"Frankenstein" is the 1931 film adaptation of the Mary Shelly classic that comes to us from director James Whale. It tells the story of scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and his life's work of reanimating a human corpse he created using parts from the various bodies buried in cemeteries and that hang in the gallows. This experiment works, creating a grotesque monster played by the incomparable Boris Karloff. For many this is the definitive Boris Karloff role, solidifying him as a Universal Horror key player among the likes of Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains, and Lon Chaney jr.
Going over the story of "Frankenstein" seems pretty redundant seeing as it is a staple classic of the horror genre and is universally known. Instead I will be celebrating this classic and why I love it so much.
Lugosi was later removed from the project when the project turned hands over to James Whale. This version that never was would have been vastly different from what we are used to the famous monster being. One of the aspects of the character that makes him so unique is the question of who the villain of the story truly is. A common theory of "Frankenstein" is that the monster isn't the true villain of the story, but in fact it is Henry Frankenstein for willing the monster to a life of ridicule and hate.
The concept of the misunderstood monster has become somewhat of a horror trope, being present in stories such as the Broadway adaptation of Phantom of the opera or the T.V. series Angel, but I feel a huge amount of credit is due to Whale's adaptation and Karloff's performance, particularly seen in the scene where the monster encounters the child Maria. When we see the monster flee from the lab and into the woods he comes across a cottage where a young girl is playing outside. The child sees him and treats him with kindness, even inviting him to pick flowers with her. She shows him how to make the flower heads into boats by throwing them into the nearby lake. Once the monster runs out of flowers to throw he thinks it would be fun to toss Maria into the lake, not knowing she doesn't know how to swim. This scene is heartbreaking because we see the confusion and regret on the monster's face the second he realizes he put her in danger. He becomes frantic and scrambles around trying to find help, to no avail because he cannot speak.
This is the most important scene in film and one of the most important moments in the history of the Universal Monsters and until recently it was cut from the film. Due to state censorship boards, the original this scene was deemed too graphic and cut from the original theatrical version of the film. This is a pivotal moment where we feel sympathy for the monster and are brought to view him in a a different light. The thing the makes "Frankenstein" stick out is the motivation, where as other monsters are motivated for persona gain, this monster just wants to be treated normal, and aside from when he feels threatened he truly doesn't aim to hurt anyone. This makes the film more of a tragedy than a horror.
One of the biggest things that sticks in people's memory is the monsters iconic look. This is all due to the incomparable work of Jack Pierce, who was Universal's go to monster makeup master! Pierce was known to be a very brash person but worked abnormally well with Karloff. It took about 4 hours for Pierce to complete Karloff's makeup and Karloff even contributed to the overall look, removing a dental bridge in order to give his cheeks a sunken in look. This look had such a cultural impact that it became widely accepted as the definitive look for the monster. What is interesting is that even though the story of "Frankenstein" is in the public domain, the Universal Monster design for the monster is still copywritten by Universal until 2026.
If you have not seen this one please do yourself a favor and watch it, it's available to rent on most if not all streaming platforms and as part of a boxset from Universal that includes the 6 core monster movies in the collection.
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