Tweet

Martin Kosleck enjoyed being a uniquely perverse individual in life, and delightfully decadent in his style of acting, a life-long homosexual who made no real secret of his sexuality among his peers in show business, so this attitude would sometimes inform his acting on the silver screen, particularly his performance in 1941’s THE MAD DOCTOR, which is discussed in more detail later on.

In the film HOUSE OF HORRORS Martin is madly outré as the poverty stricken artist Marcel DeLange. He lives alone except for his loyal cat in a cold studio with all his unsold sculptures. One night, disgusted with his lot in life, he decides to end it all by drowning himself. He drifts down, in the midnight fog, to the waterfront to throw himself in the Hudson River, when he sees another figure already floating in the water. This creature turns out to be a homicidal manic known as “The Creeper” who has a nasty habit of breaking young women’s spines for no particular reason. His character was a spin off from the Basil Rathbone “Sherlock Holmes” series that was such a sensation at Universal during the war. The one with Rondo was called PEARL OF DEATH, and this film was his reward. The mad artist fishes the hulking killer out of the icy river and somehow takes him back to his studio, undresses him, puts him in pajamas, and then tucks him in his bed. All of this is done off-camera, yet when I finally met Martin in 1985 we had a huge laugh over the overlooked homoerotic implications of this moment, where Marcel literally picks a strange (to say the least) man up and brings him into his studio, where they enter into an unholy partnership which could be considered quite domestic as well… The film gets away with this subtext mainly because it is all done in a 59-minute horror film with a monster that seems asexual at best. It is because of the perverse intensity of Martin Kosleck’s acting, not to mention the fact he displays no interest whatsoever in women in this film, that this queer aspect begins to shade his character. There is also a queer attitude among some of the men in the film, particularly Howard Freeman (who plays one of the art critics to die at the hands of the Creeper) who plays his role as an old queen who like to dress in loud silk robes while rolling his eyes at the slightest provocation.

Now both John Abbott and Martin Kosleck were successful character actors in Hollywood, appearing once in awhile in these quickie horror films around the same time, and on occasion might have run into each other on the back lots of Universal or Warner Bros. However their personalities were so different, with John being far more closeted and conservative about his private life, they would never have really socialized at the time. I mention this to set up the situation that was about to present itself in the Hollywood of 1985.

John Abbott lived the life of a well-meaning snob in a (by Hollywood standards) modestly grand home high above the Hollywood freeway in mock Tudor elegance. He enjoyed bringing his guests into his authentic recreation of an English pub, which he maintained off the dining area.

Although he taught both sexes he had a definite preference for the attractive young men who came to Hollywood by the thousands hoping to be the next heart-throb in a weekly series, or maybe even a movie star. The only woman I ever heard John speak of with reverence or respect was Dame Flora Robson who was his closest friend in Show Business next to the actress Queenie Leonard, who was once married to George Sanders’ brother, Tom Conway. One of the master bedrooms in John’s home was always reserved for Dame Flora when she chose to come to the colonies. She was even filmed there once, in a documentary about Von Sternberg’s ill-fated I CLAUDIUS – THE EPIC THAT NEVER WAS. John had made his film debut in Von Sternberg’s THE SHANGHAI GESTURE years before, and that was how he arrived in Hollywood in the first place.

Unlike Martin Kosleck, who was living openly with another man, John Abbott kept his feelings to himself until his retirement and his new career as an acting teacher. This new calling gave him a fresh circle of friends and students to keep him young at heart. It was just fate that I should know him as his relationship with a young film fan brought about a “Death in Venice” infatuation with a muscular redhead, John’s erstwhile“Tadiz,” if you will, from Canada, who was hopelessly obsessed with the Sherlock Holmes films of Basil Rathbone. Let’s call this young man Rick for the moment, and yes, he wanted to be an actor as a result of this obsession with the great detective.

It would be this young man’s interest in all things Rathbone that would bring about “the night of the long knives” where Martin Kosleck and John Abbott would spend an unforgettable evening together after years of avoiding each other in this Babylon called Hollywood.

John Abbott rang me one afternoon asking me if I was acquainted with any actors or actress who might have worked in the Rathbone/Holmes films. His friend was coming down from Canada and wanted to see and do everything that might bring him a little closer to the “divine Basil.” The fact John had breathed the same air on a soundstage with Rathbone made him a total God in the eyes of young Rick.

All of this drama got my curiosity going, so I reminded John that our mutual friend Tony knew Martin Kosleck very well, and since they both made a Holmes film together, what could be more perfect than a party for the PURSUIT TO ALGIERS surviving players.

Continue to page: 1 2 3 4 5