It's nearly Halloween, so let's talk about a monster.
There are only a few really iconic images from the early days of film that are still potent in the present day. One of these is Boris Karloff's portrayal of Frankenstein's Monster from the 1931 version of "Frankenstein." The Monster's incredible impact on the history of film and popular culture can't be overstated, serving as a common point of reference for so many outsiders, both in and out of the horror genre. You can find the film's influence everywhere, from the work of Andy Warhol and Tim Burton to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," to Victor Erice's anti-Francoist fairy tale, "The Spirit of the Beehive." The Monster may be one of the most parodied characters of all time, with humorous versions appearing in "The Munsters," "Young Frankenstein," Franken Berry cereal boxes, and the "Hotel Transylvania" franchise.
I debated for a while about writing this entry for "Bride of Frankenstein," where the Monster is more verbal and self-aware. Many of the famous lines and images associated with "Frankenstein" actually come from this film, and it's just as highly regarded among critics. However, the original "Frankenstein" is far more iconic and unsettling. It has the famous "It's alive!" scene and the notorious drowning sequence that was widely censored until the 1980s. Frankenstein is such a familiar figure now, it's hard to remember that the film is a straight horror picture, and audiences found its depiction of the Monster truly disturbing and frightening in the 1930s. There were significant censorship challenges, and the film was banned in multiple countries over its subject matter. A great deal of its effectiveness comes from Boris Karloff's portrayal of the Monster, who was initially conceived as a far more inhuman, mindless grotesque. Karloff gives him a sense of pathos and tragedy. You can feel his inarticulate frustration in all his attempts to interact with the people he encounters.
The filmmaking is also excellent on every level. Arthur Edeson's cinematography establishes so much of the film's atmosphere of dread and gloom. Makeup artist Jack Pierce designed the immortal look of the Monster. Charles D. Hall and Kenneth Strickfaden were responsible for putting together Frankenstein's laboratory, and filling it with sinister electrical machinery. The electrical effects were a novelty in 1931, but so successful that they were soon popping up everywhere in the subsequent Universal Monster films. "Frankenstein" was already very much part of a franchise, designed to follow up to the success of "Dracula" - in fact Bela Lugosi had been cast in an earlier version of the film before James Whale took over and brought in Karloff as his leading man. Whale was best known for war films up to that point, and his approach to "Frankenstein" was to apply elements of German Expressionism to the visual style. A fan of German directors like Paul Leni, Fritz Lang, and Robert Weine, he used heightened, exaggerated shots, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, and distorted images to give the film an unconventional, ominous look.
"Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" were both directed by James Whale, who was also responsible for helming "The Invisible Man," and other Universal horror classics. However, Whale wasn't keen on being known as a horror director, and went on to direct several other excellent films in multiple genres, including the 1936 adaptation of "Show Boat," an American adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's "Marseille Trilogy," and a murder mystery farce called "Remember Last Night?" However, he was never able to escape the shadow of his early successes, and left Hollywood for a career directing theater by the 1940s. In recent years, he's become more celebrated for his LGBT identity - he was one of the rare uncloseted gay directors in the 1930s. You can definitely read LGBT themes into the "Frankenstein" films without much effort.
However, I've always viewed Frankenstein's Monster as cinema's patron saint for every minority and everyone ever treated as an unfortunate. There have been some pretty good modern adaptations of "Frankenstein," but not many of these have been on film. The power of the 1931 version remains too potent and inescapable, even after nearly a century.
What I've Seen - James Whale
Frankenstein (1931)
The Old Dark House (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Remember Last Night? (1935)
Show Boat (1936)
The Great Garrick (1937)
Port of Seven Seas (1938)
Sinners in Paradise (1938)
Wives Under Suspicion (1938)
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