Michael May's Blog, page 177

Conquering men hate cephalopods

By George Gross [via Pulp Covers; suggested by Shad Daly]

31 Werewolves | Werewolf of London

1941's The Wolf Man may be Universal's most famous werewolf movie, but it wasn't their first one. That would be 1935's Werewolf of London, which is also the first Hollywood werewolf movie period.



Unfortunately, Werewolf of London borrows a lot of elements from other popular Universal monster movies. Henry Hull is doing a good Colin Clive impression as Wilfred Glendon, an obsessed doctor married to the understanding, but impatient Lisa (Valerie Hobson). Hobson played a similar role as Elizabeth to Clive's mad scientist in Bride of Frankenstein that same year. And then there's Warner Oland, during the height of his Charlie Chan popularity, putting on the yellow-face again to play the enigmatic Dr. Yogami, a Van Helsing-like character who knows a lot about werewolves if only someone would believe him.



Werewolf of London also borrows from a classic, non-Universal monster movie: 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Doctor Glendon owes a lot to Jekyll. They're both serious scientists, but good men with devoted servants and loving women in their lives. They're also both afflicted with curses that cause them to lose control and indulge their passions, which leads both of them to sneak out of their labs through secret entrances and take up residences in shady parts of London. The Jekyll/Hyde story has a lot in common with werewolf themes and Werewolf of London makes a lot of use of that.



Even though Werewolf of London rehashes a lot of '30s monster movie tropes, it's still an enjoyable film. Hobson is especially strong and less understanding of Glendon's lying and sneaking about than she is of Clive's in Bride of Frankenstein. When Lisa's old boyfriend (who also, conveniently happens to be the nephew of a big shot at Scotland Yard) shows up, she renews her friendship with him over Glendon's objections. There's never any hint that she's fooling around with the other guy, but she's not going to let her husband tell her what to do when he's obviously hiding something. Good for her.



The sets and tone of Werewolf of London are also very good, especially the large estate that's the setting for the film's climax. And the werewolf makeup is excellent. Jack Pierce designed it and though it's not as complex as what Pierce came up with six years later for The Wolf Man, it's still very effective and Hull does nice things with it.

31 Scares of Casper #2

Mermaids hate cephalopods

By Anna Verhoog. [Suggested by Shad Daly]

31 Scares of Casper #1

Back by "popular" demand.



I love the monster-cereal badges that the official Countdown to Halloween site came up with this year. When I saw them, I thought that the most appropriate one for my werewolf theme would be Fruit Brute, but that's neither one of my favorite cereals nor one of my favorite General Mills monsters. So I went with Boo Berry, knowing that Casper would tie him in nicely.

31 Werewolves | The Big Bad Wolf

Art by Gustave Doré



It's October! And like so many other blogs this month, I'm celebrating the Countdown to Halloween.



If you're not familiar with Countdown to Halloween, it's a marathon in which bloggers celebrate the spookiness of the holiday for the whole month of October. Literally anyone with a blog can join; just click the link above for details.



This is my fifth year participating. In 2009, I highlighted my 31 favorite monsters (Scary Clowns continues to be one of my most popular posts to this day, for some reason). In 2010, I talked about my 31 favorite things about the holiday itself. Then, in 2011, I drilled down into my all-time favorite monster for 31 Days of Frankenstein. As soon as I did that, I knew I had the next two years mapped out, so last year, I spent 31 Days with Dracula and this year I'm completing the unholy trinity.



The thing about the trinity though is that it's based on the most popular Universal monsters: Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man. Since Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula are based on public domain characters, it's easy to spend a month exploring different versions of them, but that's not true with Lon Chaney Jr.'s Larry the Wolf Man. So starting this year, I've got to go more general and look at werewolves as a whole. The exciting thing about that for me is that it opens up all sorts of possibilities for future Countdowns: 31 Ghosts, 31 Witches, etc.



Unlike 31 Days of Frankenstein and Dracula (where I wanted to provide as complete an historical overview as I could of those characters), for 31 Werewolves I'm limiting myself to just 31 specific versions. These aren't the 31 most important or even my 31 favorites, though many important and favorite ones will appear. For some of them, I let their prominence in pop culture override historical importance and my own taste. I also wanted to hit a variety of media, so I left out some great movie werewolves in order to fit in some literary, comics, and even musical versions. Feel free to yell at me if I leave out something I shouldn't have. I'm gonna hit them in chronological order, so you'll know when I've moved past something I should've mentioned. If I get enough complaints about a particular thing, I may circle back and add it as an extra.



To kick things off, I had to start with "Little Red Riding Hood." It's not the oldest werewolf story (those appear in ancient Greece), but it's the most popular, longest-enduring one. The well-known version that appears in children's books features a talking wolf instead of an actual werewolf, but the earliest versions often had a werewolf or an ogre as their villains and it's likely that the werewolf eventually became an anthropomorphic animal.



The story is all about the danger of the Wild and that's essentially what werewolves are about too, so it's a natural fit. I imagine I'll have more to say about wildness and control as the month progresses, so I don't want to shoot that arrow too soon, but it's what fascinates me most about these creatures.



