Frankenstein

Pros: Boris Karloff, makeup, cinematography, sets
Cons: They don't make them like they used to!

”Now I know what it’s like to be God!” Dr. Frankenstein This review is dedicated to my fellow film reviewer susidee34, who never met a monster she didn’t like! Directed by James Whale (The Invisible Man, Bride of ...

Pros: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, directing, photography, atmosphere
Cons: some wooden performances, happy ending, made in 1931

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...

Pros: Creepy movie with interesting plot.  Boris Karloff.
Cons: Some slower scenes.  Overacting by some of the cast.

Starting in the 1930's, Universal began to make movies featuring different types of monster movies that are now considered to be classics.  I only started to see some of them in the last several years.  I first saw Frankenstein ...

Pros: It's all about the Boris.
Cons: Honestly, nothing I can think of.

When I was but a wee lad some 30 years ago, the highlight of my weekend was not the Saturday morning cartoons (though I loved them too), but KSTW's sci-fi theater. Every Saturday at noon, just at the cartoons were beginning to switch over to the boring ...

Pros: Great directing, great acting, great atmosphere.
Cons: None

The only good thing about the release of Van Helsing is that it has caused Universal to re-release many of their classic monster movies on DVD in lovely special editions. Among these is the classic Frankenstein. On the heels of the great ...

Pros: Karloff, great set design, symbolic
Cons: Boring, lack of score, bad ending, poor editing

By now I can only hope that every self-pointed horror fan have seen all of the Karloff classics as well as genre norms such as Dracula, The Wolf Man, and The Mummy, which were all done around the same time period in the thirties when ...

Pros: Boris Karloff's classic portrayal, James Whale's intelligent and expressive direction; evocative sets and visual effects
Cons: Broad, generically-depicted villagers and festivities, no musical score, and an obvious, flying dummy

Orbed, gangly and chaotic machinery; a covered body upon an elevating bier, is lifted to the tower lofts, to lightning; “It’s alive!” ; the flat-top head, sunken cheeks, heavily-lidded eyes, and bolts in the neck; the monster sitting, ...

Pros: Karloff, Clive, Sets
Cons: Not as good as Bride of Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein works on all of our most basic fears about science. We fear scientists' obsession with knowledge and worry that they will not be responsible with what they learn. We fear that new technology will become...

Pros: Karloff, the sets, the makeup, the cinematography
Cons: stilted dialogue

When "Frankenstein" was released in 1931, the opening credits began like this: DR. HENRY FRANKENSTEIN….Colin Clive; ELIZABETH….Mae Clarke; THE MONSTER….?

That question mark was, of course, Boris Karloff. Partly to create mystique...

Pros: You name it!
Cons: None

Is there a place in the civilized world where the name FRANKENSTEIN is not known? I think not. This is a testament to the unparallel greatness of this everlasting creation.

When one looks at the Frankenstein legacy, there are numerous...

Pros: Karloff's performance, great sets & atmosphere
Cons: unfairly dismissed by younger viewers

Following in the wake of the success of DRACULA, Universal's natural next step was an adaptation of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN. Bela Lugosi, the star of DRACULA, was courted to play the role of the Monster, but he turned it down. He felt that he...

Pros: Karloff- James Whale
Cons: ???

We have a wonderful revival/art theatre in Chicago called the Music Box. This summer, as part of their Saturday & Sunday morning matinee series, they are showing the classic (and a couple of not-so-classic) Universal horror films. This weekend's...

Pros: dark atmosphere, with some great actors, Karloff as the monster, dramatic scenes
Cons: not every movie fan is gonna like it

I've seen many Frankenstein-like movies over the years - those with Peter Cushing, the one with Sting and one ridicules movie I don't even want to mention here.

But I liked one adaption from the beginning - the UNIVERSAL PICTURES...

Pros: Horror Classic
Cons: Stagy at times

MONSTROUS VALUE

One of the primary reasons for making the switch from VHS to DVD is the vastly superior picture and sound the digital medium offers. But often overlooked are the tremendous bonuses which are included with many of these...

Pros: cinematography, set design, characterization
Cons: campy overacting (except Karloff).

It saddens me a great deal that FRANKENSTEIN is ranked as a horror/suspense film, as it is so much more than that. It is the story of one man's obsession with the inevitability of death and another "man"'s suffering due to his creator's...