10/1/14 FRANKENSTEIN (1931). Having just shown this film in my Film and Literature class, its fresh on my mind. And seeing it again reminded me just how terrific this movie is. James Whales direction is simply majestic: his camera sweeps and swoops and closes in and pulls out and is all over the place. (Contrast this to Tod Brownings direction of DRACULA [1931]; his mostly stationary camera is far less cinematic than Whales.) The acting in FRANKENSTEIN is 30s-style, but very good. Colin Clive is an effective Dr. Frankenstein, Mae Clarke a good Elizabeth, and then of course there are the two icons -- one major and one minor -- Boris Karloff and Dwight Frye. Karloffs performance is first-rate as the creature, with just enough pathos in his performance to make it monumentally iconic; Frye, as the hunchbacked Fritz -- often mistakenly referred to as Ygor -- is fabulous, too, in his case in over-the-top fashion. Everything else in the film is great too, including Jack Pierces makeup and the incredible sets that were constructed for the interior shots for this film. The only complaint one could have against this almost perfect horror film is that it hardly follows Mary Shelleys 1818 novel at all. But, as I tell my students, this is a movie . . . not a novel. Its not a good adaptation of the book, but as a motion picture -- as a film -- there are few horror films better made than this one. SEE THE TRAILER ELSEWHERE ON THIS PAGE. (Below: Movie Poster// Karloffs grand entrance// Clive with the great Dwight Frye [as Fritz] behind the table// Frankensteins magnificent lab set.)
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 19:54:14 +0000
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