The story of how the story of Frankenstein came to be is only a little less famous than the story itself. On a cold, rainy summer night in 1816, while gathered around a log fire in the summer villa of Lord Byron in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, where she was staying with her lover and soon-to-be-husband, Percy Shelley, eighteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Mary Godwin at the time) crafted an early version of her legendary tale of terror. Prompted by a sharing of German ghost stories from the collection Fantasmagoriana, the group of friends challenged each other to a contest, to see who could come up with the most frightening tale. Drawing inspiration from the friends' conversations about recent advances in science, particularly galvanism, Shelley wrote what began as a short story, but would later become a novel (another guest of Byron's, John Polidori, would also write a famous, if less so, classic of the horror genre, Vampyre, as a result of the contest). It's full title is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, the subtitle referring to the Titan in Greek mythology, who stole fire from the Olympian gods to give to mankind and was eternally punished as a result. Considered one of the most influential works of science fiction literature, it is equaled only by Dracula in the annals of Gothic horror. In it, Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant man of science from an aristocratic family in Switzerland, who defies the warnings of his mentors and unlocks the secret of life, building the massive body of a man from "raw materials" and endowing it with life. When faced with the horror of what he has created, Frankenstein rejects his Creature and attempts to return the life of a nobleman. The Creature survives however, learning English and about his origins, and upon being rejected as a monster by all humanity, the Creature tracks down Frankenstein, demanding a mate with whom he can live in peaceful isolation. Threatening Frankenstein's family and friends, the Creature makes his demands, but after beginning the process of creating the monster's mate, Frankenstein has second thoughts and destroys his work, infuriating the Creature, who promises to be with Frankenstein on his wedding night. After Frankenstein marries his lifetime love and adopted sister Elizabeth, the Creature murders Elizabeth. Having lost everything to his creation, Frankenstein pursues the Creature into the Arctic regions, where he relays his tragic tale to Captain Robert Walton, an explorer, before dying. The Creature then throws himself on his Frankenstein's funeral pyre, concluding the tale.
Frankenstein has been a fixture of horror films almost since the beginning of cinema, first adapted as a 16-minute film in 1910, a production of Thomas Edison's Edison Manufacturing Company and has been adapted very many times since. Rather than covering an entire history of the Mary Shelley's monster in film, this will cover, individually, each of the four key versions, beginning with the most famous, Universal's 1931 adaptation FRANKENSTEIN, that film's sequel, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Hammer Horror's 1957 adaptation, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and finally, the American Zoetrope Francis Ford Coppola-produced 1994 version, MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN.
FRANKENSTEIN (HORROR/SCI-FI, 1931)
Directed by James Whale
Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clark, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Frederick Kerr, Dwight Frye, Lionel Belmore, Marilyn Harris, Michael Mark
Not Rated (PG level; thematic material, violence and scary images).
70 minutes
SCAREmeter: 3.5/10 (more likely to scare children than most old movies, but fairly tame by today's standards)
GOREmeter: 3.5/10 (brains in jars, a couple of strung-up corpses, just a tiny bit of blood)
LAUGHmeter: 3.5/10
OVERALL: 3.5/4
Universal Studios' adaptation FRANKENSTEIN was a direct result of the success of DRACULA, which was released only nine months earlier. Universal wanted to capitalize on what was clearly a market for monster movies, and they believed that Mary Shelley's story could be a good starring vehicle for Bela Lugosi to follow up DRACULA with. The makeup tests with Lugosi were decidedly a failure, but it is disputed whether Lugosi quit the film (an oft-repeated quote: "I was a star in my country and I will not be a scarecrow over here!") or was booted off, but whatever the case, it proved to only be the start of a sharp decline for Lugosi's unfortunate career, and the beginning of stardom for the most famous horror icon of his generation, Boris Karloff.
Karloff was born William Henry Platt in London, 1887, and adopted his stage name while working as a stage actor in Canada before pursuing a career in Hollywood. He was an unknown when he was cast in FRANKENSTEIN, listed in the opening credits only as "The Monster............?", lending an air of mystery to the monstrous creation of Frankenstein, a human actor hidden beneath layers of makeup.
