My mother lived with Zita for a year as a child. She taught My mother to play piano. Her last name was actually pernounced Yo-han. My grandfather is John Battles the Broadway actor. They were friends so my mother stayed with Zita when he was traveling abroad.
Great video Carlotta!!! I’m looking forward to seeing all of the Universal women. If I could choose, at the top of my list would be Julie Adams followed by Evelyn Ankers.
Great piece! I hope you do Evelyn Ankers next. Ghost of Frankenstein, Son of Dracula, The Wolfman, Sherlock Holmes (Voice of Terror), Abbott and Costello (Hold that Ghost), and many more). All sorts of different types of Universal movies
I adore Zita Johann, she’s one of my favorite leading actresses in the Universal Monster movies. It’s infuriating that the director Karl Freund made her time on the set of the Mummy a living hell. And just to be petty, he had the nerve to destroy the past life sequins that must have took hours to film. Thankfully, the stills haven’t been destroyed and can be easily found on the internet so the joke is on him! I recommend the book Along Came Zita, written by one of the students she taught after she left Hollywood.
Thanks for this and fleshing out the faces that we see in these movies! You didn't include her in your previous list, but Valerie Hobson (Bride of Frankenstein, Werewolf of London) had an interesting and somewhat controversial life.
I'm planning doing a Part 2 of my Ranking series because there are a lot of actresses from the Universal Monster movies people commented that I didn't include in my first list. Valerie Hobson will be one of them!
Zita Johann's performance in The Mummy is iconic to me. She has a wonderful screen presence and the camera adored her. Her unusual beauty was the perfect style for Helen-Ancksunamun. Zita also had fantastic chemistry with Boris Karloff. It's easy to believe that Imhotep and his princess were lovers in ancient Egypt. But shooting of The Mummy was extremely difficult. The mummy makeup, brilliant as it was, caused the worst physical and nervous exhaustion of Karloff's career as he said in interviews. Director Karl Freund, in his first directorial effort, would film for hours on end without breaks. But his vindictiveness towards Zita was extreme. Freund wanted to know Zita's menstrual cycle so he could film her scenes on her weakest days. All this became too much for Zita and she passed out from exhaustion while filming the pool scene with Karloff. She was out cold for an hour, Freund disappeared, and the crew plus Karloff prayed her back to consciousness. The head of Universal Studios planned to pair Zita and Karloff again in what eventually became Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man. But Zita was rightfully enraged about how she was treated and left Hollywood never to return. What a loss. There's a good biography titled 'Along Came Zita' on Amazon.
its been said that Zita Johann resented director Karl Fruend 2 the point where he refused 2 give her n Actor’s Chair 🪑 on the Contrary, she adored Boris Karloff.
Everyone who worked with him loved Boris. Men, women, children, animals. He had friends who owned a very fierce German shepherd. It didn't want to let anyone outside of family into the house. Then came Boris. The dog would spend the whole evening leaning against him while he skritched its ears. After he had died, the dog's mom heard it having a fit in the living room. She went in & found that the television had been left on & one of Boris's movies was playing. The dog was trying to break into the back of the set, to get at his friend again! 📺
Good Video !! I loved her in The Mummy. The Mummy DVD has a commentary track that gives allot of info about Zita Johnann (you mentioned allot of it in your video).
I love Zeta in the Mummy but far and away my favorite Universal horror leading lady is Valerie Hobson in, of course, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Werewolf of London.
Terrific profile; as noted, information on Ms Johann is scarce, so anything is appreciated. (I do get the impression that her story would make for an entertaining bio-pic.) My vote for the next profile would be Evelyn Ankers; my wife teases me because I have an undying crush on her whenever we watch a Universal picture.
Hi Antonia Carlotta - this is on a different note - did you by any chance watch the Oscars (R) a while back? "Oppenheimer" (released by Universal) won best picture of 2023! How did you feel about it and how would have your great-granduncle feel about it? Please reply whenever you can! Hope to hear from you soon! Bye for now!😊❤ (R)(C) A.M.P.A.S
I haven't made a video for Lupita Tovar, but she's high on my list! I also haven't done a regular Elsa Lanchester video, but I did do a live Book Club event a few years ago all about her autobiography Elsa Lanchester, Herself: ru-vid.com_r35P9wLnLg
I've been considering doing a regular video about Elsa Lanchester so more people can appreciate her - I just admit I didn't prioritize it after the book club because I didn't want to seem repetitive 🤷♀️
@@AntoniaCarlotta Wow, that's cool. Yeah, I love Universal Studios, I'm an employee there at the park. I love the history, I love Mr. Carl Laemmle's back story, and how he created Universal City. I love the monster movies; I am a huge fan. I'm so happy I get to see all the merchandise we have at the store every day, I can't wait for our Monster sale, which is supposed to be in June. Definitely check it out
@@AntoniaCarlotta I hope you do, that'd be very nice. I also saw your review for Carla Laemmle too. Such a lovely woman, and very funny too. It's a joy listening to her talk about the history of the park. I get excited a lot at work, because I'm there on the lot where they great monsters were made by the legendary Jack Pierce. Keep up the great videos.
To be an admirer of D. W. Griffith, really wouldn't be an honorable stance in today's USA, with his racial beliefs, and being, an antebellum sympathizer. Good documentary, on another, little known golden era, horror actress☺️!!! Please do, Elsa next.
