Jack Pierce's Incarnations Of

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 character 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.

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