The Edison “Frankenstein” is a short film that
condenses the basic elements of Mary Shelley’s story into about twelve
minutes. It hasn’t been well-preserved,
and the images are very cloudy, but for the most part, this doesn’t detract
from the film’s visual effects, which are the reason to watch it. The birth scene, in particular, is more
believable than a lot of the CGI effects that plague movies today. After mixing various powders into a vat and then
closing it safely inside a large cabinet, Frankenstein watches through the
viewfinder as goo from the vat slowly transforms into a skeleton that grows
skin and gradually forms into a humanoid creature that bursts through the doors
of the cabinet. The blurriness of the
film prevents us from getting a clear image of the Creature, but we can see it
well enough to know that it looks more like Quasimodo from “The Hunchback of
Notre Dame” than any of the more famous images of Frankenstein’s monster.
The most famous one, of course, appears in Whale’s take
on Shelley’s story. Karloff as
Frankenstein’s monster is probably the most iconic image in horror, and
although he does look a bit silly lumbering through the countryside, he is
pretty horrifying in the darkness of the tower where he was created. This version of “Frankenstein” completely omits
the Creature’s point of view that helps make the novel so complex (we get this
in the sequel, “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935)), and concentrates on
Frankenstein’s creation of the Creature, and the Creature’s brief reign of
terror in the village of Golstadt. I’ve
seen Whale’s “Frankenstein” probably a dozen times, but I always enjoy watching
Colin Clive as Frankenstein, especially when the Creature comes to life and he
goes into hysterics shouting, “It’s alive!
It’s alive! It’s alive! Now I know
what it feels like to be God!” He’s
utterly convincing as a mad scientist totally consumed by his work. It had a been a while since I had seen the
movie, and I was a bit surprised at how blasphemous it is.
It’s hard to go wrong with mad-scientist movies, and
these two helped establish the formula that horror filmmakers will probably
continue reworking for years.
Wish I'd have had you on hand as a guest lecturer when we watched the 1931 Frankenstein and along with Shelley novel in 209 this past spring.
ReplyDeleteI would have enjoyed that! How did your students like the 1931 movie?
ReplyDeleteThey liked it overall. The monster from the novel is so far removed from the iconic one we've come to know from the movies.
ReplyDelete