Results 1 to 39 of 39

Thread: Lon Chaney Jr

  1. #1
    Danny62 Guest

    Lon Chaney Jr

    Sorry folks...this guy couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag!!

    I love the old Horror movies of the 1940's but this guy made it on his fathers name only!

    And Universal giving him the role of Dracula over Lugosi in "Son of Dracula" what a joke!!!

  2. #2
    OBX Guest
    I liked him in his werewolf movies, though. He really seemed to be that suffering everyman, that was stuck with a disease.

  3. #3
    Danny62 Guest
    He was an alcoholic in his later years! I think he kind of lost it mentally as well!

  4. #4
    dbrian Guest
    He did a pretty good job in Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Maybe playing the campy werewolf straight for the boys made it good. That was quite a movie--with Lugosi as Dracula and Chaney as the Wolfman.
    Last edited by dbrian; 10-26-2007 at 09:08 PM.

  5. #5
    More Cheese Please Guest
    Stanley Kramer actually admired and respected his acting abilities. Mr. Kramer cast him in a key supporting role in "High Noon" as well as "The Defiant Ones with Poitier and Curtis. Personally, I prefer and enjoy the camp factor in "Wolfman" and the other old Universal classics.

  6. #6
    Harry in Connecticut Guest
    Watch him in "Of Mice And Men" with Burgess Meredith, before you make your final judgement.

  7. #7
    TobbeJ Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Harry in Connecticut View Post
    Watch him in "Of Mice And Men" with Burgess Meredith, before you make your final judgement.
    Exactly. He was excellent before he was typecast as a Werewolf.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    143
    I liked him as the werewolf. I think that he finally came into his own with that one
    and Of Mice and Men. He always felt he wasn't as good as his dad. One should never
    depend on a parents talents to make it in this world.

  9. #9
    Bidmor Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by dbrian View Post
    He did a pretty good job in Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Maybe playing the campy werewolf straight for the boys made it good. That was quite a movie--with Lugosi as Dracula and Chaney as the Wolfman.
    Chaney Jr: "You don't understand...at midnight, I'll turn into a wolf"
    Costello: "Yeah you and a million other guys"

  10. #10
    Danny62 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Bidmor View Post
    Chaney Jr: "You don't understand...at midnight, I'll turn into a wolf"
    Costello: "Yeah you and a million other guys"
    Blooper footage from Abbott and costello meet frankenstein!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62o47bqC0NY

  11. #11
    Bidmor Guest
    Love bloopers. Thanks, Dan.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    143
    Hey Danny, if you find anymore let us know. I love 'em.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    6,302
    I feel bad for sons of famous fathers. It must be hard for them.
    Especially if they are a "jr".

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    143
    Again, if you don't like something about your childhood or
    adulthood, seek ways to change so you don't continue to
    hurt others.

  15. #15
    Danny62 Guest
    I was just reading an interview with Director Curt sidmark who said Lon Chaney Jr. Was gay but never came out?

    Anyone ever hear that?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    143
    I have never heard that. He was married for years but then
    so have some others who were bisexual.

  17. #17
    bluebear71 Guest
    I was never a big fan of his work myself, however, he DID do an incredible job in Of Mice and Men.

  18. #18
    Danny62 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Rebekah View Post
    I have never heard that. He was married for years but then
    so have some others who were bisexual.
    Ole Curt Sidmark was never the nicest of men from what I hear so who knows??

    I have never heard it before!!

  19. #19
    mcconk2 Guest
    I have "The Indestructible Man" on DVD -a classic in B grade horror...

  20. #20
    leevancleef Guest
    i pretty much enjoyed OF MICE AND MEN and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN. I like him because everybody says (have said) that he was a very NICE man.

  21. #21
    TheMysterian Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by TobbeJ View Post
    Exactly. He was excellent before he was typecast as a Werewolf.
    This is so true in Hollywood with many actors, I will always remember him as "The Wolfman" and I think he did a great job playing him. Love the out takes!

  22. #22
    tuesdays_jupiter Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Danny62 View Post
    Sorry folks...this guy couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag!!

    I love the old Horror movies of the 1940's but this guy made it on his fathers name only!

    And Universal giving him the role of Dracula over Lugosi in "Son of Dracula" what a joke!!!

    sorry I tend to disagree, I didn't even know that he had a famous father until recently. The Wolfman is one of my favorite films that really was one of the foundations on which all horror films are rooted. In the second wolfman movie (wolfman meets frankenstein (?), can't remember) I cried for Larry Talbot because all he wanted was to stay dead. Jr.'s real name wasn't Jr. but his handlers thought it would make him more marketable.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    1,003
    Bidmor....hilarious!

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    new zealand
    Posts
    2,524
    'tell me bout the rabbits george....' lon chaney jr. was exceptionally wonderful in this movie.. (of mice and men) as lenny
    pull the string!

  25. #25
    Guest Guest
    I love this guy - he was great in his movies
    I once had a biography of him, one tale was when he was drunk on set and had to carry the beautiful Elyse Knox - he ended up stumbling and she banged her head on a wall - poor little lady.

  26. #26
    ratkin638 Guest
    There's a story in his Wikipedia article about his playing Frankenstein's monster on live TV, and doing it so blind drunk that he thought he was rehearsing when they were actually on the air! At one point he picks up a piece of furniture that he's supposed to break, only to put it down, muttering, "Break later."

