The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 86 days to go.
Frankenstein was the first masterpiece from the Universal Studios horror film franchise. Unlike its predecessor, Dracula, which has endured largely due to Bela Lugosi’s magnetic performance, Frankenstein creates deeper meaning within its characters. And produces a stronger story not just full of horror, but of pathos and tragedy. It is also the film that is full of the most memorable set pieces in all of the Universal horror franchise which has left an indelible mark in film history.
Adapted from the brilliant Mary Shelley novel, it tells the story of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), a brilliant young scientist obsessed with the reanimation of dead tissue. Along with his hunchback servant Fritz (Dwight Frye), he intends to put life back into a dead corpse. Henry’s fiancee Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) is worried about his peculiar behaviour, and decides to visit him in his secluded laboratory along with a friend Victor (John Boles) and Henry’s old college professor Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan).
Once there, they are witness to the true nature of Henry’s madness as they see a cadaver laid out on an operating table ready to live once more. After raising the body up towards the top of the lab in a lightning storm, we see it come down. And in a moment of sheer exhilaration for Henry, as well as the audience, we witness the former lifeless hand move, and the immortal words of “It’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive!” And it’s then we see The Monster (Boris Karloff) born.
“Produces a stronger story not just full of horror, but of pathos and tragedy.”
There is so much about Frankenstein which still feels so fresh and even groundbreaking today. It was made at a time of the Hollywood pre-code era, when films weren’t subject to censorship, and they could get away with things they couldn’t otherwise. Thus, the film is full of somewhat risque allusions to death and decay which it seems to revel in.
One of the more striking images of the film involves open graves, or dirt being thrown on a casket. It shows the finality of death and there is no escaping it. There isn’t much to romanticize in the whole aspect of dying, showing it can be natural yet ugly. The tragedy of Frankenstein is the struggle for humans to reconcile their own mortality. Henry is a man who is driven mad by finding out the secrets to life, yet it morphs into his undoing.
The idea of the monster is a grotesque manifestation of Frankenstein’s ego, which is something which disgusts even him. This makes the monster a tragic figure, and probably the most complex in all of Universal’s canonical series of horror films. We see him act out with very child like impulses, which can turn from playful to violent in a heartbeat.
This isn’t illustrated any better than in the scene where the monster is playing near a pond with a little girl. In a very tender moment involving some great silent acting by Karloff, The Monster is seen throwing flowers in the water with the girl. When he runs out of flowers, the only logical thing he sees is to throw the girl in as well, which causes her to drown. It’s a horrific scene, even by today’s standards considering it is the death of an innocent.
“The film was the brain child of British filmmaker James Whale, who was an eccentric and himself an outcast.”
Yet we feel great sympathy for The Monster, as he never asked to be born, and is seen as an outcast for his troubles. No one ever tries to understand him, even Henry his creator quickly sees the error of his ways and tries to destroy it without coming to terms with what he has done. This aspect of The Monster as a martyr for mankind’s ego for playing God is done even better in the superior sequel Bride of Frankenstein.
The film was the brain child of British filmmaker James Whale, who was an eccentric and himself an outcast. Whale was a known homosexual with a flare for dark social commentary. Before Whale came on board, an early treatment of the film had The Monster be a totally unsympathetic killing machine. Yet Whale brought some of the original nuance from Mary Shelley’s novel showing The Monster as a warped reflection of his creator.
There is a duality between the two which Whale plays with, particularly in the film’s climactic ending inside a windmill. Henry and The Monster are facing each other, framed behind a giant crank looking at each other as if through a mirror. It’s a striking image almost as if they were two sides of the same coin.
“Karloff gives a sense of longing and sadness to the character, making him less of a villain and more of an anti-hero.”
As The Monster, Karloff creates a masterpiece of a performance done all silently with a few grunts. Karloff reaches for pathos, but never overplays it. He knows when to hold back, letting his body and physique do the acting for him. Yet, such as with the aforementioned pond scene, or when The Monster holds up his arms to try to touch sunlight, Karloff gives a sense of longing and sadness to the character, making him less of a villain and more of an anti-hero.
As Henry Frankenstein, Colin Clive isn’t given enough credit. Without the role of Henry, the film isn’t as strong or as complex. Clive is given a rather unenviable task of playing a man who is mad, but also one who is haunted by what he has done. Clive brings a rare theatricality to his performance which serves his character well. He makes the creation scene come alive with his unadulterated enthusiasm of getting to play God, but he brings him back down to Earth when he sees the error of his ways.
Along with all the deeply layered themes and ideas, the film could also be considered a masterpiece of production design. It’s easy to take Frankenstein for granted, as we have seen the electrically charged laboratory many times in films since then. Yet it should not take away from the immense craft of such an imaginative set. This was after all Universal Studios big film of the year, and they didn’t skimp on the setting. While granted, there are some exterior sequences which make it all too apparent this was filmed on a sound stage, nothing can take away from the highly inventive majesty of Frankenstein’s lab.
“It’s a film that should be remembered by any aficionado of the horror genre or just movie buffs in general.”
The other magician involved with the film was Jack Pierce, who invented The Monster’s make-up. There is really only one image we think of in our heads when we picture The Monster, and it’s the one Pierce thought up, and which Karloff performed in. There’s something of an almost cartoonish quality to the sight of The Monster’s flattop head, and bolts on his neck, but it makes for an effective image. It’s also worthy to note how Karloff’s face was never lost in the prosthetics of it all, and he was able to emote with little resistance to the make-up.
Being a early sound film, Frankenstein can sometimes be the victim of its time. The biggest fault comes with the lack of music which hinders the film a bit. One can only imagine what a dramatic score could bring to the proceedings, particularly in the creation scene, but the current times made it difficult. However, it would be rectified in the sequel with a brilliant Franz Waxman theme which should be considered among the greatest made in the horror genre.
Yet despite some shortcomings, it shouldn’t diminish the overall greatness of Frankenstein. It’s a film that should be remembered by any aficionado of the horror genre or just movie buffs in general. It’s a film which has grown only in reputation since its initial release, and may be one of the few early films with the ability to shock with its daring themes, and haunting performances.
