Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1931)

Runtime: 71 minutes

Directed by: James Whale

Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Boris Karloff, Edward Van Sloan

From: Universal

I saw this classic on Friday night. It still deserves to be a classic. I talk about this below via my Letterboxd review: 

This was on TCM last night so I figured this was the perfect time to watch a horror classic and then talk about it here. I've never read the novel from Mary Shelley but one day I will. I needn't cover the plot as everyone knows about Dr. Frankenstein and his hunchback assistant, “It's Alive!”, and how parts of various bodies were put together but because the hunchback was a dumbass, a murderer's brain was put into the monster, the villages carrying torches, and all the rest.

While some parts do come off as campy, overall it's still an effective horror movie and its popularity is not unwarranted. It is filmed well by James Whale, on big dark sets, the camera sometimes far back to show scale and set the appropriate spooky/eerie mood. The lack of score helped in setting a stark atmosphere. The performances are all at least fine but it is Boris Karloff as the monster which is the most memorable.

I understand that the book is quite different from the movie; in the former the creature is quite loquacious, speaking quite a bit, while in the movie the only noises it makes are animalistic noises. That's one of many changes but I mention that as under all the makeup (to think that his appearance is still seen by everyone as THE image when you hear “Frankenstein”, even if you haven't seen the movie) and various devices to make him a large hulking monster, he does a swell job of drawing sympathy without saying a word. You feel bad when he is mistreated and sad at his ultimate fate. But, you also feel happy when he plays w/ that little girl, nevermind how that scene ended.

In short, this horror film still works, even 75 years after the fact. No surprise that it started a wave of horror from all the major studios and Universal was the king of the genre w/ all the monsters in their employ.