Tom Weaver - Universal Terrors, 1951-1955: Eight Classic Horror and Science Fiction Films

Interview Books by Tom Weaver

A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde: Interviews with 62 Filmmakers (2010)

I Talked with a Zombie: Interviews with 23 Veterans of Horror and Sci-Fi Films and Television (2009; paperback 2014)

Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers: 20 Interviews (2005; paperback 2014)

Double Feature Creature Attack: A Monster Merger of Two More Volumes of Classic Interviews (2003)

(A combined edition of the two earlier Weaver titles Attack of the Monster Movie Makers and They Fought in the Creature Features)

Eye on Science Fiction: 20 Interviews with Classic SF and Horror Filmmakers (2003; paperback 2007)

Science Fiction Confidential: Interviews with 23 Monster Stars and Filmmakers (2002; paperback 2010)

I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers (2001; paperback 2011)

Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Heroes: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews (2000)

(A combined edition of the two earlier Weaver titles Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers and Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes)

Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Flashbacks: Conversations with 24 Actors, Writers, Producers and Directors from the Golden Age (1998; paperback 2004)

It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition (1996; paperback 2004)

They Fought in the Creature Features: Interviews with 23 Classic Horror, Science Fiction and Serial Stars (1995; paperback 2014)

Attack of the Monster Movie Makers: Interviews with 20 Genre Giants (1994; paperback 2014)

Science Fiction Stars and Horror Heroes: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers of the 1940s through 1960s (1991; paperback 2006)

Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup (1988; paperback 2006)

Other Books by Tom Weaver

John Carradine: The Films (1999; paperback 2008)

Poverty Row HORRORS! Monogram, PRC and Republic Horror Films of the Forties (1993; paperback 1999)

By Tom Weaver with
Michael Brunas and John Brunas

Universal Horrors: The Studios Classic Films, 19311946, 2d ed. (1990; illustrated casebound 2007)

By Tom Weaver with
David Schecter and Steve Kronenberg

The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy (2014)

ALL FROM MCFARLAND

Tom Weaver with David Schecter,
Robert J. Kiss and Steve Kronenberg

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

The chapters on Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature are abridged from chapters in The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy by Tom Weaver, David Schecter and Steve Kronenberg (McFarland, 2014).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2776-2

2017 Tom Weaver with David Schecter, Robert J. Kiss and Steve Kronenberg. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover artwork by Kerry Gammill

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

Clockwise from top left: Leo G. Carroll inTarantula; the Glob look ofIt Came from Outer Space;Creature from the Black Lagoon;This Island Earth; Boris Karloff inThe Strange Door; the spaceship fromIt Came from Outer Space.

In 1951, a 24-page booklet titled Eyeing UI was created for visiting sales executives. In the introduction, interestingly, Universal was called the plant where its moviemakerswork. The centerfold was this map of the layout of the front lot. Many of the stages and other buildings will be mentioned throughout this book.

When a Hollywood movie becomes a big success, you dont have to wait 27 years for a sequel. But thats how long the world has had to wait for this book, a follow-up to 1990s Universal Horrors: The Studios Classic Films, 19311946 by Michael Brunas, John Brunas and Tom Weaver (me). The long national nightmare is over, you now hold it in your hands. Or maybe somebodys holding it for you. For a gaggle of folks who call themselves Monster Kids, were sure startin to look a little geriatric. We lucky ones who are still on this side of the grass. (McFarland sent me a contract to write this book in June 1997, with a deadline of June 1, 1999. As I sheepishly submitted the manuscript in 2016, one of the McFarland poobahs tried to assuage my guiltor, more likely, to make me feel worseby pointing out, Youre only one millennium late! A second McFarland McWisenheimer chimed in, Were excited to have the manuscript in house; our correspondence dates back to 96. Thats 1896, I believe.)

Fortunately/unfortunately (choose one), this book is like a movie sequel whose creators hope you have only a vague recall of the original movie, because the follow-up isnt consistent with it. For the convenience, and the sanity, of this books authors, the ground rules this time are very different.

When the Bruni and I wrote Universal Horrors, we tossed in everything plus the Carpathian sink: We included every Universal horror movie made between 1931 and 1946 and, as long as we were at it, we figured, why not cover the quasi-horror movies? Soon we also found ourselves writing about movies that werent horror by any stretch of the imagination but were advertised as horror (Secret of the Chateau, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head, more). Several of Universals 12 Sherlock Holmes movies were horror, and we figured, Why write about half of them, why not write about all of them?, which led to the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes in Washington, Pursuit to Algiers, Dressed to Kill and others that are horror movies like Rondo Hatton was a bobby-soxer. We included