I was flipping around the dial this afternoon and came across the "classic" horror picture, "Son of Frankenstein," a sequel to the original Frankenstein. Karloff (of course) played the "monster" and Bela Lugosi played Ygor, the original Dr. Frankenstein's lab assistant. Ygor has a permanently crooked neck, reportedly the result of a botched hanging/execution for the crime of body snatching. We know all about that, eh?
Of course, by today's standards it was incredibly hokey and more humorous than frightening.
And I wonder who, exactly, was the 1930's target audience for this film. Kids might have liked it (I liked this stuff when I was a kid), but did it also thrill the adult audience during the Depression?
In Pittsburgh, we used to have a Saturday night film program called, Chiller Theater, in which the host, a local DJ named Bill Cardille, would play a scary movie with added humorous commentary. Those were the days, my friends.