Frankenstein (1931)

BEFORE: From new-wave vampires and souped-up werewolves who conduct scientific experiments, I veer back to a classic movie monster, and the ultimate scientific experiment - the re-animation of life after death. Cinemax was nice enough to show the first 3 classic Frankenstein movies from the 1930's last month. If ever there was a classic horror film, this (along with Bela Lugosi's "Dracula") is it. It's rather humbling to admit that while I've enjoyed "Young Frankenstein" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", I haven't ever watched the original on which they're based.

By the way, Abbott and Costello never did actually meet Frankenstein - they met Frankenstein's MONSTER. The title character is the mad scientist, not his creation made from corpses - it's amazing how many people habitually get this wrong, probably because the monster is never actually given a name.

THE PLOT: An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses.

AFTER: To truly judge such a classic film, I also reviewed the plot of Mary Shelley's novel, which I did read many years ago. The 1931 movie stripped away the book's framing device (with Dr. Victor Frankenstein found wandering in the Arctic, and made to recount his tale to a ship's crew) and for some reason, swapped Victor's first name with that of his close friend, Henry. Another difference is that in the original book, the monster is NOT made from parts of corpses, and although the actual process used is somewhat ambiguous (so the readers would not try to recreate the experiment), it seems more akin to a Jewish Golem, made in large size since the good Doctor had problems recreating the intricacies of the human form.

There are more plot points in the novel, of course, including the monster becoming self-aware, educated and vegetarian, and living for a year near a family's cottage in order to observe them, then befriend them. But the movie doesn't have that kind of time, it's got to get to the juicy bits. The movie really only covers the first half of the book, thus leaving opportunities for a sequel.

Think of all the innovations in the 1931 movie which became horror-movie staples - the laboratory with all its mysterious devices shooting sparks. The mad scientist, and the hunchbacked lab assistant (here called Fritz, but of course all later incarnations would be named Igor...) and the angry mob with torches and pitchforks.

At the heart, it's a simple story - man makes monster, monster misunderstood, mob murders monster. But at the time of its creation, the story stood for something more - a warning not to mess with the natural order of things. A suggestion that perhaps man is not meant to understand all the scientific principles surrounding life and death. In this age of proposed cloning and genetic re-sequencing, there may be some meaning still to be extracted from the old tale...

RATING: 6 out of 10 Tesla coils

SPOOK-O-METER: 2 out of 10 (a lumbering Karloff isn't all that hard to run away from)