the greatest of the Universal horror classics. knew they had an opportunity WOLF MEN: JACK PIERCE’S INCARNATIONS OF THE WOLF MAN As the 1940s began, horror movies were to create a unique project that beginning to take a back seat to sweeping ro- would harken back to the old By Scott Essman mantic dramas and comedies. But one picture Laemmle years at the studio. that reestablished the horror genre at Univer- In Chaney, they had the hulk- “Even a man who is sal was the landmark new horror classic, The ing physical actor who could pure in heart and says Wolf Man. The same type of film was originally be used to realize their ideas. his prayers by night, may meant for Boris Karloff some ten years earlier, Working closely with become a wolf when the but by 1941, when Karloff had moved onto Pierce, Fulton was the mas- wolfbane blooms and the mad scientists and other older characters, a termind of the “transforma- autumn moon is bright.” new actor was positioned as the new Karloff at tion” sequences in the film, in –The Wolf Man (1941) the studio. His name was Lon Chaney, Jr. Until which stages of makeup were the late 1930s, the younger Chaney had been photographed identically and Among the men who made the less heralded than his silent movie superstar lap-dissolved in the final film original horror films at Universal father (and Pierce’s great friend), but his ap- so as to match together seam- Pictures in the late-1920s through pearance in 1939’s adaptation of Of Mice and lessly and create the illusion of the mid-1940s, few were as impor- Men put him on the cinematic map. Chaney an on-screen transformation. tant and none was more important Jr. was a star in the making, and Universal The technique had been done than legendary makeup artist and snapped him up for a run of horror films that before on film—notably in monster maker Jack Pierce. Creat- lasted throughout the 1940s. With Jack Pierce’s 1932’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ing all of the original characters at innovative makeup—a more thorough lycan- (Paramount) —and in Fulton’s the studio during that time, Pierce’s thrope overhaul of Chaney Jr.’s face than had own Were-Wolf of London in 1935, highest achievements certainly in- been used on Henry Hull in Were-Wolf of Lon- but Fulton’s use of matching cluded the three Frankenstein Mon- don—the Wolf Man was a remarkable horror his dissolve from one stage of sters with Boris Karloff; the original movie character and equally as memorable as Pierce’s makeup to the next had Mummy, Im-Ho-Tep, with Karloff in Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster and Mummy been perfected by 1941. It is likely that Fulton With The Wolf Man, Kent, along with ma- 1932; Elsa Lanchester’s glamorously and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. learned to master what was then called “trick” jor contributions by studio mainstays Pierce ghoulish Bride of Frankenstein; and In addition to Jack Pierce, the crafts- photography at an optical house, where he and Fulton, created the film’s showpiece two Pierce’s finest last original work, manship of The Wolf Man was also entrusted worked as a technician in the 1920s. Despite the transformation sequences, which became the Wolf Man, whom he realized in to director George Waggner, visual effects early evidence of his talents, Fulton’s first truly standard fare in the many spin-offs that fol- four films before his dismissal from wizard John P. Fulton, and editor Ted J. Kent, groundbreaking work on 1933’s The Invisible lowed. Witness the lap dissolves that Kent the studio. Not only was the 1941 A.C.E. For the Waggner (also spelled Wag- Man would earn him the industry nickname, and Fulton implemented for transforma- film The Wolf Man crucial among goner) Wolf Man film, slated as a B picture “The Doctor.” He would work alongside Jack tions from man to wolf, and especially in the these individual masterpieces, but by the Universal brass, Pierce and Fulton Pierce at Universal until 1947. film’s tragic climax, from wolf back to man. the character, though not the first, Kent also cleverly orchestrated is largely still considered the best the noted end of the film, where man-wolf hybrid in cinema history. Claude Rains unknowingly beats Of course, Pierce’s fortunes his own son with a silver-tipped all began in the silent period, dur- cane, later realizing that it was his ing which Pierce toiled as an actor, own flesh that he killed. In their assistant director, and stuntman, tussle, an especially marked cut often applying his makeup skills to to a close shot of Chaney Jr. as the his own filmed performances. In 1928, after into full production. In fact, Laemmle ap- for titular actor Henry Hull was surely a Wolf Man struggling with Rains Universal founder “Uncle” Carl Laemmle proved a film ofThe Werewolf, the classic story compromise. Pierce would have to hold off makes for one of the film’s most had appointed his son, 21-year-old Carl that had its origins in France as the tale of the his handcrafted painstaking methods as he fascinating moments. Laemmle, Jr., as head of production at Uni- “loup garou.” Karloff was pre-cast as the title had done with Karloff onFrankenstein and The During preproduction of versal Studios, the machinery was in place character, and Pierce went as far as to design Mummy for another six years and several re- The Wolf Man, Jack Pierce worked for a new wave of films based on classic an extensive lycanthrope makeup for him. gime changes at Universal for the studio’s next diligently to create the makeup horror stories. Junior Laemmle made Pierce In 1935, The Werewolf was reconfigured werewolf film. Instead, Hull wore a makeup for the title character, having been makeup department head that year, also the as Were-Wolf of London starring Henry Hull. in which his facial features shone through, disappointed with his reduced year of his first major Universal triumph An original at its time of release, Were-Wolf suggesting an upright beast of murderous makeup for Henry Hull in Were- with Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt), in The of London was Universal’s first film based potential with Pierce’s hand-laid hair work Wolf of London. Pierce pulled out Man Who Laughs. By 1931, the studio had on the classic Loup Garou stories of men providing the requisite mammalian threat. all the stops for The Wolf Man with both Dracula and Frankenstein as two of its who turned into wolves at the turning of a When the Laemmles left the studio in Lon Chaney, Jr., in the title role. greatest successes, and they followed those full moon. On the project, Pierce ran into a 1937, Universal seemed doomed to a slate Though the two reportedly did up with a few more early 1930s originals, roadblock of sorts as Hull rejected a complete of strategically produced sequels to the great not get along—Chaney did not like including the aforementioned masterwork, masking of his face by the makeup as Pierce films of the Laemmle era as the new regimes After the hair was applied, Pierce said he would “curl it, then singe it, burn it, to look like wearing the makeup or undergo- The Mummy, and 1933’s The Invisible Man. had planned for Karloff. Instead, Pierce quickly churned out sequels to Dracula, Fran- an animal that’s been out in the woods.” Here Pierce uses that technique during a make- ing the lengthy application and up session for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Above: A posed studio still from 1941 During this period, Universal developed devised a strategically frightening likeness kenstein, and The Mummy, arriving in droves detailing Jack’s perfectionism with hair work and finely applied mixtures of early materials removal period—Pierce excelled a werewolf vehicle for Boris Karloff that was that included no less than five facial stages at this time, 1939-1945. However, the one such as cotton, collodion, spirit gum, and other items primitive for a makeup artist. The again with his werewolf concept, never produced. Pierce created a test makeup of man-into-wolf transformation on film. exception to the rule arrived in 1941 to set a nose appliance here, given its inflexibility, was likely made from slip rubber formulated in using a design he had created a separate lab by Ellis Burman, Sr. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) concept for Karloff, but the project never went Pierce’s toned-down lycanthrope makeup new standard and ultimately be ranked with for Boris Karloff a decade earlier

48 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 49 when the Laemmles were planning a werewolf film. Thus,The Wolf Man was a true horror classic, and Pierce’s version of the character has been the model for the numerous werewolves that have since come to the screen and the benchmark against which all such characters have been judged since. To the lay observer, the idea of Jack Pierce re-creating a wolf charac- ter from scratch every day of princi- pal photography may seem daunting, but—as with the Frankenstein Mon- ster and the Mummy before—Pierce prided himself on working from the bottom up with each new makeup application. “I don’t use masks or any appliances whatsoever,” proclaimed Jack Pierce about the development of his famous monster characters. The one exception to Pierce’s rule occurred with his striking initial Jack Pierce in a posed Universal studio shot applying makeup to Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man. realization of the Wolf Man in 1941. Pierce first conceived of a similarly designed lycanthrope makeup for Boris Karloff almost a decade before, but the project never came to fruition. Below: Lon Chaney, Jr., brilliantly “The only appliances I used was the posed by the Universal Pictures still department as the Wolf Man and revealing the entire nose that looks like a wolf[‘s nose]. character head to toe. Chaney would play the part in five Universal films in eight years. There you either put on a rubber nose (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) or model the nose every day, which would have taken too long. It took 2-1/2 hours Pierce might have lifted these from at least wouldn’t move them anymore. While I was to apply this makeup,” Pierce said, indicating one Loup Garou story, which described a in this position they would build a plaster the head, chest piece, and hands. “I put all of werewolf-attacked man this way: “There cast of the back of my head. Then they would the hair on a little row at a time. After the hair stood Page with his shoulders scratched, take drapes from behind me and starch them, is on, you curl it, then singe it, burn it, to look his hair be singed, his nose poisoned with and while they were drying them, they would like an animal that’s been out in the woods. sulphur breath of the wolf, his knife reeking take the camera and weigh it down with one It had to be done every morning.” with the blood of the cursed Loup Garou.” ton, so that it wouldn’t quiver when people With regard to his chosen techniques, Pierce’s other key characters in The Wolf walked. They had targets for my eyes up Man included 1940’s “scream there. Then, while I’m still in this position, queen” Evelyn Ankers as they would shoot five or ten frames of film in Gwen Conliffe, Claude Rains the camera. They’d take that film out and send as Sir John Talbot, Bela Lugosi it to the lab. While it was there the makeup as Bela the gypsy, and Maria man [Jack P. Pierce] would come and take the Ouspenskaya as Maleva, the whole thing off my face, and put on a new gypsy woman. As a result of one, only less. I’m still immobile. When the Pierce’s methods, audiences film came back from the lab they’d check me. were treated to perfectionism They’d say, “Your eyes have moved a little bit, in The Wolf Man. move them to the right . . . now your shoulder As legend has it, wear- is up. . . .” Then they’d roll it again and shoot ing the Wolf Man makeup another ten frames. Well, we did twenty-one was an unpleasant experi- changes of makeup and it took twenty-two ence for Lon Chaney, Jr. Ac- hours. I won’t discuss about the bathroom!” cording to Denis Gifford’s Alas, with the films that followed, A Pictorial History of Horror what might have been was never realized in Movies, (Hamlyn Publishing exactly the same way as with the stunning Group Limited, New York, originality and critical and commercial suc- 1974, page 136), Chaney Jr. cess of The Wolf Man. As the United States explained it in detail: “The entered World War II, a slew of sequels and day we did the transforma- remakes of the original horror films were tions I came in at two a.m. cranked out at Universal with few standouts When I hit that position they as momentous as their antecedents. Pierce would take little nails and went on to create the Wolf Man character in drive them through the skin succeeding sequels, including Frankenstein at the edge of my fingers, Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and both House on both hands, so that I of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula

50 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 51 (1945). The latter, originally titled The Wolf specializing in prosthetics. Man’s Cure, featured an end to the cycle of Note the subtle change from appearances by the Wolf Man in Universal the 1941 character’s nose to films, but the character would inexplicably that in 1943. With the 1944 reappear in Abbott and Costello Meet Fran- and 1945 House films, Pierce, kenstein three years later. By that point, Jack with a full list of characters to Pierce had been dismissed from Universal, prepare for shooting on each and Bud Westmore was supervising young- film, surely simplified his er makeup artists Jack Kevan (who created Wolf Man application pro- the 1948 Frankenstein Monster) and Emile cess further than he had for LaVigne (who created that film’s version the 1943 film. While in Fran- of the Wolf Man) in their execution of Jack kenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Pierce’s original designs. Notably, LaVigne Pierce had double the char- streamlined Pierce’s work with a larger acters to get ready for screen foam rubber nose, additional appliances, daily than in the original and a more comfortable, quickly applied The Wolf Man, in each House approach for Chaney, Jr. With that final 1940s film he had Count Dracu- Universal Monster film, the classic monster las, hunchbacks, and mad movie era, in effect, was over. scientists to boot. Without Chaney Jr.’s makeup underwent small variations from 1941’s In retrospect, Pierce’s makeup slightly question, the Wolf Man, with The Wolf Man through sequels in 1943, 1944, and 1945 under evolved over his four Wolf Man films. Com- its meticulous hair work, the guise of Jack Pierce. The makeup was fully overhauled for pared with the overall wilder approach of was the most complicated 1948’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein under Bud West- more’s supervision, with personal makeup application by Emile the 1941 film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf of these House characters, LaVigne. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) Man was a slightly more polished ap- necessitating that the process proach—one might say that the character (regardless of Pierce’s careful had a haircut with more closely cropped attention to detail) become more efficient 1930s), assisted Pierce in preparing the char- (meaning applied) rows of hair and a new with a quicker application time. acters in Universal’s makeup department, nose appliance for Chaney Jr. In point, Among those to assist Pierce during which was reportedly situated on the site these foam rubber appliances from the 1941 these years were three craftspeople who of the current Jurassic Park ride at Universal film onward were molded and produced rarely receive due note in popular literature Studios, Hollywood, amusement park. With by Ellis Burman, Sr., whose son Tom and about the period. Carmen Dirigo, who was Dirigo’s knowledge of hair products and wig grandsons Robert and Barney continue the 1940s head of Universal’s hairstyling preparation, she surely provided at least ad- to work as Hollywood makeup artists department (as her mother had been in the vice, if not outright hand-to-hand assistance, to Pierce on these films. Another key collaborator was Bill Ely, a noted makeup technician who worked with Pierce in the depart- ment in the 1940s (until Pierce was let go in 1947). Finally, a major 1930s to 1940s Pierce ally was makeup artist Abe Haberman, a craftsperson who often worked on the many Abbott and Costello pictures of the period. Before his death in winter 1998, Haberman stated, “I used to hold the dryer when [Pierce] was doing the Wolf Man. He would lay that whole beard in, then singe it to give it the animal look. They light the fire in a fireplace, he would light that and then very carefully singe it, and it would curl up and change color and everything.” Working at Max Factor’s make- up enterprise in the early 1930s, Haberman freelanced at many stu- dios in town, often landing at Uni- Jack Pierce creating a mid-stage of the Wolf Man character for House of Dracula (1945) for a key “transformation” makeup incarnation. Such makeup versal. When Joan Bennett brought stages were regularly highlighted in the 1940s Universal films to feature the Haberman with her to Universal in character representing different manifestations of man changing into wolf—or 1938, Haberman encountered Jack back into human. (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) Pierce. In 1996, Haberman said of

52 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #32 SUMMER 2013 53 his time with Bennett at Universal, “When she didn’t work I didn’t have to come in but I did anyway and Jack liked that. We became very close friends, he and Blanch [Craven, Pierce’s wife]. At Universal, I worked with Pierce. We would go in at 5:00 or 6:00, 13 or 14 hours a day; we usu- ally were on six days a week. They would ask me to come in and hold the dryer while they were doing the work. On The Wolf Man, when he used to blend the head with cotton and spirit gum—which is a forgotten art today, since I am the only one left who knows it—while he was apply- ing the cotton, I would dry it for him. He would apply it between the head and the forehead. He had the head and then the cotton and spirit gum would blend the edges.” Haberman continued of his Jack Pierce completes the full Wolf Man character in his Universal time with Pierce in the late 1930s Pictures bungalow, which housed his numerous classic makeups from 1928-1947, including those for five films with The Mummy, and early 1940s, “Jack Pierce was seven different Frankenstein Monsters, the Bride of Frankenstein a perfectionist and he did a lot of (once), Ygor (twice), and hordes of other icons in American cinema. research. He did his own molding of (Courtesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) the characters because I used to see some of the molds in his garage. His garage couple of makeup rooms across.” greatest living authority on monster films, was in the [San Fernando] Valley on Haven- Haberman commented on Pierce’s has publicly stated that the Wolf Man is more hurst, at his home. He fought for his men. creativity with his Wolf Man characters: “He than likely his favorite of all screen monsters. We were like a big family, the whole makeup picked his own things—all the materials and Even today’s artists revere Jack Pierce department. He had his private room and stuff. He was very creative. Universal gave and his majestic triumphs with his various there was a little sitting room for you, then him carte blanche, do whatever you want. He Wolf Man characters. Contemporary makeup there were two makeup chairs in one room was making money for them. Jack was one of effects master Todd Tucker of Illusion Indus- and Bill Ely had the end room. There were a the most loyal people I ever met. He fought for tries created a newly envisioned re-creation everyone in the department. of Pierce’s last original classic horror charac- He was a dynamo and very ter, 1941’s Wolf Man, using model and actor loyal. I have seen him come on Douglas Meyers. Sculpting in clay with help the set and just raise the roof from his assistant, Chris Gallaher, Tucker cre- with the cameramen because ated an overhead mask appliance, hands, and they were complaining about feet, rounded off with lenses by Dr. Stacey something. He would back his Sumner. “It was natural for me to do, since people to the limit because we I’ve created many of my own wolf characters were all, like I said, like a fam- over the years,” said Tucker. ily. We all helped each other, Upon the occasion of Jack Pierce’s death which is unusual today. He in 1968, one of the all-time greatest monster wasn’t afraid of anybody be- makers was gone, but his work continues to cause he knew his business.” live on as new audiences begin to discover Of all the incarnations his treasured films. Perhaps with the fresh of the Wolf Man charac- perspective now available to audiences ter, it would be difficult to through Universal’s recent re-releases of think any version was better many of the classic horror films on DVD and than that in the original 1941 Blu-ray, including a Legacy Collection of The film. However, according to Wolf Man (1941) on DVD from Universal legendary “Monster Kid,” Studios in 2010, the talented craftspeople historian, and collector Bob who realized these films will ultimately be Chaney Jr. posing for a gag while in his full Wolf Man make- Burns, by 1943, the character recognized for their singular efforts. Along- up and costume. In reality, Chaney would have had great was tweaked to the point side the collection of actors, directors, and difficulty eating and drinking in the full makeup. Despite the that it was “perfect” in Fran- executives responsible for Universal’s great comic nature of this still, Chaney found wearing the Wolf Man makeup arduous, with its lengthy application process, kenstein Meets the Wolf Man. horror collection, Jack Pierce deserves spe- irritating texture, and unpleasantly warm conditions. (Cour- Moreover, Burns, who met cial credit for bringing the original monsters tesy of Ronald V. Borst/Hollywood Movie Posters) Pierce and is perhaps the and their movies to life.

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