Dispelling the Myth of the Boris Karloff-Bela Lugosi "Rivalry"
It has always infuriated me when I see people posting quotes attributed to actor Bela Lugosi, in the film Ed Wood. Yes, I know the film about Ed Wood is supposed to not be taken seriously, and takes liberty with actual facts in many instances, I just wish I knew why Tim Burton chose to portray Bela as a foul mouthed, vulgar man....something he was not. This narrative has been debunked by his son, Bela Lugosi Jr. as well as by Sara Karloff, Boris' daughter, as well as a number of actors who knew and worked with both men. I am not sure why many today seem to take the film as gospel, especially since Martin Landau won an Oscar for his portrayal of the fine Hungarian actor.
While both were fine actors in their own right, they were very different culturally. Karloff loved cricket, while Lugosi loved soccer. Boris enjoyed gardening and had a pet pig, Bela owned a number of dogs, and enjoyed fine food, drink, and cigars. Both were charter members of the Screen Actors Guild. Both donned Santa Claus costumes during the holidays. Karloff maintained his British citizenship, while Lugosi became an American citizen at his first opportunity and was very active in Red Cross blood drives during the war years.
The 'rivalry' was also created in part, by the Hollywood Publicity Machine.
I hope you enjoy the article below by Bill Fleck. It may provide some new information to you.
Enjoy!
“Did Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff really hate each other?”
Written by Bill Fleck/Classic Horrors Behind The Scenes
“Karloff? Sidekick?”
An old, decrepit—but proud—Bela Lugosi stares down a young lackey who has just asked about his sometime co-star on the set of GLEN OR GLENDA (1953).
“F--- you!” the actor suddenly explodes. “Karloff does not deserve to smell my s---! That limey c---sucker can rot in Hell for all I care!”
Director Ed Wood rushes over, obviously concerned.
“What happened?”
“How dare that a—hole bring up Karloff?” an enraged Lugosi replies.
It’s one of the most famous scenes in Tim Burton’s ED WOOD (1994) as performed by actor Martin Landau, who’ll score a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in part because of it.
It’s also complete fiction.
Did Karloff and Lugosi hate each other?
The short answer is no.
But they weren’t exactly friends, either.
More like professional rivals, or so at least Bela thought.
And—through no doing of his own—Karloff had the upper hand.
The situation dates back to when Lugosi—flush with stardom after DRACULA (1931)—turns down the role of the Frankenstein monster (or has it taken away…a more in-depth examination can be found in my blog here).
Of course, Karloff gets the part…and becomes a bigger star than Lugosi.
Though they meet for publicity photos shortly after—and though they are both active in getting the screen actor’s union off the ground—they never socialize off the set.
As far as Karloff is concerned, there’s nothing strange about this.
“I worked with Bela Lugosi in, oh, three or four pictures. Karloff will explain years later, “but outside of the studio, we didn’t meet. You know [Hollywood’s] an enormous, rambling big place spread out all over southern California. You perhaps do a picture with somebody, and your paths don’t cross again for a year. It depends what your individual tastes were…I used to play a lot of Cricket, for years—which I don’t think would have appealed a lot to Bela."
It's an honest assessment. Bela enjoyed reading, smoking cigars, walking his dogs, and throwing small parties for his Hungarian friends. Cricket didn’t enter into it.
Which is fine, because on his end, Bela seems to have had no issue with Karloff…at least, personally.
Professionally? Well, that’s a slightly different matter.
Though they posed for publicity shots and were friendly on set, Karloff and Lugosi never socialized away from the studio.
While it’s true that the stars were always friendly on the set, for Bela, they were rivals when it came to being cast. It irked Bela that Boris was generally granted bigger parts…and was always better paid.
He was also bothered by the fact that Karloff got roles in other genres, while he was typecast as purely a horror guy.
But these were issues caused by Hollywood executives, not Boris himself. Bela most certainly was aware of that.
But it still hurt.
This poor treatment by the suits who controlled the purse strings is clearly illustrated by how Universal attempted to treat Lugosi during the making of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), which featured both Karloff and Basil Rathbone.
Though under a new regime, Universal’s Laemmle-era distaste for Bela remained. In fact, executives initially plan on taking advantage of him. They hire him as Ygor at $500 per week…then instruct director Rowland V. Lee to shoot all of Lugosi’s scenes in less than seven days!
This way, they can get his name on the marquee and lure in his fans on the cheap.
Lugosi knows that Universal would never pull a stunt like this on Karloff.
But Universal hasn’t factored in how stubborn their new star director can be.
According to Lillian Lugosi—Bela’s fourth wife, and mother of their son Bela George—Lee was outraged at Uni’s plan.
“I’m going to show those goddamn SOBs that they can’t do that to Bela,” the director told her. “I’ll keep him on the set from the very first day of shooting to the last minute. I’ll be damned if he doesn’t make as much as Karloff from the film”
As a result, Lugosi turned in one of his best performances…in spite of the fact that—as Greg Mank puts it—he had “to see his rival each day in the very guise that helped Karloff snatch away Lugosi’s horror crown”
Sadly, as excellent as he was, Bela’s performance in SON didn’t win him any champions in the front office. For the most part, the actor went back to lesser pictures and touring in stage revivals of DRACULA and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.
