Frankenstein Goes to the Movies…

…and to Broadway - once

Frankenstein, 1831 Illustration Illustration by

Theodor von Holst from the frontispiece of 1831 edition of the novel

The Monster looks like a body-builder, an “over-developed” human male

Frankenstein, 1931 Film

The “classic” monster, i.e. the one most people envision when one says “Frankenstein”

The Monster is large, ugly, and mute

Introduced the idea of the “criminal brain” supplied by the hunchback assistant

A makeup artist designed the “flat head” look

Bride of Frankenstein, 1935 film Boris Karloff returns

as the Monster The Monster speaks

in broken sentences The Monster

convinces Henry Frankenstein to make him a bride, the bride rejects the Monster and he destroys the two of them

The Curse of Frankenstein, 1957

English film that focuses on Baron Victor Frankenstein more than the Monster

Victor assembles the Monster from a corpse found swinging on a gallows and hands and eyes purchased from a charnel house

The Curse of Frankenstein, cont.

Victor kills an aging professor to obtain a “sharp” brain for the Monster.

Victor’s mentor tries to stop Victor and the brain is damaged.

Victor wins and implants the damaged brain

The Monster is intelligent, psychotic, and violent

Eventually the Monster is dissolved in acid

Frankenstein, 1981 Broadway play

Opened and closed January 4, 1981

Reviled by critics Involved puppets One critic described

the Monster as “bland” and “elaborately made up with the requisite cranial fissures…[but] just a beery lout in a Halloween costume.”

Frankenstein, 1994 film

Often follows the Shelley novel with a few notable exceptions: Victor fashions the

monster from the brain of his mentor and the body parts of the man who murdered his mentor

Henry Clerval doesn’t die Victor stitches Elizabeth

back together and brings her back to life

Frankenstein, 1994 film, cont. Robert De Niro plays the

Monster Roger Ebert said the

movie is “short on villainy but loaded with the tragically misunderstood. Even the Creature, an aesthetically challenged loner with a father who rejected him, would make a dandy guest on any daytime television talk show.”

Young Frankenstein, 1974 film A parody of the

1931 film which used many of the original props

Critical favorite and box office smash – as a COMEDY

Preserved in Library of Congress National Film Registry

Young Frankenstein, 1974 film, cont.

The Creature loves violin music and hates sparks

With Frederick, the Creature performs “Puttin’ on the Ritz” but can only shout his song lines in painfully high-pitched monotones

However, he dances impressively with almost perfect timing

Other interpretations of the Creature

And finally…