S4E53. 31 Days of Halloween - Day 2: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) dir. James Whale

*God, if I can somehow get Clancy Brown to introduce this show, it'd be beautiful but now, you'll just have to imagine his deep, rich voice* DAY 2! GIVE IT UP FOR DAY 2, EVERYONE!

31 Days of Halloween continues down the Universal Monsters track. Not even a year after DRACULA's release, wunderkind producer Carl Laemmle Jr. comes back swinging with FRANKENSTEIN, a James Whale-directed adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel.

Bela Lugosi is interested in returning. Junior is stoked! Lugosi reads the script and waitaminute, this is for the monster; I wanted to be Henry Frankenstein, what the fuck?

Enter Boris Karloff, a veteran English stage actor with 80 credits to his name before taking on the role of the lumbering Creature.

Borne of the crude surgery of dead parts and a good ol' blast of lightning, this Creature is the product of Frankenstein's (Colin Clive) defiance against God, the natural order, showers (Look in my eyes and truthfully deny it, I dare you. Henry be stinky.) and sanity.

This movie established the benchmark for many who would follow. Any mad scientist crafts their lab in response to the bubbling breakers and sparkling electronics of Whale's movie. The locked-knee hobbling accentuated by grunts and baritone moans for any monstrous brute comes from Karloff's performance. Even cartoons joke about angry mobs with torches and pitchforks, aping this movie's ending. The influence reaches further than one can imagine.

And while I dock points for the movie meandering about Henry's wedding (The dude just created life and you people wanna think about bouquets?) and a lack of time developing the Creature's intelligence, as does the novel, that influence makes this a must-watch. For this Universal Monsters run, it's important to see where we've been to better chart where horror can go.

---

Follow, rate and review THE MOVIES wherever you listen to podcasts!

Follow THE MOVIES on Instagram, Bluesky & Letterboxd