Happy Halloween from the Louise Brooks Society

The closest Louise Brooks ever came to appearing in a horror film was being considered for the lead role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the James Whale classic. Of course, the role went to the another actress with iconic hair, Elsa Lanchester, who was brilliant in the dual roles of the Bride and Mary Shelley. Would Brooks have been any good in the role?

The following year, Brooks appeared in another Universal film with a spooky plot point, Empty Saddles (1936), a creaky programmer starring Buck Jones which Barry Paris describes as a "Confused western about outlaws attempting to take over a haunted dude ranch." Of course, it's not really haunted, just deserted, and the ghosts are .....

Nevertheless.... Happy Halloween from the Louise Brooks Society.

Louise Brooks and Horror

One doesn't think of Louise Brooks in relation to the horror genre, and linking the actress to anything spooky or frightening is something of a stretch. How ever, there are a tenuous connections. It's known, for example, that director James Whale briefly considered Brooks for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). That role rightly went to Elsa Lanchester, who is terrific. And, there were supposed ghosts which spooked Buck Jones and company in Empty Saddles (1936), Brooks' first Western. Both Bride of Frankenstein and Empty Saddles were released by Universal, the leading studio when it came to horror films in the 1930s.

Though bangless, it is all about the stare and the hair

Recently, I was watching Mark Gattis's three part history of horror on YouTube, which I would recommend as quirky and inciteful. It begins here, A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (Part 1 of 3) Frankenstein Goes to Hollywood. For those who don't know Gattis, he is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock, where in the latter he played Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft Holmes. Gattis is also a reel geek, and horror buff. If you watch the series, you will know what I mean.

Contemplating Dante and the circles of Hell

Well, anyways, there is a sort of part four to the series which covers European horror films. It's a BBC production, and it's called Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss. I watched it as well, and much to my surprise, Louise Brooks got a shout out! Considering Brooks' influence on European cinema in the 1960s (Jean-Luc Godard, Anna Karina, etc...), it's not surprising that her influence trickled down in the genre film. If you want to find out more, watch these documentaries.