applauded. They laughed at me, you know?
0:41:34 > 0:41:37When he was around, people paid keen attention.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40And I was at least aware enough to know,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43boy, this is a real performance.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Quiet. That'll be all, Ygor.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Go back to Castle Frankenstein and be careful.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52HE COUGHS
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Hey! You spit on me!
0:41:58 > 0:42:03I'm sorry, I cough. You see, bone get stuck in my throat.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06HE COUGHS
0:42:08 > 0:42:12While Karloff had gone from strength to strength since his breakthrough,
0:42:12 > 0:42:14Lugosi's fortunes had been mixed.
0:42:14 > 0:42:19So much so that Universal were able to secure his services at a knock-down rate.
0:42:20 > 0:42:25They tried to hire him cheaper cos they heard that he was having economic difficulty.
0:42:25 > 0:42:31And Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff stood up against the studio on that,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35and ensured that he had a more responsible salary.
0:42:35 > 0:42:41And apparently, he responded to all that help, because his performance was magnificent.
0:42:41 > 0:42:44- There's a real twinkle in his eye, isn't there?- Yeah, yeah.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51This is a film that seeks to entertain rather than horrify,
0:42:51 > 0:42:57and Lugosi's gleeful malevolence is balanced by a warmth between Donnie's character and the monster.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Whereas Little Maria was thrown in the lake in the first film,
0:43:01 > 0:43:06the monster refuses to harm the boy despite being sent to kidnap him by the vengeful Ygor.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14- Did you feel that there was a sort of connection between the child and the monster?- I know there was.
0:43:14 > 0:43:21And I think holding me like this, as opposed to some other more violent thing, I think that was his idea.
0:43:21 > 0:43:26They had him hold me like this for two takes, and he dropped me.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29I bounced off of the floor. That was a hard deck down there.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33And then they decided to wire me to him.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35If everybody would look carefully,
0:43:35 > 0:43:37you'll see it's an artificial hand.
0:43:37 > 0:43:38It's a little phoney,
0:43:38 > 0:43:40so he couldn't drop me.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43The thought occurred to me, I've got to be the only guy
0:43:43 > 0:43:47still sucking air in this world that can say, "I was wired to Frankenstein!"
0:43:47 > 0:43:48MARK LAUGHS
0:43:50 > 0:43:52Daddy, Daddy!
0:43:54 > 0:43:58THE MONSTER SCREAMS
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Of course, by now, the audience knew that it would take more than
0:44:01 > 0:44:05plunging into a pit of sulphur to finish off the monster for good.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08But as far as Karloff's portrayal was concerned,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10this really was the final curtain.
0:44:11 > 0:44:17He was grateful, really grateful to that role.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21And he sometimes referred to the creature in interviews as his best friend.
0:44:21 > 0:44:28But he felt that the films and the role had gone as far as it could
0:44:28 > 0:44:33or should without the creature becoming the brunt of bad scripts,
0:44:33 > 0:44:38bad jokes, and he didn't want to be any part of that.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44He could see a downward trend
0:44:44 > 0:44:48and he didn't want to take his friend down that path.
0:44:50 > 0:44:55Few of Universal's horror productions now had the quality of Son Of Frankenstein.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59By the 1940s, the studio was increasingly busy making sequels.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04Not just to Frankenstein, but also to its own original properties.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09These included The Mummy and The Wolf Man, both of whom were played by
0:45:09 > 0:45:15Lon Chaney's son, Lon Chaney Junior, something of a sequels regular.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18This production-line approach showed how Universal's monsters
0:45:18 > 0:45:20had gone from being terrifying bogeymen
0:45:20 > 0:45:22to familiar favourites.
0:45:28 > 0:45:30But surprisingly, it was a rival studio's attempt
0:45:30 > 0:45:37to create its own monster parade that would take horror cinema back into the shadows where it belonged,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41and exert an influence on film-makers that continues to this day.
0:45:47 > 0:45:49CAR ENGINE STARTS UP
0:46:01 > 0:46:03GROWLING
0:46:20 > 0:46:27No studio looked more enviously at Universal's money-spinning menagerie of monsters than RKO.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30Yes, the same RKO which made Citizen Kane
0:46:30 > 0:46:35and needed to make quick cash following that magnificent flop.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40Across the centuries comes this exciting story of a modern girl
0:46:40 > 0:46:42cursed by an ancient legend.
0:46:42 > 0:46:43The legend of the Cat People.
