Frankenstein (1931)

Here i am about to post my notes and observations on the 1931 version of Boris Karloff's Frankenstein. We read the book in AP Lit and in order to earn extra credit, i am going to do what i do best and watch/analyze a movie!

Intro: "word of warning"

frankenstein = "man of science, sought to create without reckoning upon god"

2 great mysteries of creation: life and death

shows the style of film making in the period because the man who is doing the introducing isn't breaking the fourth wall and looking straight at the camera, he is looking over the camera. in teh 21st century he would look straight at the camera.

colin clive is frankenstein

opens to a funeral. camera pans around to all the people in mourning

man buries casket

two men unbury casket

"he's just resting, waiting for a new life to come."

of the two men, one is the inventor, one a hunchbacked henchman of the inventor

hunchback named fritz

Goldstadt medical college

criminals brain: "scarcity of convolusions on the frontal lobe"

henchman drops normal brain so he takes the criminals brain instead

"at night the winds howl in the mountains, there is noone here, prying eyes cant pere into my secrets. " -letter to elizabeth from henry

victor's last name Morris?!

victor is not elizabeth's love, henry is! henry frankenstein

henry is the inventor

"on the day elizabeth met the inventor he told her he did experiments"

so they didnt grow up together in this one

elizabeth demands to come with victor

henry frankenstein changed by result of his work

ambition to create life

only interested in human life: "first to destroy it then to create it"

uses electricity to bring monster to life

"this storm will be magnificent. all the electrical secrets of heaven"

"brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body i made with my own hands" - henry frankenstein

both henry frankenstein and victor love elizabeth

ultraviolet ray isnt highest color in the spectrum

"the great ray" will bring light into the world

the family has virtually no part in the movie except for Herr Baron the father.

the father believes its "another woman" that keeps Henry Frankenstein from marrying Elizabeth

"you have created a monster and it will destroy you"

monster put in complete darkness, "wait until [henry frankenstein] puts him out into the light"

monster is big and bulky, square head with bolts in neck. eyes slightly rolled back into head

H. Frank. is not afraid of the monster. he commands it to do a simple demand and it does it, just like a dog.

monster raises up his arms as if to catch the light when he is first exposed to it.

fritz brings around a torch with fire and the monster reacts scared of the fire

fritz whips monster

"come away fritz, leave it alone. leave it alone." - H.F.

fritz terrorizes the monster some more with a torch of fire

doctor and HF give the monster a tranquilizer

monster and HF scuffle

baron frankenstein