FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
I have been a lover of Mary Shelley's novel for years. I'm so glad that I have finally seen director James Whale's masterpiece FRANKENSTEIN film. This is one good movie. The importance of it, in our film and cultural history, would be difficult to overstate.
Boris Karloff is brilliant as the monster. The Frankenstein makeup is one of a kind and unparalleled. Watching this film is to be transported back to a more primitive time. The first feature length talking picture, THE JAZZ SINGER, had just been released in 1928. There are sounds in this picture--fresh earth being cast onto a coffin in an open grave--that audiences had never before heard in film. Conventions of cinema were not in place. There is a long reveal in which the monster is seen for the first time, which starts as you hear his footsteps approaching in the hall. The monster backs into the room, then slowly turns toward camera. It seems inconceivable that this moment is played with no score. There is no way, I suspect, even a few years later, that this scene would be presented without ominous chords and a string tremolo. But in Whale's film it is totally silent, except for the echoey step, step, step. It's freaky. Against the odds, this film is still scary. I bet it scared the hell out of my grandparents.
The black and white photography is marvelous, and looks great in my remastered 75th Anniversary Edition. This may be the quintessential black and white movie. The production design is Gothic, and has great verticality.
The disc contains several documentaries about the whole line of Universal Horror films-- Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and dozens more. One of the documentaries presents the thesis that the fascination of the Universal monsters was bound up with society's reaction to the end of World War I, when, due to medical advances, many men came home with horrible disfigurements and disabilities who would have previously died on the battlefield. The key to Boris Karloff's monster is that he plays the creature also as a victim. This tension is present in the novel, as the dæmon, in Shelley's parlance, pleads for sympathy even while leaving the corpses of innocents strewn in his wake. "Shall I not hate them who abhor me?" It is a timeless, timeless story.
Growing up I read these monster stories in books and heard them on records, but I have never been exposed to the original films. It was a failing of my parents. I will remedy it.
Universal Classic Horror Blog Series Rating:
4 - For everyone
3 - For horror fans only
2 - For classic horror fans only
1 - For Pete's sake
0 - Paging MST3K
Boris Karloff is brilliant as the monster. The Frankenstein makeup is one of a kind and unparalleled. Watching this film is to be transported back to a more primitive time. The first feature length talking picture, THE JAZZ SINGER, had just been released in 1928. There are sounds in this picture--fresh earth being cast onto a coffin in an open grave--that audiences had never before heard in film. Conventions of cinema were not in place. There is a long reveal in which the monster is seen for the first time, which starts as you hear his footsteps approaching in the hall. The monster backs into the room, then slowly turns toward camera. It seems inconceivable that this moment is played with no score. There is no way, I suspect, even a few years later, that this scene would be presented without ominous chords and a string tremolo. But in Whale's film it is totally silent, except for the echoey step, step, step. It's freaky. Against the odds, this film is still scary. I bet it scared the hell out of my grandparents.
The black and white photography is marvelous, and looks great in my remastered 75th Anniversary Edition. This may be the quintessential black and white movie. The production design is Gothic, and has great verticality.
The disc contains several documentaries about the whole line of Universal Horror films-- Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and dozens more. One of the documentaries presents the thesis that the fascination of the Universal monsters was bound up with society's reaction to the end of World War I, when, due to medical advances, many men came home with horrible disfigurements and disabilities who would have previously died on the battlefield. The key to Boris Karloff's monster is that he plays the creature also as a victim. This tension is present in the novel, as the dæmon, in Shelley's parlance, pleads for sympathy even while leaving the corpses of innocents strewn in his wake. "Shall I not hate them who abhor me?" It is a timeless, timeless story.
Growing up I read these monster stories in books and heard them on records, but I have never been exposed to the original films. It was a failing of my parents. I will remedy it.
Universal Classic Horror Blog Series Rating:
4 - For everyone
3 - For horror fans only
2 - For classic horror fans only
1 - For Pete's sake
0 - Paging MST3K