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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 01/20/2008 : 22:14:49
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Again, this relates to the classic Universal monster movies: I am interested in the stock character of Igor and how he came to evolve. We think of Igor as the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, but in the two most famous "Frankenstein" films (Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein), there are indeed hunchbacked lab assistants, but they're not named Igor. The first is named Fritz (Dwight Frye), and I believe there's a second one named Karl. When a character named Ygor (Bela Lugosi) finally shows up in the third film (Son of Frankenstein), his name is spelled "Ygor" and he is a murderous criminal with a broken neck. This Ygor is neither a hunchback nor a lab assistant, at least not in the classic subservient "Yessss, master!" mode. So if Ygor isn't Igor, where did Igor come from?
This Wikipedia entry only confuses the matter because it skips from Ghost of Frankenstein with Lugosi's Ygor to Young Frankenstein in which Marty Feldman plays an Igor who is clearly based on Dwight Frye's Fritz and not on Bela Lugosi's Ygor.
A key moment in between those two movies is the 1962 novelty song "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, which features an Igor character who is a lab assistant, again much closer to the Frye character than the Lugosi character.
Is it just possible that we think of Igor as Frankenstein's assistant because of "Monster Mash" and that Pickett got the characters of Fritz and Ygor confused? |
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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 01/20/2008 : 23:56:22
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| I don't really care about the films, but I don't remember an Igor or Ygor in the book. |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 01/21/2008 : 01:53:26
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The audio commentaries on the Universal DVDs explain a bit why the story changed so much from Mary Shelley's book to the movies. Apparently, what happened in between is that the book was adapted into popular stage productions and by the time the story hit the screen, it had mutated somewhat. The screenplays for Frankenstein and Bride are combinations of Shelley's book, elements of various stage plays, and the screenwriter's own ideas. The movies themselves are Frankenstein-ian creations, stitched together from assorted parts. But again, Ygor doesn't show up until the third film, and when he does he's not at all like the "Igor" character of the popular imagination. By that time, the movies were no longer taking scenes from Shelley's book but were conceived directly for the screen, more or less from scratch. (Shelley still gets an "inspired by" or "suggested by" credit in these films, as she does in Young Frankenstein.)
I mentioned "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, but I neglected to mention an earlier hit record: 1958's "Dinner with Drac" by Philadephia's TV horror host John Zacherle (The Cool Ghoul). While "Monster Mash" is ostensibly about Frankenstein, "Dinner with Drac" is of course about Dracula, but it does contain the line "Igor! The scalpels go on the left with the pitchforks!" which suggests that Igor is a lab assistant. Pickett was obviously inspired by Zacherle's record, and it seems likely that the Igor character in "Monster Mash" ("Mmmmm! Mash good!") is an embellishment on that line from Zacherle's song.
Incidentally, Igor is actually getting his own full-legth animated movie with John Cusack voicing the title role. |
Edited by - Joe Blevins on 01/21/2008 01:53:59 |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 01/21/2008 : 05:27:39
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Joe, I believe you're exactly right. The Zacherle record -- predating the "Mash" -- is where we get our notion of "Igor."
But by then, the late 50s, Universal was already laughing its way to the bank, having licensed the 30s/40s classic monsters to the new medium of TV, thus inspiring Zach and other local late-night "Shock Theaters" across the country, not to mention the very influential mag FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, which in turn inspired Stephens Spielberg and King, plus Joe Dante, etc etc. -- and, of course, igniting the huge 50s monster craze which not only made Pickett's and Zach's novelty records big hits, but also gave us THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY. |
Edited by - randall on 01/21/2008 05:41:54 |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 01/21/2008 : 09:51:52
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quote:
Originally posted by Randall
But by then, the late 50s, Universal was already laughing its way to the bank, having licensed the 30s/40s classic monsters to the new medium of TV, thus inspiring Zach and other local late-night "Shock Theaters" across the country, not to mention the very influential mag FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, which in turn inspired Stephens Spielberg and King, plus Joe Dante, etc etc. -- and, of course, igniting the huge 50s monster craze which not only made Pickett's and Zach's novelty records big hits, but also gave us THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY.
Uhm --- Surely, The Addams Family phenomenon was started by Charles Addams cartoons in the New Yorker, which I believe began in the 1930s.
PS: Igor seems to give his own account on the Uncyclopedia
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 11/13/2009 : 16:15:47
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quote:
Originally posted by BaftenBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
But by then, the late 50s, Universal was already laughing its way to the bank, having licensed the 30s/40s classic monsters to the new medium of TV, thus inspiring Zach and other local late-night "Shock Theaters" across the country, not to mention the very influential mag FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, which in turn inspired Stephens Spielberg and King, plus Joe Dante, etc etc. -- and, of course, igniting the huge 50s monster craze which not only made Pickett's and Zach's novelty records big hits, but also gave us THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY.
Uhm --- Surely, The Addams Family phenomenon was started by Charles Addams cartoons in the New Yorker, which I believe began in the 1930s.
PS: Igor seems to give his own account on the Uncyclopedia
I'm researching the monster craze some months later, and came upon your comment. While the Addams Family was a longtime New Yorker feature, yes, still it *was* the monster fad which got it green-lighted as a TV series...that, and the knowledge that rival CBS was going ahead with a Universal-licensed monster comedy to address the same trend. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 11/14/2009 : 08:52:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
Incidentally, Igor is actually getting his own full-length animated movie with John Cusack voicing the title role.
You're kidding, right? This sounds... well... horrific.
(Just the thing to hear the day after Friday the 13th! By the way, the last thing I got a fright by watching was "Bolt". It was so bad, I was fearful that their writers are still employed! A very scary prospect, and that Igor movie sounds just like something they'd do.)
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 11/14/2009 : 15:59:28
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Or rather something they did do, about a year ago...  |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 11/15/2009 : 06:28:50
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quote:
Originally posted by dem10nic
Or rather something they did do, about a year ago...
Apparently totally forgettable.
And yet, it gets a full 6.0 out of 10.
How generous! |
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Beanmimo 
"August review site"
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Posted - 11/24/2009 : 13:56:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
Again, this relates to the classic Universal monster movies: I am interested in the stock character of Igor and how he came to evolve. We think of Igor as the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, but in the two most famous "Frankenstein" films (Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein), there are indeed hunchbacked lab assistants, but they're not named Igor. The first is named Fritz (Dwight Frye), and I believe there's a second one named Karl. When a character named Ygor (Bela Lugosi) finally shows up in the third film (Son of Frankenstein), his name is spelled "Ygor" and he is a murderous criminal with a broken neck. This Ygor is neither a hunchback nor a lab assistant, at least not in the classic subservient "Yessss, master!" mode. So if Ygor isn't Igor, where did Igor come from?
This Wikipedia entry only confuses the matter because it skips from Ghost of Frankenstein with Lugosi's Ygor to Young Frankenstein in which Marty Feldman plays an Igor who is clearly based on Dwight Frye's Fritz and not on Bela Lugosi's Ygor.
A key moment in between those two movies is the 1962 novelty song "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, which features an Igor character who is a lab assistant, again much closer to the Frye character than the Lugosi character.
Is it just possible that we think of Igor as Frankenstein's assistant because of "Monster Mash" and that Pickett got the characters of Fritz and Ygor confused?
Hey Joe you've probably buried this one by now but here's a link that only really supports your theory. You've probably already been here but just in case.
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Edited by - Beanmimo on 11/24/2009 13:56:39 |
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Another horror question: Ygor to Igor?
