Spooktober 16: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920)

 

Just like the vampire form in Nosferatu remains one of the scariest in the history of vampire films, John Barrymore's Mr. Hyde remains one of the scariest, if not the most frightening, Hyde in film history.  It is also not reliant solely on special effects/makeup or superior acting prowess, as other famous Hydes have. Barrymore's Hyde instead employs a winning combination of the two.  For this alone, the film remains one the most effectively frightening horror films of all time. A quick look at Barrymore's Hyde.

 

Born Today January 14: Clara Beranger

1886-1956

 

Ground breaking screenwriter Clara Beranger (sometimes spelled Berenger) was born Clara Strouse on this date in Baltimore. She gained a degree from Groucher College, then known as The Baltimore Women's College, with a Bachelor of Arts; after which she made the move to New York City.  Despite marrying and having a daughter, she managed to also start a career in writing. Her married name was "Berwanger"--this is where she got the surname that she went by in her professional life: Beranger/Berenger (her daughter, Frances, who would go on to become a stage actress, also adopted this surname).  Formally using the professional name of Clara S. Beranger, she struck out on a freelance career in screen writing--selling scripts to the first studio system's largest companies, something that was almost completely unheard of at the time for a woman! Her first screenplay to actually see production was with Lubin Manufacturing: Memories of His Youth; it was an adaptation of a F. Hopkinson Smith story and directed by Barry O'Neil in 1913.  Her work was so well regarded that she landed a permanent staff writer gig at Fox. Her first film there was another literary adaptation of a Grace Miller White novel From the Valley of the Missing in 1915. She next adapted Tolstoy's in Anna Karenina, directed by Fox's top man J. Gordon Edwards. She next returned to freelance work, having scripts produced by Diando, Peerless, and Selznick's World Film.  Her most famous script came in 1920, when she penned the adaptation for the screen on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde while she was working for Paramount, the film is famous now--but at the time it was just an adaptation a literary work that had been adapted several times before.  In 1921 she made the move, along with many others in the American film industry west to Hollywood to work as a writer at Famous Players-Lasky (she previously had a few scripts produced by Famous Players & Lasky separately, before the companies merged [see: The Master Mind (1914) and The Slave Market (1917)]).  On the west coast, she went to work for Realart, a subsidiary of Universal later responsible for productions of the now famous Universal horror films of the 1930's.  She started by adapting a George Bronson Howard story into the melodrama Sheltered Daughters (May 1921).  A film that became perhaps the most important in her life, both professionally and personally, was Miss Lulu Bett  (November 1921). It was important because she met William de Mille on the set, who fell hard for her despite already being married--whereas Beranger was already divorced. William de Mille was a notorious cheater and even had a child out of wedlock, his wife just assumed that Beranger was just another fling and she would soon be gone. Not be the case, as de Mille could not get over her--he eventually divorced his wife and married her in 1928.  This was all the more "Hollywood" due to part of the story line of the film on which they met involving a married man pursuing an unmarried woman. Though it should be noted that she probably benefited from the meeting more professionally than even on the personal level; de Mille stated in his own memoir that Beranger thereafter wrote all the scripts that he directed until their marriage. Between 1922 and 1926 she was responsible for all of his films (around 15), including The World's Applause (January 1923) starring Bebe Daniels, with whom she shared a birthday. During that time, she worked exclusively for him. This came to an end in 1926, when she once again began adapting works for the screen for other directors again (while continuing to work with him on films as well). She provided him two screenplays directly after their marriage--the second of which was a full talkie. Craig's Wife starring Irene Rich and released in September of 1928; while The Idle Rich was released in June of 1929 featuring Bessie Love in the female lead. The Idle Rich was also her last screenplay produced and released in the 1920's. The first sign that she was was thinking of moving on from screenwriting after becoming a member of the powerful de Mille family was that her new husband directed a film between the two mentioned above (Tenth Avenue) not written by his new wife. She was the principle writer on de Mille's This Mad World (April 1930)--collectively their first film of the new decade. She adapted works for the screen just twice more--the last being an adaptation of an Emerson/Loos story for the Marshall Neilan comedy Social Register; but her attentions lay elsewhere.  Once a part of the de Mille family she was folded into their project of the USC School of Cinematic Arts of which William was a founder and brother Cecil was a patron.  Beranger became one of the original faculty of the school, which still operates as a private school within the confines of UCLA. Beranger also remained a published author in print.  She and William de Mille remained married until his death in 1955; she followed him the next year on the 10th of September when she succumbed to a heart attack in Hollywood at the age of 70.  She is buried in an elaborate family plot in the Hollywood Forever cemetery as Clara B. DeMille, "wife of William C. DeMille." Her daughter (from her first marriage) though an actress, never felt the need to grace the silver screen.  

