Doug, Since you’re a make-up guy, this might interest you. Here’s a link to Sara Karloff’s color home movie footage of her famous father, taken during the filming of “Son of Frankenstein”. This is the only known color footage of Karloff’s Frankenstein, and features Boris as the monster in full costume, clowning around on the set and pretending to strangle his makeup man, Jack Pierce. – Gary Kerr
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Too cool, eh!
Thanks, Doug!
LLP,
deg
Very cool!
It amazes me that they would have actually painted him green I mean it was filmed in B/W. I wonder how much that had to do with Karloff. I does look like they had a good time filming.
Terry
I always assumed the green make-up was used because of how it translated to black and white film stock. I guess they shot make-up tests back then just like they do today …? Doug, back me up on this one. Or if I’m wrong, don’t back me up. Somebody knows I’m sure.
Jay, The monster was always intended to be gray. Green was the best gray on B&W film. These weren’t makeup tests, they were home movies.
Oh yeah, DD, I got that we’re looking at home movies here. I was just referring to the guy who wanted to know why they used green make-up for a black & white film. I assumed they probably shot make-up tests back then with a variety of colors on Mr. Karloff to see which color was going to translate best to black & white film stock.
I’m not 100% certain but I think that Sara Karloff ghome movie footage was an extra on a Frankenstein DVD box from a few years back.
Heh heh! I’ve seen kids in Halloween costumes clown around and have fun dressed up like that, but to see the “real” Frankenstein clowning like that…what a treat!!
Kudos to Jack Pierce for the terrific job; it looks fantastic in color!
Seeing Karloff goofing around like that, I couldn’t help but think of Herman Munster
I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment that Karloff was a wonderful actor out of the Frankenstein make up too. He’s quite brilliant as three very different characters in the three horror pictures he made at RKO for Val Lewton – “Isle of the Dead”, “Bedlam”, and “The Body Snatcher” (which I believe was directed by the legendary Bob Wise) – and he is genuinely *genuinely* creepy in a segment of Mario Bava’s “Black Sabbath” (which also happens to be one of the most beautifully lit pieces of film I’ve ever seen).
Haha! You know, even though you know it’s the guy that you just spent hours doing the makeup for and he’s playing around, it’s got to be somewhat disconcerting to have Frankenstein choking you! ;D
On B&W movies, its important to just dress sets and colour costumes and makeup more or less normally, so that it looks “correct” on film. Of course, I’m sure they chose colours that would work best on film, but still, I’m sure there wouldn’t be much obvious difference between a set/costume designed for colour vs. B&W film.
VERY interesting to see this footage though. Karloff’s Frankenstein monster is one of he true icons of cinema.
In a similar vein, I believe that George Reeves B&W Superman costume was brown and gray.
That was a pretty sweet posting!
Thanks!
“I’m sure there wouldn’t be much obvious difference between a set/costume designed for color vs. B&W film. ”
Actually, quite the opposite. You have to be careful when matching both colors and texture. The use of different colors creates a myriad of shading. You have to be even more concerned with texture than usual. B&W is very unforgiving, though can in some ways tell a better story as the human mind tends to be more attentive to those details.
Try this experiment on your own;
Get a 35MM camera & a set of basic color filters: red, green, yellow, blue, & orange.
Choose one subject; a bowl of fruit, multi colored scarves, etc. Photo the subject with each filter and once without any. Now take a roll of color film and do the same.
Note how the B&W is changed radically as the filter remove color. Also, not how much more powerful the texture is in the B&Ws.
This is a fun but cool way to see how different colors make for a radical gray scale.
The DC
Awesome, DC!
On the subject of colour, I recall reading that the division colours for the TOS uniforms were chosen so that they were still distiguishable as three different shades on B/W sets.
That’s really interesting if true. I don’t think I have ever seen the original series in black & white (other than those portions of “The Cage” that were in black & white on the original VHS release back in ‘86 or thereabouts). I bet James Cawley would know about this. Maybe be can drop by and enlighten us when he isn’t too busy hoppin’ galaxies.
Jay, I watched the entire first season in B&W. Amok Time was my first color episode. TOS had to be designed to look good in B&W, as the majority of American’s still had B&W TV sets!
Amok Time was the first episode I ever saw and still my favorite!
I watched a lot of Trek on a B&W set in my grandparent’s basement as a kid, TOS was clearly shot to look nice in B&W as well as color.
I needed a laugh. Thanks for that.
I’m another old fogey who saw many a episode in B&W.
I heard amusing stories of the early B&W screen test’s with Spock’s make up, too.
The world has changed [and we went up the hull both ways to school...]!
The DC
“It’s Fronk-en-steen!!!!”
Sorry. Had to be done.
There are rumors that they were considering shooting “Son of Frankenstein” in color, but for whatever reason, it never happened. I’ve read conflicting reports that all the technicolor cameras in Hollywood were being used on “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz”, they weren’t satisfied with the appearance of the Monster’s make-up in color, etc. How cool would it be if somebody discovered color test footage of “Son of Frankenstein” in Universal’s vaults?
Another bit of monster make-up trivia: Elsa Lanchester said that in “Bride of Frankenstein”, they teased her long *auburn* hair over a wire frame, which means the Bride’s hair should be reddish – not black, as many assume. In fact, in colorized publicity shots & posters from the 30’s, the Bride’s hair is shown as red.
I like a redhead….
The DC
What a treat!
Thank you for sharing.
I made up Howie Long as Frankenstein years ago for a Radio Shack commercial during the period he and Terry Hatcher were the stars of the TV ads. After consulting with the DP, we settled on a light blue to best represent the skin color for black and white. Worked beautifully!
Of course we had to change the design a bit, as the original Frankenstein design is owned by Universal and fiercely protected. Instead of neck bolts, Franken-Howie had little doors that opened to reveal batteries in his neck. Once the generic batteries were switched out with Radio Shack batteries, Franken-Howie was much livelier!
I’ll see if I can dig up a photo if you are interested.
Dave
i think that frankenstein looks so awsome