0:46:46 > 0:46:47During the early 1940s,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49RKO released a string of
0:46:49 > 0:46:53sensationally-titled horror pictures.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57But the actual films showed a subtle mastery of the psychology of horror
0:46:57 > 0:47:00that was quite revolutionary.
0:47:04 > 0:47:10All were produced by Val Lewton, who was appointed Head of the RKO Horror Unit in 1942.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17Lewton's budgets were tight, and his bosses' policy was to choose
0:47:17 > 0:47:19a commercial-sounding title first
0:47:19 > 0:47:22and then commission a screenplay to fit.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26But within these limits, Lewton was given a free creative hand.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And he played it very cleverly.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33Lewton's first horror picture was Cat People,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36the story of a woman who turns into a panther
0:47:36 > 0:47:38when caught in the throes of passion or jealousy.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53The film's most celebrated set pieces show her love rival being stalked.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Lewton realised that his restricted budgets weren't a disadvantage,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10because in horror, less could be more.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14Monsters didn't have to be seen, just suggested.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24He also understood that a good shock
0:48:24 > 0:48:28didn't have to be caused by something explicit or even intrinsically frightening.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42SCREECHING BRAKES
0:48:42 > 0:48:47That technique of a slow build-up followed by a sudden but unthreatening jolt
0:48:47 > 0:48:52has become known, appropriately enough, as a Lewton bus.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56You can spot Lewton buses in much more recent and famous films.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00This scene from The Exorcist plays as pure Lewton.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Director William Friedkin uses the shadows in the attic
0:49:03 > 0:49:05to keep our nerves on a hair trigger.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07CLATTERING
0:49:17 > 0:49:18SHE SCREAMS
0:49:18 > 0:49:21- INDISTINGUISHABLE VOICE - Oh, Carl.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24Jesus Christ, Carl, don't do that.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26But not everyone is so impressed by Lewton.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31I just think he's so overrated.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Everybody worships Val Lewton for a couple of scenes.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38The swimming pool scene. What?
0:49:38 > 0:49:41SCREECHING AND SCREAMING
0:49:43 > 0:49:46There's nothing in the frame near her.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48It's just lighting. The pool's lit.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51She's in the middle of the pool.
0:49:51 > 0:49:56Nothing's going to get her. When it's frightening is when there's something around you.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59There is an argument, a very strong argument, I think,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03that you can do it and do it and do it and then if you then don't deliver, you're cheating.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05I totally agree with that.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10But if you can, and if you have a monster or a thing that looks pretty good, show it.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14Show it. I mean, Jurassic Park done by Val Lewton would be nothing.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18But there are many reasons to enjoy Lewton's work.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27He gave Boris Karloff some of the finest roles of his career, in films like The Body Snatcher,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30which showcased the range of his acting ability.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32There, Master Ferris.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Sooner than we thought. A stroke of luck, you might say.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Good.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Why, that's the street singer.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44I know her, I tell you. She was alive and hearty only this evening.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47It's impossible she can be dead.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50You could not have gotten this body fairly.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53You're entirely mistaken.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58You'd better give me my money and make the proper entry.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04In this film, Karloff once again plays alongside Bela Lugosi.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10But Lugosi is relegated to a secondary role, quite literally overpowered by Karloff.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14No, put your hand down.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17How can I show you, man?
0:51:17 > 0:51:18This is how they did it.
0:51:29 > 0:51:33There's something very resonant about the different fates of these two men,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37who both played such a crucial role in establishing horror cinema.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45Lugosi, who always felt he was cut out for something better,
0:51:45 > 0:51:50and Karloff, grateful to horror for his unexpected and late success.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59- Wow.- Doesn't everybody have a room like this?
0:51:59 > 0:52:02I would like a bathroom like this.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Wow.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09Karloff went on to enjoy regular work in film and television for the rest of his career,
0:52:09 > 0:52:11and lived long enough to enjoy some of the respect
0:52:11 > 0:52:13that eventually came to him
0:52:13 > 0:52:17as a pivotal figure in 20th century popular culture.
0:52:17 > 0:52:25These are the stamps from 1997, the classic movie monster stamps.
0:52:25 > 0:52:30My father was on two of them, one for Frankenstein and one for The Mummy.
0:52:30 > 0:52:37And then later, in 2003, there was a set of ten stamps
0:52:37 > 0:52:41that depicted the various disciplines of film-making.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45And my father's face was selected for the discipline of make-up.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50So I've been told by stamp collectors that my father was
0:52:50 > 0:52:53the only person other than a President
0:52:53 > 0:52:56who has been on more than two stamps.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59So he's been on three stamps, really quite an honour.
