Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Monster Mash

Universal's classic characters "put their stamp"
on horror films for Halloween.

RICHARD ASHTON
Special to The Jewish News

T

his Halloween you can not
only watch your favorite
movie monsters, but you
can send them on your
mail, courtesy of the U.S. Postal
Service's new line of stamps.
The featured faces are Boris
Karloff as Frankenstein's monster,
Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Lon Chaney
as the Phantom of the Opera, Karloff
again as the Mummy and Lon
Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman. They all
get the red-carpet treatment with
lurid classic Hollywood artwork for
our mailing delight.
Universal Studios hit gold when
they tapped into the horror genre
back in the Silent Era with the "man
opf a thousand faces," Lon Chaney Sr.,
who starred in the original The
Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and

Frankenstein, star Boris Karloff
The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
dropped in on his unsuspecting
It was the beginning of a long-
friend Groucho Marx. When Marx
running series of horror films that
opened the door, he passed out from
was as unique a signature for
fright.
Universal as the musical was to
Of course, like any series,
MGM.
it is the earlier films that
From this auspicious
Above: Bela
start, Universal kept plowing Lugosi, right, is the are the best. It helped that
despite a creaky plot,
at the horror genre, making classic vampire as
Universal always heaped
stars out of Dracula and
he preys on Helen
on lots of atmosphere.
Frankenstein, until the late
Chandler in the
Despite their antiquated
1950s, when the movies
1931 film
special effects, all these
became exhausted, watered- Dracula.
films still seem scarier than
down spoofs.
the latest slasher films.
The studio created a
So this Halloween, have some fun
ghoulish repertory of monsters that
when you're paying your bills by
were unique to Universal, and
sticking blood-sucking Dracula on
despite attempts to- make "definitive"
the envelopes, or send the Mummy
versions of these classic stories, it is
to your mom. At the same time,
the Universal titles that endure.
enjoy the very best of Universal's
Say Frankenstein, and only one
classic horror films:
image pops into your head. It might
be apocryphal, but there is a story
Richard Ashton writes for Copley
that during makeup tests for
News Service.

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