Frankenstein (1931) Film Review

Frankenstein (1931) Director: James Whale

“It’s alive! It’s alive!”

★★★★★

“How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present this picture without just a word of friendly warning. We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation – life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even – horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now’s your chance to – uh, well, we warned you.”

Before the movie begins, a gentlemanly Edward van Sloan (who plays Dr. Waldman in Frankenstein and previously played Van Helsing in Dracula) steps forth from behind a curtain to offer a stark warning on behalf of Universal president Carl Laemmle that the following picture may shock and horrify audiences. This scene was photographed long after the film was completed in anticipation of religious viewer’s objections. Thus begins James Whale’s brilliantly revisionist interpretation of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel of the same name. Both the film and the novel explore the dangers of modern science in its pursuit of godlike power over life, while also engendering a strange mix of terror and pity for an unholy new creature which is foisted upon the world.

Upon inheriting control of his family’s struggling studio, Universal Pictures, Carl Laemmle Jr. made the risky decision to release a pair of short, cheap horror movies –and despite his father’s hesitations, believing horror films were too “morbid,” Junior’s bet worked! In 1931, both Dracula and Frankenstein were released to widespread fanfare, and they spawned numerous “creature features” as horror movies once again managed to recapture the imagination of moviegoers throughout the Great Depression. With Dracula (1931) drawing heavily upon German Expressionist classics like Nosferatu (1921), James Whale’s Frankenstein did the same with respect to films like The Golem (1915) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), as well as early Lon Chaney Universal classics like The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).

In some ways, Frankenstein is a tragic film that contemplates the maddening dangers of modern science and its relentless inquiry into the physical world. Fire serves as a significant theme in the story, a la the Greek myth of Prometheus, as a strange metaphor for the questionable bridge between modern science and the natural world. Curiously, in the film the audience develops a deep sense of empathy for the monster, culminating in a pitiable scene in which the monster screams in agony while burning to death (or so we are led to believe…)

Originally, Bela Lugosi, of Dracula repute, was cast to the play the part of the monster. However, after initial screening tests, he rejected the role and Boris Karloff was cast instead. It was to become a role that effectively vaulted Karloff into international stardom as he plays what is effectively a silent actor’s miming performance of a grunting monster who is both terrifying and terrified of his existence. The story begins in a familiar Bavarian country village (the set was recently constructed for use in the Best Picture-winning Universal masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front). A shadowy Expressionist scene unveils two men, Frankenstein and his assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), as they rob a grave. These early scenes in the graveyard feature a prominent statue of the grim reaper (James Whale asked actor Colin Clive to toss dirt in the face of the grim reaper statue, symbolizing his contempt for death). They carry a coffin all the way up to Frankenstein’s castle to reanimate the corpse inside. Unfortunately, the body was once the victim of a hanging and the two will need to acquire a new brain. Frankenstein’s assistant, Fritz, sneaks into Goldstadt Medical College at night where he accidentally drops retrieves an ‘abnormal’ brain and brings it back to Frankenstein (an unsettling eugenic theme in the film). Meanwhile Elizabeth Lavenza (Mae Clarke), Frankenstein’s fiancée, convinces his former professor, Dr. Waldman (pronounced “Vald-man” and played by Edward van Sloan) to pay a visit to Frankenstein’s castle, and they are joined by Frankenstein’s friend Victor Moritz (John Boles) who is quite evidently in love with Elizabeth. Upon arrival, Frankenstein claims to have discovered the cause of life. He proves this to his guests by reanimating a terrifying corpse during a lightning storm, shouting “It’s alive! It’s alive! Now I know what it’s like to BE God!”

Later, he and Dr. Waldman are confronted by this newly animated monster (designed by legendary Hollywood make-up artist Jack Pierce). The monster is obsessed with light, but he fears fire. He attacks his creator and is taunted with fire by Fritz –the fire drives him into a frenzied rage. After receiving a brief sedative, the monster flees the castle and wanders through the surrounding woods before stumbling upon a little girl, Maria, sitting beside a lake (filmed at the scenic reservoir Malibou Lake in the Santa Monica Mountains). In one of the film’s most famous scenes, she teaches the monster how to make flowers float on the lake. It is a simple, touching moment between two forms of life –natural and unnatural– as they share a moment of innocence together. In jest, the monster lifts the girl to see if she will float like the flowers in the lake, but instead she drowns in the river and the monster flees in terror and confusion.

