Film Review: Frankenstein (1931)

People tend to watch the past through rosy glasses, especially if the past long beyond the living memory. Cinephiles aren’t different and many times they are tempted to view distant chapters of film history as more kinder and gentler than present time. Hollywood many decades ago could build such impression with films that not only didn’t contain of sex, violence and similar questionable content, but even tried to warn the audience beforehand that the content might not be the most suitable for them. One such brief scene appears at the very beginning of Frankenstein, 1931 horror film directed by James Whale, one of the most iconic and influential works in the history of the genre.

Frankenstein is very loosely based on the famous 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, which is often considered first major literary work of science fiction. It is more firmly based on its 1927 stage adaptation by British writer Peggy Webling, which was further adapted for Broadway by John L. Balderston. The plot is set in the village in Bavarian Alps where Henry Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive), young and brilliant scientist works on a project aimed at creating artificial human being. His plan is to collect organs and tissue from different dead people, stitch them together and bring it to life through advanced electric devices. Frankenstein is so obsessed with his work that he neglected his fiancee Elizabeth (played by Mae Clarke). The real problem is created by his hunchback assistant Fritz (played by Dwight Frye) who collected the wrong brain for the creature – the one belonging to abnormal instead of normal man. The experiment nevertheless succeeds, resulting in huge grotesque creature (played by Boris Karloff) with superhuman strength and mind of an infant. While Frankenstein tries to treat the Monster kindly, it is tormented by Fritz who is ultimately killed. Frankenstein then reluctantly agrees with suggestion of his mentor Dr. Waldmann (played by Edward Van Sloan) that his creation must be humanely put down. The Monster wakes up, kills Waldmann and escapes from Frankenstein’s lab, creating chaos in the village just as Frankenstein is to wed Elizabeth.

Frankenstein owes its existence to Dracula, another iconic horror film which was released only few months earlier. Those two film have plenty of things in common. Both were produced by Universal Pictures, studio that would soon become specialised for horror films in Classic Hollywood. Both were based on the stage plays. Both had roughly the same and rather short running time of around 70 minutes. Both films don’t have any music (apart from the scenes featuring village celebrations). Both films shared Dwight Frye and Edward Van Sloan as members of the cast. Both became major hits and later had some issues with Hays Code censorship making their original version unavailable to the audience until 1980s.

Yet, there is also an important difference between two films, most notably in Frankenstein being obviously better. The main reason is in James Whale, experienced British stage director who replaced Robert Florey, originally slated to direct. Whale, despite his stage origins, adapted to the new medium of sound film very well. He shows great knack for impressive visuals, especially in the scenes that take place at night or near dusk and which are obviously inspired by classics of German Expressionist cinema. On the other hand, he successfully mixes Gothic atmosphere of the castle where Frankenstein conducts his experiments with electricity which passed for wonder of modern science in early 1930s. Whale is also good in using bright exteriors to create sharp contrast and he moves camera a lot. And the dialogues in the film seem natural, although there are some exceptions, like the character of Baron Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s father played by Frederick Kerr, which represents weak attempt to provide something of a comic relief in this dark story and even weaker attempt to provide a happy ending in the film’s final scene.

But Whale isn’t the person usually associated with Frankenstein. That honour belongs to Boris Karloff, middle-aged stage actor who, just like Whale, came to the set as replacement after Bela Lugosi, star of Dracula, had refused to appear in non-speaking part of Monster. Karloff, who had to wear extremely heavy prosthetic makeup designed by Jack Pierce, managed to create one of the most iconic character in the history of horror genre. But it is Karloff’s ability to provide nuance to character under that heavy make up that made Frankenstein so effective. The Monster isn’t a villain in traditional sense. It is presented as creature with child-like innocence who commits atrocious and violent acts due to misunderstandings and inability to comprehend strange new world it was brought to. The best example is the (in)famous scene in which the Monster meets little girl Maria (played by Marilyn Harris) who is, like him, an innocent child and, unafraid, begins to play game with him. That, in probably one of the most heart-breaking scenes in the history of cinema, ends with girl being accidentally killed and leading to predictably violent finale in which the Monster suffers the gruesome fate at the hands of the lynch mob.

Financial success of Frankenstein led Universal to make plenty of classic horrors films in next decade. In 1935 Whale reunited part of the old cast for the sequel under title The Bride of Frankenstein, which is also considered one of the finest horror films of the period. The next six films were less than successful, the last being parody Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. That, however, didn’t prevent Frankenstein becoming one of the most popular, the most iconic and the most influential horror films of all times.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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