Frankenstein

Some Questions to “Ponder”

What is defines the horror genre?

Frankenstein

The book, written in 1818 (2 years after her marriage to Percy Shelley) is by Mary Shelley. The book is called Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus

Who is Prometheus? Forethought – A Titan who brings fire to humans. As punishment he is chained to a rock and a vulture eats his liver out daily. At night it grows back. As a punishment humans are given Pandora a woman who is entrusted with a box which she opens letting out all the ills of the world.

Why is the book (and hence the film) film subtitled: “A modern Prometheus”?

The book was made into a play by 1823 and even the Grand Guignol did a version.

The first movie was made by Edison studios in 1910 with Charles Ogle playing the monster is a 16 minute version

There had, of course been earlier horror/monster films like The Golem, Nosferatu and a slew of film made by Lon Chaney

Universal studios which would become known for its horror films produced a set of horror films in the early ‘30’s which would later be duplicated in a very different style by the British company Hammer Films with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as the main protagonists. Universal cranked out Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) , Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), and nearly 10 years later The Wolfman (1941)

This film from 1931 was made in 35 days (24 August to 3 October 1931) and was released Dec 4th 1931. It was budgeted at $262,007.00 and came in at $291,129.13

It made over $1,000.000 in its first domestic run (more than 2x that of Dracula) One of the great moneymakers for Universal – also an artistic triumph and made the NY Times 10 best and played at the first Venice film festival 1932

The film raise hackles all over and brought out the censors. Scene and lines were cut before the releases in different places. More on these after the film

There are some interesting things to note in the opening titles not the least of which is the fact the monster goes uncredited

This was done in the first stage production as well and Mary Shelley approved of the idea. PT Cooke played the monster. This is an indication about what actors should be used to play monsters. One problem in casting is whether to use a relatively unknown actor (as Karloff was) or use a “big name (as happened with DeNiro). Most feel that with big names the audience gets too involved with trying to find the star under the make-up. This rule certainly doesn’t hold with “monsters” like Hannibal Lechter who is not a heavy special effect make-up character.

Some names which will appear also are Carl Lammle, James Whale (who is the subject of the biopic Gods and Monsters), Colin Clive, and Dwight Frye and Jack Pierce are all famous in films

AFTER THE FILM

To start, the peculiar absence of an actor’s name for the monster is not the only odd thing about the film. The film has a rather odd “preface” in which Edward van Sloan who plays Dr. Waldman “braces” the audience for the film and explains something about it.

The subtext of films are often analyzed psychoanalytically, socio-politically by using semiotics and other theories of communication. How does that happen here?

To analyze the film, it is necessary to discover both the text and subtext. The text is basically “the plot” what happens on the screen. The subtext is what can be derived from looking at the way the film is constructed and “breaking” the code of the film

What kind of things are used to find meaning?

Photography

Proxemics

Sets

Some trivia about the film

What about the film upset people that they demanded the cuts here: (Some of the censor’s demands may help get a grip on what was so upsetting about this film in 1931.)