Review #220: Frankenstein (1931)

This review was originally written in October 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #74: Frankenstein (1931)

Having already seen Young Frankenstein this year, I was really excited to see the sequel- the prospect of seeing Gene Wilder's character all grown up seemed like an interesting direction to take the series, though it was odd how they recast him with an actor that was ten years younger. I was also especially confused how Young Frankenstein came out forty years AFTER its sequel- am I missing something?

(I kid, I kid.)

Seriously though, this was a VERY bizarre watch. Rather than stick with my usual format of explaining the plot of the movie, first I'm going to explain the plot I ASSUMED the movie had: I assumed this was going to be a film about Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who is trying to create life by stitching together corpses of the newly-dead and animating the body with magic lightning. He is successful, but the monster he creates is temperamental and dangerous, and when the townsfolk find out that Frankenstein has defied God by creating an abomination of nature, they storm his home with torches and pitchforks, burning the place down so that such a mockery of life could never exist in the world.

That's what I assumed this movie was, and I feel like that's the public perception of the Frankenstein story. (It's certainly the story that's been remade and parodied a thousand times since.) But that's NOT what happens in this movie.

In this movie, Henry Frankenstein (seriously, his name is Henry, not Victor- there's also a character named Victor in here but he's just a friend and serves basically no purpose in the story) is a scientist who is trying to create life by stitching together corpses of the newly-dead and animating the body with magic lightning. He is successful, and he shows his creation to his closest associates (his fiancee Elizabeth, his friend Victor, and his old professor Waldman), and all of them take it in stride. While trying to gently talk to his creation and teach it how to exist in the world, Henry's hunchback assistant Fritz (not Igor, there is nobody in this movie named Igor) immediately and repeatedly starts torturing the monster with no provocation whatsoever, and the monster understandably lashes out and kills Fritz. The decision is made to kill the monster since its progress is a lost cause, but in the process Frankenstein is injured and taken back home to his father's house so he can recuperate and he can marry his fiancee, and the monster kills Waldman and escapes without anybody knowing.

So then there's a long portion of this movie dealing with Frankenstein's wedding preparations, and we see the monster walking around in broad daylight (something I never thought I'd see outside of The Munsters). The monster meets a young girl by a lake who gives him some flowers, and then while playing around, the monster tosses the girl into the lake. Apparently, despite being like three feet from the shore, this girl immediately drowns (?) and the final section of the movie has the girl's father alerting the townsfolk that an unknown man has murdered his daughter. Frankenstein learns of Waldman's death and assumes the monster has escaped, so he goes along with the mob (who aren't looking specifically for an inhuman monster, just for whoever the stranger was that killed the little girl) to try and find and kill the monster himself.

Frankenstein finds the monster in the mountains by his laboratory, they fight, and he gets knocked out. The monster carries him to the lab, the mob sees him and follows, and Frankenstein's attempts to escape get misinterpreted as the monster trying to kill him. He falls from the balcony, the townspeople take him back to town to recuperate, and they burn down the lab with the monster inside. The final scene is Frankenstein's father laughing with some maids about how he expects his son to have a happy and fruitful marriage.

As I said, this was... incredibly bizarre. At no point did I get the impression any of the townsfolk even knew that Frankenstein was creating an abomination, let alone decided it was a bad thing. They just knew a child was murdered (under very silly circumstances) and wanted to find the murderer. And of the people who DID know what Frankenstein was up to (his fiancee, his friend, and his professor), none of them seemed particularly bothered by the nature of it. And I see nothing in this film to definitely suggest that the monster was dangerous- the only people he killed were either directly torturing him (Fritz), in the process of trying to kill him (Waldman), or he was playing a game and frankly shouldn't have expected them to be in any danger (the girl at the lake). It feels like ALL of the tropes I've come to associate with Frankenstein are either not present in this film, or are in a completely different context here.

And I've barely even talked about the movie? It's pretty boring. Despite seemingly getting RIGHT into the action (within ten minutes of the title screen Frankenstein has procured two bodies and the "Abby Normal" brain) it takes its sweet time getting to anything else, but then again, there isn't really much story to get to. How much time do we need to spend watching people dance in preparation for Frankenstein's wedding? Did we need quite so much time spent at the end, watching the monster run around frantically in fear while the building burns around him? Half of this movie didn't even need to be there, and I don't think I'm alone in saying that, since every single other adaptation of this story seems to have completely eschewed most of it.

I'm just bewildered as to why this movie is remembered fondly when there are certainly many other, better versions of it out there.

Overall Rating: 2/10 Burgermasters

Copyright Trivia: The monster's iconic look, with its neck bolts, greenish skin, oversized suit, and flat-top skull are all under copyright by makeup artist Jack Pierce until 2026.