Frankenstein (1931)

Starring:
Boris Karloff
Colin Clive

Rating: 6/10

Acting - 2 stars - Karloff's performance as the Monster has never been duplicated. He did a great job in this, the role that made him a star. Clive's performance was also great. Otherwise, however, the other actors were not that great. Plot - 2 stars - This movie starts a little slow, but once the Monster is created, the movie really takes off. Asthetics - 2 stars - Well, maybe I should be a little easier on them because this movie was made in 1931. The settings are not that great, but it still produces the classic horror movie mood.

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This movie is considered by many people to be greatest horror movie ever, and I agree for many reasons:

1. The way the story is portrayed. Remember, this was the first movie about the man-made creature ever, so they had nothing to refer to other than Mary Shelly's book. There was no precedent. Nothing to say, "OK, we'll do this because it worked before," because there never was a before in this case.
2. Clive's and Karloff's performances. Colin Clive gave one of his greatest performances as the mad (or was he?) Dr. Frankenstein. Karloff's portrayel of the Monster is something that has never been copied since. In other versions of Shelly's classic, the Monster is an empty killing machine without any feelings. Karloff's portrayel of the Monster (in my mind) was the complete opposite.
3. The lessons that can be learned from the story. Like "when should man stop trying to imitate God?" "Never judge a book by it's cover (refering to the Monster was not that bad if you were just nice to him)", and "who was really responsible for the murders, the Monster or the doctor who created him?".

Before you go on and read about the story of Frankenstein and his Monster, please take this short quiz to see how much you really know about the story. (Quiz)

Story

Dr. Frankenstein, with the assistance of Fritz, are bound on creating a monster from the bodies of dead people. However, when when Fritz is sent to get the brain of an intellegent human, he instead gets the brain of a murderer.

The doctor is successful in creating the monster, but it turns out that he cannot control the creature, and the monster must be destroyed. While Dr. Henry Frankenstein returns home with his fiancee to prepare for his wedding, one of Henry's friends stays behind at the lab to destroy the creature. However, the monster kills the man, who joins Fritz as the monster's victoms.

The monster, who is free to rome the country side, wreaks havoc on its inhabitants, including a young girl. After the monster nearly kills Henry's fiancee, the villagers, lead by Frankenstein, head out to find and destroy the monster. The monster however, finds his creator and after a struggle, takes the unconscieaus Frankenstein to an old windmill.

There, with the monster locked inside the windmill with Henry, the villagers struggle, in vain, to get in the windmill. After another struggle between the monster and its creator, which ends in Frankenstein being thrown off the windmill. Then the villagers decide to burn down the windmill and it's sole inhabitant, the monster. They are successful in destroying the monster, or so you thought until 1935 with "The Bride of Frankenstein".

The movie ends with Henry alive and being nursed back to health by his fiancee, Elizabeth.

Little known facts

The famous scene in which the monster throws the young girl into a lake, was left out of the movie when Frankenstein was origionally released because it was thought to be "in bad taste".

Also, the film was origionally planned to end with the scene where the mill burned down, and with Henry Frankenstein dead. However, the film's screeners thought that the movie should end on a more happy note, so the film crew went back and added the scene of Henry being nursed back to health by Elizabeth.