I've included a werewolf version of the story from France below. If you want to read other versions though, including those by Charles Perrault (the first to write down and publish the story) and the Grimm Bros., D. L. Ashliman's folktexts has you hooked up.

There was a woman who had made some bread. She said to her daughter, "Go and carry a hot loaf and a bottle of milk to your grandmother."



So the little girl set forth. Where two paths crossed she met the bzou [werewolf], who said to her, "Where are you going?"



"I am carrying a hot loaf and a bottle of milk to my grandmother."



"Which path are you taking?" said the bzou. "The one of needles or the one of pins?"



"The one of needles," said the little girl.



"Good! I am taking the one of pins."



The little girl entertained herself by gathering needles.



The bzou arrived at the grandmother's house and killed her. He put some of her flesh in the pantry and a bottle of her blood on the shelf.



The little girl arrived and knocked at the door. "Push on the door," said the bzou. "It is blocked with a pail of water."



"Good day, grandmother. I have brought you a hot loaf and a bottle of milk."



"Put it in the pantry, my child. Take some of the meat that is there, and the bottle of wine that is on the shelf."



While she was eating, a little cat that was there said, "For shame! The slut is eating her grandmother's flesh and drinking her grandmother's blood."



"Get undressed, my child," said the bzou, "and come to bed with me."



"Where should I put my apron?"



"Throw it into the fire. You won't need it anymore."



And for all her clothes - her bodice, her dress, her petticoat, and her shoes and stockings - she asked where she should put them, and the wolf replied, "Throw them into the fire, my child. You won't need them anymore."



When she had gone to bed the little girl said, "Oh, grandmother, how hairy you are!"



"The better to keep myself warm, my child."



"Oh, grandmother, what long nails you have!"



"The better to scratch myself with, my child!"



"Oh, grandmother, what big shoulders you have!"



"The better to carry firewood with, my child!"



"Oh, grandmother, what big ears you have!"



"The better to hear with, my child!"



"Oh, grandmother, what a big nose you have!"



"To better take my tobacco with, my child!"



"Oh, grandmother, what a big mouth you have!"



"The better to eat you with, my child!"



"Oh, grandmother, I have to do it outside!"



"Do it in the bed, my child!"



"Oh no, grandmother, I really have to do it outside."



"All right, but don't take too long."



The bzou tied a woolen thread to her foot and let her go. As soon as the little girl was outside she tied the end of the thread to a plum tree in the yard.



The bzou grew impatient and said, "Are you doing a load? Are you doing a load?"



Not hearing anyone reply, he jumped out of bed and hurried after the little girl, who had escaped. He followed her, but he arrived at her home just as she went inside.

Sinners hate cephalopods

By E. J. Pace [via Old Time Religion; suggested by Shad Daly].

Superman's coolest trick

While Superman was busy with Ultra in Action Comics (and the Superman solo series was just reprinting Action stories), WWII was heating up in the daily newspaper strips. The January 1940 storyline had Clark infiltrate a gang of spies from the fictional nation of Blitzen. The spies hoped to pull the U.S. into the war by committing crimes on U.S. soil and blaming them on Blitzen's enemy, the country of Rutland.



Superman puts a stop to it of course, and in the process pulls off the coolest use of his superpowers ever. When an assassin tries to kill a U.S. senator, Superman foils the attempt by throwing the assassin's gun at the already-fired bullet and knocking the bullet from the air! It's badly drawn, but an awesome idea.

Boys on submerged, open roads hate cephalopods

Suggested by Shad Daly.

Lois Lane: Septuplet?

There sure were a lot of women running around the DCU looking exactly like Lois Lane in the Golden Age. I counted seven in just four, consecutive issues of Action Comics. Maybe Lucy isn't Lois' only sister.



Take this random victim from Action #17, for instance.







Or this telephone operator from the same issue.







Here's a blackmailer from Action Comics #18.







And Lois from Action #18, for comparison.







This librarian from Action Comics #19 looks like maybe she's seen that nurse before.







And check out this murderous actor in Action Comics #20.







The homicidal headliner has an interesting story, by the way. She's Dolores Winters, but when she commits her crimes, it's not longer Dolores' mind controlling her body. It's the evil scientist Ultra whom Superman thought he murdered at the end of Action #19. As she explains to Superman, her henchmen revived her...







Interesting that Ultra specifically instructed (at the time) "his" henchmen to put his brain in a female body. That makes Ultra an intentionally transgender character. I've known for a long time that Ultra spent time in a female body, but always assumed that was accidental. Ultra's super interesting and I'm actually not looking forward to her being replaced by Lex Luthor as Superman's main villain. Especially now that she looks exactly like the woman to whom Superman is most attracted in the world. I'm guessing no one's ever followed up on that thread though.



Something else interesting about Ultra in this story is how Superman figures out what happened.











That's quite a leap of logic, Superman, but it turns out he's right. Those eyes don't lie.