Are the original B&W monster movies from Universal Studios all based on novels?
I know Frankenstein and Dracula were; I believe The Wolf Man and Creature From The Black Lagoon were not.
But how about The Mummy?
It appears the Mummy was an original script.
Actually, the movies of Frankenstein and Dracula were based on stage plays (by Peggy Webling and Hamilton Deane (punched up for the stage by John Balderston, who went on to write a lot of Universal’s screenplays), respectively).
A lot of the others were original – The Werewolf of London, which preceded The Wolfman, and all of the sequels were original.
If you’re gonna talk original Universal monster movies, don’t forget “The Invisible Man”, based on the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells
Another novel-based Universal horror movie is the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, from the novel by Gaston Leroux.
It’s been said that the movie actually owes a substantial debt to Philip Wylie’s The Muderer Invisible as well, though I’ve never read that.
Another early Universal at least quasi-horror film was the silent The Cat and the Canary, popular in its dat, though forgotten now. IIRC, it was based on a stage play.