Meanwhile, Henry Frankenstein has been recovering from a bout of madness, and he reprioritizes his plans to marry Elizabeth. As an aside, there is a fascinating but subtle subtext in the film regarding Frankenstein’s father, Baron Frankenstein (Frederick Kerr), who quite a stubborn, tyrannical man. He serves as a cantankerous bully and young Frankenstein seems eager to impress him, the “son of the House of Frankenstein.” Additionally, on the day of Frankenstein’s wedding, we see only a brief, passing reference to Frankenstein’s deceased mother –throughout the film, he is a motherless creator of new life. A psychoanalytic interpretation of Henry Frankenstein reveals a deeply troubled, repressed young man. At any rate, in many of these scenes we re given a jarring juxtaposition between the shadowy, angular, dark Expressionistic scenes of the monster contra the bright, ornate, aristocratic, jovial portrayals of high society (as exemplified in the old Baron). However, on the day of Frankenstein’s wedding to Elizabeth, the surrounding town discovers the truth of little Maria’s murder and they chase after the Monster as an unwieldy, torch-wielding lynch mob (or what James Whale described as “the pagan sport of the mountain manhunt”) while the Monster has now taken his creator –Henry Frankenstein– hostage and dragged him up to an old windmill in the countryside (this scene was initially conceived by the film’s first director Robert Florey). The monster climbs to the top and throws his former creator, Henry Frankenstein, over the side of the building, while an angry mob burns down the mill with the monster trapped inside. It is actually quite a haunting scene as we listen to the agonizing groans of the monster as he burns to death. Originally the film ended here, but audiences were unsatisfied with this horrific conclusion (which was called a “holocaust” in the script), therefore a short scene was added at the end to complete the film which features a brief glimpse of Henry Frankenstein recovering while his father, Baron Frankenstein, makes a toast to the House of Frankenstein.

Fritz is not in the novel, neither is the goofy brain-swapping sequence at Goldstadt Medical College, neither is Little Maria (though the monster kills Frankenstein’s brother), and Frankenstein’s name is Victor in the novel while his friend’s name is Henry (for reasons unknown Peggy Webling switched the names in her play in 1827). Likewise, the novel does not exactly describe how the creature is reanimated, Frankenstein regrets his creation and tries to destroy his creature, but the creature escapes and becomes literate before he torments his creator on his wedding day leading to a chase to the Arctic (this is all explained in epistolary fashion). Thus, the film is considerably different from the novel –but both are magnificent explorations of similar themes and philosophical questions, particularly concepts of biogenesis, genetic engineering, and biological manipulation. It offers a myth of human creation in a Godless world; a tragic creation deserted by his creator.

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Credits:

• Director: James Whale
• Screenplay by: Garrett Fort received sole credit for the script, though he left the project and Francis Edward Faragoh (mistakenly credited as “as Francis Edwards Faragoh” in the opening credits) worked with James Whale to rework the script
• Based on: Frankenstein, the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley (she was amusingly credited as “Mrs. Percy B. Shelley” in the film) but more so based on a series of theatrical stage productions by Peggy Wedley and John Balderston (Universal paid them $20,000 and 1% gross for the rights)
• Produced by: Carl Laemmle Jr. and E.M. Asher (associate producer)
• Music by: Bernhard Kaun (a short time later it became commonplace for films to have a full score, so Bernhard Kaun’s composition appears briefly in the film, such as during the opening credits)
• Starring:
  • Boris Karloff…..The Monster (credited as “?” in the opening credits, reminiscent of the first stage production in 1823)
    • William Henry Pratt, or “Boris Karloff” (1887-1969), also billed as “Karloff the Uncanny,” was as erudite an English gentleman as one could find in the Golden Age of Hollywood. His parents initially intended for him to pursue a diplomatic career but he intentionally failed the test and emigrated to Canada in 1909 before relocating to Hollywood, working odd jobs and driving trucks to support his family. His iconic portrayal of Frankenstein’s monster in Frankenstein (1931) was actually his 82nd film, and his most famous role. He reprised the role in two more Frankenstein installments —Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), the latter of which he apparently regretted due the Monster’s violent, unsympathetic portrayal. He also appeared as Imhotep in The Mummy (1932), and voiced the Grinch in the animated television special of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), which won him a Grammy Award. He later played Victor Frankenstein in a 1970 adaptation of Frankenstein. In total, he appeared in 174 films, was married six times, and had one daughter. However, a longtime heavy smoker, he contracted emphysema after returning to London later in life, an incident which left him with only half of one lung still functioning. He then contracted arthritis and bronchitis in late 1968 and was hospitalized. He died of pneumonia the following year at the age of 81. He never legally changed his name to “Boris Karloff,” always signing his official documents as “William H. Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff.”
  • Colin Clive…..Henry Frankenstein
    • Colin Clive (1900-1937) was a British theatre and film actor who was known for portraying tumultuous characters, many of them mirrored his chaotic personal life. He was a severe alcoholic whose long-damaged leg from military service was constantly under threat of amputation. He was often drunk and sleeping on the set of his films, sometimes he needed to be held up by fellow actors. He is most famous for his role as Henry Frankenstein in the 1931 film Frankenstein and its 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein. In a 1985 interview, Mae Clarke said, “Colin Clive was the dearest, kindest, in the real meaning of the word ‘kind’–man, who gave you importance. He was so wonderful, so clever. When he started acting in a scene, I wanted to stop and just watch . . . I’d think, ‘Here I am, playing scenes with this marvelous actor!’ Mr. Whale would say, ‘Colin’s voice is like a pipe organ . . . I just pull out the stops, and he produces the music.’ Colin was electric. I was mesmerized by him–so much so that I hoped it didn’t show! When he looked at me, I’d flush. He had a wife back in England, and I had my young man. In fact, I was glad my fiancé was at the premiere that night–to be my good anchor against my stormy waves of fancy for Colin. He was the handsomest man I ever saw–and also the saddest. Colin’s sadness was elusive; the sadness you see if you contemplate many of the master painters’ and sculptors’ conceptions of the face of Christ–the ultimate source in my view of all sadness.” Colin Clive died of tuberculosis as a result of his alcoholism in 1937 at the age of 37.
  • Mae Clarke…..Elizabeth Lavenza, Henry’s fiancée
