Check in. Relax. Take a shower.: Frankenstein - a one-sided preference history

Alright, I've got two free hours and a bag of popcorn and I want to talk about Frankenstein!

Who is he? Where did he come from? Why is Hollywood obsessed with him? And why is the story actually so devastating?

How do you do? Mr. Carl Laemmle feels it would be a little unkind to present this picture without just a friendly word of warning: We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation; life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So, if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to uh, well, ––we warned you!!

First of all,
Yesterday I got a chance to watch Victor Frankenstein. Granted, I was multi-tasking while watching it but I enjoyed what I saw while side-eying it in between everything else I was doing.

Victor Frankenstein came out last year and stars the uber talented James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe who do not disappoint in the lead roles. It is directed by Paul McGuigan and written by Max Landis (who I don't love...as a person...but his work is pretty great).

It's told from the perspective of Igor, who is usually portrayed as a hunchback idiot, but in this film Radcliffe plays him as a troubled young man who is held in the circus as a clown because he has a hunchback. But he is incredibly intelligent and has a fascination with the human anatomy. I loved Igor's back story in this film and his tragic circus background really captured my imagination.
Victor Frankenstein visits the circus, and when a beautiful aerialist falls to her almost death, he works with Igor to save her life. When he realizes the hidden talents of Igor, he breaks him free from the circus and asks him to come live and work with him. He also cures Igor of his hunchback which is actually just a giant cyst that needs to be drained. GAG

The two partner and work on Victor's experiments to bring subjects back from the dead and create life through artificial means.

I enjoyed it! McAvoy and Radcliffe are fun to watch and the scenery and costumes are drool worthy. They're pursued by an angry cop played by Andrew Scott aka Moriarty and that part of the story line bothered me. It was just boring and the same goes for the love story between Igor and the aerialist. Some of the story was really well written and unique, and others were boring and obvious. And that's where the movie fell short.

Was it scary? Of course not. But Frankenstein is a classic horror story so I'm including it in this blog because....I can?

So where does Frankenstein come from?

In 1818 when Mary Shelley was only 20 years old, she published her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, which is the most pretentious title ever. Shelley was probably exhausting to hang out with. The original story involves a young science student of the name Victor Frankenstein who creates a creature during a science experience.
When the novel was first published, it was anonymous, no one even knew Shelley wrote it until 1823.

She was inspired by Frankenstein Castle in Germany where an alchemist allegedly performed these types of experiments. She was also inspired by the occult ideas that were drifting around at the time and when her and her (most likely pretentious) friends sat around talking about themes and ideas. When Shelley and a few of her friends decided to have a competition to write the scariest horror story, Shelley dreamed about a scientist who created life and was then horrified by his choices, she awoke and began her story on paper.

The novel is very "gothic" and is a great example of science fiction blended at its best with horror. Of course, as horror fans know, the creature itself is not called Frankenstein, though many make that mistake. In the book it is simply referred to as "wretch" or "monster".

Since then the story has been adapted into plays, radio shows, movies and made countless cameos in anything you can think of like comics and tv shows and toys.

Frankenstein first appeared in films in 1931 with the iconic portrayal done by Boris Karloff. Universal had released Dracula and was seeing an increase in their wallets, so the next step was to pursue another horror classic. Bela Lugosi, who played Dracula, hoped to play Dr. Frankenstein but the studio wanted him to play the monster instead. After some really bad makeup tests and studio politics, Lugosi left.

Karloff was chosen for the role after he was seen eating in the cafeteria on the lot. His face was perfect. And hence the iconic monster we still picture today when we hear "Frankenstein" was created.

The film was another box office success for Universal but one scene was quickly cut from the film after outrage from studio audiences. This is the scene where the monster throws the little girl into the lake and she drowns. Of course, it's an accident, the monster was just playing, but in the 30's...a child dying on screen, basically being murdered, was shocking and unheard of. This scene was not even discovered until the 1980s and was then quickly added back in. We've come a long way ya'll.

In 1935 a sequel was made called the Bride of Frankenstein which brought back Karloff playing the monster and introduced the iconic wife, played by Elsa Lanchester. It's an absurd film with humor and romantic comedy and horror. It's also wonderful.

In 1957 came the Curse of Frankenstein and Christoper Lee took over the reigns of the monster. This was Hammer Film Productions first ever color horror film and they went nuts with the color, including painting leaves and flowers to be even more colorful than they naturally were. Peter Cushing played Victor Frankenstein. For the time, this rendition was incredibly violent and filled with blood which gave it worldwide success and led to several sequels.

And that leads us to the truly last good Frankenstein film which was of course....Young Frankenstein. It came out in 1974 and was directed by Mel Brooks. It stared Gene Wilder as Victor Frankenstein (that's pronounced fronk-en-steen) and also other amazing actors like Cloris Leachman and Gene Hackman. Wilder himself wrote the screenplay along with Brooks.

This is of course a comedy that plays very well on the line of lovingly mocking horror films. It's absolutely hilarious and I find myself quoting this movie far too often in regular every day life. It was shot entirely in black and white which never happened in the 70's and was filmed with the old school iris outs and fades to black.

A lot of the funniest scenes were completely improvised including Marty Feldman secretly moving his hump from shoulder to shoulder until someone finally noticed, but they kept the gag in the film, didn't you used to have that on the other side?

Unfortunately since then we've seen a big decline in the Frankenstein movies like I, Frankenstein, Van Helsing, and Frankenhooker. But with the news that Universal will be bringing back all their classic monsters (The Mummy is filming right now), perhaps Frankenstein will finally breathe some fresh air. But probably not.

Frankenstein itself, to me, is the story of a man lost in his passions in life. He selfishly brings a creature to life, who should've never been through that, and is now forced to live in a confusing and terrifying world. Everyone sees him as a monster, but he doesn't see himself that way. It's heart breaking and scary and a classic, beautiful story.

Anyway,
I'm currently reading the original novel (along with about four other books) for the first time and am excited to see how my feelings and thoughts change as I go along with what I know of the story. Here's my trusty copy: