FRANKENSTEIN & THE MONDO GONZO MONSTER
By: Mike Marino
The Silver Screen Screams!
"It's Alive! It's Alive!"
Mondo monsters, beligerent bogeymen and anal probing alien nations from outer space have staged blitzkrieg attacks on the frontiers of our spaced out inner imaginations since sci-fi time began in the galactic Garden of Evil. Mad science, madder scientists and the maddest fiction disguised themselves as adrenaline rushing versions of Adam and Eve taking a decadent, yet mouth watering, delicious bite from the forbidden bag of sci-fi popcorn, only to be banished forever from the light, and cast lost and spinning into to the foreboding darkness of the forests of Bavaria and Transylvania.
Just when did that blood curdling first scream of absolute horror burst from the pages of the Pandora's box of literature, then, allowed to follow it's pre-ordained path to celluloid form to terrorize, reel after reel, generation after generation of movie goers? Was it the tick-tocking release of the futurama "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells in 1895, or perhaps the monstrous roadtrip to terror began with Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 1864? Even Bram Stoker's bat-winged blood sucking Count Dracula was beaten to the monster punch and had a wooden stake driven into it's heart by the geneological giant of a Bavarian behemoth that is kin to none other than Herman Munster himself! Gasp! Frankenstein's Monster!
Dr. Victor Frankenstein, along with his merry monster and happy hunchback, Igor, first saw the light of day with the publication in 1818 of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus".
Dr. Victor, like the god Prometheus before him, looked at himself as a benevelant being who could bestow mankind with gifts that would enlighten and improve the condition of the hapless lot of we, the great unwashed. Hapless and hopeless...the doctor will see you now!
Mary Shelley, born in London in 1797, was just 20 when "Frankie" made his first public print appearance, and her "creation" has been a graverobbing, brain transplanting creature feature cult classic ever since. It has withstood the test of time and the Creature has become the Godfather of the Family of Monsters.
The 1931 Universal Pictures version of "Frankenstein" featuring a young, unknown, Boris Karloff portraying the Monster, is the most recognizable of all the incarnations of Ms. Shelley's fertile and active imagination on overdrive...but the creature walked the earth long before the Hunchback hit Hollywood. In 1823, audiences in England received their first taste of theatrical terror as a troupe of thespians brought Mary's Monster to life for the first time on the London Stage...greasepaint had given it a face and it was a face only a mother could love.
Crowds flocked to the performances and it wasn't long before "Frank" hit the road across Europe scaring audiences from theater stages in 17 different languages. The Bolthead Beast was boffo! He was such a hit that it could only be compared to the frenetic fan frenzy caused by rock n' roll, and if that's the case then Frankenstein's Monster was the Elvis of Bavaria! Viva Bavaria!
Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the kinescope among other things, also had a fledgling film making studio in the Bronx at the turn of the century.
Most films of the day were short one reelers and one of the first films to be used to reel in the nickle paying public was the 14 minute version of Frankenstein that was released by the Edison Studios as early as 1910. It stared silent star, Charles Ogle as the Monster.
The first feature length creature feature to feature the Frankenstein creature was produced in 1915 and it was titled "Life Without A Soul". The Germans followed up with a version called "Homunclus: The Leader" in 1916, and the Italian film industry, still waiting for the arrival of Clint Eastwood to make spaghetti westerns someday, killed time by making their version of Frankenstein in 1920.
As the bootleggers in the '20s and '30s were getting gin tub fat and sassy, some of the filmakers in Hollywood were tottering on the brink of bankruptcy and film failure. One of those having turbulent economic times at the box office was Universal Studios. Little did they know, or could they know at the time, that the sun was about to rise on the monetary horizon with the release of two mondo monster movies that fateful year of 1931. Two movies that would have the bean counters with pocket protectors screaming aloud as the studio's coffers began to overflow with cash and revenue .."It's alive! It's alive!"
Rewind to 1927.
There was yet another Frankenstein stage production flourishing and touring in Jolly Olde England in 1927. As close as an ex-lover can get to the original, this one was revised somewhat, however, to reflect a new, modern and updated adaptation of the Shelley chiller thriller. Universal Studio's bought the Yankee movie rights to it, lock, stock and barrel, and went into full tilt boogie production in 1931 that would have made Prometheus proud.
Bela Lugosi was originally cast for the part of the "monster", but, after reading it, decided that he would rather don a cape and nibble nubile necks to get his vampiric rocks off. Besides, the creature didn't speak and that would be a perfectly good waste of a Transylvanian-Hungarian-Hollywoodian Accent. An unknown actor at the time was chosen instead, Boris Karloff. Lugosi would in time follow the yellow brick road to morphine addiction and would become the Bela of the Transylvanian Ball.
