Frankenstein (1931)

DAY 25

"Crazy, am I? We'll see whether I'm crazy or not."

Frankenstein (1931) is a classic monster movie, loosely based on Mary Shelly's original novel.

I really love the story of this classic film. They opted to not follow the novel very closely at all, but there are moments that were obviously lifted. Instead this movie tells an mostly different and original story, but still manages to be very dark and creepy. The film poses some cool questions about religion and god that I love, and (although different from the novel) still paints The Monster in a somewhat innocent light.

Director James Whale's sense of humor is present in this film, as all of his other films I've seen. While not as prevelant as in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) this film still has plenty if you're not too busy being horrified! Also want to mention that I was surprised how modern the camera workis on this film. It's got moments that don't really work, but you can tell that someone put a lot of creative thought into the camera moves and setups.

Like many movies from this era the film seems a bit dated when viewed today, although interestingly not half as bad as Dracula (1931) which came out the same year and was produced by the same studio. Some of the dialogue is weak, character throughlines aren't fully completed and some elements are a bit forced into the story soley for their thematic impact.

One of the most amazing things about this film is the acting. There's a great cast and they pretty much all play very memorable parts. Shining star of the film would have to be Dr. Henry Frankenstein played by Colin Clive, he dances the line of insanity and ernest so well it blows me away everytime I see it. Followed closely by Boris Karloff's portrayal of The Monster, he brings such an awesome level of depth to something that could have easily just been a man in a monster suit. Comic relief is mainly split between Henry's amusing hunchbacked assistant Fritz, played by the always amazing character actor Dwight Frye, and Henry's father the Baron Frankenstein (played by Frederick Kerr) who's humorus comments bring a lot of light to some otherwise very dark moments.

Looking back on this film it's easy to forget to mention Jack Pierce's makeup and design of The Monster. This image for the Monster is so engraved into us these days that it's interesting to wonder about Peirce's inspiration for this design. The end result is a very original look that really makes you forget there's an actor behind all of it and let's you just see The Monster in front of you!

Frankenstein (1931) is a bit dated today but one of those very early movies that shows a lot of thought and potential, and is still very enjoyable in my opinion. And this movie was crazy infuential, there's parts of this movie that everyone knows (or at least knows of). Such a wide impact like that from a film is very hard to come by. 4/5 stars.

Happy watching!





For further stimulation:
Check out my review of the wonderful sequel to this film: Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Also check out my good friend Daimeon's recent review of these films here.

And be sure to see his great review of the original novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Part of his awesome series 13 Frightening Fictions (for free!)

Did you know that Universal just released 8 of their classic monster movies on blu-ray in one set!? You can support this blog by buying this film (and 7 other classics) through these links:

The Invisible Man (1933)

DAY 18

"The drugs I took seemed to light up my brain. Suddenly I realized the power I held, the power to rule. To make the world grovel at my feet!"

The Invisible Man (1933) is a horror movie about paranoia and power. The film is about Griffin, a doctor who has stumbled upon an experimental serum to turn himself invisible. But little does Griffin know though that the serum has made him go insane and as he starts terrorizing a whole town its up to his friends, family and the locals to try and stop him.

I'm going to assume that injecting humor into stories that really aren't that funny was one of James Whale's trademarks. This script has some really funny situational humor, character actors, and dialogue that's riddled with puns and other funny things. It blends great and without this, I think the film would be so dark it would be very hard to watch. Good move again, Mr. Whale.

I'm torn on the way the film starts, essentially the film is missing it's first act. It starts with Griffin already invisible and crazy and lets you find out the rest of the details of how this came to happen along the way. This alone is a very modern trick and really interesting way to start the film, but by the second half I felt like it didn't work as well because we never got to see the original (good) Griffin. I found it hard to even feel sorry for him. The film does try to show you a little bit by bringing in his former love but I felt it was too late in the story. In the next couple scenes after that he's threatening his friends life and then blowing up trains!

This story has a very modern feel to it. It's a very interesting thing to follow a true antihero, who only seems to get worse and even in the end doesn't seem to get much redemption. It really feels like what The Dark Knight (2008) would have been like, if the film took the Joker's perspective. The result is a very dark story.

I really loved all the acting in the film but my hats off to Claude Rains in the title role. Even though you can't see his face for most of the film his acting is really quite amazing. His voice alone has such a sinister and evil tone to it, I walked away thinking about it later that night. It's haunting really, a very good fit for the film. This is another Universal monster that without the strong actor behind "the mask" it could have been a complete flop of a film, but Rains really sells it.

