After the financial successes of horror films in 1932, Grant Jackson asks in his article for the January 1933 issue of MOVIE CLASSIC, what's next? To answer that question, he covers five movies: THE MUMMY, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, KING KONG, THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (known then as "The Wax Museum") and THE MASK OF FU MANCHU. This is a rather unique article as generally individual movies were covered, or individual actors, such as Boris Karloff were interviewed in the fan magazines of the day; it is unusual that horror films were collectively discussed as a "genre". A bonus is the generous addition of photos that accompany the article.
Oddly enough, three of the five films were actually released in late 1932 (THE MASK OF FU MANCHU on November 5, THE MUMMY on December 22 and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS on December 26), so it's quite likely that the author wrote the article during the same time for publication after the first of the year.
Ironically, other than Universal's THE BLACK CAT and in late 1933, THE INVISIBLE MAN, the future of horror films as optimistically described in the this article turned out not so promising. As a matter of fact, they would take a bit of a nose dive over the next year until WEREWOLF OF LONDON, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and a handful of others would signal the end of the classic "pre-code" Hollywood era.
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| Jack Pierce adds finishing touches before the camera rolls. |
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