But he never gave less than one-hundred percent.
In retrospect, Boris Karloff believed that Lugosi’s casting troubles were due to Bela not having learned English sufficiently.
“Poor old Bela…” he once mused after Lugosi’s death. “It was a strange thing. He was really a shy, sensitive, talented man who had a fine career on the classical stage in Europe. But he made one fatal mistake. He never took the trouble to learn our language. Consequently, he was very suspicious on the set, suspicious of tricks, fearful of what he regarded as scene stealing. Later, when he realized I didn’t go in for such nonsense, we became friends."
Bela, of course, was unable to respond to that. But he did mention making what amounted to a “fatal mistake” himself.
According to Bela, producer Carl Laemmle would only allow him to bow out of FRANKENSTEIN if he—Lugosi—could find another actor for the part.
“I scouted the agencies,” Bela would say later, “and came upon Boris Karloff. I recommended him…And that is how he happened to become a famous star of horror pictures. My rival in fact.”
Though that isn’t entirely the case, the gist of his comment is sound.
“He made the greatest mistake of his career…” Lillian said in later years. “Bela created his own monster."
***************
My 2 cents:
Bela Lugosi was a larger than life character. He had a zest for life....and he was known to exaggerate...often.
His 'account' of discovering Boris Karloff is totally false. Director James Whale noticed Boris as he dined in the studio commissary.
Because Bela was very loose with his money, he was always living on the edge of the poor house. He arrived in the USA from Europe, via a ship that arrived in New Orleans. He quickly made his way to NY and began his stage career.
He had played the role of Dracula on stage for countless performances before he landed the role in the Universal film that made him an overnight star. Though he was "Dracula" his salary was paltry compared to David Manners.
Universal studios never held Lugosi in very high regard. His zeal for landing the film role of Dracula was such that the studio was able to take full advantage by low balling his salary, and this continued during the production of Son of Frankenstein, until director Rowland V. Lee stepped in. Lugosi was 'a foreigner' with a heavy accent and perhaps they simply thought he was not in the same league as the vast members of the British colony in Hollywood, and their 'King's English.'
I take offense with Karloff's statement about Lugosi's failure to 'learn our language.' While it is true that when he arrived in America he did not know the language and he did learn his lines phonetically for his many stage roles, by the time he made Dracula at Universal, there is no evidence suggesting that he still had to do that.
Consider that anyone who does not have English as their native language must first translate in their head first, then speak. I suggest how difficult it might be to learn the Hungarian language.
Was Bela Lugosi perfect? No....but one thing is certain, he gave 100% to every role, regardless of the quality of the script. Even in his last days he could deliver the goods. If you doubt that, go watch his "I have no home" speech in the film Bride of the Monster. It was done in a single take.
While both were fine actors in their own right, they were very different culturally. Karloff loved cricket, while Lugosi loved soccer. Boris enjoyed gardening and had a pet pig, Bela owned a number of dogs, and enjoyed fine food, drink, and cigars. Both were charter members of the Screen Actors Guild. Both donned Santa Claus costumes during the holidays. Karloff maintained his British citizenship, while Lugosi became an American citizen at his first opportunity and was very active in Red Cross blood drives during the war years.
The 'rivalry' was also created in part, by the Hollywood Publicity Machine.
I hope you enjoy the article below by Bill Fleck. It may provide some new information to you.
Enjoy!
“Did Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff really hate each other?”
Written by Bill Fleck/Classic Horrors Behind The Scenes
“Karloff? Sidekick?”
An old, decrepit—but proud—Bela Lugosi stares down a young lackey who has just asked about his sometime co-star on the set of GLEN OR GLENDA (1953).
“F--- you!” the actor suddenly explodes. “Karloff does not deserve to smell my s---! That limey c---sucker can rot in Hell for all I care!”
Director Ed Wood rushes over, obviously concerned.
“What happened?”
“How dare that a—hole bring up Karloff?” an enraged Lugosi replies.
It’s one of the most famous scenes in Tim Burton’s ED WOOD (1994) as performed by actor Martin Landau, who’ll score a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in part because of it.
It’s also complete fiction.
Did Karloff and Lugosi hate each other?
The short answer is no.
But they weren’t exactly friends, either.
More like professional rivals, or so at least Bela thought.
And—through no doing of his own—Karloff had the upper hand.
The situation dates back to when Lugosi—flush with stardom after DRACULA (1931)—turns down the role of the Frankenstein monster (or has it taken away…a more in-depth examination can be found in my blog here).
Of course, Karloff gets the part…and becomes a bigger star than Lugosi.
Though they meet for publicity photos shortly after—and though they are both active in getting the screen actor’s union off the ground—they never socialize off the set.
As far as Karloff is concerned, there’s nothing strange about this.
