Directed By: James Whale
Written by: Mary Shelly
Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clark, Boris Karloff
1 hour, 9 minutes
This one has an odd beginning. A man comes onstage and gives us an introduction and a warning about the content.
The actual film starts out at a funeral. The doctor and Fritz wait patiently for the grave to be filled in and left alone. As soon as the caretaker leaves, they’re on it, quickly digging up the body. They also cut down a man who had been hanged earlier. The man’s neck has been broken, so his brain was damaged; they can’t use him. Instead, they steal a brain from the nearly medical school. There’s an accident, and Fritz takes the abnormal brain instead of the good one.
Henry writes to Elizabeth, his fiancé, and she tells Victor about it. They go to see Henry’s old teacher, who agrees that they do have something to worry abut. They all set off to confront Henry Frankenstein.
Meanwhile, Henry and Fitz are working in the lab. They have everything ready, and someone’s at the door. It’s the group of friends, come to do an intervention. He explains that he has taken a brain and transplanted it into a body of his own creation. He convinces them to watch, and he proceeds with his experiment.
It works: “It’s alive!” Victor and Elizabeth go to see the Baron, Henry’s father. He’s convinced that Henry’s got another woman, even though everyone else knows what Henry is really working on..
Meanwhile, Henry and the old professor are examining the creature. When alone, Fritz abuses and torments it. The creature escapes and kills Fitz (who totally had it coming). They manage to sedate the thing. Almost immediately afterwards, Henry passes out from exhaustion just as everyone shows up again.
The professor promises Henry that he will destroy the creature, but is instead killed by it. The creature escapes, but for some reason, no one seems to notice. Later, Henry and Elizabeth get married. The whole town celebrates. While this is happening, the creature encounters a little girl, whom he kills accidentally. He then comes to town and attacks Elizabeth, not accidentally.
The villagers find out about the little girl, and they’re out for blood. They track him down, but during the hunt, the creature captures Henry and carries him into an old windmill. The creature throws Frankenstein off the roof. It looks like a fatal fall, but someone says he may actually survive.
The villagers set the windmill on fire, killing the “monster.”
Afterwards, the Baron drinks a toast to Henry and Elizabeth, who have both survived and live happily ever after.
Comments: The “monster” is a confusing mess of a murderer’s brain and an innocent, child-like personality. I had forgotten about the “Abnormal” murderer’s brain, and in my memory, the monster was just an oversized innocent. That’s not completely true here; the creature’s first response to most things was anger and violence, not fear.
Body count: Fritz, the old professor, and the little girl.
It’s never clear why the villagers assume the girl was murdered; the monster tossed her into the lake and she drowned, but no one was around. There was no reason to assume someone murdered her. It’s also unclear why Fritz was carrying torches when the castle clearly had electricity.
Overall, this movie was much better preserved than last week’s “Dracula.” The sound was better, the video clean, and overall, this was much more pleasant to watch. Dracula, even though it did have sound, still very much felt like a silent movie. Frankenstein was much more modern.
