Director: James Whale; Screenplay: Garrett Fort & Francis E. Faragoh; Cinematography: Arthur Edeson
Cast: Colin Clive, Boris Karloff, Mae Clarke
based on a novel by Mary Shelley and upon the composition by John L. Balderson
How can I begin to explain Frankenstein… It’s a story about power, soul and in some ways love. Dr. Henry Frankenstein is a brilliant man but with great minds is that they think differently and may not acknowledge the unspoken limits set by the society. That is how he becomes consumed with the idea of creating life by stitching up one from corpses. The Frankenstein movie is loosely based on a novel by Mary Shelley. She was only 19 when the book was published which may leave some people shocked by how come someone so young on the year 1818 can have such twisted imagination.
Mary Shelley wasn’t just a infamous author she was also a scandalous person – running away with a married man at the age of 16. Put it in the context of the 19th century and you have a mixed cocktail of a social suicide. But in spite of her reputation the novel gained massive success and has single handedly written Mary Shelley’s name in history.
I’ve always had a weird obsession with fringe science which in this case is nothing but. The lab scene where they were re-living the monster was chilling to say the least. The mechanical sounds, metal clinking left me quite stirred. As I’ve lived most of my life in the 21st century I’m used with the swooshing and other airplane sounds but to have raw metal sounds, made that scene feel real. I’ll remind you again that this movie was done in the early 30s so I am impressed.
One of my and Frank’s favorite part of the movie was the performance by Boris Karloff, actor portraying the monster. I’m in the loss of words when it comes to him. Such rawness, acting on instincts and stripping down the character to pure basic emotions. In the world of Brad Pitts and Blake Livelys, Karloff would have never made it in today’s Hollywood. As it seems some of the best actors out there are reduced to play recurring roles in TV series’. So I thank some higher power that he lived when theatre was closely connected with movies and the main requirement to actors was, well acting. The theatreesqueness gave a dramatic approach to the scenes as the in some way ridiculous or as Frank said cliché-ish stories needed to be played off. To me it was played off perfectly but didn’t do it for Frank. She has an allergy for the claimed clichés. I agree with her when it comes to Mae Clarke, actress playing Elizabeth. Frank thought she was overacting, I think she was just annoying.
Just as a quick side note, the little speech at the start of the movie just added on to the theatreesque approach and I loved every second of it.
Another brilliant character was Fitz, the sadistic lab assistant. He seemed to screw up quite many things by just being his clumsy and mean self. And here an obvious moral from the story – never-ever have a weird hunchback bring you important body parts. Things can and most likely will go wrong. And you will end up with a poor monster with a bad brain and a ravaging soul. We both felt sorry for the poor monster. Me probably more. I’ve always had an unexplainable sympathy for lost souls. And this one just wasn’t lost – it was forced. What didn’t make the Frankenstein’s monster just a barrel of plain emotions was that he seemed to have a confused soul. A soul that was forced to stay in a body that wasn’t it’s. To the more physical side, the make-up was full on scary. Wouldn’t have been scarier if they would’ve had special effects back then. The whole dryness…it was just shaking.
Frankenstein as a movie could’ve been better and if anyone should ever remake it then it should be better. Just of now it seems quite plain. I can’t even place the quilt on the era because it was in the screenplay. Writing is something ageless. You don’t make a weak story better with great acting. One will just tear the other down. But nonetheless Frankenstein is a classic and a great source of horror. Any aspiring filmmaker looking it’s’ way to horror should watch it.
written by: Benni based on opinion by: Frank
links: IMDb
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