Tag: Bela Lugosi

Tod Browning’s films were often unsettling, shocking and disturbing. They were populated with freaks, geeks, carny folk, ruthless people and vampires. Though his best-known film is 1931’s “Dracula,” with Bela Lugosi, his greatest productions were his collaboration with the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” Lon Chaney. So it seems only appropriate that two of his legendary films with Chaney: 1925’s “The Unholy Three” and 1927’s “The Unknown” open “American Gothic: A Tod Browning Retrospective” on Thursday evening at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre. Born in Louisville, Ky., in 1880, Browning began performing and singing as a youngster. He ran away from  home at 16 and joined a circus, where he went from carnival baker to contortionist. Many of his films revolve around circuses. He later went into vaudeville and was introduced to D.W. Griffith in 1913 by an old vaudeville partner. ...

Make a list of the living greats in horror moviemaking and you’ll need to put makeup master Rick Baker near the top. Make another list — this one for all-time icons in horror — and see how far you get before you write the name of the late, great Bela Lugosi. These two considerable brand names come together with the second issue of “Bela Lugosi’s Tales From the Grave,” which hits stores in July, and features an eye-popping (and, uh, Popeye-ing?) cover of maritime menace by Baker. The cover was unveiled at WonderCon over the weekend at the panel staged by the book’s publisher, Monsterverse, but hasn’t appeared online until now and what better way to start your Monday? Baker — the seven-time Oscar winner whose  credits include “An American Werewolf in London,” “Men in Black” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video) created the sinister ...