Source: AJM (Find a Grave)

Source: AJM (Find a Grave)

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Born Today January 7: Adolph Zukor

1873-1976

Extremely long lived studio founder and executive Adolph Zukor was born on this date in Ricse, Hungary during the rule of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He was orphaned as quite a young age, so he became determined to immigrate to the United States as soon as he could find a way; he accomplished this in 1891 by way of Hamburg Germany.  His name was recorded upon entry as Adolf Zuckery.  He almost immediately found work in the New York City area--working in and apprenticing at various shops--especially upholstery factories and furriers. This gave him considerable experience in working with various fabrics, so he decided to go into business as a fur designer in Chicago in 1893 (Chicago, because of the World Colombian Exposition). This would grow to such an extent that he would become lavishly wealthy, allowing him to purchase very expensive real estate in New York City. It was in 1903 (a VERY early date!) that a cousin of his got him both interested and involved in the movie industry by way of a loan to expand a theater business.  Though Zukor is remembered for being a founding member of Paramount, he actually founded the Famous Players Film Co. first (in 1912).  The company was initially set up as an American distribution network for French films. For his trouble, he garnered his first film credit in 1912 on the Sarah Bernhardt film Les amours de la reine Élisabeth  (English title: Queen Elizabeth) in 1912.  In New York at this time, there was a bit of a clamor to get stage actors into motion pictures. Whole groups, businesses and partnerships sprung up around this endeavor. Zukor, ever the smart business man, placed himself in a good position to capitalize off this, without becoming directly embroiled in the "fad."  He did this by borrowing monies that he probably didn't need to borrow at all from successful brothers that were part of the theater scene, with the goal of placing stage actors in a movie produced by Zukor's brand new "studio" (see the Frohman Brothers for more info.).  The result was the production in 1913 of The Prisoner of Zenda, a film co-directed by "Edison man" Edwin S. Porter (he also got into the "presentation" business in 1913 with the short documentary Capt. Cherry Kearton's Wild Life). They did indeed bring in actors from the Broadway stage, most notably James K. Hackett, who made his motion picture debut in Zenda and only appeared in two other films in his lifetime (he was a consummate actor of the live stage first and foremost)--he was reportedly paid a whopping $1250 a week for his trouble! The longest lasting legacy of this endeavor was the opening of his Chelsea Studios, located in an existing building located on West 26th Street, an old armory Zukor purchased and converted. The studio is still in use today for television.  As a producer (and a quiet one at that) his career stretched to 1938.  Of course, his career was mostly as an executive; and in 1916, with the merging of Famous Players with Lasky, he also became a studio founder of significance.  It was for intents and purposes the founding of Paramount as we know it today.  The first film to be released under the merged entity for which Zukor had a hand in making was The Big Sister (September 1916), starring Mae Murray and Matty Roubert and directed by John O'Brien. Zukor was more than most involved with Paramount's early days as a powerhouse of nationwide film distribution. He was personally responsible for a wholesale purchase of theaters nationally, particularly in south--a market that had largely been ignored up to this point.  From this effort, at least one business of film theater ownership grew out of Paramount (I don't think that it's too far fetched to say that Zukor is responsible for the moving over of the term "theater" from the actual live theater to film screening locations in popular vernacular); he was also insistent on having working studios on both coasts long after most studios had given up on the New York area as a location for motion picture production (I've featured a link to the Kaufman Astoria Studios here before--still in existence--it was a studio during the 1920's that he over saw the leasing of to other film companies).  Zukor also enacted the practice of the film distributor charging the exhibitor an extraction fee of box-office receipts--a practice also still in use today.  Zukor by the 1920's was making a large profit, both personally and for his companies, on both ends of the film production side--thus making him one of the people in the business who truly could be called a "presenter" in the purest sense of the word.  In addition to all of this, in 1928 he became an early investor in radio, though he did not remain in the investment long.  Some of the well known films that he produced/presented include: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Brewster's Millions (1921),  Peter Pan (1924), The Vanishing American (1925), Beau Geste (1926), The Great Gatsby (1926), It (1927), Wings (1927), Manhattan Cocktail (1928),  The Cocoanuts (1929), and The Virginian (1929) (just the tip of the iceberg!). In his late 50's by 1930, he already had an eye toward a semi-retired life. As mentioned above, he continued to provide production funds for films through most of that decade (the last of which was the Harold Lloyd film Professor Beware); his name on distribution posters continued up to the year 1941. The last film to have his name personally associated with it was New York Town and romantic comedy released in October and starring Fred MacMurray and Mary Martin. A dark stain in his life came with the Paramount debacle in the 1930's. The depression had taken all of Hollywood by surprise and most studios found themselves in quick financial straits--even the biggest names in business. Paramount was no exception. Zukor had made the most common mistake that business owners can make--over expansion and dilution of stock to finance it. It wasn't like other sectors were not also over leveraged, but any business involved in entertainment at the time was going to get hit hard and fast. People simply no longer had the "disposable capital" to spread around on things like going to see a movie--especially in the south.  Paramount was for a time taken out of his hands and put into receivership, but amazingly Zukor was able to eventually regain control of the company's board and was instrumental in bringing the studio out of bankruptcy protection (though the theatrical distribution side of his business was gone for good).  He then went on to divide his time between coast; he had already been in the habit of only spending part of the summer in Hollywood, preferring instead to keep to New York for most of the year.  He did not fully retire until 1964 at the age of 91 (!), but he never gave up complete control of his chairmanships. NO one could accuse him of not working a day in his life! By the time of his death, he was spending more time in sunny/warmer California. When Zukor turned 100 years of age, the studio sold the candles from his cake off individually for charity. Remarkably, he would go on to have three more birthdays! He passed away on the 10th of June in 1976 at 103.  He is interred back in his beloved New York at the Temple Israel Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson. Woth noting: one odd little film which actually featured a speaking appearance of Zukor in 1923 was Adolph Zukor Introduces Phonofilm, a 4 minute long film using the DeForest Phonofilm Sound System; Paramount was one of the first studios to take seriously methods to bring wide-spread sound to films. 

