Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)

On the creation of Robot Maria:

“The concentric rings of light that surround her and move from top to bottom were in fact a little ball of silver rapidly swung in a circle and filmed on a background of black velvet. We superimposed those shots, in the lab, over the shot of the robot in a sitting position that we had filmed previously.”

-Fritz Lang

Better Homes & Gardens: Dream Evil Labs edition -Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931, dir. Rouben Mamoulian)

Photographer: Gordon Head

Prof. Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) tests out “Flubber”, the anti-gravity flying rubber he’s invented in The Absent Minded Professor (1961, dir. Robert Stevenson)

Tarantula (1955, dir. Jack Arnold)

This entry in the “Science Gone Horribly Wrong” genre is mainly notable for the giant, rampaging mutant tarantula, young Clint Eastwood’s brief appearance as a napalm-dropping fighter pilot, and special effects good enough to traumatize arachnophobic viewers.

Laboratory set for L’Inhumaine (1924, dir. Marcel L’Herbier) Set designer: Fernand Léger.

Peter Cushing in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969, dir. Terence Fisher)

“Who wants to see me as ‘Hamlet’? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that’s the one I do.”

Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, dir. James Whale) (via)

Set design by Charles D. Hall.

Marty Feldman & Abby Normal in Young Frankenstein (1974, dir. Mel Brooks) (via)

Clara Kimball Young in Lola (1914, dir. James Young)

In the film, sweet & virtuous Lola is killed in a car accident. She is restored to life, by means of her scientist father’s electric ray machine, but too late to prevent Death from carrying off her soul. The now soulless Lola promptly turns into an amoral jezebel who enjoys anonymous beach sex and making men cry with statements like, ”When a man says to me, ‘I want the only things you have - your beauty, your youth, your love,’ haven’t I the right to say, ‘What will you give me for them?’” 

Order is restored when “too much excitement” (i.e. too many adulterous orgasms) fatally weakens her heart, and her heartbroken father, having learned his lesson, lets her go.

Gene Wilder & Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974, dir. Mel Brooks)(via)

Brooks: ”I was in the middle of shooting the last few weeks of Blazing Saddles somewhere in the Antelope Valley, and Gene Wilder and I were having a cup of coffee and he said, I have this idea that there could be another Frankenstein. I said not another – we’ve had the son of, the cousin of, the brother-in-law, we don’t need another Frankenstein. His idea was very simple: What if the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein wanted nothing to do with the family whatsoever. He was ashamed of those wackos. I said, “That’s funny.”

(via)

Laboratory set from Bride of Frankenstein (1935, dir. James Whale). Art direction by Charles D. Hall

(via)