The film is a loose adaptation of Shelley's novel (the 1927 stage adaptation by Peggy Webling is also credited as an inspiration), pertaining primarily to the creation of the Monster and his rampage in an abbreviated form. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), the name changed to appeal to American audiences, and his hunchbacked assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye) are collecting corpses from fresh graves and cut down from gibbets, which Henry is using to assemble the body of a man, one who has never lived, so that he can endow it with life. Claiming to have discover the ray that first brought life into the world, Henry successfully uses it to bring his creation to life, but he creation is erratic, temperamental and violent, murdering Fritz. Henry regrets having created it and returns to his home to marry his fiance Elizabeth (Mae Clark), while his mentor Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan) intends to dispose of the Monster. The Monster kills Waldman and escapes though, and wreaks havoc during the Frankenstein's wedding celebration, leading to a fiery climax as a mob surrounds the monster inside a windmill.
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| Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein (left). |
FRANKENSTEIN was directed by James Whale, an English director who cast Clive, having worked with him in his directorial debut, JOURNEY'S END, and Clark, who starred in his controversial previous hit film, WATERLOO BRIDGE, about an American chorus girl working as a prostitute in WWI London. Carried over from DRACULA were Van Sloan, who had played Dr. Van Helsing and here played Dr. Waldman, and Dwight Frye, who had played Renfield and here played Fritz. Although the epilogue from DRACULA, in which Van Sloan directly addressed the audience to warn that "There really are such things as Vampires!", is now lost after being removed under the 1934-1968 Production Code, a somewhat similar prologue featuring Van Sloan is featured in FRANKENSTEIN, prior to the opening titles. Addressing the audience, Van Sloan greets,
"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!" From that point, the film is notably more cinematic than the stagey DRACULA.
The character of Fritz is the same who is commonly known in popular culture as "Igor", well-known in the same sense that everyone knows the CASABLANCA line, "Play it again, Sam," when the actual line is, "Play it, Sam. Play as time goes by." Like the character in Mel Brooks' classic spoof YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and depicted in a great many cartoons by the name Igor, Fritz is the squeamish, hunchbacked assistant of Dr. Frankenstein in his experiments, who is sent to steal a brain for the Monster, but upon dropping the "normal" brain, takes the "abnormal" brain. The name Igor would come along until SON OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1939, and in that case was spelled "Ygor", and rather than a hunchbacked lab assistant, Ygor (played by Bela Lugosi) was a criminally-insane blacksmith with a deformed neck as the result of a botched hanging, who befriended the monster and used him to murder his enemies. Somewhere along the lines, the character Fritz began showing up in horror spoofs with the name Igor. Frye would return for THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, playing another crippled laboratory assistant.
FRANKENSTEIN has a very strong visual style, second only to its own sequel in the canon of the Universal Monsters series, especially in the legendary "creation scene", where the table bearing the Monster is raised to the stormy sky and the electrical equipment buzzes, raining down sparks (the man who created the electrical effects, Kenneth Strickfaden, who would also work on YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN 43 years later, supposedly even acquired a Tesla Coil built by Nikola Tesla himself). In her novel, Shelley is vague on how the Monster was created, referring to "raw materials", the creation of a body rather than merely resurrecting one, and mentioning electricity and galvanism as being involved, so there's a lot of creative freedom there, and the 1931 film created what is undoubtedly the definitive envisioning. The Monster makeup was designed by Jack Pierce (credit for the iconic flat head is disputed between Pierce and Whale, the latter who may have contributed in the form of sketches), and took four hours each day to apply. The flat head was meant to suggest a 'lid', through which Frankenstein set the brain and where the majority of stitching is visible, it having been 'closed up', and while the grease paint over it all was indeed green, as cartoon and colorized versions of the Frankenstein Monster are typically depicted, it was simply to appear 'pale', as described in the book, when filmed in black-and-white. The bolts in the neck, electrodes, fit into the electrical creation of the Monster, and to appear gaunt, Karloff would remove a dental plate, causing one of his cheeks to appear sunken.
