The Men Who Made The Monsters
by Scott Essman
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edited by Milton Carruth in 1930-31. |
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Without a doubt, picture editors established their importance to the filmmaking process at the forefront of the movie boom. In his first triumph as Universal's production head, Carl Laemmle, Jr.'s "All Quiet on the Western Front" was as strong an anti-war statement as has ever been put on film to date. Joining the production team for the 1930 release was 30-year-old editor Milton Carruth in only his fifth known post-production credit. Later that year, armed with the success of "All Quiet on the Western Front", Universal created the classic tale "Dracula" as a feature film featuring Bela Lugosi, ushering in a new breed of motion picture for the "talkies" - the horror movie. Again, "Dracula" featured the innovative cutting of Carruth, creating near hysteria in nationwide audiences when it was released in February of 1931. Relying on Karl Freund's moody cinematography, and without the presence of music, Carruth created shuddering dread with his inspired cuts from Dracula's many victims to a demonic Lugosi, often shown in possessed closeups.
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edited by Clarence Kolster in 1931. |
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edited by Milton Carruth in 1932. |
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Freund (and undoubtedly Laemmle) so relished Carruth's work, they brought him in to edit Freund's directorial debut, "The Mummy", the next year. Again, Carruth provided stylish touches that energized what was a slow-moving film that erstwhile depended on mood and performance to build suspense. Witness Carruth's clever cross-cutting in the opening scenes of the film as the 3700-year-old mummy comes to life, much to the horror of a young explorer, while his seasoned supervisors argue outside. Even more to Carruth's credit is the way in which the character is revealed. A long medium shot where Boris Karloff's Im-Ho-Tep opens his dormant eyes is virtually the only glimpse we have of the character while the rest of the scene plays on reaction and aftermath shots. Carruth went on to edit both a "Dracula" and "Mummy" sequel, in addition to other horror films in the 1940s. His editing career continued long after the horror genre slowed down as his credits extended into the late 1960s before his passing in 1972 at the age of 83. In hindsight, however, Milton Carruth must be considered the true father of the monster editors.
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unsuspecting archaeoligist in THE MUMMY edited by Milton Carruth in 1932. |
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Before the sound era divided time and forever changed the production of feature films, a young editor named Clarence Kolster had been regularly cutting silent pictures in Hollywood. In 1922, Kolster edited "Rags to Riches" when he was just 27, and he worked regularly before joining Universal to edit James Whale's "Waterloo Bridge" in 1931. It was his next assignment, however, that would immortalize Kolster's place in movie history.
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in FRANKENSTEIN, edited by Clarence Kolster in 1931. |
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THE BLACK LAGOON edited by Ted J. Kent in 1954. |
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Following the success of "Dracula", Carl Laemmle, Jr. set his sights on a film version of "Frankenstein", giving the project to Whale when test footage of Lugosi as the Frankenstein monster, shot by original director Robert Florey, failed to sufficiently impress Junior Laemmle (perhaps fate intervened as Lugosi and Florey went on to make "Murders in the Rue Morgue" - edited by Milton Carruth - freeing up the part of the monster for the iconic Boris Karloff). In possibly the most distinguished piece of cutting in all of horror movie history, Kolster reveals Karloff's monster to us in a series of three, quick, successively tighter closeups. Due in part to Whale's stylish direction, Karloff's expressive face, and Jack Pierce's pioneering makeup design, the first glimpse of the Karloff monster as presented by Kolster is as timeless an image as any in cinema.
Many other sequences in "Frankenstein" have now become classic screen moments - witness the first "creation" sequence, often repeated and imitated in countless sequels and updates, but never measuring up to Kolster's version. The same is true for his dynamic cutting in the scenes where the monster confronts, first, the little girl by the lake, and later, his maker's bride on her wedding day. After the exploits of "Frankenstein", Kolster went on to edit Whale's "The Old Dark House" in 1932 before embarking on an active career as a picture editor in the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1950s, Kolster was less active and retired in 1958; he passed away 14 years later. Yet in his 36 years as an editor, Kolster's impact, particularly with "Frankenstein", is surely cemented in American popular culture.
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meets his bride (Elsa Lanchester) in 1935's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. |
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THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN edited by Ted J. Kent in 1935. |
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the last film in Universal's horror cycle, edited by Russell Schoengarth. |
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Of all the monster movie editors, none was more prolific than Ted J. Kent, A.C.E.. An in-house editor at Universal for over a quarter century, Kent's monster tenure spanned no fewer than five ownership changes at the studio. Though research dictates no clear reason for the change, Universal assigned Kent to James Whale's follow-up to "The Old Dark House", which had been competently edited by Kolster. Released in 1933, "The Invisible Man" would prove among the most challenging of Whale's films, with equal contributions by Kent and special effects wizard John P. Fulton. No doubt, both Universal and Whale were enamored with Kent's work, and he cut three of Whale's last several films with Universal, including "Show Boat" in 1936 and "The Road Back" in 1937. But the one film that elevated Whale's reputation beyond that which his earlier films offered him was a picture he didn't even want to make.
