The Mummy (1933) – Karloff’s follow-up to Frankenstein is a strange, haunting beat poem of love across death.

Its success helped to launch the career of Boris Karloff. Frankenstein (1931) – James Whale’s first monster movie is considered by many to be the best Universal horror film.Dracula (1931) – This adaptation of the stage play made Bela Lugosi into a star overnight and helped to define the studio’s image as a purveyor of classy but creepy horror films.All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) – The studio’s first Best Picture winner.Many mergers would continuously push the studio’s output in different directions, making Universal known for the comedies of Abbott and Costello, the melodramas of Douglas Sirk, some of the better disaster movies of the 1970s, and Steven Spielberg’s massive success of the 80s and 90s, like Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park.Īnd while these movies continue to capture the public imagination, it’s without a doubt that when you ask someone about Universal Studios, the first movies that come to mind will involve some dear fellows named Dracula or Frankenstein. It became a proprietor of mostly B-level pictures, usually borrowing stars and talent from other studios. In 1936, after a production of Show Boat went over budget, the Laemmles lost control of the studio. Laemmle’s obsession with prestige films would also lead to a number of acclaimed dramatic entries, like John Barrymore’s Counsellor at Law and the still beloved melodrama Imitation of Life, a Best Picture nominee. This led to a series of fantastical horror films including The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Old Dark House, and The Black Cat, many starring Lugosi and Karloff, the two horror titans of the time. 1931’s Dracula with Bela Lugosi was a massive box office success, and its follow-up of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff also became legendary. However, it would be the studio’s stylish horror movies that they’re best remembered for today. Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931), the talkie start of the studio’s eponymous horror cycle.

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