Horror Costuming: The Bride of Frankenstein

by Cláudio Alves

As promised, the Horror Costuming series is back for a new spooky season, going further into the past than ever before. So much so that one delves into what now seems cliché, lest we forget that what is commonplace today was once new. There's no better example of this than the Universal Horror monsters of Hollywood's Golden Age, when studio head designer Vera West helped crystalize looks that would become classics. Think of Dracula's tuxedoed elegance with a red-lined opera cape, the Invisible Man's bandage and sunglasses combo, and, of course, the lumbering threat of Frankenstein's Monster.

Speaking of that 1931 James Whale-directed horror classic, today's topic of choice shall be its sequel. After the first movie's massive success, Universal begged the director for a follow-up, giving him unprecedented creative control. From there, we got the Genesis of the horror (tragi)comedy, a camp extravaganza like none other – 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein…

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Introducing... Gloria Stuart as Rose in "Titanic"

The Smackdown of '97 is in just 5 days. Here's how to vote.

We first see Gloria Stuart 11 minutes into Titanic (1997). Rose (age 100) is the first and only one of the film's main characters we meet in Titanic's twenty-one minute prologue which takes place in 1996. The television is on in the other room when we first see her in long shot. A news report about a discovery involving the RMS Titanic is playing, piquing her interest...

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Horror Actressing: Una O'Connor in "The Invisible Man" (1933)

by Jason Adams

What better time than now, what with the latest iteration of The Invisible Man hitting movie theaters this week, to celebrate one of the cinema's greatest character actresses -- I speak of ye Irish spitfire Una O'Connor, who was once described as having "the body of a scarecrow, the contemptuous stare of a house detective, and the voice of an air-raid siren." Said with affection, no doubt.

She certainly brought all of those awesome qualities to bear on James Whale's 1933 adaptation of The Invisible Man, which had her playing the mistress of the pub that the villain-scientist Claude Rains rents an upstairs room from...

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