“I worked with Bela Lugosi in, oh, three or four pictures. Karloff will explain years later, “but outside of the studio, we didn’t meet. You know [Hollywood’s] an enormous, rambling big place spread out all over southern California. You perhaps do a picture with somebody, and your paths don’t cross again for a year. It depends what your individual tastes were…I used to play a lot of Cricket, for years—which I don’t think would have appealed a lot to Bela."
It's an honest assessment. Bela enjoyed reading, smoking cigars, walking his dogs, and throwing small parties for his Hungarian friends. Cricket didn’t enter into it.
Which is fine, because on his end, Bela seems to have had no issue with Karloff…at least, personally.
Professionally? Well, that’s a slightly different matter.
Though they posed for publicity shots and were friendly on set, Karloff and Lugosi never socialized away from the studio.
While it’s true that the stars were always friendly on the set, for Bela, they were rivals when it came to being cast. It irked Bela that Boris was generally granted bigger parts…and was always better paid.
He was also bothered by the fact that Karloff got roles in other genres, while he was typecast as purely a horror guy.
But these were issues caused by Hollywood executives, not Boris himself. Bela most certainly was aware of that.
But it still hurt.
This poor treatment by the suits who controlled the purse strings is clearly illustrated by how Universal attempted to treat Lugosi during the making of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), which featured both Karloff and Basil Rathbone.
Though under a new regime, Universal’s Laemmle-era distaste for Bela remained. In fact, executives initially plan on taking advantage of him. They hire him as Ygor at $500 per week…then instruct director Rowland V. Lee to shoot all of Lugosi’s scenes in less than seven days!
This way, they can get his name on the marquee and lure in his fans on the cheap.
Lugosi knows that Universal would never pull a stunt like this on Karloff.
But Universal hasn’t factored in how stubborn their new star director can be.
According to Lillian Lugosi—Bela’s fourth wife, and mother of their son Bela George—Lee was outraged at Uni’s plan.
“I’m going to show those goddamn SOBs that they can’t do that to Bela,” the director told her. “I’ll keep him on the set from the very first day of shooting to the last minute. I’ll be damned if he doesn’t make as much as Karloff from the film”
As a result, Lugosi turned in one of his best performances…in spite of the fact that—as Greg Mank puts it—he had “to see his rival each day in the very guise that helped Karloff snatch away Lugosi’s horror crown”
Sadly, as excellent as he was, Bela’s performance in SON didn’t win him any champions in the front office. For the most part, the actor went back to lesser pictures and touring in stage revivals of DRACULA and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.
But he never gave less than one-hundred percent.
In retrospect, Boris Karloff believed that Lugosi’s casting troubles were due to Bela not having learned English sufficiently.
“Poor old Bela…” he once mused after Lugosi’s death. “It was a strange thing. He was really a shy, sensitive, talented man who had a fine career on the classical stage in Europe. But he made one fatal mistake. He never took the trouble to learn our language. Consequently, he was very suspicious on the set, suspicious of tricks, fearful of what he regarded as scene stealing. Later, when he realized I didn’t go in for such nonsense, we became friends."
Bela, of course, was unable to respond to that. But he did mention making what amounted to a “fatal mistake” himself.
According to Bela, producer Carl Laemmle would only allow him to bow out of FRANKENSTEIN if he—Lugosi—could find another actor for the part.
“I scouted the agencies,” Bela would say later, “and came upon Boris Karloff. I recommended him…And that is how he happened to become a famous star of horror pictures. My rival in fact.”
Though that isn’t entirely the case, the gist of his comment is sound.
“He made the greatest mistake of his career…” Lillian said in later years. “Bela created his own monster."
***************
My 2 cents:
Bela Lugosi was a larger than life character. He had a zest for life....and he was known to exaggerate...often.
His 'account' of discovering Boris Karloff is totally false. Director James Whale noticed Boris as he dined in the studio commissary.
Because Bela was very loose with his money, he was always living on the edge of the poor house. He arrived in the USA from Europe, via a ship that arrived in New Orleans. He quickly made his way to NY and began his stage career.
He had played the role of Dracula on stage for countless performances before he landed the role in the Universal film that made him an overnight star. Though he was "Dracula" his salary was paltry compared to David Manners.
Universal studios never held Lugosi in very high regard. His zeal for landing the film role of Dracula was such that the studio was able to take full advantage by low balling his salary, and this continued during the production of Son of Frankenstein, until director Rowland V. Lee stepped in. Lugosi was 'a foreigner' with a heavy accent and perhaps they simply thought he was not in the same league as the vast members of the British colony in Hollywood, and their 'King's English.'
I take offense with Karloff's statement about Lugosi's failure to 'learn our language.' While it is true that when he arrived in America he did not know the language and he did learn his lines phonetically for his many stage roles, by the time he made Dracula at Universal, there is no evidence suggesting that he still had to do that.
Consider that anyone who does not have English as their native language must first translate in their head first, then speak. I suggest how difficult it might be to learn the Hungarian language.
Was Bela Lugosi perfect? No....but one thing is certain, he gave 100% to every role, regardless of the quality of the script. Even in his last days he could deliver the goods. If you doubt that, go watch his "I have no home" speech in the film Bride of the Monster. It was done in a single take.
