Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)

7/10

Starring

Colin Clive

Mae Clarke

John Boles

Boris Karloff

Directed by James Whale

Frankenstein is a 1931 horror flick that has grown to be a somewhat horror classic. The movie is based on a book adaptation of the same name, written in 1818 by Mary Shelley.

The monster was played by Boris Karloff, although at the time of release, Universal Pictures kept the name of the actor playing the monster a secret to build suspense. Many thought it would be Bela Lugosi, the Dracula star.

The fun thing about this movie’s production for me, was this one interesting trivia and pardon me for the digression – Kenneth Strickfaden, who designed the electrical effects used in creating the monster, secured the use of at least one Tesla Coil built by the then-aged Nikola Tesla himself.

Now I happened to have read the book before seeing this movie, and I like many don’t know that Frankenstein was the name of the scientist who created the monster. The monster was not named, but many started calling him Frankenstein, and that later became the monster’s adopted name.

This movie would have been scary in the time it was made. Sound only came to the silver screen in 1927, and then a movie about monsters came out four years later. That would scare some, but seeing it now, it would be a stretch if you get goosebumps.

The movie plot is about Henry Frankenstein, who wanted to create life. He finally achieved this by using science and dead body parts from different corpses.

After all the parts were bound together to make a full human-like form, Frankenstein passed the body through his equipment. Then the famous lines were delivered:

"It's alive! It's alive!"
"Now I know what it feels like to be God!"

The monster created was not as understanding of the new world he is in as Henry would have expected, and his lack of understanding of things, led to the Monster being locked up. But events led to it being free, and wandering the new world he is in, killed a young lady and looking to hurt his creator.

This movie is a classic, true and true. It holds a 100% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.

Times have changed. CGI is now available to cover up for makeup and art. So when watching this movie, be ready to see true art. This movie is ok, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it, other than the ending. The book is not a happy ending story, and I feel this movie would have been a lot better if it played to that, instead of diverting. I guess that is one thing I did not like about this movie.

Frankenstein was followed by enough sequels, and later Bela Lugosi got to play the monster when his career hit the rocks.

The movie's first sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, was released in 1935, in which Elsa Lanchester plays the monster's bride.