I really wanted to review 1977’s Saturday Night Fever starring the disco king himself, John Travolta, who ran literally like a girl in one scene, but alas, the popular movie wasn’t part of Epinions’ “vast” database. It would’ve been a perfect follow-up to my Playgirl review, too, but now I must turn to my second choice: 1931’s Frankenstein, loosely based on the novel by “Mrs. Percy R. Shelley”.

It hopefully will help more than hinder that I then discovered Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof of it (70’s Young Frankenstein) was playing after I finished the old classic with Boris Karloff as the Monster. I’ve watched the spoof many times before, but only now do I understand how well it spoofed in the spoof. I do like that word, hehe!

The 1931 production by Carl Laemmle, Jr, directed by James Whale, richly deserves its status as a horror classic. I would imagine that Alfred Hitchcock picked up quite a few pointers in directing from it or indeed was inspired by its interesting camera angles, lighting and close-ups, such as when we first meet the Monster. Whale shows us its back, then as it turns around the camera travels up the stocky body to the pasty white, blockish face and the big, fish eyes. Creepy!

The Story

It begins with university drop-out and scientific genius Henry Frankenstein (played maniacly by Colin Clive) locking himself away in a castle to conduct his experiment, which was poopooed by his former professor, Dr. Waldman. Henry’s fiancée Elizabeth (portrayed rather dully by Mae Clarke) and his forgettable friend Victor are so concerned about him and anxious for the wedding that they drop in on Henry uninvited with his irritated former professor. When Henry’s intelligence is questioned by Victor, he leads them up to the laboratory to watch his experiment conclude.

We all know what his experiment was, of course. His fiendish assistant Fritz helped to bring the monster to life in the lightening storm and when the monster’s big hand lifted, Henry exclaimed, “It’s alive! It’s alive! Now I know what it feels like to be God!”

The rest of the movie has Henry avoiding his responsibility as a creator and leaving it alone chained up, frightened, confused and taunted by Fritz with a torch, so the assistant ends up murdered by the monster. It is drugged finally and slated to be killed by dissection no less under the cold hands of the professor, but he doesn’t live long enough to begin. The way Karloff strangles the man is so chilling you may not want to watch.

Then the monster escapes into the woods, plays with a little girl before drowning her to his own horror, finds Elizabeth in her wedding gown all alone, but only scares her, and is tracked down by Henry, the entire German village and four dogs at night. I guess they were too scared to wait until morning. It’s a dramatic finish for the poor creature with a criminal brain, who had never known a bit of acceptance since he was born, not even from his disgusted creator. His eyes and expression may have been dead-looking most of the time, but not when he killed or was in fear. Karloff’s performance was completely believable as was Clive’s (Henry).

Comments

This is not Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein exactly, but it did everything right in its portrayal of the Monster with its deadbeat dad problem. Interesting how excited Henry was to become like God and then expected the monster to take care of itself and get its act together or suffer. Some people might wonder if this indicates a criticism of our own Creator and indeed the movie could be seen like that, especially after hostile events like the attacks this morning in New York City and our nation’s capitol. Why does God allow such bad things to happen that destroys our sense of security and community?

The film, unfortunately, doesn’t explore the reasons why Henry needed to create his monster and then abandon it, although Mary Shelley’s book does if, after watching the movie, you prefer adding some philosophy with your suspense/horror. I’ve reviewed it as well and found it worthy of five stars.

Fortunately we don’t start out in life with so many problems as the Monster; at least our brains haven’t been formed yet and most of us don’t have to worry about being dissected to death. There is also today a drug called Neotrofin (made of neurotrophins) that’s in its final clinical trials before release to people with neurogenerative disorders or injuries. So when Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein screamed to his class that there was no way for the brain to regenerate itself, we know now there is.

I thought the brief, happy ending for the engaged couple was a bit much, as if that was the whole purpose of the movie and now life can go back to being unchallenging intellectually and boring. However, it was 1931 and the producer and director wanted to make some money off of their cinematic triumph with its eerie, wonderful sets. The public probably wanted just a little thrill and to get out of there with a minimum of nightmares or lingering discomfort and so they did.

Both the original movie and the Mel Brooks’ spoof are well worth your time, in my opinion. Karloff was cast especially for his fascinating eyes, and went on to star in dozens of memorable horror classics, but more than his eyes will haunt you as you watch his Monster become the one that all later portrayals shall never, ever, quite emulate.




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older