The Reason Why Karloff Stopped Playing The Monster

Son of Frankenstein (1939) was Boris Karloff's swan song as the Frankenstein monster. 

Antonia Carlotta of the Laemmle family posted a video the reasons why.

Summary: 

Boris Karloff played Frankenstein's Monster in three Universal films: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Son of Frankenstein, becoming one of cinema's most iconic figures. His performance gave the creature soul - part horror, part heartbreak. But after Son of Frankenstein, Karloff never played the Monster again. Why?

Let's go behind the scenes with Karloff, producers Carl Laemmle and Junior Laemmle, make up artist Jack Pierce, directors James Whale and Rowland Lee, and all the other major players that contributed to Karloff's decision to walk away.

I'm Antonia Carlotta and this is Universally Me, the channel for all things Universal and classic horror. My family started Universal Studios, and they made the Universal Monsters, including Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein.

Carla Laemmle Turns 104 October 20

Above, Carla Laemmle at the 2011 Monsterpalooza.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

In five days, actress Carla Laemmle will be celebrating her 104th birthday.

She is the last surviving actress of the 1931 Universal Pictures' Dracula that starred Bela Lugosi.

According to Wikipedia:

Rebecca Isabelle Laemmle (born October 20, 1909) known professionally as Carla Laemmle is an American actress and the niece of Universal Pictures studio founder Carl Laemmle, she is of German Jewish descent. She was a movie actress in the 1920s and 1930s, and is, along with Jean Darling, Baby Peggy, and Mickey Rooney, one of the very few surviving actors of the silent film era. 

Laemmle entered films in 1925 playing an uncredited role as a ballet dancer in the original silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and a small role in the early talkie version of Dracula (1931), and is the last surviving cast member of both classic films. Laemmle continued to appear in small roles until the late 1930s, when she disappeared from the movie screen. She briefly came out of retirement to play a vampire in The Vampire Hunters Club (2001). 

She shared her reminiscences of appearing in a bit part in Dracula (1931) by hosting the original documentary The Road to Dracula (1999), a supplemental piece included on the 2004 DVD release, Dracula: The Legacy Collection. In that classic film, she portrayed a bespectacled passenger riding in a bumpy horse-drawn carriage with Renfield as he is traveling to Dracula's castle. In this documentary, Laemmle proudly states: "I had the privilege of speaking the first lines of dialogue in the first talking supernatural thriller".

Above, Carla Laemmle during her starlet days.

Miss Laemmle attended the Son of Monsterpalooza show last weekend in Burbank.

A Happy Birthday goes out to Carla Laemmle! 

"The Black Cat" (1934)

Above, before the mayhem, Lugosi, Karloff and Manners do some social drinking.

Universal Pictures's The Black Cat (1934) was the first pairing of their horror superstars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi and my personal favorite of the pairings.  Fortunately, The Black Cat was produced during the heyday of Universal horror movies.

Above, Boris Karloff (Poelzig) and Bela Lugosi (Werdegast).

The movie centers around a mad architect, Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff) who lives in an art deco mansion built atop a fortress left over from the first World War.  Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi) is a driven man on a quest to find his wife and daughter (both played by Lucille Lund).

Lugosi is joined by a newlywed couple, Peter and Joan Alison (David Manners and Jacqueline Wells) after meeting them on the Orient Express.  They are later involved in an automobile accident and take refuge at Herr Poelzig's mansion.

Above, Werdegast is about to be led to the body of his wife by Poelzig.

 Unfortunately, Herr Poelzig is the high priest of a coven of Satan-worshippers who plans to make Joan the sacrifice in the group's next ceremony.

Above, Joan tells Werdegast that she saw his daughter Karen alive.

Werdegast finds out that his wife is dead and her embalmed corpse on display in the chart room of the old fortress below the Poelzig mansion in a glass case.  As he is about to shoot Poelzig, a black cat appears, causing Werdegast to recoil in fright.

Werdegast and his assistant take advantage of a diversion caused by a fainting woman at the Satanic ceremony to rescue Joan.  As they are escaping, Joan reveals to Werdegast that his daughter Karen (Lund) is alive, but finds that Poelzig had just murdered her.  After a fight, Werdegast shackles Poelzig on Poelzig's own embalming rack and proceeds to skin him alive.

Above, after being shackled onto his own embalming rack, Poelzig is told by Werdegast that he's about to be skinned.

The Black Cat was directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and was suggested by the Edgar Allan Poe story.

This was one of Lugosi's best acting roles and Karloff carried off the evil Poelzig role quite nicely.   This was David Manners's best roles as he wasn't stiff like he was in Dracula (1931) and The Mummy (1932).  The art deco sets added to the surreal atmosphere.

The Black Cat also contained some great script lines  (Lugosi's "Supernatural, perhaps.  Baloney, perhaps not."  And, Karloff's  "Did you hear that, Vitus?   Even the phone is dead!").

The Black Cat was produced while Universal was still controlled by Carl Laemmle and was followed by The Raven (1935) and The Invisible Ray (1936), each starring Karloff and Lugosi.