0:52:59 > 0:53:04Karloff never strayed too far from the horror genre, but he never seemed too worried by that.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11Bela Lugosi, however, seemed trapped on the treadmill of horror sequels.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Lugosi had tried to avoid being typecast in Dracula-like roles,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19and had not actually played the Count since his debut.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23But struggling with his finances and his health, he was finally forced to
0:53:23 > 0:53:27re-embrace the role that had defined him in the public imagination.
0:53:27 > 0:53:31In 1948, he took up Dracula's cape once again
0:53:31 > 0:53:33in an Abbott and Costello movie.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37It could have been the final humiliation,
0:53:37 > 0:53:42but Lugosi brings a dignity and a knowing humour to the role.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47I think this second performance as the Count now stands up better than the first.
0:53:47 > 0:53:53I must say, my dear, I approve very highly of your choice.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56What we need today is young blood.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59And brains.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02What's surprising about Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein
0:54:02 > 0:54:07is that amongst the comedy, it boasts some striking horror sequences.
0:54:07 > 0:54:08SCREAMING
0:54:08 > 0:54:12Look at what happens to the woman in this scene.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14- Chick, do you believe me now?- Yes.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22Against all the odds, the film is a fine, final flourish
0:54:22 > 0:54:24of the Universal horror cycle.
0:54:37 > 0:54:43But Lugosi's own horror career had an unexpected last act that took it full circle.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52In 1951, he was invited to Britain to star in a revival
0:54:52 > 0:54:54of the Dracula stage play.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59Lugosi now found himself performing in towns like Eastbourne,
0:54:59 > 0:55:04in the sort of regional theatres where the play had first been seen a quarter of a century before.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06It must have felt a long way from Hollywood.
0:55:06 > 0:55:12The tour seemed to test not only Lugosi's drawing power, but that of the Count himself.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21The producers hoped for a West End run
0:55:21 > 0:55:27but no-one would take them on until the production had first proved its profitability outside of London.
0:55:30 > 0:55:37Lugosi's leading lady on the tour was the English actress Sheila Wynn, who played the role of Lucy Seward.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42Why do you think Lugosi took on the tour?
0:55:42 > 0:55:46I think he felt his career was sinking.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50He was becoming less well known and less important.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54And I think he had a great hope that to come to England
0:55:54 > 0:56:00and play in the West End would bring his prestige right up again.
0:56:02 > 0:56:08And when the management sent the tour out, I don't think they realised
0:56:08 > 0:56:11that the audiences had become
0:56:11 > 0:56:16much more sophisticated, and they were inclined to giggle every night.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18They didn't at Brighton, I don't think,
0:56:18 > 0:56:23and they certainly didn't in Belfast, where they screamed,
0:56:23 > 0:56:29but there was a bit of giggling in Golders Green and also in Manchester.
0:56:29 > 0:56:35And I think this distressed Bela very much indeed.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38He once said to me, "You know,
0:56:38 > 0:56:42"Dracula is Hamlet to me."
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Regional theatres were as far as the Dracula revival got.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53Lugosi never achieved the comeback he sought.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00He died five years later and, perhaps having finally come to terms
0:57:00 > 0:57:05with the role he could never escape, was buried in his Dracula cape.
0:57:14 > 0:57:19Why did audiences which had once thrilled at horror now laugh at it?
0:57:19 > 0:57:24Lugosi's tour showed how little horror had really moved on since its heyday in the 1930s.
0:57:27 > 0:57:30Meanwhile, the world had entered an atomic age.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Hollywood responded with a new set of terrors -
0:57:34 > 0:57:35science fiction monsters
0:57:35 > 0:57:40that would be defeated by scientists and soldiers, not with a stake or a silver bullet.
0:57:40 > 0:57:43SHE SCREAMS
0:57:45 > 0:57:51By the early 1950s, horror cinema was pretty much extinct, after barely two decades.
0:57:58 > 0:58:04But of course, it's just when you think the monster's dead that it comes back. Stronger.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11Next time, full colour vampire lust
0:58:11 > 0:58:13and gushing gore...
0:58:13 > 0:58:15GUNSHOT
0:58:15 > 0:58:18..as Britain's Hammer Films conquer the world.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:26 > 0:58:29E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk