Universal Classic Monsters

Also known as Universal Monster or Universal Studios Monsters, Universal Classic Monsters is a media franchise based on a series of horror films primarily produced by Universal Pictures from the 1930s to the 1950s. Although not initially conceived as a franchise, the enduring popularity and legacy of the films and the characters featured in them has led the studio to market them under the collective brand name of Universal Studios Monsters. Steve Jones of USA Today described Universal's most famous monsters as "pop culture icons", specifically Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolf Man.

## **Summary**

Even though they are techically not regarded as part of the UCM lineup, both the silent films *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* and *The Phantom of the Opera* that starred Lon Chaney Senior are often credited with paving way for the entirety of Universal Monsters' library; as well as revloutionizing the horror genre in American cinema.   In 1931, things got really cooking when Universal released the black-and-white adaptations of two classic horror novels: Bram Stoker's *Dracula* starring Bela Lugosi, and Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* starring Boris Karloff. The following year, an original film that was inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and the Curse of the Pharoahs, titled *The Mummy*, was released and starred Boris Karloff as the titular monster.  Preceding it in 1933 was *The Invisible Man*, an adaptation of H. G. Wells' 1897 novel starring Claude Rains. In 1935, Universal would release their first sequel to one of their monster films titled *Bride of Frankenstein* which was loosely based on a subplot in *Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus* and starred Elsa Lanchester as the titular character. The same year, they released their first werewolf movie known as *Werewolf of London* and proved to be unsuccessful; though the second lycanthrope film they released in 1941, titled *The Wolf Man* and starring Lon Chaney Junior in the title role, proved to be much more successful. In 1954, Universal released the *Creature from the Black Lagoon* whose monster was portrayed by two actors: Ben Chapman for the land shots and Ricou Browning for underwater stunts. One of their first films to be filmed in 3D, it was inspired by both *Beauty & the Beast* and a mythical race of half-fish, half-human creatures in the Amazon River that producer William Alland heard from Mexican cinematographer William Alland while attending a dinner party during filming of *Citizen Kane*.  Everything else in the Universal Classic Monsters library consists of either sequels, spin-offs, crossovers including those with Abbott & Costello, and obscure "one-shot" flicks like *The Mole People* and *This Island Earth* (which was riffed on *MST3K: The Movie*)

After the Universal horror films were syndicated to television, this led to a rise in the popularity of merchandise based on Frankenstein's monster and Dracula. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, the Universal monsters were promoted via merchandizing which included: Halloween costumes, Aurora model kits, paperback novelizations, makeup how-to manuals, T-shirt iron-ons, posters, trading cards, and more. Since 1991, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Parks & Resorts have featured characters from the Universal Classic Monsters franchise. From 2006 to 2014, the characters also appeared in the year-round walk-through attraction, Universal's House of Horrors, at Universal Studios Hollywood. The franchise is also the central theme of Universal's Horror Make-Up Show. The live show opened in 1990 at Universal Studios Florida and is still in operation. When Louis Feola became head of Worldwide Home Video for Universal Studios, he approved of the Universal Studios Monsters Classic Collection VHS series that was released in 1991 and included *Frankenstein*, *Dracula*, *The Mummy*, *The Invisible Man*, and *The Creature From the Black Lagoon* series. A collection of stamps featuring Universal Classic Monsters were also released in September 1997 titled "Universal Classic Movie Monsters series". They consisted of Frankenstein's monster, Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, and Lon Chaney's Wolf Man. In 1999, an action-adventure reboot of *The Mummy* starring Brendan Fraser was released to tremendous success as Universal spent the next decade attempting to reboot their classic monsters with films such as *Van Helsing* (2004), *The Wolfman* (2010), and *Dracula Untold* (2014). 2017's *The Mummy* remake starring Tom Cruise was an attempt to establish a "Dark Universe" series comparable to Marvel's Cinematic Universe and even though it bombed poorly, *The Invisible Man* from 2020 was a modest success.  The success of popular cross-over series has led to reassessments of Universal's monster films to be among the earliest "cinematic universes" starting with *Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man*.

## **Action Figures**

Being one of the most influential horror films of all time, the Universal Classic Monsters have also received a lot of merchandise over the years as alongside clothing and board games, they've received toylines from many different companies like the MEGO retro cloth figures,  a *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* crossover,  the Sideshow Collectibles series,  Diamond Select Universal Monsters,  and action figures that are currently in the works by NECA.  They have also inspired toylines like LEGO's Monster Fighters playsets.  However, there were also planned toylines based off the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula and company that died so tragically that not even Doctor Frankenstein's technology could shock them back to life. These are their terrifying tales down below:

* Universal Monsters-Inspired *Transformers* (G1)
* *The Mummy Returns* Rick w/h Pygmy and Alex w/h Anubis
* Funko POP! Nick Morton

## **References**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Hunchback\_of\_Notre\_Dame\_(1923\_film)
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Phantom\_of\_the\_Opera\_(1925\_film)
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Mummy\_(1932\_film)
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature\_from\_the\_Black\_Lagoon
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery\_Science\_Theater\_3000:\_The\_Movie
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Invisible\_Man\_(2020\_film)
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal\_Classic\_Monsters
8. ↑ https://www.monstersinmotion.com/cart/frankenstein-and-his-monster-c-8\_208/frankenstein-universal-monsters-8-mego-figure-p-28508.html
9. ↑ https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Universal\_Studios\_Monsters
10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeY8eqS-gXc
11. ↑ http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=20566.0
12. ↑ https://necaonline.com/2021/04/universal-monsters-action-figures-coming-in-2021-from-neca/
13. ↑ https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Monster\_Fighters