Frankenstein (1931)

"It's alive! It's alive!" Perhaps one of cinema's all times most memorable lines as spoken, more correctly shouted, by Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein as his monster moves for the first time. Few movies transcend time and culture like the all time Universal monster movie classic Frankenstein. The images, the gestures, the sounds, and the characters go beyond being a memorable story on screen, and turn into a cultural phenomenon that changes the way all audiences see movies from then on. Carl Laemmle's production of Frankenstein was a rather small movie idea based off a classic book that would live forever in the minds of even those who have never seen the picture.

In this adaptation of Mary Shelly's classic novel we are told the story of the young scientist Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Clive) as he is driven mad trying to perfect his experiment of reanimating once dead human tissue. While in this crazed condition he locks himself away from the world with his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), not to be bothered as he finishes his greatest accomplishment of bringing a fully constructed man to life. His fiancee Elizabeth (Mae Clark) worriedly comes looking for Henry with the help of her friend Victor (Colin Boles) and the knowledgeable professor and former mentor Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan) all pleading for him to give up this mad venture. After a fantastic display of electronics Frankenstein's monster comes to life. After close observation the monster is rather innocent, but becomes raging when frightened. Henry realizes that his quest for creating life is one left to God and returns home with Elizabeth to soon wed his lady love, leaving the monster with Waldman to killed and examined. The monster, however, would break free killing Waldman and continue to harass the village, even attacking Elizabeth before the wedding. The townspeople with Dr. Frankenstein chase the monster throughout the countryside where Henry corners his creation in a windmill. After a great struggle Henry is hurled from the windmill, leaving the townspeople to burn down the structure with the monster inside and Henry bedridden from his injuries, freeing the town from the nightmare of the monster.

This picture has great creativity which is clearly inspired by European expressionism. Like that of other great horror films of the past including Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this production has the similar look and feel that made European films stand out from the American counterparts. The production value quite high for a film that was mostly low budget. Keep in mind Universal was a mid-level studio and made films that would a bit cheaper then the likes of MGM or Paramount. Even compared to its fellow 1931 horror classic Dracula, Frankenstein stands a bit taller in production value. That may be because Dracula was a story based on supernatural and had rubber bats and the sounds of werewolves, while Frankenstein was based off exaggerated science where something like a dead body can come to life and kill with the aid of great scientific mind. Both films made a huge impact for audiences, Universal, and society for many years to come. The film interestingly opens much like Dracula with a brief warning from actor Edward Van Sloan as he walks out form a curtain and addresses the audience of the nature of the picture, closing with "we warned you."

To first talk about the back story of Frankenstein we must look and the source material. The original novel was written by an eighteen year-old girl named Mary Shelly which she got published at age 21 in 1818. The book disgusted and confused critics, but was a major success with the public. It was not normal to see a lady writing such a dark morbid tale, but that would not stop the story from taking a life of its own and being produced many times as a stage play. It would be from a 1920s play version that the film would be based on and after a telephone game of writes and re-writes of the story the movie production would only contain a central core of similarities, but differ greatly in the original story.

The 1931 Frankenstein was in fact the second film version of the story. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and one of film's earliest minds, produced a silent short in 1910. It wasn't until freshly signed Universal director James Whale pulled the story off of the studio's shelf that we would see Frankenstein again. Whale did so because he had his choice of movie to make by Laemmle and Whale didn't want to produce a war film finding Frankenstein to be a very different picture and peaked his interest.

James Whale would prove to be an interesting fellow to create this masterpiece of the monster movie genre. Whale, a failed cartoonist turned stage actor turned stage director, would find himself in Hollywood and would get his first big break in an uncredited role of helping Howard Hughes direct dialogue in his silent-turned-talkie epic Hell's Angels. Soon he landed a contract from Universal and for his second real full directing job would produce Frankenstein. What made Whale different for his time was that he was openly gay. He did not make secrets about it, but he didn't allow his orientation to get in the way of his work. Perhaps his different lifestyle also led to him wanting to produce pictures that were "different" as well. But Whale was not a gay artist, rather and artist that happened to be gay. It may not have played into production quality, but played a role in why his screen career was not very vast.

