The 1940s produced a great many horror films, much like the last decade has done with comic-book films. Some of the more well known were The Mummy’s Tomb, Carnival of Sinners, Cry of the Werewolf, Son of Dracula, Isle of the Dead, The Uninvited, and The Devil Bat’s Daughter. Many of these are obscure to a casual fan but there were more notable films with some recognizable stars.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1941 stars Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, and Donald Crisp. It’s based on the novel by Robert Louis Stephenson. In the film, the physician, Henry Jekyll creates a drinkable formula which separates his good side from his bad side. Things go well, for a while, until it becomes impossible to keep the transformations under control. Tracy plays the Doctor and Lana Turner plays his fiancée, Beatrix. Bergman plays the barmaid, Ivy Peterson and Donald Crisp plays her father.
The novella and the film differ on many points. One of the main ones was, the characters of Ivy Peterson and Beatrix Emery did not exist in the film. At one point, Katherine Hepburn’s name came up as an option to play both of the characters but this never happened. Tracy supported this idea because it would reinforce the duel nature of the story.
This isn’t the first time the film has been made. The script for this film is based on the one written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Percy Heath in 1931. The film did well, grossing around $3 million dollars and $5 million dollars, worldwide but was considered a critical failure. Tracy even criticized his own performance as “awful.”
The Wolfman 1941 1941 also produced what many consider to be one of the most famous of the monster films, The Wolf Man. It starred Lon Chaney Jr. in the title role with Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot, Bela Lugosi as Bela, Maria Ouspenskaya as Maleva, Warren William a Dr. Lloyd, and Ralph Bellamy as Colonel Montford. The general plot centers around Lawrence Talbot, a man returning to his home in Wales after the death of his brother. On the way, he stops at an encampment where a “gypsy” (a term used in the film) man attacks him. Talbot kills his attacker but becomes a werewolf during the full moon.
Curt Siodmak wrote the original script for the film and it was never made clear whether Talbot’s wolf-like state was an actual, physical transformation or if he did this in his mind. The producing studio felt it would be much more appealing to a visual audience if he underwent a real, physical transformation. They changed the script to fit this notion.
So many of the myths about werewolves came from this film. The idea of being bitten by such a creature turns the victim into one is a persistent trope. The most common idea is the one about silver bullets being the only way to kill a werewolf. Were it not for The Wolf Man and the previous film, Werewolf of London in 1935, there would be no basis for Stephen King’s novel and film, Silver Bullet or the 1981 classic, An American Werewolf in London.
The Wolf Man would be one of Universal’s top grossing movies in 1942.
Lugosi wanted the title role but ended up playing a more minor, but important, part of the attacking gypsy man. His career would include over 110 films including The Thirteenth Chair, The Veiled Woman, The Black Cat, White Zombie, The Death Kiss, and his most notable role in Dracula.
Lon Chaney Jr. would go on to star in over 150 films like Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats, The Female Bunch, Buckskin, Stage to Thunder Rock, and even television shows like Route 66, Wagon Train, Have Gun Will Travel, Empire, and Lawman.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman 1943 Later, in 1943, Lon Chaney Jr. would reprise the role of the Wolf Man in the film, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. This film would also star Bela Lugosi, this time in the role of the Monster. The character of Lawrence Talbot, now in an institution, is suspected of murder. Talbot escapes and tries to find Dr. Frankenstein. Instead, he finds the doctor’s daughter and the monster the man created, now frozen in a block of ice. The film has elements of plot from The Ghost of Frankenstein, which was made in 1941 and starred Lon Chaney Jr. as the Monster and Bela Lugosi as Ygor.
The overall reception of this film was, according to Wikipedia and other sites, “lukewarm.” This is due to the pacing of the film and its promised meeting between the two movie monsters. Without giving away the ending, this meeting is less than it could have been. Many at the time saw the movie as a joke and a complete waste of the involved talent. Even if these things are true, many regard the movie as one of the best depictions of The Wolf Man given by its actor.
An odd bit of trivia concerns the song featured in the film and the last battle being seen as “standouts” by some critics, at the time.
The 1940s would produce other films with Chaney Jr., Lugosi, and another famous horror-movie actor, Boris Karloff. Most fans of the genre would know Karloff from the 1931 film, Frankenstein and later in the 1935 film, Bride of Frankenstein. Karloff played the role of the Monster in both films, solidifying him as this character in the minds of a lot of horror fans. An interesting bit of trivia regarding Karloff is, Universal wanted the actor in the role of The Wolf Man.
Karloff is credited in over 200 films and television shows, some of which he only provided a voice. These would include 40s films like The Ape, Black Friday, Tower of London, and television shows like Suspense, Tales of Tomorrow, and The Plymouth Playhouse.
While not considered among the horror genre’s most recognizable names, Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner, and Ingrid Bergman were all popular actors of their time. Tracy had over 70 films to his credit, Turner had 60, Bergman had 54. Their list of horror films is not as extensive as the others but Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde still remains one of the more classic of the genre.
In 1941, the publication, Modern Screen, said the film was “quite possibly the oddest picture of the year,” which helped it stay around in the minds of its audience. In 2022, the film-review site, Rotten Tomatoes, gave the film a 58% approval rating and a final average of 6.6 out of 10. Victor Fleming, as the film’s director, might be part of its formula for success, as his pacing and staging are often seen as “flawless.”
In a time when the word, icon, is overused, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff deserve the moniker. Their contributions to 1940s horror genre is invaluable and prolific. Without them, this era of horror films would be quite different and, many fans might say, not as enjoyable.