Considering Whale's well-known twisted sense of humor, it isn't always clear what is intended to be funny, and what has simply aged poorly, particularly in the controversial scene of "Little Maria" drowning. In one of the film's most famous scenes, the Monster encounters Maria (Marilyn Harris), a little girl who befriends him and invites him to toss daisy heads into the lake, watching them float. As soon as the Monster runs out of flowers, he picks up Maria and tosses her in, but to his dismay, she sinks like a stone. The scene is hard not to laugh at today, but it was highly controversial for years, resulting in the film being cut by many local censorship boards in the 1930s. Even still, I have to wonder whether Whale didn't plan it at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I feel more assured in assuming that the Monster's short growl in response to Mae Clark's screaming was indeed intended with humor.
Like DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN was a huge financial success, more even, and unlike DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN was also warmly received by critics, instantly considered the superior film, which it is. It would, however, be surpassed by its sequel.
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| Boris Karloff as The Monster with Marilyn Harris as Little Maria. |
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (HORROR/SCI-FI, 1935)
Directed by James Whale
Starring: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger, Elsa Lanchester, Una O'Connor, O.P. Heggie, E.E. Clive, Dwight Frye, Gavin Gordon, Douglas Walton
Not Rated (PG level; thematic material, violence, some scary images and smoking).
75 minutes
SCAREmeter: 3/10 (less scary than the original, will probably still scare sensitive children)
GOREmeter: 3/10 (hearts in jars, only a little blood, some suggestion of gory details)
LAUGHmeter: 5/10
OVERALL: 4/4
Spoiler alert: the Monster died at the end of FRANKENSTEIN, so how do you make a sequel? Well, you could just change the ending of the original, but as Kathy Bates, playing the monstrous Annie Wiles, would say in MISERY, "This isn't what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia?! They just cheated us! This isn't fair!" The genius move to address this dilemma was surprisingly simple; divert the blame to a framing story. It isn't the filmmakers pulling out the rug from the original film's ending, it's Mary Shelley herself, played by Elsa Lanchester, who faked the Monster's demise.
Mary, Percy Shelley (Douglas Walton) and Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon), are all sitting around the fireplace on a rainy night, as Lord Byron (rolling his 'r's like a madman) praises Mary for her tale of terror (a nifty way of recapping the previous film's events). But that was only the beginning, she declares, as the Monster has survived, and Percy and Byron listen attentively to hear the rest of her fantastic tale.
We are returned to the same burning windmill where FRANKENSTEIN concluded (assuming you don't count the brief epilogue in which Henry had been returned home safely, which we don't, so deal with it), as the raging blaze brings the structure crumbling down. But beneath, the Monster has survived in a water-flooded pit, and Henry Frankenstein is returned home to his new bride, Elizabeth (Valerie Hobson, replacing Mae Clark who was in poor health at the time). Intending to put his ghoulish work behind him, Henry is dragged back into the business of creating another creature, a mate for the original Monster, when an sinister old professor by the name of Dr. Septimus Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) has teamed up with the Monster, kidnapping Elizabeth to ensure that Henry follows through.
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, while still a loose adaptation, incorporates more elements from Shelley's novel than its predecessor, such as the Monster befriending the blind man (played by O.P. Heggie) and learning to speak rudimentary English (in the book, the Monster learned to speak by spying on a family in a woodland cabin and attempted to befriend the blind grandfather, before the rest of the family returned and were horrified by him), and the storyline of the Monster demanding a mate from Frankenstein. The choice to make the Monster speak was objected to by Karloff, who was
proudly credited in the film simply as "KARLOFF", in all caps, who
believed that it eliminated what made the Monster unique. Because it
was now a speaking role, the dental plate that Karloff removed in the
original to make his face appear sunken stayed in, giving the Monster a
fuller face. In addition, makeup designer Jack Pierce addressed the
Monster's burning in the fire by adding some new scars and shortening
his hair, which also shows off the flat head and scarring better.
