While Chaney went on to make two more films, including the 1930 talkie remake of Browning's Unholy Three, before his untimely death, Browning unexpectedly found his next big star in the old-dark-house chiller, The Thirteenth Chair (1929), which was Browning's first talkie.

Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian stage actor, had a decent-sized part as a police inspector searching for the hooded killer. Browning would remember Lugosi genuine eastern European accent and piercing stare when casting for the biggest project of his career.

In 1930, Browning remade his own Outside the Law, this time starring Edward G. Robinson in the Chaney role. Around this time, he was called up by Universal, then the world's biggest film studios, make the first American talkie version of classic horror story.

Browning was offered the reigns of Dracula in the hope of producing a bigger budget, talkie version of London after Midnight, with Chaney touted to play the titular character. But before production even started, Lon Chaney Snr. died suddenly from a throat hemorrhage.

Upset by Chaney's death, and understanding the talent that he'd lost, Browning now wanted to hugely limit the time that Dracula appeared on screen, suggesting the hiring of an unknown to fill in for a handful of shots. Universal, however, had other ideas, and wanted to recreate the approach of the successful stage play, for which they had paid $40,000 for the rights to. It was natural then, that the man cast in the lead role was a man that had lead that play to success; a man not unknown to Browning either.


Bela Lugosi, with his strong Hungarian accent and dark, sinister appearance, made for perfect casting, and beating the likes of Conrad Veidt and Victor Jory for the role.

rowning, moving away from his typical freakshow shock style, helped develop the gothic horror with this first talkie addition to the Universal horror series. Cobwebs, howling wolves, sinister castles and coffins are all present, and induce memories of silent Euro horrors.

Dracula (1931) was at the time criticised for being stagey and slow, betraying that it was based on the play rather than the book - this is even more jarring in today's climate of non-stop action. But it should be remembered that sound was new to cinema, so Browning shows himself as a pioneer of talkie movies with some memorable dialogue.

Although considered by many even today as a tread-setting classic, Universal was unhappy with the Browning version, preferred the Spanish-language version starring Lupita Tovar filmed on the same sets at night. Still, it didn't stop Universal from following this up with a version of Frankenstein, though James Whale was hired to direct instead.

Dracula went on to make millions of dollars worldwide, and made a star of Lugosi, who would spend almost all of his career cast in horror films, many of which we're very low budget. But the even bigger success of Frankenstein (1931) meant that Whale achieved most of the plaudits with the studio, and it was he that hired to direct a number of other successful horrors, while even Dracula cinematographer Karl Freund was handed the reins of The Mummy (1932).

Browning next made the boxing drama for Universal, The Iron Man (1931), starring Lew Ayres, Jean Harlow and future King Kong star Robert Armstrong, but it was MGM who offered Browning his chance to return to horror; and once again visit his obsessions with sideshows and circuses. What results was a cinematic classic that shocked the world.

Freaks is based on the short story 'Spurs' by Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins, the screenwriter of The Unholy Three. The film concerns the exploitation of a wealthy dwarf (Harry Earles, previously in 1925 version of The Unholy Three) by a gold-digging acrobat and Hercules, her strongman lover.

She pretends to love the little guy, who spurns his own dwarf girlfriend for her. The gold-digger marries the dwarf for his money and attempts to murder him, however his fellow circus freaks cotton on, and set out for vengeance in a truly unforgettable scene.

The film was highly controversial for the time, and offended many viewers and critics. Many saw the film as vulgar exploitation, ironically missing the point that anti-exploitation theme. Even after heavy editing to remove many disturbing scenes, the film was still deemed to shocking, and was banned in the UK until the 1960s. Freaks and was a commercial failure, and the studios feared to hire Browning, now seen as an unpopular extremist.

In modern times, Freaks is one of the few 'classics' of the 30s that maintains its ability to shock (unlike Dracula) and is a unique example of a style of film-making that would not be excepted today.

Browning found himself pretty much black-listed by Hollywood. He was uncredited by MGM for Fast Workers (1933), which starred the equal unpopular John Gilbert, once the highest paid star of the silent era who made a bad choice of enemy in Louis B Meyer. And for more horror connections, Fast Workers also starred Robert Armstrong (King Kong) and Mae Clarke (Elizabeth in Frankenstein).

In 1935, after three years without a credited directorial role, MGM allowed Browning to direct a remake of his own London after Midnight. Originally titled Vampires of Prague but eventually released as Mark of the Vampire (1935), the Lon Chaney role here is split between Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi, cashing-in on his Dracula image. A tepid horror/thriller, the typical 'Browning reveal' left many audiences cold, disappointed that the vampires were shown to be fake.


Browning again returned to his past works, at least partially, as one of Chaney's old characters is lifted for The Devil-Doll (1936), which Browning also scripted. Lionel Barrymore uses Chaney performance in The Unholy Three as his inspiration as a criminal disguising himself as an old woman. He also tries to protect his daughter from his criminal ways, another familiar trait of the Chaney/Browning films.

The 'new' element here are the life-like dolls, actually people shrunk to doll-size and placed under Barrymore's hypnotic control who he used to exact revenge on his enemies. An interested curio item, it clearly inspired Doctor Cyclops (1940), and the much later The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).

Browning's final film was the murder mystery Miracles for Sale (1939). As with London after Midnight and Mark of the Vampire, the supernatural aspect of the story is revealed to be fake, as ghosts are blamed for a series of murders. A good little thriller with some fine performances, not least of which by star Robert Young, it's was a flop because audiences preferred their horror to be real - the 'Browning reveal' had finally become unpopular.
Because of this, Browning once again struggled to get directorial work. He did some scenario work for MGM, but by 1942 he retired and moved to Malibu.

Sadly, just two years into his retirement, Tod's beloved wife, Alice, died at the age of 57. Browning had been so detached from public life that Variety Magazine actually published an obituary for him.

Following his wife's death, Browning became even more of a recluse; his neighbors rarely saw him and when his brother Avery died in 1959, he attended the funeral from a private room and would not let family members see him. In the late 1950s he developed throat cancer, the same disease that killed Chaney, meaning he required tongue surgery.

Browning died at the age of 81, on October 6, 1962, in the bathroom of friends in Malibu. He is interred in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, US.



Tod Browning appeared in 57 motion pictures, and directed 62. His work with Lon Chaney, and his version of Dracula, will ensure that his name is always remembered by horror fans, while Freaks still holds up today as one a unique, must-see classic of the 1930s.