Jack Pierce - The Man Behind the Monsters Read Free Page A

the Monster and the Bride, West designed Una O’Connor’s lavish dress and shawl for her Minnie character (above), the laboratory attire for Colin Clive and Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Praetorius (above right) and the outfit worn by O.P. Heggie (right) as the blind loner who briefly befriends the monster. West went on to design costumes in The Wolf Man, The Phantom of the Opera and the numerous monster sequels of the late 1930s and early 1940s. She mysteriously drowned in a swimming pool at her home shortly after leaving Universal with Pierce and John P. Fulton in the spring of 1947. However, her legacy as one of the top fashion and specialty costume designers of the studio era remains intact and warrants further study by fans of the genre.

the post-laemmle 1930s

    In 1936, Carl Laemmle Senior and Junior put their final Universal pictures into production. Just before cash problems forced the Laemmles to sell the studio in 1937, they managed to make Dracula ’ s Daughter, featuring a stunning and yet simple Jack Pierce makeup on Irving Pichel (left). A sequel to 1931’s Dracula, the film was the last horror picture that the Laemmles produced. Pierce also worked on James Whale’s Showboat that year, a final bow for the father-son production team. Sadly, Senior Laemmle passed away in 1939; Junior passed forty years later, never having produced another film after leaving Universal (though he dabbled at MGM for a time in the late 1930s).
    With Charles Rogers as the new boss, Universal changed its focus, heading towards romantic comedies and dramas, but Pierce did undertake some interesting projects in the late 1930s. He honed his beauty makeup skills on actresses such as Deanna Durbin and created Vincent Price’s straight makeup for his first film, Service De Luxe (below left). Then Pierce and Karloff collaborated again on 1939’s Tower of London (below right), a period drama. Though Karloff’s bald appearance was the result of shaving his head, Pierce gave him a useful character makeup and treated his eyebrows in a decidedly groundbreaking fashion for the executioner character Mord.

son of frankenstein

    Under the Charles Rogers regime, horror films at Universal Studios were all but dead in the late 1930s. Then, in August of 1938, a Hollywood-area movie theater with desperate financial problems conducted a last-ditch effort to get on their feet: they booked the original Universal Dracula and Frankenstein films and presented them on a double bill. The stunt worked more than anyone could have expected and did more than save the theater from ruin; Universal’s monster franchises were back in style. Immediately, Rogers demanded a Frankenstein sequel, and though Whale had left the studio and Colin Clive had passed away in 1937, Pierce and Karloff re-teamed to create a third version of the Monster (above). Karloff was now in his early 50s and, as such, needed a revised version of the makeup, and Pierce tapped Vera West to design the huge shaggy coat that the Monster wore (overleaf). With Basil Rathbone cast as Baron Victor Frankenstein—Henry’s son—and Lionel Atwill playing Inspector Krough (overleaf), director Rowland V. Lee’s film was rich with character parts. Yet it was a character written into the script late in 1938 that would become the hallmark of Son of Frankenstein. Béla Lugosi’s film roles had been underwhelming since his early teamings with Karloff, but his late entry into Son of Frankenstein as the lively wretch Ygor (opposite) became one of the best parts in his career.

    With extensive hair work in the way of wig, beard, moustache and eyebrows (that Lugosi was more than happy to have Pierce apply) the toothy Ygor (above) became as memorable as Karloff’s monster, who is strangely silent in Son of Frankenstein after gaining speech in its predecessor, Bride of Frankenstein .
    Basil Rathbone as Victor Frankenstein, left, with Lionel Atwill as Krough

films of the 1940s

    Following the unexpected success of