The sequel also offered a new opportunity to suggest how a Frankenstein monster can be created, because as previously mentioned, Shelley was mum on details. To create the Bride (also played by Lanchester), Pretorius and Frankenstein steal the bones of a young woman from a crypt and grow most of the flesh and organs from cultures, then bring it to life with the same machinery used in the original. In a memorably campy moment, Pretorius shows off his collection of homunculi kept in jars, from his attempt to create a man from cultures, including a randy King (A.S. Byron), his Queen (Joan Woodbury), and one who Pretorius recounts, "looked with so much disapproval," that he made him an Archbishop.
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| Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius |
Ernest Thesiger as Pretorius is the standout performance of the film, allegedly directed by James Whale to play him as an "over the top caricature of a bitchy and aging homosexual" (although Thesiger was married to Janette Mary Fernie Ranken, it was generally well known that he was gay, although sources vary as to how open he was about it). Flamboyant and fey, Pretorius has been described a "gay Mephistopheles", taking Henry away from his bride on their wedding night to create a non-procreative life. Whale, openly homosexual himself, even in the 1920s and 30s at the height of his career, seems to identify most with Pretorius, even if he's the villain. Pretorius is the fun one, introducing a miniature Devil of his creation to Henry, saying, "He bears a strong resemblance to me, don't you think? Or do I flatter myself?" and offering his favorite vices like gin and cigars on separate occasions as "my only weakness". One of the best scenes of the film takes place when Pretorius is in a crypt, exhuming the bones of a woman to use in creating the Bride, when the Monster appears, attempting to return to the grave after suffering so much rejection from mankind. Pretorius addresses the Monster very frankly, informing him of his intentions to create a friend for him, a woman, and offering him food and drink.
Asking him how much he knows about his origins and of Frankenstein, the Monster responds, "Yes, I know. Made me from dead. I love dead...hate living."
Pretorius wryly responds, "You are wise in your generation."
It is a matter of debate as to how clearly a gay subtext can be read from the film. Whale was very openly gay, in a relationship with film producer David Lewis (who, ironically, is probably best remember today for being Whale's gay partner) since 1930 and into the 50s, when they separated, as was Thesiger, and it has been widely speculated but never confirmed that Clive may have been gay (Lewis was adamant that Clive was not). Central to the argument that the film is a gay statement is the notion of the two male scientists using science to create a life together, and in a novelization published in England, Pretorius is quoted as saying a line similar to one in the film but more explicit: "'Be fruitful and multiply.' Let us obey the Biblical injunction: you of course, have the choice of natural means; but as for me, I am afraid that there is no course open to me but the scientific way." Like most theories of analysis in art, there no substantial evidence that the possible meaning was consciously intentional by the artist, and many of Whale's colleagues insist that it was not, but the subconscious mind has a way of having its own say. Even then, if the possible meaning is purely accidental, that shouldn't negate it as a worthwhile reading of the film, because art is a two-way street between the artist and the audience. On a similar note, Whale decided that Lanchester, already cast as the Bride, should also play Mary Shelley in the prologue, to reference the influence of the subconscious in the horror genre.
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| James Whale |
Even still, the presence of religious symbolism is just as prominent in THE BRIDE OF
FRANKENSTEIN, creating a weird blend of the sacred and the sacrilege, a convention that is inherent to the Gothic horror genre. Most obvious is the moment when the Monster, newly discovered to have survived the windmill fire, is surrounded by a mob and lashed to a pole, and turned upright for a moment. Rather than shown simply tied with his arms to the side, behind the back or with his hands and feet strung to the pole, any of which would be typical, the Monster is tied in a crucifix position, with his arms outstretched to the elbows and his wrists tied to the pole, and his ankles tied to the sides of the pole. This on top of the already present themes of resurrection. In addition, there are crucifixes on display at multiple moments in the films, such as on the blind hermit's wall and in the graveyard, but a scene described in the script, where the Monster rushes to "rescue" a figure of Christ on the cross in the graveyard, was removed after the Production Code office objected. Scholars dispute whether the film suggests the Monster is being presented as a Christ figure or as a "mockery of the divine", although Whale himself was decidedly not religious.
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is the best of the classic Universal Monsters series, and with its strong visual aesthetic and witty camp humor, it's the one I recommend for the average viewer. Also consider checking out the fascinating 1997 film GODS AND MONSTERS (taking its title from Dr. Pretorius' toast, "To a new world of gods and monsters!"), a fictionalized account of Whale's later years, accompanied by flashbacks of his experience fighting in WWI and the making of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, featuring an Academy Award-nominated performance by Ian McKellen as Whale.
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| Elsa Lanchester as The Bride with Boris Karloff as The Monster. |
THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (HORROR/SCI-FI, 1957)
Directed by Terence Fisher
Starring: Peter Cushing, Hazel Court, Robert Urquhart, Christopher Lee, Valerie Gaunt, Paul Hardtmuth, Fred Johnson
Not Rated (PG-13 level; horror images and violence).
82 minutes
SCAREmeter: 5/10 (very morbid, spookier than you might expect from an older movie)
GOREmeter: 4.5/10 (slightly bloody body parts, a bloody scene of violence, more is suggested than shown)
LAUGHmeter: 2.5/10
OVERALL: 3.5/4
There are two major camps of classic horror: Universal Monsters and Hammer Horror. Hammer Film Productions was a British film company that found its greatest success in making color film adaptations of classic monsters during the late 1950s and through the 1960s. They began with
Frankenstein, released in 1957, which established many of the traits that would become staples of Hammer Horror in later years. In the late 50s, and actually starting in the late 40s, the horror genre had really taken a dive in popularity, with the old horror mainstay of Universal Monsters having been milked dry in the form of sequels, cross-overs popularly referred to as "Monster Mashes", culminating in parody in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Horror movies were dominated by campy b-movie productions, many of which are a lot of fun and can now be looked back on as classics, but they didn't get a lot of respect. Hammer Horror would tap into the demand for A-grade Gothic horror.
Universal, understandably, kept their stable of Universal Monsters closely guarded and regarded Hammer's venturing into those stories as a threat, so Hammer was careful to differentiate itself. One way in which Hammer distinguished their Frankenstein was also their big marketing point: filmed in vivid Eastmancolor. Color film was atypical of the horror genre, and the notion of such ghoulish elements in such detail rankled the censors. As was not uncommon practice in those days, Hammer submitted the script for THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, written by Jimmy Sangster, to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for advisement on how they might film it to receive the desired classification (rating), or more specifically in this case, to be approved for release in the UK at all. In their response, the BBFC strongly advised against the tone and content of the script, which they believed, if produced faithfully in color, would not be allowed to play at all in the UK. When the film was released, it featured unprecedented vivid blood and gore, which, although nothing special by today's standards, did require edits in order to be released in the UK with the most restrictive classification of the time.
Loosely adapted from Mary Shelley's novel, Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing, introduced as a young man played by Melvyn Hayes) is made a Baron at a young age with the death of his parents, inheriting his wealthy family's estate. Hiring a tutor for himself, Victor is taught in the medical and scientific professions by Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart), and grows up to work on his experiments with Paul as a colleague. In the course of a strange experiment, Victor and Paul successfully bring a dead dog back to life, encouraging Victor to attempt to endow life into an artificially-created human being. Paul cooperates at first, but grows squeamish about Victor's methods of obtaining materials for his creation, first stealing a corpse from a gibbet, and eventually resorting to murder. In an attempt to stop Victor from carrying out his experiment, Paul accidentally damages the brain which Victor procured from a man who died under mysterious circumstances. After Victor successfully brings his creature to life, the Monster (Christopher Lee) is violent and erratic, escaping and killing people, but Victor is still unwilling to do away with his work.
I've read
Frankenstein a few times (more often listened to in audiobook form), more for the sake of the season than out of a particular appreciation for it, and one thing that always aggravates me about it is how Shelley is so adoring of her titular character, writing in long passages of his 'greatness' and 'goodness', when his actions consistently suggest that his dominant traits are self-pity, selfishness, irresponsibility and recklessness; so I really appreciate what a remorseless dirt-bag Cushing's Frankenstein is. I mean, this guy is rotten. While planning to marry his respectable fiancee Elizabeth (Hazel Court), Victor is secretly canoodling with his maid Justine (Valerie Gaunt), who he treats cruelly, and when she makes a desperate attempt get him to marry her, he has her murdered by the Monster. He knows full-well that he's a total rotter, but he just doesn't care. Those unfamiliar with Hammer Horror are most likely familiar with Cushing from STAR WARS, in which he played the sinister Grand Moff Tarkin. Like many prominent filmmakers who followed, STAR WARS writer/director George Lucas was a fan of Hammer Horror, and also cast Christopher Lee, the actor who played the Monster, as Count Dooku in STAR WARS- EPISODE II: THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES and its follow-up, THE REVENGE OF THE SITH.
Lee was a WWII veteran whose experience was reserved to background roles, and was cast as the Monster (credited as "The Creature") based on his formidable 6'5" height and was disappointed to learn that his first major role came without lines. Perhaps most crucial to creating the Monster for Hammer was that he be different enough from the Universal's copyrighted Jack Pierce design to protect themselves from any sort of litigation, but the makeup process proved to be particularly difficult. Ultimately, the makeup, composed mainly from household materials, was applied from scratch daily. His visage is gruesome, but understandably, not as memorable as Boris Karloff; appearing greenish in color, with assorted red scars and a flaking complexion.
My unpopular opinion is that THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN is the most entertaining of the Hammer Horror films (I haven't seen all of them admittedly, but I've seen a few). It has an exciting, lurid, 'comic book' style of horror atmosphere, with an excellent vision of the mad scientist's lab, where Victor's creation soaks in a bubbling amber liquid-filled glass case, wrapped in bandages like a mummy. Victor even has the ghastly addition of an acid bath, for the disposal of things like unnecessary human heads. It's not terribly ambitious, but it's so richly atmospheric, with just the right amount of violence and sex.
It also breathed life into a new era of the horror genre as a huge international success and igniting the tradition of "Hammer Horror".
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| Christopher Lee as The Creature, Peter Cushing as Frankenstein (center) and Robert Urquhart as Paul Krempe. |
MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN (HORROR/DRAMA, 1994)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce, Aidan Quinn, John Cleese, Ian Holm, Richard Briers, Trevyn McDowell, Celia Imrie, Ryan Smith
Rated R for horrific images.
123 minutes
SCAREmeter: 5/10 (a few freaky moments, morbid and ghoulish at times, but not particularly scary)
GOREmeter: 6.5/10 (more is suggested than actually shown, icky close-ups of stitching flesh and surgical scenes, bloody moments include a heart ripped out of a person)
LAUGHmeter: 2.5/10
OVERALL: 2/4
Like the 1931 Universal classic, the 1994 film version of
Frankenstein was in response to the great success of a
Dracula-based film. After Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA was a hit and won three Academy Awards, he decided to follow it up with a 1990s take on the other twin pillar of Gothic horror with MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN. This time around, Coppola decided to sit out of directing, taking on the less labor-intensive role of producer (it was the second part of an unofficial trilogy of classic horror story adaptations produced through in company, American Zoetrope, during the Nineties, followed by Tim Burton's SLEEPY HOLLOW), while handing the director's reins over to Kenneth Branagh.
Branagh had become a hot young filmmaking talent in 1989 with his highly-acclaimed film adaptation of HENRY V, in which he starred and directed, earning him Academy Award nominations for both Best Director and Best Actor. He followed that up with the acclaimed psychological thriller DEAD AGAIN in 1991, in which he again also starred. Prior to taking on MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN, Branagh again adapted Shakespeare as a starring-directing vehicle to great acclaim in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING in 1993. Unfortunately, for all his charm with the Bard's material, Branagh proved to be an ill-suited match for Shelley's monster.