By 1935, the idea of "The Bride of Frankenstein" didn't appeal to the man who was wary of being labeled a horror director. Nonetheless, many consider Whale's long-overdue sequel to be superior to the original Frankenstein with its mixture of unforgettable sequences, demonic characters, and wistful comedy. In a likely homage to Clarence Kolster's work on that first film, Kent cut "Bride" in similar fashion, most notably in the reveal of Elsa Lanchester's hideous title character in the final scenes; we see her in the same three matching closeups that Kolster implemented so effectively to show us Karloff's monster in the original film. Even after Whale and the Laemmles departed Universal, Kent was recruited by studio brass to cut 1939's final sequel with Karloff as the monster, "Son of Frankenstein", featuring a towering performance by Bela Lugosi as Ygor that Kent surely played up in the editing room. He even cut Vincent Price's 1938 debut film, "Service de Luxe!" But though he likely didn't realize it then, Kent's Universal career was just starting to peak.
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THE WOLF MAN, edited by Ted J. Kent in 1941. |
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As the 1940s began, horror movies were beginning to take a back seat to sweeping romantic dramas and comedies. But one intended B picture that Kent edited was George Waggner's landmark "The Wolf Man", reestablishing the horror genre at Universal. With major contributions by studio mainstays Jack Pierce and John P. Fulton, Kent created the film's showpiece "transformation" sequences which became standard fare in the many spin-offs that followed. In fact, as the U.S. entered WWII, a slew of sequels and remakes of the original horror films were cranked out at Universal. Among the first of these was a lavish color remake of the studio's 1925 Lon Chaney classic, "The Phantom of the Opera", which remained one of the only color monster movies of its time. As edited by Russell Schoengarth, the unmasking of the phantom, played in this version by Claude Rains, surpassed the original in sheer terror value. Both Schoengarth and Kent edited several of the mid-1940s horror sequels, which included several "Mummy", "Frankenstein", and "Wolf Man" pictures. Just before the end of WWII, Schoengarth edited the last of those, "House of Dracula"; shortly thereafter, Universal merged with the independent International Pictures and let many of their stars and studio craftspeople out of their contracts. The classic monster movie era, in effect, was over.
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edited by Russell Schoengarth in 1943. |
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the Hunchback of Notre Dame from MAN OF A 1000 FACES edited by Ted J. Kent. |
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In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a mutation of the monster movie sprang from the imagination of new Universal staples, such as the director Charles Barton. Though it was first conceived as a stage show in the early 1940s, Universal released "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" in 1948. Frank Gross had edited six of the comedy duo's films at that time and was tasked with cutting the renowned spoof, featuring a new Frankenstein monster, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and long-standing Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man. Witness Gross' singular genius in the famous "moving candle" scene and the climatic battle of the monsters in the laboratory. For the first time on film, "Meet Frankenstein", with Gross' key input, gave audiences a fluid cinematic blend of fright and fun. After Gross went on to other assignments, which lasted until his premature death in 1960, Schoengarth cut "Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in 1953 and "Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy" in 1955 before the comic pair left the studio for good.
With the dawn of the atomic age in the 1950s, it seemed that the classic monsters were a thing of the past, but not before two final bows, both cut by the ubiquitous Ted Kent. Sensing a moviegoing trend to compete with the unwelcome advent of national television in 1954, Universal released "Creature From the Black Lagoon" in 3-D. Kent's handling of the underwater footage of the striking Gill Man was an unprecedented look at a movie monster, and the creature took its place as one of Universal's famous faces. Three years later, Kent cut the reverential Lon Chaney biography, "Man of a Thousand Faces"; it was fitting that Kent, who had been one of the pioneers of the movement, was called on to instill his magic into the James Cagney vehicle. Ironically, though that was the last genre film that any of the five aforementioned editors worked on, just one year later, a monster enthusiast named Forrest J. Ackerman debuted the publication Famous Monsters of Filmland, which, with televised appearances by Dracula, Frankenstein and the like, introduced a whole new breed of audience to the legacy of the early monster movies.
Upon the occasion of Russell Schoengarth's death in 1974, followed twelve years later by the passing of Ted Kent, the last of the monster editors was gone, but their work continues to live on again and again, as new audiences begin to discover their treasured films. Perhaps with the fresh perspective now available to audiences with Universal's recent re-release of many of the classic horror films on video and DVD, the talented editors who realized these films will ultimately be recognized for their singular efforts. Alongside the collection of actors, directors and executives responsible for Universal's great horror collection, editors including Carruth, Kolster, Kent, Schoengarth, and Gross deserve due credit for bringing the original monsters and their movies to life.
Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 20, No. 6 - November/December 1999
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