    • Mae Clarke (1910-1992) was an actress best remembered for her role in Frankenstein (1931) and as the woman who received a face full of grapefruit from James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931). Her father was an organist for silent films. She was married and divorced three times. She died in 1992 at the age of 81 of cancer.
  • John Boles…..Victor Moritz, Henry’s friend
    • John Boles (1895-1965) was an American singer and actor best known for playing Victor Moritz in the 1931 film Frankenstein. A Texas-native, Boles served in the intelligence service of the U.S. Army during World War. He also appeared in Curly Top (1935) alongside Shirley Temple and in the King Vidor classic Stella Dallas (1937) alongside Barbara Stanwyck. He died on in 1969 in San Angelo, Texas, at the age of 73 from a heart attack. He and his wife had two children.
  • Dwight Frye…..Fritz, Henry’s assistant
    • Dwight Frye (1899-1943) was best known for his portrayals of neurotic, murderous villains in Universal Monster films, in roles like Renfield in Dracula (1931) and Fritz in Frankenstein (1931). He also appeared as a reporter in The Invisible Man (1933), as Karl in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and in minor roles in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), and Son of Frankenstein (1939), the latter of which was a deleted scene. Frye died of a heart attack at the age of 44 in 1943 while traveling by bus in Hollywood, a few days before he was scheduled to begin filming the biopic Wilson. He had one child.
  • Edward van Sloan…..Dr. Waldman (pronounced “vald-man”)
    • Edward Van Sloan (1882-1964) was best remembered for his roles in the Universal Monster series, in films like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). He and his wife had one child. He died in 1964 at the age of 81.
  • Frederick Kerr…..Baron Frankenstein, Henry’s curmudgeonly father
    • Frederick Kerr (1858-1933) was a British actor of stage and film. He appeared in Whale’s prior film Waterloo Bridge (1931). He was seventy-three years old during the filming of Frankenstein.
  • Lionel Belmore…..Herr Vogel, The Burgomaster (or regional mayor)
    • Lionel Belmore (1867-1953) was an English actor and silent film director who later turned to acting.
  • Marilyn Harris…..”Little Maria,” the young girl
    • Marilyn Harris (1924-1999) was a child actress who appeared in several Hollywood productions in the 1930s and 1940s. She is best remembered for her role as “Little Maria” in the 1931 horror film Frankenstein (she was seven years old during filming). During filming, she was apparently sick and asked James Whale for a gift of two dozen eggs if she filmed the scene of her being tossed into the lake for a second time. She left acting after the age of 19, she was married twice, and had one son. She died in 1999 at the age of 75 (both husbands predeceased her).
  • Ted Billings……villager (uncredited)
  • Mae Bruce…..screaming maid (uncredited)
  • Jack Curtis…..villager (uncredited)
  • Arletta Duncan…..bridesmaid (uncredited)
  • William Dyer…..gravedigger (uncredited)
  • Francis Ford…..Hans, an injured villager (uncredited)
    • Francis Ford (1881-1953) was an actor and older brother of legendary director John Ford. He also appeared in many of his brother John’s movies as a character actor, including The Informer (1935), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and The Quiet Man (1952).
  • Soledad Jiménez…..mourner (uncredited)
  • Carmencita Johnson…..little girl (uncredited)
  • Seessel Anne Johnson…..little girl (uncredited)
  • Margaret Mann…..mourner (uncredited)
  • Michael Mark…..Ludwig the Woodcutter (uncredited), father of Little Maria (he also played an extra in the Goldstadt Medical College scenes). He later played roles in several subsequent Frankenstein films.
  • Robert Milasch…..villager (uncredited)
  • Pauline Moore…..bridesmaid (uncredited)
  • Inez Palange…..villager (uncredited)
  • Paul Panzer…..mourner at gravesite (uncredited)
  • Cecilia Parker…..maid (uncredited)
  • Rose Plumer…..villager (uncredited)
  • Cecil Reynolds…..Dr. Waldman’s Secretary (uncredited)
  • Ellinor Vanderveer…..medical student (uncredited)
• Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
• Production Company: Universal Pictures

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Other Notes:

• Robert Florey was supposed to be the initial director of Frankenstein with Bela Lugosi set to star alongside Bette Davis as Elizabeth and Leslie Howard as Henry Frankenstein. However, Florey soon departed the project and Lugosi turned down the role of the monster after essentially believing he would be playing a brutish ugly mute. However, many of Florey’s original German Expressionist concepts and scenes were kept in the final product (like the conclusion atop the burning windmill). The set design of the windmill sequence was apparently inspired by a building in Los Angeles that housed a local bakery, Van de Kamp, which displayed a large windmill as its corporate logo. Florey had an apartment that apparently overlooked an advertisement for the bakery. And while the first few Universal Monster films were led by other directors, Florey later directed the Universal horror picture The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).
• Once James Whale was somewhat reluctantly hired for the film (two weeks prior to shooting), he rewrote the script to make the monster seem more caring, sympathetic, and akin to a “lost soul.”
• A 20-minute test reel, starring Bela Lugosi as The Monster and directed by Robert Florey, was allegedly filmed on the set of Dracula (1931). This footage has not been seen since 1931 and is presumed lost. Only a poster featuring the apparent likeness of Lugosi as a 30-foot colossus remains. Actor Edward Van Sloan (who plays Dr. Waldman in Frankenstein and Van Helsing in Dracula) also appeared in the now-lost test reel.
• It was James Whale who first suggested Boris Karloff for the lead role in the film after bumping into him over lunch at the Universal commissary. Karloff was only slightly miffed that Whale had pictured him for the role of a scary monster since that day he happened to be dressed up, wearing his finest suit.
• While preparing to film the scene in which the monster attacks Elizabeth, Mae Clarke admitted to Boris Karloff she was worried that when she saw him in full makeup coming towards her, she might really be frightened. Karloff told her that throughout the scene he would wiggle his pinkie finger out of sight of the camera so that, despite the horrific makeup, she could always see her friend Boris waving at her and letting her know that she was actually safe.
• Jack P. Pierce was head of the make-up department at Universal. The monster’s look may have been partly inspired by Thomas Edison’s short film portraying the monster with a large forehead. The heavy make-up on Boris Karloff took about three to four hours (sometimes even six hours) to apply each day, and a couple hours to remove. It involved cotton and wax and a variety of shadow definitions among other make-up tricks to create his fearsome visage. Karloff also had a bridge of molars removed from the right side of his mouth, and he sucked in his cheek to appear more deformed. Karloff also wore stilted beams in his leg to stiffen his walking. The thick-soled boots The Monster wears are known as “hot asphalt boots” worn by laborers. The soles are specially designed to resist heat and they weighed 13 pounds each.
• A Universal secretary reportedly fainted when Karloff smiled at her in costume one day at the office. Carl Laemmle Jr. then asked for Karloff to wear a blue veil and be led around by Jack Pierce to avoid frightening more workers.
• In the early scene when Fritz is stealing the brain, he bumps into a human skeleton. In fact, this was a real human skeleton. The crew found it faster and cheaper to purchase a real human skeleton from a biological supply house instead of creating an artificial one.
• The bouncing skeleton gag was a bit of levity placed into this otherwise very dark story.
• The bolts in the monster’s neck were supposed to be how the electricity initially entered his body via electrodes.
• Frankenstein was the first film to use the famous “Castle Thunder” sound effect. First heard at the beginning of the sound era, it remained in circulation into the 21st century.
• Kenneth “Ken” Strickfaden designed Henry Frankenstein’s famous buzzing laboratory equipment. Strickfaden was an electrician in the industry who created electric pyrotechnics for films between the 1930s to the 1970s, mainly using spare parts of automobiles and electrical odds and ends he had on hand. He also doubled for Boris Karloff during the sequences that showed the electrical volts sparks running over his body. He later doubled for Karloff again in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) and the laboratory equipment was reused in films like Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Undersea Kingdom (1936). He worked on films like The Wizard of Oz and The War of the Worlds. Ken Strickfaden placed the laboratory equipment into storage in his garage where they remained for decades until Mel Brooks found out that the lab equipment still existed and the same machines were then used in his classic comedy Young Frankenstein (1974). Mel Brooks gave Ken Strickfaden the onscreen credit he had not received in this film and others.
• Ken Strickfaden’s equipment was rented by Universal Pictures for a staggering $10,000 at the time.
• When Mel Brooks found out that the lab equipment still existed, the same machines were used in his comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), and Brooks gave Strickfaden the onscreen credit he had not received in his films.
• The 1998 film Gods and Monsters stars Ian McKellen and is about the final days of James Whale. James Whale was an Englishman best known for directing his Universal classics Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Whale also directed films in other genres, including the 1936 film version of the musical of Edna Ferber’s best-selling novel Show Boat. He served in the British Army in WWI and was captured by the Germans and placed in a POW camp. After the war, he turned to directing Broadway plays and feature films. He relocated to Hollywood for the rest of his life, and spent most of that time with his longtime romantic partner, producer David Lewis (he was openly gay and critics have often discussed finding personal themes in Whale’s movies, but this has also been fiercely disputed). He directed a dozen films for Universal Pictures between 1931 and 1937, developing a style characterized by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera. However, after a string of flops, particularly his sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front entitled The Road Back (1937) which was mired in development hell, Whale’s career took a nosedive. His investments allowed him to lead a comfortable lifestyle of travel and luxury in later life, however a series of strokes in 1956 led him to take his own life the following year. He was found drowned in his own pool at the age of 67, unable to cope with the misery and pain of his physical existence. His romantic partner, David Lewis, released “Jimmy” Whale’s suicide notes decades later.
• Frankenstein’s famous line “Now I know what it’s like to BE God!” was censored for being too blasphemous in the film’s re-releases in the late 1930s. Indeed many scenes in Frankenstein were either edited or cut out entirely to appease censors, such as the scene of little Maria drowning.
• In the film, Dr. Waldman tells Elizabeth that Henry had left the university before completing his studies, so the often-used title “Dr.” Frankenstein is technically incorrect.
• The Monster kills only three people in the film: Fritz, Dr. Waldman, and the little girl Maria (whose death was actually unintentional). He attacks a villager in the mountains, but the man is clearly left alive by the end of the scene.
• Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) was released a mere 10 months prior to James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931).
• Boris Karloff apparently lost 20-25 pounds during the making of this film and he received little scars on his neck from the electrodes.
• Herman Rosse primarily designed the sets for Frankenstein.
• The street dancers on the Universal backlot European village set were authentic Austrian dancers. This set was actually reused from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), as were many sets in the film, but unfortunately it later burned down in a fire.
• In the closing scenes, James Whale pushed his actors extremely hard, forcing Boris Karloff and Colin Clive to fight each other numerous times on camera (Clive apparently dislocated his arm during these scenes) and Karloff injured his back after Whale demanded that he carry a six-foot Clive up the stairs of the windmill dozens of times. This caused significant pain for Karloff later in life.

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