FRANKENSTEIN ... This Movie, along with "Dracula (1931) - Details - Spout", set the standards by which ALL Horror Movies are judged to this day. The most Horrifying events imaginable taking place 'right before your eyes'. (as graphically as was permited, at the time)...
Mary Shelley's very dark, disturbing and complex novel is filtered down to it's basic Horror elements for this movie.... To GREAT effect. This movie works on all levels. The story, the sets, the lighting. the cinematography, the direction, The ACTORS... Man, this was great... Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein was incredible! ( "It's Alive... ALIVE!!!" )... and bringing back a couple of the actors from "DRACULA" (Dwight Frye and Edward Van Sloan), "FRANKENSTEIN" instantly became the penultimate Horror Movie...
Here is an interesting story... The 1931 Movie Version of "DRACULA" was actually written for the greatest Horror Movie star at that time... Lon Chaney Sr.! It was to be his first 'talkie'!! Unfortunately he died just before shooting was to commence, so they brought in the Hungarian actor who had played Dracula on stage, Bela Lugosi... Later that year, looking at the huge success of "DRACULA" , The company decided to go ahead with thier next big Horror Movie Project, "FRANKENSTEIN"... Now, here is where it gets interesting... Bela was offered the starring role, as 'The Monster', but he turned it down because he had no lines... the role then went to a 'bit-part' actor by the name of William Henry Pratt... later, and from then on, to be known as Boris Karloff... and a legend was born.
A few years later, Bela would actually play the part of "The Monster"... with no lines... in "Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman" !
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