It is the most faithful to the novel of any major adaptation of
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, opening with a quote from Mary Shelley herself:
"I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart."
Branagh stars as Victor Frankenstein, who is discovered in the Arctic by Captain Walton (Aidan Quinn) and his crew in 1794, and recounts the tale of how he brought to his lowly state. Born into an aristocratic family in Geneva, Switzerland, Victor becomes obsessed with the possibility of 'curing' death, and against the warnings of his professors, creates a man from assembled flesh and endows it with life. Horrified at the resulting abomination, Victor abandons the Monster (Robert De Niro) and returns to his home in Geneva to marry his adopted sister/childhood sweetheart Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), believing that the Monster could not have survived alone in the midst of the cholera epidemic. He is, of course, wrong, and the Monster, having learned to speak and read, tracks down his creator after being rejected by the rest of mankind. Threatening vengeance if his demands are not met, the Monster requests a mate from Victor, so that he may go away and live in peace, but Victor rebuffs him. The Monster keeps his promise though, murdering Victor's loved ones and leading him on a chase into the Arctic regions.
As previously mentioned, a major hurdle in Shelley's novel is her peculiar insistence on Frankenstein's goodness, when all his actions suggest that he is as much or more to blame for all the misery around him as anyone or anything else, and Branagh translates that sentiment to the screen. His Frankenstein is a woefully unlikable character, a self-pitying, rich boy full of false nobility, and to make matters worse, Branagh feels all wrong in the role, stagey and grandiose in the worst way.
De Niro is better as the Monster, an interpretation more faithful to the novel but far more intelligent than has ever been presented on the screen before. His appearance, makeup designed by Daniel Parker, is gruesome, and De Niro, a peculiarly A-list choice (this was before his self-parody days, mind you) for such a role, has a strong handle on the material, even if he isn't given much opportunity to be frightening. In fact, it's not evident where the scares that the opening Mary Shelley quote refers to are meant to come from. There are a few stylishly Gothic, frantic sequences to remind you that this was presented as a horror film, notably a bloody surgical operation late in the game as Victor makes a second creation, but most often, it's an unintentionally campy melodrama.
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| Robert De Niro as The Creature. |
Branagh also feels like the wrong director for this material, so at times, it appears as if he is a war with the script (the scene following the aforementioned 'second creation' is very interesting, a moment where it feels as if he's channeling a zanier director who could have done more with the whole). The original version of the script by Frank Darabont is a little bit of a minor behind-the-scenes legend, but it was heavily re-written by Branagh and Steph Lady. Guillermo del Toro, who has long been anticipated to make a
Frankenstein film adaptation and has expressed an interest in using the Darabont script, described it as a "near perfect" adaptation. Darabont, who eventually became known for writing and directing THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, released the same year as MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN, as well as THE GREEN MILE and THE MIST, has said that he believed it was the best script he'd ever written and accused Branagh of ruining it, saying it was "rephrased and messed with every inch of the way".
There are inklings of interesting ideas throughout, such as a one-on-one conversation between the Monster and Frankenstein in an ice cave that suggests the notion of the characters being two sides of the same coin, the Monster as a sort of "Mr. Hyde" to Frankenstein's "Jekyll", but that never congeals. The creation scene is inspired, outside of the somewhat silly addition of electric eels (repeated to even sillier effect last summer in the not-so-amazing THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2), with Frankenstein 'birthing' his creation out of a copper 'womb' filled with an artificial amniotic fluid. Tom Hulce, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in AMADEUS and to "90s kids" as the voice of Quasimodo in Disney 1996 animated feature THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, who brightens everything he's in, shows up in the supporting role of Henry Clerval, but even while his was a more significant role in the book, he isn't given remotely enough to do and eventually falls by the wayside.
MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN was an R-rated adaptation of the Frankenstein story made on lavish budget of $45 million, with so much room for opportunity and promise, but unfortunately is little more than a lavishly-produced curiosity that doesn't know what to do with so much possibility.
November 7th
November 21st
