Frankenstein (1931) Review

Halloween fun goes Universal with a review of James Whale’s subversive masterpiece that frightened audiences and packed the theaters. Return with me to a more innocent time when gore did not exist in movies, television was a science fiction idea, and scared kids still hid behind movie theater seats. Warning: This will be a monster of a review!

1931 was the year that made horror movies popular and proved they could compete for the pennies of Depression era movie goers. Early in the year, Dracula had come out and caused a sensation with its gothic atmosphere featuring an exotic supernatural villain. Known as a B movie studio, Universal Pictures finally had their chance to move up to the big leagues and they had to strike while the iron was hot.

So another adaptation of a classic horror novel was the logical next step. Having bought the rights to Peggy Webling’s stage play interpretation of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, the studio moved ahead at full steam.

The movie begins with a quaint rarity: a warning to the audience. Delivered by Edward Van Sloan, the actor portraying Doctor Waldman, it was added after a test screening in California shocked its audience. In this exceptionally jaded era of lost innocence, the concept of people actually have to be warned about content is alien. But this was a more civilized time and not only were children sheltered, many adults were.

So please watch this movie with that in mind.

The opening credits set an uneasy and creepy mood, with strange and unholy eyes being the focus behind the letters presented on screen. To modern eyes, it looks psychedelic, but it would have been nightmarish—even delirious to the eyes of the time.

A funeral is underway and it is a dark affair. The wild eyes of Fritz (Dwight Frye) peer over a fence at the mourners and he is pulled down by a more normal looking man. Once the gravedigger is finished filling the hole, the two men scurry out to dig up the coffin. While more normal looking, it turns out Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is no less disturbing than his hunchbacked henchman.

Not satisfied with one corpse, it is time for the grave robbers to cast their nets further. I found Fritz to be fascinating and Frye’s performance is superb as the none too bright assistant. His performance is both sinister and humorous, but the edge to it keeps laughter at bay. He inspires tension in most of his scenes.

But it is his incompetency that everyone remembers. It led to a famous spoof many years later in Young Frankenstein. Substituting an abnormal brain for a normal one may fool your mad scientist, but the results will always show in the final product…

Ever wonder if mad scientists are merely nerds with abandonment issues who just need some loving attention?  Well, this is not the case with Frankenstein. Back home, he has a fiancé and best friend very concerned about his self imposed exile. While the lovely Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) frets, Victor (John Boles) decides to check up on his friend, despite openly having feelings for her. Ah, Victorian style angst.

In fact, they both decide to go to his old mentor, Doctor Waldman (Van Sloan) when Elizabeth shows she is no shrinking violet. He is not as sympathetic as he could be, but agrees to accompany them to Henry’s laboratory.

Style is something this movie has in spades and the setting for Frankenstein’s lab shows a very heavy German silent film influence. The abandoned watchtower is very reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with strange angles inside and out. This was a conscious decision by the director, James Whale. A great fan of German expressionist cinema, he fit in perfectly with Universal’s cultivating a similar environment in the United States.

Normally, mad scientists in movies get to work in quiet isolation when the big experiment finally is executed. Henry would prefer it this way, but people keep pounding on his door. With his sanity questioned, not only does he let them in, but insists they be an audience to his work. Three sane people versus one insane one with the results proving who is correct.

Following in the footsteps of Metropolis, the lab is filled with all sorts of weird and fascinating gadgets sparking electricity all over the place. With no musical score, the sound of the arcing stands out and adds to the dramatic tension of the scene. Thunder and lighting build outside the laboratory, giving the whole sequence a feeling of primordial elements out of control – much like Frankenstein himself.

But what of his creation, this attempt at creating life?  The creature is wrapped in gauze bandages, his visage never seen. Only his bare arms and stitches where the hands were sewn are visible. Oh and the top of his head, which is strangely squared off.

Clive gives a riveting performance during this scene. All of Frankenstein’s frantic mania oozes out as the experiment is carried out, culminating in one of the most famous scenes in cinema when he shouts “It’s alive!” over and over again. His euphoria crosses over into blasphemy and it is like watching someone having an ecstatic nervous breakdown. It probably helped that the actor was a very troubled man himself.

While the creature has risen into the heavens and gained life, his creator has descended into the hell of madness. Whale clearly was having too much fun with all this allegory.

An indefinite amount of time passes, which adds to the dream like quality of the production. Henry’s father, Baron Frankenstein (Frederick Carr), makes his comedic entrance to the movie. Whale delighted in alternating comic scenes with the horror and to my thinking enhanced the frights for audiences by giving them down time between scares.

A bit of philosophy added after shooting began elevates a debate between Henry and his old mentor into something memorable. For the first time he seems human and it makes the mad scientist more understandable, perhaps even likeable. It also serves as an excellent setup for the reveal of what he has wrought.

Heavy footsteps come up the stairs and finally the silhouette of the Monster appears as he backs into the room. Slowly turning, the ghastly and cadaverous appearance of Frankenstein’s unholy creation is revealed. It is done for maximum shock effect and all you hear is the shuffling of his feet which somehow adds both to the reality and unreality of the scene. That is a nice trick to pull off.

Today, it might look quite silly in an era of zombie gore on cable television. But examine the makeup closely and it becomes less silly. Makeup artist Jack Pierce did an excellent job of making Karloff look like a walking reanimated corpse. Of course, he had Karloff’s unusual face to work with and that helped mightily.

To give you an idea of how effective it was back in 1931, Mae Clarke had problems with being around Boris in the makeup and was genuinely unnerved by it. To help calm and focus her on acting, he wiggled his little finger on one hand during shooting to let her know it was just Boris under it all.

Behaving very much like a half awake little child, the Monster obeys simple commands from Henry. Watching Karloff play the part, there is a wonderful gentleness and innocence about the hulking creature. Pay particular attention to his reaction to the sunlight and you will see that the man was quite an actor.

Few things are more emotionally scarring than being bullied as a child and interestingly Whale chose to portray that through the actions of Fritz. The crazed and dim hunchback accidently discovers the Monster is afraid of fire. With that knowledge, he begins to actively torment the newborn creature despite being told not to.

It is Fritz’s torturing of the Monster that brings out his savage side and soon a body count begins to pile up. But there is another theme besides bullying that makes the Monster dangerous. That theme is betrayal as Henry gives in to the increasingly ruthless pronouncements of Doctor Waldman.

There is an undercurrent of the humans being the truly frightening ones in Frankenstein. Waldman is far from a sympathetic character in this movie. In fact, he is the voice of intolerance and destruction while exuding not even one BTU of warmth. His desire to dissect the Monster while it still lives leads to just desserts.

While Henry and his bride to be rekindle their romance, the Monster has gotten loose to roam the countryside. A fateful encounter there changes everything in a manner that was too shocking for some audiences to handle back in the 1930’s. Before it is over, there will be an angry mob with torches…

Thoughts

Frankenstein is a very different animal than the movie that inspired its being made. Where Dracula was rather pedestrian and relied on Bela Legosi’s sinister sex appeal, this movie was far more daring and character driven. In my opinion, it has held up far better as a work of art than the vampire movie.

It helped that the actors took it more seriously in this production, but I have to attribute that to James Whale’s direction. His vision is stamped on every scene and he knew how to get the most out of his cast.

Originally meant to star Bela Legosi from Dracula, the movie went in a different direction after a disastrous film test and Whale’s taking over the production. Thanks to him, the film world was given a not very successful character actor from England in the starring role as the Monster. It is impossible to imagine early horror films without the great Boris Karloff – in fact he became the heir to the late, great Lon Chaney, the Man of One Thousand Faces.

There are not enough superlatives for Karloff’s performance. His portrayal of the Monster makes you care about the large and misshaped child, for that is what he is. Acting through the brilliant makeup and without a single line of dialogue, his gestures, body language, and expressions convey more than any of his growls or screams.

Together with the performances of Clive and Frye, you are presented with some top notch acting of the time. The scene where Henry tells Fritz to leave the Monster alone has a marvelously delivered line to end it that stood out to me. While the line by itself is empty, the nuanced tones of Clive make it high tragedy.

To me, little things like that give another reason why Frankenstein is a true classic and deserving of attention eighty years later. While it is old fashioned and hokey by modern standards, there are layers to the movie that real buffs will find very entertaining. This is not a shallow film.

I highly recommend Frankenstein to film buffs, kids, kids at heart, and those of us old enough to have grown up with the scratchy black and white films of yesteryear. Stylish, sometimes witty, and with subtle commentary on human behavior, it is more than just a horror movie. Check it out.

Technical

The DVD I purchase for $7.50 at Wal-Mart is quite a steal. It is the 2006 75th Anniversary Edition in the Universal Legacy Series and features a faux leather case instead of the normal plastic. While only treated cardboard, it easily could be mistaken for a book once on a shelf.

Inside are two DVD’s packed with all sorts of goodies and documentaries. I had a problem with the left hand plastic leaf that came unglued and then also refused to give up the disc without breaking the tab it is held in by. While regluing the plastic to the case was easy enough, the tab could not be repaired. Fortunately, what was left holds the disc securely.

The case and DVD’s all feature sepia toned pictures of Karloff as the Monster, with the whole affair being very attractive. That theme carries over to the well executed menus.

The movie is digitally restored and remastered. The anamorphic presentation  makes for a terrific visual experience. Everything that was edited out of the film in 1937 has been restored, so it is different than what I remembered as a kid. The film is presented in its original ratio of 1.33:1, which is the same as older television sets.

Sound is monaural, of course, but also restored and cleaned up. Movies did not have background soundtracks back then, since talkies were still relatively new. In the silent film era, you had an organist playing live so this lack of a score was a short lived period in films. In my opinion, this added to the tension of the movie rather than detracted from it. Every plodding footstep can be heard, which was perfect for giving nightmares to kids of the time!

There is a veritable bonanza of extras.

Disc 1 has the movie and the following bonus materials:

Karloff: The Gentle Monster – A fantastic documentary on the actor who was born William Henry Pratt in England. As an account of his career it is good, but it really shines at showing the gentleman’s character. Karloff was a true class act and that rarity of rarities, an humble actor.

Monster Tracks – This can be enabled to pop up trivia during viewing of the movie. It works like subtitling and was not always easy to read. In fact, it sometimes took up the entire bottom third of the screen. On a few occasions, it was positively flippant and got a laugh out of me.

Feature Commentary with Rudy Behlmer – Very informative and gives a lot of information on the changes from the novel and stage plays. For fun,try counting how many times he gives the date in the “nineteen hundred and” format.

Feature Commentary with Historian Sir Christopher Frayling – Slow starting, but a highly entertaining commentary that includes some slightly skeptical looks at various interpretations of the themes of the movie. This veers into PG-13 material, so parents should check this out first.

Disc 2 contains even more goodies:

Universal Horror – A full length documentary narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Surprisingly, it is not just about Universal Pictures productions. Instead, it turns out to be a comprehensive look at early horror movies filled with glimpses of all the classics from the silent film era through the 1940’s. After seeing it, I would have paid money for it by itself. It is absolutely fantastic and a must see for film buffs.

A note for parents: There is some female nudity of an artistic nature in background drawings and paintings in this documentary . Nothing salacious, but one should be aware of it.

The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster – Another documentary that focuses on the making of Frankenstein and its sequels. David J. Skal hosts it and there are many interesting stories from the production.

Frankenstein Archives – This is a video presentation of promotional materials from the movie’s release in a slide show format, albeit one you cannot control. Most interesting are the production photographs shown with sound bites from the relevant scenes.

Boo! – Billed as a short film, this oddity from 1932 comes off like a stone age attempt at Mystery Science Theater 3000, minus the robots and humor. Did I mention it is supposed to be funny? It is narrated by an ostensibly amusing man with the huckster smart aleck patter that was popular at the time. Mashing up scenes from Frankenstein, Nosferatu, and The Cat and The Canary into a food poisoning induced dream of a some schlub, it tries very hard to be witty. That includes multiple shots at Congress for not dealing with the Depression. Funny it is not.

The Theatrical Trailer is from the 1937 re-release. It brags of the millions who have seen it and the millions more who will. Marketing was a lot more aggressive back in the day and it may be hard for people to believe that things are more subtle now. But it is the truth and this trailer is a good example of it.

BEWARE!!! HERE BE SPOILERS!

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the restoration of Henry Frankenstein’s blasphemous rant, the other most censored moment restored is that of the Monster throwing Little Maria (Marilyn Harris) into the lake. Audiences were upset by this scene and multiple states ordered it removed during the initial release. By the 1934 re-release, it had been removed from all versions and was not seen until Frankenstein was put out on video.

As the commentaries and documentaries all note, this censorship actually made the scene more sinister and nastier. Instead of seeing that it was an accident caused by the childlike Monster thinking she would float like a flower, the audience is instead shown him start to reach for her and the scene ends.

So the next time Maria is seen, her body is being carried by her stunned father into the village to appeal for justice. Her appearance implies an assault of some kind and it is a much different effect. With no visibly distraught Monster in a panic over her drowning, it also took away from his being the sympathetic character of the film. Ironic that the censorship made things seem worse.

I found the portrayal of the mob with torches to be quite interesting. There is a sense that they are the more frightening creature on the loose, not Frankenstein’s creation. This is reinforced by the close ups of the village women watching the mob. At first it seems that they are afraid because of the Monster being on the loose, but it soon looks more like they are afraid of the men of the village.

I have to admire how Whale slipped this subtle commentary on mobs into the film.

Another sly bit has to be the expression and style of growl that the Monster uses while menacing Elizabeth. That looks like a humorous leer on Karloff’s face, doesn’t it? It is the kind of humor that appealed to Whale, but I also suspect this came out of Mae Clarke’s really being afraid of Karloff in makeup. I got the impression he was trying not to laugh during parts of the scene.

Yep, the looks like a little genuine fear there. The whole scene is also a homage to a similar scene in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Poor Monster – the women just don’t dig him. In fact, the sequel Bride of Frankenstein explores that in more depth.

There was a great deal of artistry shown in the composition of the final scenes of the Monster being hunted down. The whole who was hunter and who was prey is well executed as the unwanted progeny takes on his father. There is a theme of father and son strife explored in the film, with the bad relationship between Henry and Baron also being touched on. Abandonment issues abound.

I thought Karloff’s performance as the mortally terrified and hysterical Monster in the burning mill was incredible. The creature is reduced to a screaming and utterly panicked animal, which made his death all the more tragic. No wonder kids identified with him even though they were scared of him.

This was supposed to be the final shot of the film. With Frankenstein dead and his creation burning to death, it would have made for a truly dramatic end. The test audiences hated it.

Worried by the reaction, Universal hastily filmed an epilogue with the Baron and his maids showing Henry to be alive. Clive was in England so a double was used for him and I don’t think that was Clarke in the background either. So instead of high drama for the ending, we get another comic moment.

Oddly, Whale was not bothered by this.