Frankenstein films (James Whale)

Identification Films about a scientist’s attempt to create living human beings from stitched-together body parts taken from dead bodies

Director James Whale

DateFrankenstein released on November 21, 1931; Bride of Frankenstein released on May 6, 1935

During the early 1930’s, Universal Pictures was fighting for its financial life when it single-handedly created a new filmmaking genre—sound horror films. The success of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein made Universal a major Hollywood studio and helped establish the horror film and various conventions associated with it as cinematic staples.

The first of a series of horror films inspired by Mary Shelley’s century-old novel, Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) were landmark films in several respects. First and foremost, they firmly established horror as a reliable film genre along with other types, such as Westerns, comedies, and dramas. The films rescued tottering Universal Pictures from financial disaster and helped it hold its own against other Hollywood studios. The two films made the British-born actorBoris Karloff—who played the artificially created monster (Frankenstein was the scientist)—one of the biggest film stars in the world and stamped him as the successor to the deceased Lon Chaney as a genius of characterization and a master of disguise. The films also made household names out of several others who were involved with their production, such as director James Whale, actors Colin Clive and Dwight Frye, and Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce.

Frankenstein Sets the Horror Bar

Frankenstein opens with Henry Frankenstein (Clive) and his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Frye) lurking in a cemetery spying on a funeral in progress. It soon becomes apparent that they have been robbing graves to harvest “fresh” body parts for Frankenstein’s experiments in trying to reanimate a man he has stitched together from body parts collected from other corpses. When finding a suitably noble brain proves a stumbling block, Fritz is sent to steal one from a university; however, he mistakenly takes a “criminal” brain. Meanwhile, Frankenstein’s fiancé, Elizabeth (Mae Clarke), anxious for news of him, visits his laboratory along with Frankenstein’s friend and university instructor, Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan). After they witness a spectacular life-giving electrical storm, Frankenstein basks in triumph as his creation comes to life. However, his elation is short-lived when he realizes his creation, more monster than man because of its criminal brain, displays murderous tendencies and kills his tormentor, Fritz.

Waldman persuades the exhausted Henry to attend to his wedding plans while he destroys the monster. Instead, however, the creature murders Waldman, escapes, and terrorizes the countryside. The townspeople of the nearby village pursue the creature, with Frankenstein leading one group. When Frankenstein becomes separated from his companions, he confronts the monster alone. The creature overpowers him and carries him to a nearby windmill, from the top of which he throws off Frankenstein. The townspeople then burn the windmill to the ground, apparently killing the monster. In the final scene, Henry is shown alive, recuperating with Elizabeth by his side.

Bride of Frankenstein

After a brief prologue, Bride of Frankenstein picks up exactly where Frankenstein ended—at the site of the burned-down windmill. It soon emerges that the monster is not dead, merely badly burned. After he kills some villagers, he once again is loose in the countryside. Meanwhile, Frankenstein is visited by a former teacher, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), who shows him a collection of tiny people he has created. He then suggests that he and Frankenstein collaborate to create a mate for the monster. Meanwhile, the monster is taken into the isolated home of a blind hermit (O. P. Heggie), who welcomes him as a friend and teaches him a few words of English. When their idyllic existence is interrupted by hunters, the monster again stumbles into the forest. When he happens upon the body-snatching Pretorius, the two hatch a scheme designed to force Frankenstein’s cooperation in making a mate for the monster.

The monster kidnaps Frankenstein’s fiancé, Elizabeth (now played by Valerie Hobson), forcing Frankenstein to cooperate with Pretorius. In another spectacular laboratory sequence that outdoes the first in terms of machinery buzzing, sparking, and flashing, the monster’s covered-in-bandages companion, Elsa Lanchester (who also plays Mary Shelley in the film’s prologue), is brought to life. However, the moment her bandages are removed and she sees her eager but terrifying mate, she gasps and utters a few strangled cries. All this proves too much for the monster, who lets Frankenstein and Elizabeth leave but then pulls a lever that blows the entire laboratory and everybody in it to smithereens.

Impact

The two films could not be more different. Frankenstein is a serious attempt at a horror film, with plenty of shocks and scares. The atmosphere is moody and grim, and even without a swelling orchestral accompaniment to punctuate the moment, numerous shots are creepy and frightening solely on their own merit. Far from being merely a simple cautionary tale about a man trying to play God, the film evokes a visceral fear of such simple devices as blind corners, slowly opening doors, and ominous thunderclaps. The use of sinister shadows, sparking electrical equipment, a torch-waving village mob, and Clive’s near-hysteria performance as a mad scientist established horror film conventions that scores of later films would slavishly follow and audiences learn to expect.

In contrast, Bride of Frankenstein rarely even tries to inspire fear. Instead, owing to director Whale’s boredom or frustration at making yet another horror film, he substitutes black humor and camp for terror. It has been said that the line between laughter and fear is slight, and Whale walks that line between both worlds nicely. By filling the film with over-the-top images and characters, the director both parodies the horror film and laughs at some of the conventions he himself helped to establish only a few years earlier. Whale had explored this avenue two years earlier in The Invisible Man (1933), but in Bride he took it on directly. Perhaps to his chagrin, the resulting film established yet another horror film staple—the horror film as winking jest, with campy characters, snappy one-liners, and outright gags—that would again be imitated by later generations of filmmakers.

Bibliography

Brunas, Michael, John Brunas, and Tom Weaver. Universal Horrors: The Studio’s Classic Films, 1931-1946. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1990. A critical examination of every horror film produced by Universal in the 1930’s and 1940’s, presented chronologically with insightful commentaries, many photographs, and useful appendixes.

Lindsay, Cynthia. Dear Boris. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Intimate, readable biography of Karloff, the most famous portrayer of Frankenstein’s monster, by a longtime friend.

Nollen, Scott A. Boris Karloff: A Critical Account of His Screen, Stage, Radio, Television, and Recording Work. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1991. Well-organized and documented historical and critical analysis of Karloff’s complete body of work. Includes a full filmography and bibliography.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Boris Karloff: A Gentleman’s Life. Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press, 2005. Biography written with the cooperation of Karloff’s daughter covers all aspects of the actor’s life.

Riley, Philip J., ed. Frankenstein: The Original Shooting Script. Absecon, N.J.: MagicImage Filmbooks, 1990. Part of the publisher’s film script series, this volume contains the entire script of the first Frankenstein film, along with numerous photographs and informative commentary. Other volumes in this series including the scripts of Bride of Frankenstein and three other Frankenstein sequels.

Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York: Modern Library, 1984. Modern edition of the 1818 novel on which the Frankenstein films were based.

Underwood, Peter. Karloff: The Life of Boris Karloff. New York: Drake, 1972. Biography that includes a detailed, anecdotal account of the making of Frankenstein. Includes photographs, selected bibliography, discography, and filmography.