  27. #27
    Guest Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by ratkin638 View Post
    At one point he picks up a piece of furniture that he's supposed to break, only to put it down, muttering, "Break later."
    Hehe, that's funny!

  28. #28
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    new zealand
    Posts
    2,524
    is there a thread on LON CHANEY SR.?
    pull the string!

  29. #29
    Boopassing Guest
    He was the best Wolfman ever. I loved the fact that his expression at all times conveyed how tortured he was by what he was. It made you feel sorry for him one minute and terrified of him the next as he changed. He was fantastic.

  30. #30
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Mossy and wet
    Posts
    1,314
    Quote Originally Posted by mcconk2 View Post
    I have "The Indestructible Man" on DVD -a classic in B grade horror...
    I have "Hillbillys in a Haunted House." Also starring Basil Rathbone, in one of his last screen appearances.

  31. #31
    JAWS1975 Guest
    Halloween bump for the Wolfman!


  32. #32
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Los Angeles, CA
    Posts
    53
    Great pic of a great actor, Jaws!

  33. #33
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    6,302
    Quote Originally Posted by Maxster View Post
    I have "Hillbillys in a Haunted House." Also starring Basil Rathbone, in one of his last screen appearances.
    Sadly, I think it was one of the last films of
    once two great actors: Lon Chaney(The Wolfman)
    and of course: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)
    Carolyn(1958-2009) always in my heart.

  34. #34
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    S.E. Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    624
    Sadly, I think it was one of the last films of once two great actors: Lon Chaney(The Wolfman) and of course: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)

    Yeah, looking at Basil's credits on IMDB it seems that from 1950 on he made few films and even fewer GOOD films. Lots of TV work throughout the 50s but some really lousy films in the last 7 years of his life (Ghost in the Invisible Bikini in addition to the Hillybillys film). All I can think of are the great roles he played not only in the 30s but the 40s as well. He appeared with Garbo, Dietrich, Colbert, Boyer, Karloff, Cooper et al in many great films. Perhaps like Chaney he became typecast in the eyes of Hollywood.

  35. #35
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Ontario,Canada
    Posts
    4,742
    Hillbillys In A Haunted House is pretty sad. In reading about Lon Jr. I found it interesting that he and frequent co-star Evelyn Ankers did not get along at all, despite their onscreen chemistry. But most said he was a very sweet and kind man who would befriend younger actors and stand up for older ones who were bullied by the studio system.
    Today you could be standing next to someone who is trying their best not to fall apart. So whatever you do today, do it with kindness.

  36. #36
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    S.E. Pennsylvania, USA
    Posts
    624
    In Doug McClelland's The Golden Age of B Movies, Ankers explained the genesis of Chaney's animosity towards her. Before starting work on The Wolf Man, the bigshots in the studio's Front Office advised her they liked her work and were rewarding her with a plush, new dressing room that she'd share with her good friend Anne Gwynne. On the first day of shooting The Wolf Man Chaney confronted her. "So you're the gal who swiped my dressing room. You took it away from Broderick Crawford and me - that was a hell of a thing to do!" She asked the Front Office about this and they told her Lon had been warned about this happening if he didn't stop "misbehaving." Someone else then told her that every Friday or Saturday night Lon and Brod would get drunk in their dressing room, hang the furniture from the celing and brawl. On Monday the studio's cleaning crew would have to clean up Lon & Brod's dressing-room, which resembled a battle-site. Lon may've been a "sweet, kind man" but he was also a violent alcoholic in denial. You can hardly blame Universal for not wanting their property to be destroyed on a regular basis by two drunken employees.

    Next time you watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, look for the scene where Wilbur (Costello) unlocks the door of Lon's room (there'd been a full moon the night before so the wolfman spent the night locked in that room). Unaware that the room was trashed by the wolfman, Chick (Abbott) remarks "What a binge you must've been on last night". This wasn't an ad-lib, it was in the script and may've been an intentional "dig" at Lon by the scriptwriter(s).
    Last edited by Dave62; 04-13-2020 at 06:41 AM.

  37. #37
    cyberslammer Guest
    I beg to differ sir, he was amazing in the 1945 classic Frankenstein vs The Man Who Escaped the Wet Paper Bag.

  38. #38
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    6,302
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave62 View Post
    Sadly, I think it was one of the last films of once two great actors: Lon Chaney(The Wolfman) and of course: Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes)

    Yeah, looking at Basil's credits on IMDB it seems that from 1950 on he made few films and even fewer GOOD films. Lots of TV work throughout the 50s but some really lousy films in the last 7 years of his life (Ghost in the Invisible Bikini in addition to the Hillybillys film). All I can think of are the great roles he played not only in the 30s but the 40s as well. He appeared with Garbo, Dietrich, Colbert, Boyer, Karloff, Cooper et al in many great films. Perhaps like Chaney he became typecast in the eyes of Hollywood.

    Very true.
    Carolyn(1958-2009) always in my heart.

  39. #39
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    6,302
    Quote Originally Posted by Mansfield67 View Post
    Hillbillys In A Haunted House is pretty sad. In reading about Lon Jr. I found it interesting that he and frequent co-star Evelyn Ankers did not get along at all, despite their onscreen chemistry. But most said he was a very sweet and kind man who would befriend younger actors and stand up for older ones who were bullied by the studio system.
    True, a last film by a great actor.
    Carolyn(1958-2009) always in my heart.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •