Dwight Frye

October brings out the horror film buffs in droves. All the television channels focus on scary movies, and even theaters get into the mood. The local Movie Tavern near us is showing Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) this week, and TCM is screening Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) in a double feature. Its good to be alive.

So, who is the greatest Bit Actor of the horror genre? A good question, and of course, it is open to debate. I will put forward the name Dwight Frye (1899 - 1943), a veteran actor of over 60 titles. Let's take a look.

Frye's first screen appearance was in the Reginald Denny (1891 - 1967) comedy, The Night Bird (1928), which was his only silent film. In 1930 his first talkie was The Doorway to Hell starring Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996). Ayres went on to play Doctor James Kildare in the film series, with Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie. Also look for James Cagney in Doorway, which was Cagney's second film.

In 1931 Frye would take a role that set him up for a life in film that was forever typecast. As Renfield in Dracula (1931) he created a deranged characterization that he could not escape. In 1931 he was also in The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez (1900 - 1977) and another famous horror film, Frankenstein, where he played Fritz, another deranged person. In The Maltese Falcon he was Wilmer Cook. Since Wilmer was a sadistic bad guy, he was in character there as well.

Frye is fascinated with bats again in The Vampire Bat (1933) starring Lionel Atwill (1885 - 1946) who is famous as Prof. Moriarty to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. Also look for Fay Wray and Melvyn Douglas in that one.

There are a few detective stories in this era, but Dwight's next big horror flick is The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains (1889 - 1967). That was Rains' first sound film and it certainly helped him become a star. Frye works for a third time with director James Whale (1889 - 1957) in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), this time as Karl.

In The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) Frye plays a doctor. Probably not a mad one. The mad one is played by Erich von Stroheim (1885 - 1957). And the next year we see Dwight in a lighter film, Tough Guy, with Jackie Cooper and Rin-Tin-Tin Jr.

Things weren't going well for Frye at this point. He takes roles where he is uncredited as an extra, or parts where he played a makeup artist or "man on telephone." The stars he worked with included James Cagney, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine and others.

In The Shadow (1937) Frye is a hunchback once again, this time in the circus, and accused of murder. This one stars Rita Hayworth. He works with Hayworth again in Who Killed Gail Preston? (1938). One reviewer called it a 'murder-musical.' This time Hayworth is the victim.

Dwight Frye

IMDb has Frye unconfirmed as a villager in Son of Frankenstein (1939). Some one was probably watching it in HD and thought he recognized the hump. Or maybe he was eating flies. Who knows. If you see him, please let me know. That year we see Frye in his last work with James Whale, The Man in the Iron Mask.

I have written about an acquaintance of mine, Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990), in a previous post. Henry starred in a serial called The Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), and he worked with Dwight in episode 5.

There were a few war movies, as everyone was expected to make, and in 1941 he worked with Lew Ayres again in The People vs. Dr. Kildare. Nothing spectacular for a horror Bit Actor. So let's end this with the rest of his good stuff.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) starring Lon Chaney Jr., Cedric Hardwicke and Bela Lugosi.
Dead Men Walk (1943) with George Zucco, another Rathbone/Holmes foe.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943) again with Lugosi and Chaney Jr.
And in his finale, a change of pace comedy, Dangerous Blondes (1943), where he was uncredited.

Before he passed away Dwight was cast to play a substantial role in Wilson (1944), but he died of a heart attack before filming started. His role was taken by Reginald Sheffield (1901 - 1957).

In the career of one Bit Actor, I have given you a complete month of horror titles. Now go rent or buy some of them and start planning your Halloween party! And make sure you find Dwight Frye in as many of them as you can.

Ulverston, England 1984

I am busy scanning, and I just lost my external hard drive!!!  The file system went missing, so now I am looking for a recovery program to help me get my pics back.  Failing that, I have the originals and backups of what was on that disk, so I can start over.  :-(

I thought I would share some pics I took in Ulverston, England at the Fourth International Convention of the Sons of the Desert in 1984.  The convention started in London and then moved up to the Lake District where Stan Laurel was born.

People all over the small town of Ulverston were getting into the spirit of the convention.

The mayor of the town at that time was Bill Cubin.  He also ran the Laurel and Hardy Museum, which was a small shop-size place with pictures and memorabilia everywhere.  Pictures and letters were even on the ceiling.

The museum has since moved into an old movie theater, and continues to be run by Bill's family.  The Lake District is incredibly beautiful, so if you ever travel to Great Britain, be sure to stop in Ulverston.

This photo was taken in Blackpool, England where we were having a banquet.  We had visited the Blackpool Tower, famous for ballroom dancing.  The actual tower on the roof provided a great view up and down the coast.

