Jack Pierce - The Man Behind the Monsters (4 page)

the mummy

In 1932, Jack Pierce was called upon to realize two makeups for Boris Karloff in
The Mummy
. ‘Papa’ Karl Freund, the director of photography from
Dracula,
was brought in to direct the film, loosely based on the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922. Pierce was required to create two likenesses: Karloff’s Ardath Bey character — who appears in most of the film as a wrinkled Egyptian prince — and Im-Ho-Tep, the decrepit still-mummified demon who comes to life when an ancient curse is broken by careless explorers. It was with the Im-Ho-Tep makeup that Pierce faced his greatest challenge to date.

“The complete makeup, from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet took eight hours,” Pierce explained. “The bandages on the body had to be put on. Then I had to seal them with tape so that they wouldn’t unravel. Then after that, I had to put the burned bandages on. After that, I put the clay on. When he gets out of the sarcophagus, he starts to walk, [so I created the character so that] the bandages would break and the dust will fall off exactly as a mummy that’s been buried for 3500 years. It was an hour and a half to take it off.”

Though Im-Ho-Tep was only on screen for a few brief moments at the outset of
The Mummy
, the impact of his appearance still remains. Freund chose to show the character first as a lifeless entity in his sarcophagus, later opening his eyes when the curse is broken, and then in a horrific shot of his hand grabbing the sacred scroll that has been foolishly unearthed by the explorer Fletcher (actor Ralph Norton, below left). In fact, the image below was deleted from the final film—all that we see on screen is Im-Ho-Tep’s left hand and the reaction of the shocked Fletcher. Certainly, Karloff’s eight-hour ordeal to get into the makeup proved worthwhile, and it is likely that he only worked a day or two at most in the full Im-Ho-Tep incarnation. Below right, Pierce attends to Karloff, who is sitting under the massive arc lights of early studio soundstages, while Mrs. Karloff serves up some tea.

Karloff worked the remainder of the production as Ardath Bey, bottom left, a far simpler Pierce design, stalking the grounds on which his rest was disturbed, searching out his princess. Given Karloff’s already distinct eyes and brows, Pierce accentuated those traits and added his personal cotton-collodion-fuller’s earth mixture to give Ardath Bey the wrinkled texture of a man who has awakened from a 3700-year slumber. For
The Mummy
, Pierce received a Hollywood Filmograph award for his considerable accomplishments. Presented to him by Karloff, bottom right, the statue stands as the lone official recognition of Pierce by his peers.

the faces of karloff

Of all the actors and actresses who entered Jack Pierce’s makeup bungalow on the Universal lot, Boris Karloff was the most integral to the success of Pierce’s work. Following their tremendous achievements with
Frankenstein
in 1931, Pierce and Karloff engaged in many unique projects that made use of each of their talents. Before Pierce and Karloff shot
The Mummy
, they collaborated for James Whale’s
The Old Dark House
in 1932. Playing the demonic butler, Morgan (left), Pierce’s conception of Karloff as a scarred haggard menace fit perfectly into Whale’s timeless haunted house tale. In 1934, the studio sought to pair their two horror giants, Karloff and Béla Lugosi, in a series of films. First up was
The Black Cat
(below left) in which Pierce subtly enhanced Karloff’s basic facial features, eyebrows and hairline to create a memorable Gothic persona for the actor. The next year, Pierce took his approach even further with
The Raven
(below), modeling a misshapen eye and right side of Karloff’s face. Though the false eye was less convincing than other aspects of the makeup, by the end of the Laemmle era (with 1936’s
The Invisible Ray
as the final KarloffLugosi pairing), Pierce and Karloff had amassed an impressive body of work.