156 of 1001 Movies: Frankenstein (1931)

Old horror movies are a lot of fun. In a world that takes horror really seriously nowadays, it's fun to watch a time when they struck to terrify, but had a little fun with the settings you can only play with in a horror movie. This does leave the movie very dated, but very entertaining. Boris Karloff also kicks off his long running stints in horror movies as Frankenstein, but he would later team up with other notable horror movie stars like Bela Lugois in The Black Cat. It was a time when stars seemed to craft their personas with movie, and become apart of a niche and had fun with it.

Summary: Henry Frankenstein is a scientist determined to make the dead walk. He steals a brain and bodies to piece together his being. Henry even invites his girlfriend, and a doctor out to see what will happen when he brings the creature to life. This creature though is not exactly as you would hope a being you brought to life would turn out, but he is aware enough to seem to have an idea of his differences making him easily ostracized from society, fueling his temper.


Acting: The acting is going to be a little over the top and zany, but it works for this style of movie. Boris Karloff will be the one you first notice in the movie, and he seems to be the name most recognizable penned to the movie. Karloff makes the monster a little ridiculous, but there isn't much you can do with that considering the monster looks a little ridiculous. I will say I think the monster could use a lot of revamping from the original make up to make him scarier. Colin Clive is Henry Frankenstein, and Mae Clarke is his girlfriend. To be honest though your focus is on no one else but the monster.

Filming: One of my favorite things about this movie is just how much is expressed horror wise in a black and white movie. It's almost like horror's home is in black and white. James Whale works with the shadows heavily to get into the grooves of the characters faces, and make the shadows extremely spooky. It's just something I don't think you could pull off in a color movie as easily. There is also a lot of props that really bring the set to life, such as the graveyard and place where the constructing of the monster happens.

Plot: The plot is where the movie is really weak. I haven't read the book yet so I have no idea how much development it extends into, but I feel the connection to all their characters, and their reasoning for embarking on this is so lost in the movie. As most early horror movies it focuses way more on just trying to shock the crowd instead of actually giving us a story to really get attached to. I will say that The Bride of Frankenstein at delving into some of the lost attributes in the story of this one though. I just feel that even the monster's lack of being able to merged into society could have been captured better, and maybe just some sort of drive for Henry's involvement in doing this further explained. Yes, he's a mad scientist, but why?

Frankenstein works well in the early horror movie setting. It really does stay in theme for what many of the movies at the time were doing to utilize horror, and while it could have went further I do like how they try to tap on giving the monster a little bit of a heart. This movie is only around 70 minutes long though, and there is only so much you can in a short time from the film.

Rating 7 of 10.