Of course the most memorable images of the picture was that of the monster himself played by now infamous Boris Karloff. To this point Karloff played many roles in small movies and serials, but Frankenstein made him a star. At the beginning of the film, then traditionally when credits played, the role of the monster was played by "?" leaving an air or mystery of how the monster would look, but unusually their was a second set of credits at the end with Karloff's name in place, officially introducing him to the world. Originally planned to be played by Bela Lugosi, but after many angering make-up tests the star that played Dracula would quit, making it his greatest mistake in his career. Karloff would eventually land the role, and with the help of make-up artist Jake Pierce and his future film The Mummy where Karloff played the undead Imhotep Karloff would become the successor to the Lon Chaney's "a man of a thousand faces" regarded as the man that did the greatest characterization of roles with make-up. Soon audiences would know him simply by the single name of"Karloff" on cast lines and marquees. Irony would play with Lugosi as he would eventually play the role of the monster in future sequels of the picture when he was in need of work.

The rest of the films cast would not be as well remembered as its star. Mae Clark was a favorite of Whale in his pictures, appearing in a handful, but her most memorable role was of James Cagney's girlfriend that got a grapefruit in the face in the famous scene in Public Enemy. Colin Clive would have a rather sparse career that spanned the 30s, but was most remembered for his role as Dr. Frankenstein as seen by cult followers. Van Sloan's appearances as similar characters in Dracula and Frankenstein would mark the peak in his career. Dwight Frye would play the memorable hunchback character that would be impersonated throughout cinema history, but his name was not Igor, rather Fritz. The character was created for the film, not seen in the novel, but due to other like characters in film history having the name Igor (or sometimes "Ygor"), probably firstly seen in Metropolis then in the many Frankenstein sequels, but the misconception would stick in film culture. Frye once again plays an evil sidekick role that is frightening with his smile, but his role in Dracula was perhaps even more sinister as the character he plays is good turned bad, making it scarier.

Frankenstein, like many Pre-code pictures, rode the ride of censorship through its history. Many states tried to ban the picture or cut significant sections out. In a film where the lead character tries to play God and even claims to know how God feels religious leaders were sensitive towards its subject matter. The scene that most scared censors was the famous scene where the rather innocent monster playfully throws a little girl into a lake which kills her. Though the scene is showing how the monster is rather innocent and scared, the censors could only see the death of the little girl in the scene and in many cases had it cut. The state of Kansas would cut as much as 32 scenes. The film which was only 71 minutes in the first place would be mutilated and cut to less then an hour. Years later the picture would be restored to its former glory.

The film would be one of the great successes of all time. Praised by critics and audiences, box office numbers would be high and the film would be claimed as one of the year's best. Through time the film has held true, being claimed as one of the all time best. AFI would give it honors on its first Top 100 list of all time movies giving it #87 as well as #56 on the list of greatest thrillers of all time. The film spurred many sequels, first with Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein, which brought back key members of the cast including Clive and Karloff. Then there were the poorer Son of Frankenstein and the Ghost of Frankenstein before Universal started putting together monster movie mashes, mixing the Frankenstein monster with Dracula and the Wolfman. By then the monster would go from a character to a caricature of the Karloff creation which many know today as a stiff, almost robotic creature that only groans and walks slowly with his arms out in front of him.

Despite the transition of cinema, the film's iffy science, and subsequent poor franchise in the film's future, the picture stands up to the test of time very well as an enjoyable picture to watch. Even though the film is now mainly known as a characterized Halloween creature film we see today, what this film brought to the table of cinema changed both the industry, how it tells stories, and pop culture. The film has far more heart then what people think it may have. It is not simply a monster movie. It did further the ideas of a mad scientist, his Igor-esque sidekick, the damsel being attacked by a monster, and the angry townspeople. All that from one film, and all of them cliques now. But we must remember that one film did all that before they became cliques, and that is an amazing thing. It is worth watching again, or for many a first time. For a great number of people have only the idea of the film, but must see it to actually understand how good the picture really is and how that shaped the American cinema.