It was a graveyard smash
Gothic horror Frankenstein has been spooking people for 200 years. MARION McMULLEN checks out the old movies as we creep away from Halloween
ASSEMBLED from body parts from graveyard corpses Victor Frankenstein’s creation was always going to be the stuff of nightmares. He was the original mad scientist who dreamed of bringing the dead back to life only to be stalked by the hideous looking monster he created and eventually grew to fear. “If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!” the creature threatened.
Poet Shelley’s future wife Mary Wollstonecraft was just 18 when she started writing her Gothic horror story and it was published anonymously in 1818 when she was 20 years old.
The horror story began as a party game challenge in Switzerland with poets Shelley, Lord Byron, Byron’s physician Dr John Polidori and Mary competing to write the best tale of terror.
Frankenstein has gone on to become one of fiction’s most famous figures and Mary’s tale has inspired countless Hollywood movies.
British-born actor Boris Karloff was one of the early incarnations of the monster. His big acting break came when he was 44 and he was cast in Universal’s 1931 movie Frankenstein and was listed in the credits with a question mark instead of a name.
He went on to star in 1930s movies Bride Of Frankenstein and Son Of Frankenstein and in comedy spoof Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. He once said: “The monster was the best friend I ever had.”
The Ghost Of Frankenstein in 1941 saw Cedric Hardwicke as both Ludwig Frankenstein and the ghost of Henry Frankenstein with Lon Chaney as the monster and Bela Lugosi as Ygor. Lon Chaney himself stood a towering 6ft 9ins tall as the monster and weighed 284 pounds.
Hammer Horror’s The Curse Of Frankenstein in 1957 saw Christopher Lee as the Creature and Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein. It is said the pair’s life-long friendship began when Christopher complained “I’ve got no lines” and Peter quickly quipped: “You’re lucky. I’ve read the script.”
Peter Cushing returned to play the scientist again and again in films such as Frankenstein Created Woman in 1967 which saw a murdered man reanimated into the body of a woman. The film’s publicity declared: “Now Frankenstein has created a beautiful woman with the soul of the Devil!”
Peter said: “Who wants to see me as Hamlet? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that’s the one I do.”
He was back again in 1974 film Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell, which saw David Prowse as the monster before he went on to find fame playing galactic baddie Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.
Frankenstein’s Daughter in 1958 saw the mad grandson of the scientist attempting to continue his grandfather’s experiments in LA and the film proved to be the last Frankenstein movie of the 1950s.
Everything was super-sized for 1965 Japanese movie Frankenstein Conquers The World. It was set during the Second World War and saw Frankenstein’s heart exposed to radiation following the bombing of Hiroshima and mutating into a 20ft tall monster. It has been called one of the 50 worst movies ever made.
Comedian Mel Brooks played it for laughs with Young Frankenstein in 1974. He and Gene Wilder co-wrote the script which saw the American grandson of the infamous scientist returning to the family castle in Romania and being tempted to carry on the work of his grandfather after finding his original notebook.
Gene Wilder played Dr Frederick Frankenstein with British comic Marty Feldman as his hopeless assistant Igor who brings him the brain of “Abby Normal” for his creation. Frankenstein asks him: “Are you saying that I put an ‘abnormal’ brain into a seven and a half foot long, 54 inch wide GORILLA?”
Greenish make-up was used on the monster to make his features stand out in the black and white movie. The same technique was employed in the 1931 Frankenstein film.
Mel Brooks also discovered that special effects expert Ken Strickfaden, who had worked on the 1931 film, was still alive and living in the Los Angeles area.
Ken made the original electrical machinery and lab equipment for Universal’s early Frankenstein movies and still had it all safely stored away in a garage.
Mel promptly rented everything for Young Frankenstein and gave Ken a screen credit... something he never received for the early movies.
It is 200 years since Mary created her enduring nightmare. She said the idea came to her after a night of fitful sleep and explained: “What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.”