JCAll said:
maximara said:
It has been around even longer then that. MGM's Thin Man six movie series ran from 1934 to 1947 and Universal made the four Mummy pictures from The Mummy's Hand (1940) to The Mummy's Curse (1944) with each a sequels to the previous. One of the most blatant sequels is Dracula's Daughter (1936) which literally picks up where 1931 Dracula left off.
It is not well known but the first major film, Birth of a Nation (1915) had a sequel: The Fall of a Nation (1916).
What do sequels have to do with breaking up movies? The Thin Man was based on a book. One book, one case, one movie. It got insanely popular with sequels and knock offs for years, but still always one mystery per movie. You don't have to tune in to the next movie to see how the last case was solved, they all stand perfectly well as individual films, and are only enhanced by their relation to each other as you watch characters progress throughout.
The difference between Universal horror films is that they didn't plan to create a shared universe it just happened due to various elements, money, the demand for escapism from WWII, and the talent.
From I seen and read James Whale didn't want to a sequel to
Frankenstein hell he made
The Invisible Man to get try and get Universal off his back about it, he only made
Bride of Frankenstein in a classic "one for the studio and one me" deal. Where he makes
Bride of Frankenstein and he got to make
The Road Back (I think that is the title) as his masterpiece a major anti-WWI film but changes in ownership of Universal screwed Whale over and the film was botched by the studio reshoots and re-edits and the film bombed and Whale was blamed for it.