Frankenstein - James Whale (1931)

This is another example of a movie that is difficult to watch in context of when it was made. Back in the day, this was a very scary and creepy movie. When I was watching it, all I could imagine was the movie 'Young Frankenstein' with Gene Wilder and it made it hokey. So I found it amusing more so than scary. Not what James Whale intended, for sure.

I guess the fact that this has been re-made and parodied so many times is a testament to the originality of the movie. Beyond the hokey aspect of it, this was a solid film. Good story. And for the time, the effects were pretty impressive.

In my post-movie investigation, the 'look' of Frankenstein was created by the make-up people that worked on the movie: the flat head and the bolts on the side of the neck. Also, the studio wanted to keep the identity of the person playing Frankenstein under wraps until the movie premiered. Bella Lugosi was originally asked to play, but declined. Boris Karloff (yes, the guy who voiced the Grinch in the cartoon) was hired.

And there is the famous line: It's alive!! (It's number 49 on the AFI's top 100 movie quotes.) The original line is actually: "It's alive! It's alive! In the name of God! Now I know what it's like to be God!" When the 1931 version was released, the latter part of the line (Now I know...) was obscured by censors with a clap of thunder. In the 1937 re-release, the original line was left in. (My trivia for the day).

Good movie. Glad I saw it.

One word to describe 'Frankenstein': Alive.