The economic foundations of the western world are shaking.

Financial empires in Europe and America have crumbled and the competing ideologies of Socialism and Fascism struggle among the ruins.  The rise of Nazis in Germany sends a wave of film makers across the Atlantic to escape an increasingly heavy hand on what is seen as decadent art. These directors and actors and cinematographers bring with them their genius at painting with shadows and a dark world view that finds fresh soil in Depression-era America.

At Universal Studios, Carl Laemmle, Jr., son of the studio’s co-founder, draws on expatriate talent and the seasoned eye of Tod Browning to make Dracula, with popular stage vampire Bela Lugosi. He enlists the brilliant James Whale to make Frankenstein and a sequel, with new star Boris Karloff.

Musicals and monsters lift the American public out of the breadlines and the soup kitchens. King Kong creates a different kind of spectacular horror, purely escapist, but set against the economic reality of a struggling New York City. Other studios imitate Universal, hiring the same directors and stars when they can get them and the “B” monster film is born,second features, often barely an hour long, with sensational titles like The Revolt of the Zombies and The Walking Dead.

Only a few years into the decade, Hollywood begins to develop a social conscience, on the one hand producing thoughtful films like Dead End and, on the other, giving teeth to the Hays Office, which begins a draconian crackdown on sex, violence, unpleasantness, and fun in films.

Yet the monsters prosper, growing from their crypts and laboratories to become some of the most recognizable icons in the world.

Angela's Pick - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

I had a very tough time trying to pick just one film, and the toss up finally boiled down to Bride of Frankenstein or Charles Laughton’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The hunch won.

I realize The Hunchback of Notre Dame doesn’t fit neatly into the horror genre.  It’s technically not a horror film at all, but a historical drama.  That said, the grotesque appearance of Quasimodo established him as one of the great movie monsters.

The film is based on the Victor Hugo novel, and like his other works, it points a magnifying glass at the state of French society and class differences.  Set in 15^thcentury Paris, this classic masterpiece follows the hunchback Quasimodo as he struggles for acceptance, is torn between love and loyalty, and ultimately proves himself worthy of a reward he can never enjoy.

This movie is rife with politics, love triangles, incredible staging, masterful uses of light and music, and one of the most brilliant performances in the history of cinema. Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda is breathtakingly beautiful and channels the gypsy spirit and plight as if she were born to the role.  But, there is little doubt the movie belongs to Charles Laughton as Quasimodo.  Even with pounds of make up and padding, he exudes authentic emotion as the tortured, misshapen bell-ringer.

I absolutely love the contrasts in this film – the horrific appearance of Quasimodo and the beauty of Esmerelda, the humanist poet Gringoire and the militant guard captain, Phoebus, Frollo’s exploitation and corruption and Clopin’s driven leadership of the beggars.   This movie is smart, brilliantly played, and incredibly romantic – even if Quasimodo is a living gargoyle, made of feeling flesh instead of cold stone.

Drake's Pick - The Mummy (1932)

The 1930s are also the golden age of the pulp magazine,where modern popular entertainment is born, Buck Rogers, Philip Marlowe, and Conan the barbarian. No other film captures the escapist romance and dark imagination of the decade like The Mummy.

Directed by German expatriate Karl Freund, Fritz Lang’s grandmaster cinematographer, The Mummy is a visual feast. Boris Karloff is Im –ho-tep,the undying shell of a man who has paid an unspeakable price for loving too much.

The Mummy’s costumes, sets, and camera work are superbly stylish. Nearly every scene looks like a pulp magazine cover. Karloff’s make-up is wonderfully believable. There might be mummies among us.

I like the film for its sinister subtlety, after a superb, horrific beginning, for its casual use of evil sorcery, and for the extraordinary, dark beauty of Princess Anck-es-en-Amon. The silent flashback, showing the crime and punishment of Im-ho-tep, is perhaps the last real bit of Expressionist film,violent shadows to bury the past and wipe out its memory.   

The Hays gang allegedly forced The Mummy to be trimmed of explicit rituals of reincarnation to the annoyance of its lead actress Zita Johann.

The Mummy was released right before Christmas in 1932.

Ra was pleased.