Vintage Swedish horror movie posters

Vintage posters from Sweden for THE WOLF MAN, THE MUMMY, THE BLACK CAT and THE INVISIBLE RAY. VIA.

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Boris Karloff in THE MUMMY, 1932.

How to make a mummy (1932)

 When I first stumbled over this newspaper story about Universal's THE MUMMY, it appeared to be a not-so-subtle effort to present actor Boris Karloff as the heir apparent to the late Lon Chaney. The final paragraph pretty much clinched it, as it mentions Karloff used the dressing room once occupied by the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA actor. I have no idea if that little nugget of information is true or not, but the rest of the story, particularly the details of Karloff applying his own make-up, are certainly invented. As for FRANKENSTEIN the year before, make-up for THE MUMMY was created by Jack Pierce.
  

Boris Karloff Comes To Ritz
Creator of sinister roles in "Mummy" at midnight Sunday
Dec. 25, 1932

Karloff, noted creator of sinister screen roles and today acknowledged as filmdom's supreme make-up artist, has achieved a new and startling masterpiece of the make-up art with the mummy countenance which he uses in his latest picture, "The Mummy," coming to the Ritz Theater tonight for a midnight matinee performance.

Surpassing even the hideous "Frankenstein" in clearness, the "mummy" make-up took Karloff eight tedious hours to don. The transformation of the actor to Im-ho-tep, 3,700-year-old mummy, was accomplished in the following manner.

The face, of course, was the first consideration. It was dampened with water, and then completely covered with very thin strips of cotton - even the eyelids were not spared this nerve wracking process. Collodion was then applied and the mask touched up with spirit gum to hold it in place. Work was stopped at intervals in order that a drying machine might be applied to set the facial wrinkles. The next step was the pinning back of the ears. Make-up clay was used to give Karloff's head the serrated appearance of a mummy. Twenty-two different varieties of make-up paint were then applied to the actor's withered countenance.

Swathed from head to foot in bandages which had first been acid rooted and passed through a warm over, Karloff was ready to step on the set and submit to another eight hours of grueling work before the cameras. His supporting cast in this fantastic story of the reincarnation of an Egyptian mummy includes Zita Johann, David Manners, Arthur Byron, Edward Van Sloan and Bramwell Fletcher, Karl Freund directing.

It is interesting to note that Karloff occupies the same dressing room on the Universal lot formerly used by another make-up master, the late Lon Chaney.

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BORIS KARLOFF and lifemask.

FRANKENSTEIN is the "shocker of the season," 1931

 

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON
By Molli Merrick
The Montana Standard, Nov. 10, 1931

"FRANKENSTEIN" as made by Universal is proving the shocker of the season. A preview audience made up of stoic press members were a bit pale about the gills when the film reached its conclusion. When it was previewed in Santa Barbara one hears strange tales of fainting women, irate men and sobbing children.

None of these things deterred Carl.Laemmle Jr. from showing Frankenstein exactly us was. It is the studio's contention that 'Dracula"—famous for its horrific content, went over big. "Dracula" pales into insignificance in view of the ghoulish qualities of this Mary Shelley story.

Colin Clive is one of the handsomest of the English acting contingent but the film contains no sex-appeal whatsoever. Its plain blood-curdling grand-guignol material nnd you are warned about it before it unfolds, Boris Karloff as the monster does a magnificent piece of acting' and his make-up surpasses even the expert work of this kind by Lon Chaney. But ye sadists will have a very, very pleasant evening of it, what with the digging up of dead bodies, torturing of the living, the hangings, drowning of an unsuspecting 4-year-old in a peculiarly romantic manner, and final burning and crushing of the monster himself in a finale that is just "booful" if you're given to that kind of entertainment.

When there was a brief torture scene in "Moby Dick" I remember quite a loud howl of protest. And when Lon Chaney made "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" public spirit ran high over the flogging scene. But times, apparently, have changed and we may devote five or seven reels to such gay themes without protest.

Paramount is planning to film the  "Portrait of a Man With Red Hair'" by Hugh Walpole—a tale which has a sinister torture chamber as one very important angle of the plot. In fact, that room and what goes on in it, explains the man with red hair, so it would be difficult to eliminate it from the picture.

Perhaps gang-war pictures accustomed us to bloodshed and cruelty. If so, the new cycle of Hollywood horrors will carry on the good work. Since producers arc making them on the strength of previous box-office records of like things, there's no argument as to the public's acceptance of them.