1931 Frankenstein Film

Long time no blog. How exciting.

We've just started looking at the gothic as part of our A2 course, and we started to watch the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, which is one of the texts we are studying.

Cast
 Henry Frankenstein played by Colin Clive
His assistant Fritz played by Dwight Frye
Elizabeth Lavenza (his fiancée) played by Mae Clarke
Victor Moritz played by John Boles
Dr Waldman played by Edward Van Sloan
The Monster played by Boris Karloff

It was directed by James Whale.

The film begins with a 'friendly warning' in which the actor who plays Dr Waldman (Frankenstein's old professor) breaks the fourth wall and directly addresses the audience. This helps to build the audiences suspense, along with the actor who plays the monster being labelled as '?' at the start of the film.

The iconic and quickly identifiable image of the monster came from the way in which it is depicted in this film. Boris Karloff played the monster and had a square head with bolts through it.

The film was one of the most successful of the year and was followed by many sequels such as 'The Bride of Frankenstein' in 1935. However on it's release it was heavily censored across the US. For example the line that follows "It's alive!" was dubbed out by a large crack of thunder as it was thought blasphemous. It was "Now I know what it feels like to be God!". I don't understand this, as one of the films key themes is the battle between religion and science almost. And science seems to appear unadvisable, so it's not as of the film is promoting blasphemy.
Also in Kansas it was required that 32 scenes from the film would be censored, which would have left the film at half its original length! Oh Americans.

The film was made and released in the same year as 'Dracula', and both were produced for Universal Pictures. The success of both helped to save the studio from closure.

The 1931 version of the film is arguably the most famous and critically acclaimed. For example it is still frequently rated as an all time classic and a must-see.

Little fact to end; The costume Karloff had to wear as the Monster weighed 40 pounds!!! That's almost 3 stone!!!