Frankenstein (1931)

USA, 70 minutes

Director: James Whale

Writers: John L. Balderston, Mary Shelley, Peggy Webling, Francis Edward Faragon, Garrett Fort, Richard Schayer, Robert Florey, John Russell

Photography: Arthur Edeson, Paul Ivano

Music: Bernhard Kaun

Editor: Clarence Kolster

Cast: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Frederick Kerr, Dwight Frey, Marilyn Harris

The original film production of Mary Shelley’s landmark Frankenstein novel (written when she was 19) incredibly is now almost a century old itself. As a kid I used to stay up late to get a look at it whenever I could. The two bridge tables of writers credited at IMDb for the screenplay are a reasonable approximation of the convoluted history of the Shelley property, originally published in 1818 and followed in five years by the first of a long series of stage productions. The most recent before this movie was put on just in 1927—Peggy Webling wrote that. Balderston adapted her play for this script, with story elements by Schayer. It sounds like Faragon and Fort actually blocked out and typed up the screenplay, with uncredited contributions from Florey and Russell. Director James Whale puts his own stamp on it, including hiring Boris Karloff out of the commissary to play the monster. Whale reportedly liked him for the part because he thought Karloff resembled himself. While I’m at it, makeup artist and designer Jack P. Pierce also counts as an auteur on this enterprise. He is responsible for the look and feel of the Frankenstein monster as we think of it today, including the flattop head, neck bolts, and tattered outfit.

The short picture starts in a curious way, often lopped off of the TV broadcasts. The gentle and mild-mannered Edward Van Sloan (who plays Henry Frankenstein’s mentor Dr. Waldman in the movie proper) steps out from behind a theatrical curtain to issue a friendly warning about the movie: “It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation: life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to, uh... well, we've warned you.” And then on to the opening titles.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

USA, 75 minutes

Director: James Whale

Writers: Mary Shelley, William Hurlbut, John L. Balderston, Josef Berne, Lawrence G. Blochman, Robert Florey, Philip MacDonald, Tom Reed, R.C. Sherriff, Edmund Pearson, Morton Covan

Photography: John J. Mescall

Music: Franz Waxman

Editor: Ted J. Kent

Cast: Elsa Lanchester, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Ernest Thesiger, Valerie Hobson, Una O'Connor, E.E. Clive, Dwight Frye, O.P. Heggie, Gavin Gordon, Douglas Walton, Walter Brennan, John Carradine

Bride of Frankenstein is old enough that we are still seeing experimental ways of making and marketing movies. Boris Karloff is credited as "Karloff," which seems mindful of the way sophisticated French film stars of the time such as Arletty literally made glamorous names for themselves. Elsa Lanchester never properly gets credit for playing the Bride, only for playing Mary Shelley in the odd frame story. Bride of Frankenstein is also a sequel, a follow-up to the original 1931 Frankenstein, which was as much a sensation as any of the theater productions that preceded it by well over a century. We used to love this story. Bride of Frankenstein is more fun than the 1931 original. Technology had visibly improved even across four years, and the idea of making a movie that is basically "I'd like some more of that please" in regard to another popular movie might have still seemed novel. Some like to call this the greatest sequel ever made, or one of them, and I'm not inclined to disagree.

The movie is remarkably short but remarkably packed full of unique scenes swirling around the Frankenstein mythos. The frame story depicts another storm-driven night, like the famous one in Geneva that produced Shelley's Frankenstein novel and John William Polidori's story "The Vampyre." Lord Bryon (Gavin Gordon) struts around and acts decadent, handing us the "previously on" recap while Percy simpers. Mary says she has more to tell them about "Henry" Frankenstein's miserable experiments. They gather close. Dissolve to the chaotic scenes of the end of the first movie, where the monster has presumably been destroyed with the burning windmill in which he was trapped and the villagers are relieved and happy again.