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Bela Lugosi was one of the top two horror actors from the 1930s (along with Boris Karloff) in movies such as Dracula, Island of Lost Souls, The Wolf Man, The Body Snatcher, and the Black Cat. His portrayal of Dracula was so memorable, that it caused movie makers to only want him to play similar roles, and in the minds of many horror fans, there is no other Dracula BUT Bela Lugosi! AND Boris Karloff was born in England in 1887. He moved to Canada at 21 and then the U.S., and he was a stage actor who appeared in a large number of silent movies, but with only limited success. In 1931, he was cast as Frankenstein's monster, and his enormous success in that movie over-shadowed the fine performances he turned in on Scarface (1932), The Lost Patrol (1934), and The House of Rothschild (also in 1934). He was typecast as a monster/horror movie star, and with few exceptions, that is all he played the remainder of his career. He had great roles in The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, and many others. He wore a huge amount of make-up in the Frankenstein movies and The Mummy, and he had health issues that made that even more uncomfortable, and so he later mostly played roles that did not require substantial make-up. In 1941 Karloff was offered the stage role of Jonathan Brewster (written specifically for him) in Arsenic and Old Lace, and he received a percentage of the profits. The film rights were sold to Warner Bros, who wanted Karloff to reprise his stage role, but he rightly thought appearing in the movie would hurt the play (and his profits) so he refused (which was a sound business decision, but robbed us of a great film portrayal!). The movie was filmed in late 1941, but the studio had agreed not to release it until the play finished its run, so it was not released until 1944 when the play finally ended after over 1,400 performances! Karloff is also well remembered for his great narration of Chuck Jones' great animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Important Added Info: Note that this still, which measures 8" x 10 1/4" [20 x 26 cm], is from a press conference that Universal held in 1932, where these two legendary horror film stars were photographed together, perhaps for the very first time! The back of the still has printed information about the front and it calls them "Universal exponents of horrors" and calls them "Bela (Dracula) Lugosi" and "Boris (Frankenstein) Karloff", and says that they "are good friends and friendly rivals", and that Lugosi "will play in Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club and Karloff in The Old Dark House by J.B. Priestley and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells". Of course, the Universal version of "The Suicide Club" was never made, and while Karloff did star in "The Old Dark House", it was newcomer Claude Rains who ended up starring in "The Invisible Man", which did not come to the screen for three more years. Note that our consignor is a major still collector of many many years, and this still was the prize of his collection, and he paid $1,000 to acquire it, and we are sure it would be a great prize for the new owner of this wonderful still!

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