 In this most imitated of all horror films, Colin Clive is the
tortured Dr. Frankenstein, with Mae Clarke as his fiancee, and, in the
role that would make him famous, Boris Karloff as the monster. For its
time, it was the absolute limit in terror, banned in several states and a
few foreign countries, and famous several scenes, including the opener, in
which we see and hear earth crashing onto the lid of a coffin. (Oddly
enough, this was the first time anyone had tried this effect.) More
controversial is the scene in which the monster drowns a little girl,
thinking she's one of the beautiful flowers to be tossed onto a placid
pond. In some theaters the scene was cut at such an early stage that
audience members imagined some horrible molestation of the girl had taken
place! James Whale directed from a script by Garrett Fort and Francis Ford
Faragoh, loosely based on a previous script by French director Robert
Florey, which was in turn based on an unproduced script by Horace
Liveright and Louis Cline, which was in turn based on a melodramatic play
by Peggy Webling, which was in turn based on the original 1818 novel by
Mary Shelley. The story also borrowed from earlier German silent films
like THE
GOLEM and THE
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. Jack P. Pierce, head of Universal's
makeup department, was responsible for the Frankenstein "look," after
spending three months studying anatomy, surgery, criminology and
electrodynamics. Electrical engineer Kenneth Strickfaden was hired to
create the lightning- arc generators that bring the monster to life. With
Dwight Frye as Frankenstein's assistant Fritz, a character not in the
original novel but part of the first London stage version in 1823, and
Edward Van Sloan as Dr. Waldman. 
|
