Frankenstein (1931) Film Review

Frankenstein Origins

It is no coincidence that Universal chose to make Frankenstein its second Universal Monsters feature. Both Dracula and Frankenstein, have shared a close connection for over two hundred years.

Back in 1816, several acquaintances took a holiday to Villa Diodati in Geneva. Unfortunately that trip coincided with the eruption of Indonesian volcano ‘Mount Tambora.’ As the eruption dimmed the sunlight and caused cold and frost well into the summer, 1816 became known as the year without a summer. A huge storm confined the group to the house for the duration of their stay, so to entertain themselves they drank wine and smoked opium.

Who was in the group? I hear you ask.. none other than great English Poet Lord Byron, Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his Fiancé Mary Godwin, and Byron’s personal doctor (who was also an aspiring writer), John William Polidori.

For their own entertainment, the group challenged each other to write and tell horror stories. Two stories stood out from these writing sessions.

The First

Lord Byron wrote The Burial: A Fragment. It was a few pages long and talked about an aristocratic Vampire in Turkey. Byron’s poem inspired Polidori to cannibalise the short poem and turn it into a short novel called The Vampyre, this in turn later inspired Stoker to write the now famous Dracula.

The Second

Mary Shelley became inspired to write Frankenstein, or ‘The Modern Prometheus’. A cautionary tale of a scientist who created life and became horrified by the monster he had created.

After the summer trip was over, both stories were published, and history was made.

It is explosive to think that without that specific mix of people, drink, drugs, and the eruption of a volcano, the world may not have experienced either Dracula or Frankenstein!

So now the scene is set, that lets dive right into the second of our Universal Monster Features, Frankenstein 1931…

Frankenstein Production

An English playwright by the name of Peggy Webling, loosely adapted Mary Shelley’s book, ‘The Modern Prometheus’ into a 1927 play called Frankenstein.

Continuing Frankenstein’s connection to Dracula, Carl Laemmle, Jr. uses the same method of production by utilising Universal’s purchased rights to the stage play to form the basis of the script for Frankenstein. This time tempting an English director from the Black Country (a town called Dudley for those not familiar with UK colloquialisms) James Whale. Whale was an established Theatre Director and had started to make Hollywood films, mostly about World War 1. He relished the opportunity to try something different, and with the success of Dracula bringing a newfound confidence to Laemmle JR and Universal, a deal was done.

From the outset, Frankenstein brings a different energy to screen, gone are the overtly staged shots, with Whale favouring more cinematic scenes with the camera tracking the actors. Whale and the script writers also re-engineer the story for screen. Shelley’s story is essentially that of a man wanting to play God, re-animating the dead to create life, all whilst making deep commentary of on social consciousness. She explores the idea of how treating someone badly results in the person becoming bad. It’s the sort of nature vs nurture sociology Durkheim would love. However, as this is no way cinematic, Whale opts for a more direct approach - eugenics. In an early scene Frankenstein’s assistant Fritz (played by Dracula’s Dwight Fry) is dispatched to a medical college to steal a brain ,and in a clumsy accident, he steals the brain of criminal. This single mistake by Fritz cuts out swathes of Shelley’s story and enables Whale to present a slightly more film friendly adaptation. Whilst Shelley’s story explores how a person is treated, forms how evil they become; Whale’s take is to say that the monster is capable of dreadful things because its brain is bad. This is a much more audience friendly way to present the monster.

What makes the onscreen story of Frankenstein so special, is its ability to make the audience love a monster. Whilst watching the film you cannot help to start routing for the childlike, murderous being, as he stomps around trying to understand the world around him, and sometimes accidently murdering in the process. Scenes showing the mistreatment of the monster make sure that Shelley’s original ideas are not completely ignored for the film.

Whale also cleverly removes the monsters extensive dialogue, the monster never shuts up in the book, in the film Whale relies simply on the monster’s facial reactions, grunts and moans to convey its intent. A technique replicated over the years – ‘I am Groot’

The other observation to mention is James Whale’s directorial style. He thrives on sudden shifts of mood. One scene may be light-hearted and then he instantly flips to dark and murderous. This helps to keep the audience interested. No scene highlights this style more than the once banned girl at the pool scene. This is where a very childish monster enjoys a moment of whimsy, before drowning a girl by throwing her into a pool, seemingly unaware of the consequences. I don’t know what’s more shocking - the drowning of the girl or her father carrying her limp lifeless body through the village, amidst a wedding celebration?!

Whale wanted a visual spectacle, while the novel does not overtly explain how the creature is brought to life, Whale and set designer Herman Rosse create the notion of a scientific laboratory, and life by electrocution resulting in the iconic line of

‘’ Alive its Alive, I know what it feels like to be God. ‘’

Boris Karloff as The Monster

When I think of Frankenstein’s Monster, I instantly think of something humanoid with large feet, square head and making grunting noises. Well, that’s Boris Karloff - Universal’s man of a thousand faces. This was his first major acting role. Whale had him covered in a huge amount of make-up, wearing ridiculously oversized clothes and prevented him from speaking. Karloff instead had to resort to hand movements, various tonal shifts in his cries and facial expressions so subtle – the audience instantly understand his thoughts. It’s a masterclass of prosthetic character acting, and one to this day remains in the people’s minds almost 100 years on. They really couldn’t have picked a better actor at the time to play The Monster.

Set Design

Shelley’s story does not go into detail on how the Monster is brought to life, so some Hollywood magic was needed. Whale wanted a visual spectacle, so set designer Herman Rosse turned to electrician, film set designer, and electrical special effects creator Kenneth Strickfaden. Between the three of them they created Dr Frankenstein’s Laboratory within a windmill. With unknown scientific devices, full of flashing lights, buzzes of electricity, and a moving table, it was unlike anything seen before on screen in the 1930’s. This set design became the standard for the monster's gruesome origin for years to come.

Rosse didn’t stop there, every scene is full of gorgeous looking artwork, scenery and set design. Whether it be the silhouette of the windmill, through to interior sets of country houses, the set design is immaculate.

Video

Whale employed the talents of Cinematographer Arthur Edeson to film Frankenstein. Edeson was a Pioneer of film who had made a name for himself with Silent Movies. His work on Frankenstein was groundbreaking. The major difference between Dracula and Frankenstein is tracking shots and fluid movement. Edeson had a knack of getting the viewers eyes right where they needed to be. Frankenstein is also a dark movie, scenes set in dull interiors or at night. Edeson manages to capture this low light perfectly.

Overall Thoughts

1931 Universal started something special, Dracula launched as an intellectual Horror and Frankenstein was an absolute visual spectacle.

Whale brought a new level of direction to the world’s second talkie Horror movie. This was a director not afraid to embrace technology, not compelled to frame every scene as if it were on a Broadway stage. Whale wanted to lean into the Horror element and shock audiences and in that he had enormous success. Cementing the foundation of the Universal Monsters and laying down the blueprint for Horror films for years to come. Frankenstein demonstrates how to meld a well-adapted script, with perfect casting and Production design.

The Invisible Man is next in our Universal Monster Series...

The Silver Hedgehog Rating: 9 'Must Watch'

The Script / Screenplay
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Casting

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Music / Score

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Video Quality

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Effects

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1931 Universal started something special, Dracula launched as an intellectual Horror and Frankenstein was an absolute visual spectacle.

Words Garry
Editor JJ
Images The Movie Database

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