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Frankenstein Overview:

Frankenstein (1931) was a Horror - Science Fiction Film directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. and E.M. Asher.

The film was based on the novel Frankenstein (aka The Modern Prometheus) written by Mary Shelley published in 1818.

SYNOPSIS

The monster that mocked the sanctity of God's creation and brought ruin to his mad-scientist master firmly established a fertile movie genre and saved a studio in the bargain. Though the definitive monster movie, it succeeds purely because of the glimmer of humanity that Karloff allows us to see through the stitching and bolts, and the pathos of a barely human consciousness trapped in a hideous body. The versions available since the late '80s have restored the famously brutal sequence of the monster's encounter with a little girl at a lake shore. The laserdisc offers trailers, photos, and study sequences.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Frankenstein was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1991.

Frankenstein BlogHub Articles:

10 Classic Frankenstein Movies Worth Watching

By Jennifer Garlen on Oct 24, 2024 From Virtual Virago

This fall I taught a lifetime learning class about the history and cinematic legacy of Frankenstein, so of course I've had the iconic tale of gods and monsters on my mind throughout the Halloween season. One of the reasons for the story's enduring success is its adaptability; like Shakespearean play... Read full article

From the Archives: Son of Frankenstein (1939)

By The Metzinger Sisters on Oct 5, 2024 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

Boris Karloff as the famous "Monster" from the Frankenstein films (in this photo, The Son of Frankenstein). The make-up for all of the early Frankenstein movies was done by Jack Pierce, whom you could read more about in our previous articles here. From the Archives is our latest series of posts wher... Read full article

Abbott and Costello Films: Naughty Nineties, Time of Their Lives, A&C Meet Frankenstein

By 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 6, 2023 From 4 Star Films

The next genre Abbott and Costello took on in The Naughty Nineties was the show boat-style musical. Henry Travers fits as a kindly old ship captain who promises family-friendly entertainment headlined by his daughter and a very familiar leading man (Bud Abbott).  Costello crops up in a local band ... Read full article

Rating The Universal Frankenstein Films

By Dan Day, Jr. on Oct 8, 2022 From The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog

In May of this year I wrote a couple blog posts ranking the Frankenstein & Dracula films produced by Hammer Films. Now I'm going to rank the Frankenstein & Dracula films produced by Universal, specifically the ones made during the studio's classic monster period (1931-1948). Looking back on ... Read full article

FRANKENSTEIN (1984)

By Dan Day, Jr. on Jul 30, 2022 From The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog

The excellent English actor David Warner passed away recently. While reading various internet tributes about him, I discovered that he played the Frankenstein monster in a 1984 British TV adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. I was not aware of this production, and I was even more stunned to find out ... Read full article

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Frankenstein Quotes:

Henry Frankenstein: Help! Help!
Villager #1: Listen, it's Frankenstein.
Villager #2: That way.
Henry Frankenstein: Dangerous? Poor old Waldman. Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous? Where should we be if no one tried to find out what lies beyond? Have your never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or to know what causes the trees to bud? And what changes the darkness into light? But if you talk like that, people call you crazy. Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy.
Henry Frankenstein: The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
Henry Frankenstein: Quite a good scene, isn't it? One man, crazy - three very sane spectators!
Baron Frankenstein: [lastlines]
[Raises a glass of wine to offer a toast]
Baron Frankenstein: Well, as I said before, here I say again, Here's... Here's to a son... to the House of Frankenstein.
Maid: Indeed, Sir. You too, Sir.
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Frankenstein Facts
Carl Laemmle Jr. offered James Whale a list of 30+ film adaptations he could direct and Whale picked this one. Whale said he did so because he wanted to get away from the war pictures with which he had so far been associated. Ironically, Whale is now, by far, best-remembered for his four horror films.
The popular image of Frankenstein's monster as green-skinned was sourced in this film. Actually, Jack P. Pierce's monster make-up gave the monster yellow skin, one of the few consistencies from Mary Shelley's original description of the monster.
Boris Karloff offered to remove his partial bridgework as part of the monster make-up process to create the sunken cheek look.
A microphone was placed in the coffin used in the funeral scene to amplify the sound of the grave dirt hitting the lid.
What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.
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