“Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!”
I’ll say it up front: This is the best movie so far.
Following the success of “Dracula”, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Universal would follow it with an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic “Frankenstein”. Pre-release posters promoting the movie boasted of it coming from the same studio that brought audiences “Phantom of the Opera” and “Dracula”.
The part of the monster was originally offered to Bela Lugosi (early posters actually credited him with the role), but he turned it down in fear of being typecast. James Whale, the director, cast an actor he spotted in the Universal canteen, Boris Karloff.
His performance as the monster is amazing. With no dialogue save a few growls and cries, he plays a creature that’s by turns naïve child and frightened animal. He’s certainly helped by a makeup that’s suitably grotesque while still allowing him to be expressive. At well over six feet tall he’s also an imposing physical presence with a stiff walk, very much a re-animated corpse.
The supporting characters are also much better than in “Dracula”, particularly Colin Clive, who plays a suitably manic, driven yet sympathetic Doctor (here renamed Henry). He dreams of creation and discovery and then wracked with guilt when his creation brings only destruction and death.
As with “Dracula”, the movie was adapted from a stage play, but James Whale’s direction makes this much a more cinematic production. The sets are larger and better designed, particularly the lab in which the monster is brought to life. With it’s crackling electrical equipment and tall ceiling with a hatch to winch the monster into the storm above, it’s as iconic as the monster itself. The long shadows and odd angles of Frankenstein’s watch tower bear an influence from German Expressionist films like “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari”. The windmill where the film ends is a striking image which Tim Burton has re-created in one form or another in at least three of his films, most notably “Sleepy Hollow”.
It’s also the first movie in the series that’s a pure horror story. It starts with a grave-robbing, followed by a pair of hanging corpses, a strangling and the (accidental) drowning of a young girl. The studio felt compelled to add a short prologue, warning audiences of a nervous disposition they may wish to leave!
I would suggest that this film is perfect, but there is better yet to come…
Next to be exhumed: Karloff returns as Imhotep, “The Mummy”.