I'm very happy to say that for the most part, the effects still hold up in this film. There's a couple sequences where you can see strings or how they did a couple things but honestly for the majority of the film I had no idea how they did a lot of the effects. And in a film like this the whole movie is one trick, so that's very important. I feel like it works so well I honestly forgot there was an actor inside the bandages acting, I actually got lost in the idea of there being nothing underneath. Really cool!

The Invisible Man (1933) is a very dark movie that is well worth seeing today. I think it's not as flashy and showy as a lot of the other universal monsters in rubber masks, but it definitely should be up at the top of peoples monster movie lists. 4/5 stars.

Happy watching!







Did you know universal just released 8 of their classic monster movies on blu-ray in one set!? You can support this blog by buying this film (and 7 other classics) through these links:

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

DAY 6

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is not only one of the greatest sequels ever it's probably my favorite monster movie of all time. Sequel to the also great Frankenstein (1931), James Whale returns as director (something I would say completely saved the movie) and also the two main leads return: Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and of course Boris Karloff returns as The Monster.

This film is a true sequel but starts interestingly taking a step out of the story with it's author, Mary Shelly telling her beloved Percy Shelly and friend Lord Byron that the story didn't actually end when everyone thought it did and the story then picks up minutes after the end of the first film. And the story continues to plus the original in every way. The first film was a simple story about being an outsider and this continues that line of thought to the basic need of companionship as a love or otherwise, something outsiders and people who are different probably crave more than "normal" people. And as an added bonus the film sneaks in a lot of subtle and interesting overtones and themes of religion and possibly being a foreigner or a homosexual. The best part is, it does all this with out being overly complicated!

This film also has great use of character. Most of the returning characters are expanded upon we see a different side of Frankenstein in this one, after everything going wrong in the previous film, Frankenstein is ready to hang up his coat and put all of his mistakes behind him. The Monster learns to talk, something that could have been very bad but is done well enough and adds a lot of humor and unexpected emotion to the character.

The couple of new characters are interesting too: I love the way The Bride is handled (but I won't talk about that for the sake of spoilers,) and Dr. Pretorious, Henry Frankenstein's mentor and colleague which wasn't ever mentioned in the first film, but comes into the picture because he has heard of Henry's recent "success" and also has dreams of creating a man-made human. It would have been easy for the writers to make him have the same methods as Henry but instead they had the intelligence to do otherwise and give him a somewhat silly method of "growing" humans, something that isn't delved into too much in the story but must me somewhat akin to cloning or growing artificial organs (seeing how he "creates" a brain for the new monster). These are subjects that many people find very horrible and ungodly today still, so I find it amazing that the film had the foresight to throw something like that into the mix way back in 1935.

Over all there's a couple things here that haven't aged well, but it's nowhere close to as bad as Dracula (1931) I would say that most of the effects still hold up. Supposedly they had a 70 foot tall laboratory set built for this film, which I would say was money well spent. The "It's alive!" scene in this film still looks amazing to this day.

And some scenes seemed unnecessary or end awkwardly so much that they just look weird today but because of the humor of the film you can actually just read it as funny and laugh it off. Sweet!

The thing I love about this film most is it's sense of humor. I really believe Whale created the movie as a comedy. There's enough evidence alone with the reoccurring scenes with the Frankensteins' housekeeper Minnie, who gets a surprising amount of screentime and some VERY silly parts. But it's even just packed with little tidbits like Dr. Pretorius having a picnic in a crypt, or The Monster's new found love for drinking that are just awesome. The humor is very consistently and skillfully placed throughout the entire movie. This film in my mind is the PERFECT blend of comedy and horror.

there's an interesting and very memorable line in Gods and Monsters (1998) (in which Whale is a character), and he says that he had to make the film interesting for himself, making a "comedy about death" and follows up saying, "The trick is not to spoil it for anyone who's not in on the joke." Well I saw this film screened last week in a theater in Beverly Hills and I'm happy to report that Mr. Whale must be smiling somewhere, as the film was met with generous laughter throughout.

I really can't say enough good things about this film, it's got great acting, a good story and a nice mix of really funny and emotional parts. It's the type of film you can just lose yourself in pretty quickly. I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars.

Happy watching!





ALSO I'm happy to report a bonus: Turner Classic Movies is hosting a double feature of the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein at the end of this month in many Regal Cinema theaters across the US, on Wednesday October 24th. Do yourself a favor and see these movies on a big screen and with a crowd of people. I honestly don't think you will regret it. You can find out if it's playing at a local theater near you and buy tickets here.



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