Review #884: 'Frankenstein' (1931)

Boris Karloff's monster in James Whale's magnificent horror milestone Frankenstein is one of the most iconic images in cinema. Originally a role set for Bela Lugosi after the huge success of Dracula earlier the same year, the image of the monster, dead-eyed with electrodes protruding from his neck, is once seen and never forgotten. The make-up is now industry standard for any Frankenstein production despite being virtually nothing like the one described in Mary Shelley's novel. But this makes it easy to forget that Frankenstein is also a great piece of cinema - gothic, shocking and genuinely moving.

Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) has locked himself away in his desolate laboratory in order to work on his grand experiment - to reanimate life and playing God in the process. His assistant, the hunchback Fritz (Dwight Frye), steals the a brain of a dead convict for the final piece of Frankenstein's macabre creation. His fiancée Elizabeth (Mae Clarke) is concerned by his lengthy absence and goes to visit her husband-to-be, and witnesses the birth of his monster. Repulsed and ashamed by what he has done, Frankenstein leaves his lab to be married, only for the monster, terrified and confused, to escape and head into town.

Lugosi's withdrawal from the picture was a true blessing, as Karloff's stirring physical performance really drives home the film's themes. The monster at first seems to be searching for a father, or someone to guide him, and he reaches up into the light of the sky in wonder. It's only once he is abused by Fritz that he becomes violent, and obviously scared. Colin Clive is also very good, depicting Frankenstein as a man driven mad by desire and knowledge, only to feel genuine remorse and guilt over his actions. The film has been so influential that Whale's take on Frankenstein has almost become canon, with almost every adaptation that followed relatively ignoring Shelley's text completely. A true horror classic.


Directed by: James Whale
Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie