Film Group Project

Our movie starts out with a murder in an apartment building in London. At this time, the main characters (Bela Lugosi and MaeClarke) who are newlyweds have just moved into their new apartment on floor 13 upon recommendation of a friend (Eric Blore). After Mae Clarke is very suspicious of her husband being the killer, the actual killer, Eric Blore strikes again and kills yet another innocent person.

The director of this film is James Whale. James Whale is an English film director who is best remembered for his horror movies. His most famous movies are Frankenstein (1931) and The Old Dark House (1932). In 1931, James Whale signed a five year contract with Universal Studio.

This film we created is a suspense and horror film. We decided to choose a horror film for this time period because this was around the time of the Great Depression. Many people who went to the movies at this time went because it “provided an effective escape to audiences tiring of their Great Depression” stress (Horror Film History).  The audience wanted to see things that would take their minds off the reality of their lives.

The studio we have picked is Universal Studio. We chose Universal because in 1935 it was known for their work on horror films. Universal “made its name with horror pictures of this time” (Horror Film History).  This studio is not one of the “big guys” rather, it was part of the Little Three including Columbia and United Artists. Therefore, this is a smaller scale movie on a smaller budget.

We picked our cast very carefully. The main actor is Bela Lugosi. Bela Lugosi has had previously smaller roles in films of this time even though he was signed with Universal. We decided to take a chance and give him a big part. The main actress is Mae Clarke. Mae Clarke is a very famous actress of this time. We chose her to be in our film because we want to focus on her discovery of who her husband really is and who he might be. The supporting actor of this movie is Eric Blore.  Eric Blore was a “nobody”. We chose him to be the bad guy in our film because we don’t want the audience to think he is the bad guy. Everything in the film will lead to the audience thinking that Bella Lugosi is the bad guy, but in the end, it’s the guy who no one will suspect who is the actual killer.

The Hayes code played a part in what we could and could not put in our film. The Hayes Code has many specific rules that include no murder or profanity. Since we made a horror film, we had to take into consideration both of these rules. We can and did not show any brutal murders. Most of the “killing” scenes need to be inferred. Since we did not show anything murderous, we did not give anyone any ideas on how to kill. There is no bad profanity in our film either. This makes it more accepted for everyone.

If I had to do this film project on my own, I would change a few things. One thing I would change is the supporting actor. Right now we have Eric Blore as our supporting actor because he was not well known at all and we think the audience will not suspect him as the killer. I think we should cast a female as the supporting actress because I have a feeling that a female would be even less suspicious in this type of film.