A Reel 90: FRANKENSTEIN

“It’s alive!”

Halloween is over. The costumes are hung, jack-o-lanterns snuffed, and creature-features back on the shelf for 11 months. But this November just happens to be the 90^th anniversary of the king of all monster movies, FRANKENSTEIN. 

 

Directed by James Whale and based on the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley of the same name, along with a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, FRANKENSTEIN follows the obsessed scientist Henry Frankenstein, who is digging up corpses in order to assemble a living body. The story of the mad scientist and his monster that he would lose control of would become ground zero for horror films over the next nine decades, but FRANKENSTEIN owes it origins to its brother in cinema, Count Dracula. 

 

In February of 1931, Universal Pictures new horror film DRACULA would become one of the studio’s highest-grossing releases. As a result, plans were announced for more horror films. DRACULA star Bela Lugosi would be considered for the role of the monster before dropping out; a role that would eventually go to Boris Karloff. The rest of the cast would be rounded out by Colin Clive (as the doctor), Mae Clarke, John Boles, and Edward Van Sloan. 

 

The directing duties would go English theatre director and actor James Whale, who only had two feature films under his belt at that point. Whale, along with a team of screenwriters, crafted a script that would give the monster humanity while staying true to the original novel. The film would go through several edits to meet censorship codes in place at the time; ranging from lines of dialogue to a scene where the monster tosses a little girl in a lake. Still, the film opened to a successful box office and would become another hit for Universal Pictures. 

 

FRANKENSTEIN would receive wide acclaim and not only be considered one of the best horror films ever made, but one of the best films of all time; a rarity for a scary movie. In 1991, the film was selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry. The iconic image of the monster would go on to inspire cartoons, breakfast cereals, and countless spinoffs and parodies. 

 

*

 

This Blogger can recall being introduced to FRANKENSTEIN as a wee-lad; watching it on the old cabinet TV on a Sunday afternoon. The images of the monster, the impressive sets (the castle and windmill sets still impress to this day), and the eye-popping lightning effects were enough to scare a little kid. Today, the film still impresses in its production design, and for a horrific monster that we’re supposed to afraid of, somehow…the film makes us feel sorry for him. That is no easy task for any film in the horror genre, but FRANKENSTIEN makes it work, and is certainly a film that is alive after 90 years. 

 

“Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!”