I found the small bar outside the banquet room and stopped for a pint.  I was joined by Little Jimmy Murphy.  Jimmy was Stan Laurel's valet for many years.  He is from that area of England.

The tall chap is Henry Brandon (1912 - 1990), a star in over 100 movies.  He is here because he played Silas Barnaby in Babes in Toyland (1934) with Laurel and Hardy.  Also look for him in The Searchers (11956) with John Wayne.  Please click on Henry's name for a link to my previous post about him.

The other two in the pic are the musicians who were playing at our banquet.  We all wound up looking for refreshment, and I had a wonderful time trying to understand the English Jimmy Murphy and the two musicians were speaking.  They had quite a heavy local accent, but it is a memory I cherish.

If you click on the images you should see them at full size.  Please enjoy them, but also please respect my ownership.  All photos in this post are copyright 1984 by Allen Hefner.  Just ask for permission to use them.

War of the Worlds

Have you noticed that newer movies seem to be longer than classic films?  My guess, at least in part, is that the credits at the end are longer.  These days, if you have ANY connection with the production of a movie in ANY small way, your name appears on film.  Right down to the interns who don't even get paid.

Another movie that was remade is War of the Worlds.  Actually I haven't seen the newer version from 2005, by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise.  But the 1953 Gene Barry film will do nicely.  Let's compare running times: 1953 was 85 minutes, and 2005 was 116 minutes.  Lots more credit time, so lets compare cast.  1953 has 90 listed cast members, 2005 has 126 in the cast.  So the newer version has 36 more...(probably extras), and 31 more minutes.

Enough math.  Gene Barry did appear in both films, going from star to bit actor.  Many of the uncredited extras in WotW 1953 had long careers in film and TV.  David McMahon was in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Bus Stop (1956), Elmer Gantry (1960) and a host of TV shows in addition to regular movie work.

Stunt man Joe Gray had 116 acting credits, from A Star is Born in 1937 to some small parts in the 1970s including Airport (1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes in 1971.  He also appeared in Guys and Dolls (1955), Some Like it Hot (1959), Bells are Ringing and Ocean's Eleven both in 1960.

Other great names (at least for me) are Henry Brandon, who I talked about on May 30th, and I am happy to have spent some time with Henry.  You can also see famous vocal artist Paul Frees who worked with Spike Jones and racked up well over 300 roles in film, TV and cartoons.  He was a voice heard in Some Like it Hot and Bells are Ringing.  On TV he was the voice of John Beresford Tipton in "The Millionaire" and he was the voice of Boris Badenov, Barney Google, and many others.

Great stars in a movie that was pretty darn good at the time.

Barnaby and Me

I have been thinking about what to write regarding another acquaintance, Henry Brandon.  What can you say about Henry?  He was fun to talk to, and always ready to discuss his career, with a bit of humor added.

Henry was born in Germany in 1912.  His second film acting job was in the Laurel and Hardy classic, Babes in Toyland from 1934.  He had one of the leads in the film, which is no easy task for an actor new to film.

Some trivia about Babes in Toyland, the character Mickey Mouse appeared in the film which is one of the very few times a Disney character is included in a non-Disney movie.  Walt Disney loved Laurel and Hardy, so he allowed the famous mouse to be used.  Many years later, when Disney did Babes in Toyland in 1961 with Ray Bolger and Ed Wynn, he included two characters who mimicked L&H.

The L&H Babes in Toyland was later shown on TV as "March of the Wooden Soldiers."  Some of the film was lost (probably due to editing for TV), but then restored, so if you try to purchase it on DVD, be careful.  It would be tragic to pick up a colorized version, and I know they are available!  The original movie opened with a storybook that flipped pages for the titles.  That should be available now.  I am all for getting the most original version possible.

Back to Henry Brandon.  Henry's career was better than most.  He was in three John Wayne movies, including The Searchers, which is considered one of the most important films ever made.  Henry came from Germany, but that didn't prevent him from being cast as a Native American in The Searchers, and many other film and TV roles.  He played four different Indians on six episodes of "Wagon Train!"

Henry was a guest at the 1984 Sons of the Desert convention in the UK, and I was also present.  He could usually be found in the pub talking with many admirers.  When we held the Philadelphia SoD convention two years later, Henry was there, along with Felix Knight and Virginia Karns, who were both in Babes.  We recreated the story on stage at the convention...it was amazing!  For the big finally, when the six foot wooden soldiers march in, we had hired one of the famous Philadelphia Mummers bands to march and play.

If you look at the list on IMDB, you can see that Henry appeared in many TV shows.  I suppose that happened to quite a few actors.  TV parts were probably easy to secure, and the work would be fast, then on to the next show.  It probably gave them some exposure that could help get movie parts.

Henry passed away in 1990, but he left an impression on many people who see his work, and on the many people he met and spent time sharing stories.