As a follow up to their hit movie DRACULA,
Universal Studios released FRANKENSTEIN, loosely based on Mary
Shelley's classic horror novel. Boris Karloff, who had already
been in many films but to little acclaim, skyrocketed to fame overnight
by playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein's mute, murderous
monster. The film would spawn several sequels over the next two
decades, but Boris Karloff would only play the Monster three times, in
this film, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. Though
every Universal Frankenstein film has some merit, the Boris Karloff
films, especially the first two, are the most admired of the series.
Karloff plays the Monster as a child, always
holding out his hands for something, always pleading. Of course, this
particular child tends to murder people if he doesn't get his way, but
thanks to a well-written script and Karloff's performance, we tend not
to hold it against him. In this film, the Monster kills Dr.
Frankenstein's assistant Fritz, Dr. Waldman (an associate of Dr.
Frankenstein), and a little child from the village. Karloff's monster
remains sympathetic, however, due to the circumstances of the
murders. Fritz has a nasty habit of waving a lit torch in the
Monster's general direction. Needless to say, the Monster only
takes so much of this before he decides to overpower Fritz and hand him
(beautifully shown in silhouette.). When the Monster realizes that
Dr. Waldman, played by Edward Sloan,
is going to put him out of everybody's misery, he really has no other
choice than to strangle the
doctor. And when he meets little Maria, in the film's most tender
scene, he accidentally drowns her while playing a game near the lake.
The first two murders were clearly in self-defense, while the last was
purely an accident. (He wanted to see if the child could float. Turns
out she couldn't.)
In this first Frankenstein film, the Monster
could not yet speak, but Karloff gives him a voice by using grunts,
whimpers and roars to get his message across. Though parts of the film
are creaky and dated, Karloff's performance remains powerful. His grunts and groans are often more effective than some
of the stilted dialogue. There are so many memorable scenes in
this film, including the Monster's first taste of sunlight (he likes
it), his introduction to fire (he doesn't like it), and the drowning of
Maria and his subsequent panic attack, two scenes that were originally
cut from the movie after previews but have been restored in the video
release. Karloff's interpretation of the Monster is one of the
best of the decade, and perhaps the century.
The most remarkable scene, and one that is
nowhere to be found in Shelley's classic novel, must be the
creation scene. Special effects back in the thirties were often crude,
but with a few impressive looking electrical instruments, and a
platform, which rises to the very top of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory,
this scene has carved its way into film history. It is brought to
a rousing conclusion by Colin Clive, playing Dr. Frankenstein, who
almost has a nervous breakdown while screaming "It's alive! It's alive,
it's alive!". Clive's performance as the slightly insane Doctor comes
close to crossing the line from overacting to camp, but thankfully
doesn't quite make it.
Many good, bad and indifferent versions of
Shelley's tale have been filmed over the years. James Whale's
stylish film is not only the granddaddy of them all, but perhaps of all monster
films in general. 
½ - JB