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Born Today February 15: John Barrymore

1882-1942

John Sidney Blyth (some family spellings have the name spelled Blythe) either on this day or on Valentine's Day in Philadelphia.  It could easily be said that he was born into acting royalty; even then the Drew and Barrymore families were giants of the stage.  His parents were British actor Maurice Barrymore, whose birth name was Herbert Blyth, who had adopted the Barrymore last name after he took a liking to it from a poster is saw in Haymarket Theater in London.  His mother was Georgie Drew Barrymore; she was the descendent of the powerful and well known theater family the Drews.  Her parents were well off and occupied high positions in the theater, including her mother, who was a famous thespian and one the earliest female managers of a large theater, the Arch Street Theater; her father, who was also an actor, was considered a comedic genius.  Several other members of the Drew family were also successful actors of the stage. While a great deal of the details of John Barrymore's early life are not known, it is known that he was steeped on the theater and accompanied his parents on at least one major dramatic tour.  The family was not without it's stresses; Barrymore was often a naughty, uncontrollable child (owed to being the baby of fmaily?) and he was sent away to numerous schools.  One actress from Poland insisted that he and his two siblings be baptized into the Catholic faith (apparently as a show to his mother's secret conversion); his grandmother came to live with the family when her theater business began to flounder, and that caused considerable stress with the household.  But, it was his mother's death from tuberculosis when he was 11 that left him solely in the custody of his grandmother, who raised him.  He would go onto attend (and be kicked out of) one prep school.  For higher education, he decided that a stint in his father's home country would be the thing, and in 1898 he headed off to King's College in Wimbledon, eventually winding up in the Slade School of Fine Arts.  Though, none of this made much of an impression on him, and he was soon enjoying the London nightlife more than anything.  He returned to New York in 1900, where he found work as an illustrator for The New York Evening Journal.  That same year, he was persuaded by his father, despite that he had proclaimed a disliking for the professor of acting, to join performance of a short play.  But, it was a stage incident in the play that his older sister Ethel was acting in that would have a real effect on how he viewed acting.  She had persuaded the director to take him on when the production was short of players, one evening he forgot his lines, and admitted so on stage; rather than giving in, the actors then proceeded to improvise the whole scene instead.  He then got himself embroiled in a real scandal that included in the murder of the high profile New York architect Stanley White.  He almost had to testify at the trial of the man who shot White.  Already in the throws of a serious drinking problem, he was fired from his newspaper job for producing poor illustration while intoxicated.  It was then that he resigned himself to taking up the family business of acting.  Between the year's 1903 and 1913, Barrymore appeared in larger and larger roles on the stage,  many of which that would go on to be hits.  It was during that later part of this theatrical run, that he is thought to have entered the motion picture business.  It is known that in 1912 he traveled to Los Angeles.  Five films (it is sometimes listed as 4) then came out with the name of an actor as "Jack Barrymore" as a star; it is generally agreed that "Jack" was, in fact, John Barrymore.  The first of these was The Dream Of A Moving Picture.  All of them were produced by the Lubin Manufacturing Co., and all but one--the last one--were intended to be vehicles that studio's in house "star" at the time Jerold T. Hevener.  The last of these films, One On Romance, which was actually released in 1913, saw "Jack Barrymore" as the top billed star.  John Barrymore's film career was off.  The first film that carries Barrymore's actual name came in 1914 with An American Citizen.  The film was directed by none other that J. Searle Dawley, probably the first true director of films, for the Lasky Famous Players, that would later become Paramount.  Barrymore would go on to be one the most recognizable faces in silent film and super-star known all over the globe.  Before we had Lon Chaney Sr. in recognizable horror transformation roles, we had Barrymore in the roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in the Famous Players version of the Stevenson story in 1920 (not that Chaney wasn't in films before this, he was!).  That on-screen transformation is still in the horror vaults as one the finest ever filmed.  The number of seriously famous silent films that he appeared in during the 1920's are basically two numerous to list here (that what links below are for); but what is remarkable about his career, is that up until 1925, he had never left the stage.  This meant that when the inevitable happened, that talking pictures would take over, the studios had little to worry about in regards to his voice capabilities; what they did have to worry about (and they knew it), was his ever growing debilitation from alcohol consumption.  Given his star power, it's little surprise that Barrymore was one of the actors put in the earliest transitional or partial sound films.  The first of these was in 1926 with Don Juan.  Vitaphone provided the sound effects and some early musical scoring.  The first full sound (in other words, "full on talkie") that he appeared in, was General Crack in 1929.  By 1933, he had gone to work for MGM and his health began fail. The first effect of this to primarily affect was his ability to remember lines for live performances.  It's not that he didn't make films in the 1930's that showed terrible performances, it's just that they were few and far between and most studios wouldn't chance handing him a role due his extreme alcoholism, despite a spate of film appearances in 1933.  He wound up with a recurring role in the Bulldog Drummond series as Col. Neilson.  He collapsed on the set of a "reality" radio show of it's day--Rudy Vallé's show, sort a Howard Stern affair of it's time--on the 19th of May in 1942.  He was rushed to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, where he died 10 days later from cirrhosis that resulted in kidney failure and complicated by pneumonia.  He was 60 years old.  He was buried at first on the 2 of June 1942 in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles-- apparently against his wishes--his devoutly Catholic sister insisted on the burial there.  In 1980, his son disinterred his body for cremation and reburial next to his parents in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Philadelphia, par his original request.  Today, for "Barrymore" fans not familiar with his work on it's own merits, he is most famous for being the grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore.

His current burial site in Philadelphia

Former burial site in California, now empty, but still maintained.

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Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920)

Photo of the set for the film

Stills From Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920)

Black And White Stills:

Sepia Prints

Blue Tinted Prints