Frankenstein (1931)

It seems that given enough time in our culture, you seem to know the story of Frankenstein before you see any of the movies or read Mary Shelley’s classic novel: mad scientist creates monster, horror ensues.  Between Halloween novelties, The Munsters and countless parodies, there seems to be an accepted iconic image of the monster: tall, green skin, black flat-top, rivets in the neck and fresh stitches here and there.  That being said, I think it’s easy for most casual film fans to look over the original Frankenstein, especially when there are so many other fun spins on the story, one of my favorites being Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein.  However, this is one of the original horror film icons from Universal, the first featuring Boris Karloff, that should not be missed.

In the film, a young Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) works in a secluded tower on his reanimation experiments.  He and his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye) carry out the ghoulish task of finding recently dead bodies and bringing them back to the lab.  I love how we meet them stalking a funeral, ready with shovels get the stiff.  Henry’s fiancee, Elizabeth (Mae Clark), becomes worried about Henry, so she and Henry’s friend Victor (John Boles), go to visit him.  Their timing couldn’t be better (or worse), they get to witness Henry using the electrical power of a storm to bring a man built from corpses to life.

Boris Karloff plays the monster on screen and breathed life into what became an icon of horror.  In this film, the monster says little more than grunts and shrieks, but in later films (three of which Karloff reprised his role) the monster has learned to speak.  However, we still get a good idea of the character, a poor abomination born out of blasphemous power and thrown into a world it doesn’t understand.  I always feel so bad for the monster as Fritz scares him with fire.

One of my favorite scenes was severely edited in the film’s initial release.  When the monster happens upon the little girl tossing flowers into the pond, the scene was originally cut as the monster was reaching for her and left the audience to infer that the monster had tossed her in.  It was considered too violent.  How awful that the earliest audience did not get to see the monster toss her into the lake and flee in confusion when she didn’t float like the flowers.  I always found that last moment makes the monster look very sympathetic, like a scared child who didn’t know any better.  It was not until the 1980s that the scene was restored.

When it comes to Frankenstein movies, I enjoy them all, but this original always held a special place for me.  I became especially fond of it after reading the novel in high school, even though the fact that Victor and Henry’s names are switched still throws me off.  But if you’re in the mood for some good old fashioned grave robbing, lightning resurrection and climatic windmill burning, 1931’s Frankenstein is sure to bring you some chills.

“It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s alive, IT’S ALIVE!  Oh, in the name of God!  Now I know what it feels like to be God!”

Dracula

A cornerstone in Universal’s classic monster movies is Dracula from 1931.  Starring Bela Lugosi, the haunting images and story exposed a wider audience to Bram Stoker’s work and vampire lore.  I grew up with classic vampire images based off of Lugosi’s character and rubber bats on strings every Halloween.  To this day, nearly every generic vampire impression (anything Twilight related never counts, obviously) is based off of Lugosi’s voice, movements and looks.

The film begins with Renfield (Dwight Frye), a young man traveling to Dracula’s castle.  On the ride there, all the locals warn him against going.  One old woman even gives him a crucifix.  When he arrives, Dracula’s castle is quite a sight.  The place is a mess, with armadillos wandering in piles of dusty junk and giant spiderwebs sprawled above the stairs.  Renfield can tell something is amiss when it seems that his host has passed through the thick webs without disturbing a single strand.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t turn back and Dracula turns him into a slave, somehow getting him and his coffin onto a ship to England.

Once in England, Renfield is found on the ship and thrown into an asylum while Dracula strolls around town at night like a classy gentleman, complete with a top hat.  It seems that he has a taste for young women.  After sampling a few, Dracula sets his sights on Mina (Helen Chandler), stalking her room and gaining easy entry transformed as a bat.  Mina’s concerned father, Doctor Seward (Herbert Bunston) becomes concerned about his daughter and calls for Dr. Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) to investigate.  It isn’t long before Dracula and Van Helsing meet and legends and folklore become reality.

Since I was a small child, there have always been two creepy images from this film that stand out to me.  One is when Dracula is slowly creeping toward Mina asleep in bed.  His hand leads, fingers curved slightly, like a claw.  His face is frozen and fixed on Mina’s, most of his body is shrouded by the dark cape.  He bends over gently, like he could be a benevolent father kissing a child goodnight, but we know he’s about to viciously suck the blood from her neck.  As  kid, I was thankful for having the top of a bunk bed so no one could bend over me like that while I slept.

The second image is Dracula’s hypnotic stare.  This is shown many times throughout the film, with some variation (in a courtyard, with a top hat, without the top hat).  Basically, it’s just Lugosi starring straight ahead with tiny lights shining into his eyes.  This makes his face seem brighter and much more pale, like it glows in the dark.  And his eyes are huge and white with a weird glint that will command you do whatever he asks.  It’s always been one of those images that I could never look away from; truly hypnotizing.

Do the world a favor and show your kids Dracula before they ask awful questions like, “Does he sparkle in the sun?”  This classic version of Dracula can be the perfect film to first expose kids to vampires.  It packs enough scariness with images that are not violent while bringing out classic vampire lore.  Kids will get their fill of creepy castles, coffins, rubber bats flapping around without the blood splatter and hypersexualized images that come with more recent versions.  Plus, Frye has some creepily fun scenes as a raving lunatic under Dracula’s control that kids can really enjoy.

“Listen to them.  Children of the night.  What music they make.”