In Universal's opening credits, Karloff is not even mentioned by name, and gets 4th billing in the cast listings. His role is listed as "Monster" and in place of a name, a Question Mark marks the spot. His name does, however, appear in the closing credits. Karloff certainly breathed life and brought "character" to the creature on the silver screen and through the force, power and understanding of the role, he has been indelibly linked with it's persona for eternity.
1935. The Monster was reaching celluloid puberty, and not only was it time for a sequel, but also time to engage in some good old fashioned Prometian promiscuity. The sexy sequel the aroused "creature" ready to hop into the sack, pop a couple of Dr. Victor's Magical Viagra and do the monster mash with Elsa Lancaster as "The Bride of Frankenstein". Maybe it was her hair, but from this point on the honeymoon was over and Frankenstein's Monster was about to become boxoffice parody!
The end of WWII drove a stake into the hearts of real monsters. Frankie wasn't a Fascist, and his gutteral grunting and heavy footed stomping and clomping couldn't compare to the fear generated by the discovery of Hitler's concentration camps. The war was over, the pain and the suffering were on the mend and healing, and by Gawd, it was time to laugh again! At everything and anything. Hell, we earned it at Normandy and in the Pacific and who better to kick us hard in the funny bone than Abbott and Costello!
The 1948 release of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankstein" ushered in an era of Fun With Frankenstein that bordered on the downright ridiculous and outlandishly bizarre. Frankenstein over the course of the next 15 to 20 years would meet Space Monsters in mortal combat, Jesse James, assorted other aliens and atomic beings, but surprisingly, never did run into Godzilla, the King of the Monsters in his cheesy B-Grade movie ventures..even King Kong did that.
Soon the Monster was de-maximized and then minimized and shrink wrapped and banished unceremoniously to the vast wasteland of the TV screen. He was now a pop culture immigrant, on the move to a new land, and would change his name, as so many immigrants do. This time it went from Monster...to Munster.
Monster Merchandising would soon flare up like lumbago on the shelves of merchants across the country. Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday in the film "Tombstone" would proclaim to be your huckleberry if you shot him down, and in supermarket aisles across the land, the kids were clamoring not for huckleberries, but for Frankenberries!! Frankenberry cereal with the image of a lovable sugar laden sweet-toothed Mad Ave vision of Mad Science staring dumbly from the box.
Mel Brooks, the mad scientist of comedy broke the parody sound barrier in 1974 with the release of "Young Frankenstein" with a cast that includee the bug eyed comic wit of Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn and the absolute talentus giganticus of Gene Wilder, not to mention a young Terri Garr with enough sex appeal to launch a rocket to the outer reaches of the solar system. The casting of Peter Boyle as the Monster was a stroke of pure pleasure and genius. Mel Brooks may have been putting us on, but the scene where Peter Boyle is "Puttin' on the Ritz" is a classic piece of tophat and tux stage theatrics fully loaded with Frankenstein portions of hoopla and chutzpah!
Then came The Time Warp, and believe me Dahlings, the crossdressing portrayal of the manly monster, was a mincing maniacal dragqueen extravaganza that was a combination of all the very best of Universal's Monster Hall of Fame.
Tim Curry leaped from the top of Pop Culture Mountain in 1975 and landed in The Rocky Horror Picture Show as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, with much "an-ti-ci-pation". Spiked heels, teddy with garters, and mesh stockings, all made for a terrific transgendered summer camp of gender bending frivolity at Frankie's Fantasyland Bar and Grill, proving that girls, as well as Dr. Frank just want to have fun! You go girl!
In 2018, it will be 200 years since Mary Shelley's quill and ink lit up the sky of literature and horror pop culture with a magnitude 10 Monster Super Nova. Frankenstein and his creature have battled invaders from outer space and the wild west, not to mention each other. Prometheus was punished by Zeus for interfering with mortal matters and chained to a rock and tormented by an eagle. Dr. Frankenstein was tortured by the fury of the force he had unleashed and was punished by his own lack of control of his own creation in his insane quest for immortality.
We don't know what form Frankenstein's Monster will take by 2018. Will it be a creature of fear or one of parody? Many other versions have been rising from the tables of the film makers laboratories; some good, some not so good. The Monster, however, lives on and always will in one form or another...and everytime it appears on late night television looking for all the world like a walking autopsy, or at a film festival, just count how many people scream out at the top of their lungs...
"It's alive! It's Alive!"
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