Frankenstein – 1931, James Whale

Reaction Paper to  1931’s  Frankenstein by James Whale.

Another classic  Hollywood Horror Film!  One of my favorites.

Boris Karloff plays the  “Unnamed Monster” in the film, What makes the story of Frankenstein special is the pathos of the “Unnamed Monster,” the cruelty of Fritz, Dr. Frankenstein’s hunchback assistant, and Dr. Frankenstein’s obsession to make something come “alive.”   During screen tests,   the unknown actor Boris Karloff was given the role as  the Unnamed Monster, however in opening credits, his name wasn’t mentioned, simply just “??” instead,  it wasn’t till the end of the movie where Boris’ name was mentioned.

This movie,  I felt was awesome, it was about this mad scientist, who basically used body parts from humans to create a monster, and bring life to it.  They go into the lab, and the body is hanging from the gallows, they take the brain out of the body, but it is no good, so the Dr.  directs to get a brain from the school where he was banned from.

This movie I remember I was pretty young, but wasn’t afraid more fascinated because of the lab and the skylight opening up then the bolts of lightning striking,  and my favorite line from the movie when the monster’s hand starts to move,  Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive….”

Interesting about this movie was that the censors removed the next line in the quote, “Now, I know what it is like to be God”  also removed from the original version and later added in the 1980s ,  where  Frankenstein wanders the country side and meets the little girl by the lake and smells the flower, after they get done throwing flowers into the lake, he picks the little girl up and throws her into the lake, this was taken out of the 1931 version but added back in the 1980s.

Boris Karloff’s  remarkable performance in this film would later land him a role as  “The Mummy”.