After the success of “Dracula", Universal Pictures began filming an adaptation of another famous horror novel - “Frankenstein”. A bit of clarification here for those who are under the impression that the name Frankenstein refers to the green monster with the flattish head and bolts/electrodes in the sides of his neck - Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist who stitched together dead bodies and used his scientific discoveries to bring this creature to life. The resultant monster is, well, “the monster” or “Frankenstein’s monster”, although the name Frankenstein is often attributed, even in subsequent films if I remember correctly, to him.
The role of the monster was offered to Bela Lugosi, fresh from his role as Dracula, but he either turned it down or was dismissed from the project; stories seem to differ. Director James Whale tested actor Boris Karloff (born William Henry Pratt, in England) - who had been playing small parts in films for years - for the role. Karloff got the part. Makeup artist Jack Pierce, with the influence of James Whale (and possibly Karloff, to a degree) designed the iconic look of the monster. Pierce used a blue-green makeup on Karloff, as it produced a pale, sickly hue in black and white. Mortician’s wax was used on Karloff’s eyelids to give them the heavy look.
The film opens with a prologue, spoken by Edward Van Sloan - a sort of warning to the audience of the fearful tale that is to come. Following this are the title and credits. Behind some of them are revolving pictures of eyes. When the credits for the performers come up, the role of the monster is credited with a question mark.
The first scene is in an eerie graveyard. Mourning people stand around a grave where a service for a dead man is apparently just being concluded. Hiding nearby, Henry Frankenstein (played by Colin Clive) and his hunchback assistant Fritz (played by Dwight Frye), lie in wait. After the mourners have left and the grave has been filled in, Henry and Fritz go to work digging it up again. They remove the coffin from its resting place, and haul it along through craggy scenery on a cart. They approach a gallows upon which a hanged man still hangs. At Henry Frankenstein’s order, Fritz climbs up and cuts the rope. The body falls, and Henry examines it, realizing with apparent disgust that the neck is broken and the brain will be useless.
In the quest for a usable brain, Fritz waits outside the window of Goldstadt Medical College, where a class is taking place on the differences between the normal and criminal brains - with two brains in glass containers as illustration. When the class has left, Fritz pries open the window and goes inside, taking the normal brain from the table, but a noise startles him and he drops it, shattering the glass and, um - Warning to People with Very Weak Stomachs - I confess the brain smashing bit got to me. Granted it’s a disembodied brain, but still. This part is a bit more gross/gruesome than these old movies usually were. So I advise not eating or drinking anything while watching (that’s generally a safe policy when dealing with horror films anyway). Though many or most of you may think I’m overreacting :). Fritz goes back to the table and takes the abnormal brain.
Next we are taken to a luxurious house. Henry Frankenstein’s fiancee, Elizabeth (played by Mae Clarke), voices her concern about Henry to friend Victor Moritz (played by John Boles). She has not seen Henry, presumably for months. He has been away in an abandoned watch tower, working on his experiments. Victor had seen him three weeks previously, and says his manner was very strange. Victor decides to go to Dr. Waldman, Henry’s old medical school professor, to see if he can tell him any more about all this. Elizabeth determines to go with him.
At Dr. Waldman’s, Elizabeth asks the doctor why Henry left the university. Dr. Waldman (played by Edward Van Sloan) explains that Frankenstein’s advanced researches were becoming dangerous. He desired them to provide him with other bodies, without being “too particular” where and how they got them. Upon being told his demands were unreasonable, Frankenstein left the university.
A curving path leads up to the watch tower, which we see amidst a storm. Inside the tower, we see Henry at work. Electrical machinery is set up in the tower, awaiting use upon the body that lays, partially covered with a sheet, upon a table, and endowed with the brain Fritz stole from the medical college. Henry and Fritz prepare for “one final test”. A knock is heard on the door. Fritz goes down the stone staircase to send the unwelcome callers away. The callers are Dr. Waldman, Elizabeth, and Victor. Despite Fritz’s demand for them to go away, the knocking continues, accompanied now with shouts, which Henry hears. At the behest of his fiancee, he lets the three in. Victor’s assertion that he is crazy is met by Henry with brooding, glowering eyes. “Crazy am I? We’ll see whether I’m crazy or not.” he says.
He brings his visitors up the stairs to the room where his experiment awaits. He tells Dr. Waldman that he has discovered a ray. This ray he intends to harness with his machinery and use to bring the dead body on the table to life - a body which Frankenstein stitched together from different corpses. After a bright flash of lightning, Henry and Fritz ready the equipment. Amid flashes of electricity and noise from the strange machinery, the table bearing the body is lifted up to a hole in the ceiling of the tower. The electrical equipment for the film, by the way, was put together by Kenneth Strickfaden, an electrician who collected parts from different machines as a hobby.
After the body is lowered again, Frankenstein observes its hand move. Repeating what became one of cinema’s most famous phrases - “It’s alive!” - Henry goes from rapt but controlled excitement to wild, giddy exultation. Drunk with power, Henry proclaims, “Now I know what it feels like to be God.” But he is, after all, only a human, and his dangerous game of playing God will not be without dire consequences. In a world where the discoveries of science sound much like the science fiction of yesteryear - GMO “frankenfood”, the ability to alter DNA, cloning, and so on, with scientists meddling in things that may be better left alone - “Frankenstein” remains relevant.
“Frankenstein” benefits from some excellent acting on the part of Colin Clive and Boris Karloff. There was so much expressiveness in their eyes. Karloff’s performance as the childlike creature yearning for affection, yet turned to brutal monster by cruelty, is touching and poignant. His expression and body language in one scene, as he holds out his hands and looks at Henry Frankenstein, like a child to a parent, are especially moving. I feel I ought to also mention the great performance of Marilyn Harris. Though not in the film very long, she was apparently a very game little child actress (I refrain from saying much more on the subject in case it may be considered a “spoiler”).
Frankenstein’s monster - thrust into a cruel world through no wish of his own, a baby in a strong man’s body - his violence may elicit terror, but likely mixed with sympathy.
Until next time, when I propose to revisit 1933’s “The Invisible Man”.
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