KARLOFF IN 'NIGHT WORLD'

Released on May 5, 1932, the Universal Pictures crime-drama NIGHT WORLD starred Boris Karloff as "Happy" MacDonald, the owner of a Prohibition-era nightclub. Also starring in the film were Lew Ayers, Mae Clarke, George Raft and Hedda Hopper before she became better known as a Hollywood gossip columnist.

This photo of Karloff appeared in the May 1932 issue of THE NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE in their "Gallery of Famous Film Folk". Mentioned in the caption is Karloff playing the role of the upcoming THE INVISIBLE MAN. That, of course, would go to Claude Rains and wouldn't be released until a year later. Instead, Karloff's next feature would cast him as Morgan in James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE. The photograph is by Roman Freulich.

BORIS KARLOFF: ALIAS THE MONSTER

Movie fan magazines are noted for their so-called intimate portraits of actor and actresses. The profiles they wrote of celebrities attempted to go behind-the-scenes and provide details of the subject's life and how they broke into show business.

This article from NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE (September, 1932) does just that with one of our favorite horror personalities, Boris Karloff.

THE "UNCLE" CARL LAEMMLE STORY

Carl "Junior" Laemmle is known as the man who brought the Universal monsters to life. As producer of Universal Pictures he had actively pursued the filming of both Dracula and Frankenstein. The fruitful results of his quest made motion picture history and, at least for a time, bailed his movie studio out financially from impeding bankruptcy.

It was Junior's father, however, Carl Laemmle who was the mastermind behind the creation of the film studio and its subsequent metamorphosis into a Hollywood "city" of its own.

Here is "Uncle" Carl's story, told in the May 1931 issue of THE NEW MOVIE magazine. Laemmle, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, came to the US with little money in his pocket to build one of the most famous movie studios on the planet.

SVENGALI BEHIND THE CAMERA

John Barrymore played the sinister Svengali in Warner Bros. 1931 film of the same name. This photograph is from the May 1931 issue of THE NEW MOVIE magazine and it appeared the same month the film was released.

There is no photo credit given, but it was most probably shot by either Irving Lippman or Buddy Longworth, both listed as still photographers for the film. Barrymore's makeup is by Johnny Wallis.

Also with a part in this story of hypnotism and mind control is Bramwell Fletcher, who, just a year later, would go into fatal hysterics after seeing THE MUMMY come to life.

DAVID MANNERS BEFORE DRACULA

Actor David Manners is shown here in from a film he had acted in just a month away from appearing as John Harker in Universal's DRACULA. The atmospheric photograph is from THE RIGHT TO LOVE and appeared in THE NEW MOVIE magazine (January 1931).

The photographer was Earl Crowley (1902-1983). Crowley was a Hollywood glamour and stills photographer of the 1930's (Note: His work for THE RIGHT TO LOVE is missing from the list of his films on IMDB).

Included here are several shots of the first Chinese-American actress, Anna May Wong (sometimes identified as Anna Mae Wong) by Crowley. Also included is a shot of Miss Wong with a pre-FRANKENSTEIN Colin Clive on the deck of the Aquitania en route to London. Wong created a stir in one of the plays she appeared in when she kissed a white actor.

THE ETHEREAL HELEN CHANDLER

The wispy and ethereal Helen Chandler appeared in this photo as a featured actress in the October, 1931 issue of the NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE. By that time she had already gained notoriety as Mina Harker in Universal's DRACULA, released earlier, in February.

NOTE: This photo also appeared in the January, 1932 issue of SCREENLAND and posted at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD HERE. The photographer was identified as Preston Duncan.

FAY DAY!

Fay Wray had no trouble finding work in the 1930's. As a freelance actress, she was in demand by numerous Hollywood movie studios.

This lovely picture is from the October, 1931 issue of the NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE and was taken by Ray Jones, the head of still photography at Universal in the 1920's and 1930's.

Miss Wray starred in 7 (!) films in 1931, but this photograph, taken by Universal's Jones, was probably for her role in STOWAWAY, which was released in March, 1932.

JOAN BENNETT BEFORE 'DARK SHADOWS'

Joan Bennett is most widely known today as playing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matriarch of Collinwood, in the TV series, DARK SHADOWS.

Ms. Bennett got her start in Hollywood years earlier at the age of only 6 when she played "An Unborn Soul" in the 1916 silent film, THE VALLEY OF DECISION.

In the 1930's, she starred in films for studios such as Fox and Universal. The photos shown here are from the NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE in the January and February, 1931 issues. The pictures are by Preston Duncan, a studio photographer for Warners and Fox.

BULL SHOOTS BELA

Many photos were taken of horror great Bela Lugosi, but few photographers could catch the exquisite nuance of his portrayals like MGM staff stills man, Clarence Sinclair Bull. Bull snapped the shutter release on countless Hollywood stars, including many of our favorite horror stars. Well-known in his time, he went on to be named as one of the top portrait photographers of Hollywood's Golden Era. Here are shown two examples of Bull shooting Bela during the production of MARK OF THE VAMPIRE.

BONUS: Lugosi's co-star in MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, Elizabeth Allan, is shown here in the "Gallery of Stars" feature from NEW MOVIE MAGAZINE (June 1935), also photographed by Bull.

LILLIAN BOND IN THE OLD DARK HOUSE

Together with THE CAT AND THE CANARY, Universal's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) was a model for the "haunted house" films that followed. With superb performances by Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesiger, Charles Laughton, Gloria Holden, Lillian Bond, and, of course, Boris Karloff, it exemplifies the motif of the stranded travelers caught in a storm with no way out except to ask for shelter in a creepy, out-of-the-way house filled with bizarre characters, mystery and the uneasy threat of physical violence. Directed by James Whale, it is second only to THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in his oeuvre.

The lovely Lillian Bond proves herself a worthy scream queen along with Gloria Holden. Miss Bond, a British actress that got her start in Hollywood with the famous Ziegfield Follies, also appeared in THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.

Today MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD features a Lillian Bond gallery (with many photographs by the famed Hollywood photographer, George Hurrell) and THE OLD DARK HOUSE filmbook from FAMOUS MONSTERS #66 (June 1970).