FRANKENSTEIN
The classic and definitive monster/horror film of all time, Frankenstein (1931) is the screen version of Mary Shelley's Gothic 1818 nightmarish novel of the same name (Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus). The film, with Victorian undertones, was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. for Universal Pictures, the same year that Dracula (1931), another classic horror film, was produced within the same studio - both films helped to save the beleaguered studio. [The sequel to this Monster story is found in director James Whale's even greater film, Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
The film's name was derived from the mad, obsessed scientist, Dr. Henry Frankenstein, who experimentally creates an artificial life - an Unnamed Monster, that ultimately terrorizes the Bavarian countryside after being mistreated by his maker's assistant Fritz and society as a whole. The film's most famous scene is the one in which Frankenstein befriends a young girl named Maria at a lake's edge, and mistakenly throws her into the water (and drowns her) along with other flowers.
In addition to this film, dozens of other adaptations have been made of the Frankenstein horror story (and lots of other variations such as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965), Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974), and Frankenhooker (1990)), including:
Frankenstein (1910), d. J. Searle Dawley, 16 minute silent, Edison Company
Life Without a Soul (1915), d. Joseph W. Smiley, the first feature-length Frankenstein adaptation, a lost silent film, Ocean Film Corp.
Frankenstein (1931), d. James Whale, Universal
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), d. Terence Fisher, Hammer Films (UK)
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), d. Jimmy Sangster, Hammer Films (UK)
Frankenstein Unbound (1990), d. Roger Corman, 20th Century Fox
Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1993), d. David Wickes, Made for TV, Turner Pictures
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), d. Kenneth Branagh, producer Francis Ford Coppola, TriStar
Significantly, this film launched the career of actor Boris Karloff, who is surprisingly uncredited in the opening credits of the film as the Monster. In the beginning credits titled "The Players," the Monster is listed fourth, with a question mark after its name. In the end credits, however, where the cast list is prefaced by - "a good cast is worth repeating...," the Monster is listed fourth with BORIS KARLOFF's name following. Karloff's performance is remarkable - his acting communicated a hint of the humanity of the Monster behind its hideous, stitched and bolted-together body.