Amazon.com essential video: "It's alive! Alive!" shouts Colin Clive's triumphant Dr. Frankenstein as electricity buzzes over the hulking body of a revived corpse. "In the name of God now I know what it's like to be God!" For years unheard, this line has been restored, along with the legendary scene of the childlike monster tossing a little girl into a lake, in James Whale's Frankenstein, one of the most famous and influential horror movies ever made. Coming off the tremendous success of Dracula, Universal assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley's famous novel with Bela Lugosi as the monster. When Lugosi declined the role, Whale cast the largely unknown character actor Boris Karloff and together with makeup designer Jack Pierce they created the most memorable monster in movie history: a towering, lumbering creature with sunken eyes, a flat head, and a jagged scar running down his forehead. Whale and Karloff made this mute, misunderstood brute, who has the brain of a madman (the most obvious of the many liberties taken with Shelley's story), the most pitiable freak of nature to stumble across the screen. Clive's Dr. Frankenstein is intense and twitchy and Dwight Frye set the standard for mad-scientist sidekicks as the wild-eyed hunchback assistant. Whale's later films, notably the spooky spoof The Old Dark House and the deliriously stylized sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, display a surer cinematic hand than seen here and add a subversive twist of black comedy, but given the restraints of early sound films, Whale breaks the film free from static stillness and adorns it with striking design and expressionist flourishes. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Classic in Name only
I bought this dvd to show my students after having read Frankenstein, well, both the students and I found the movie laughably bad. Yes, some of that is due to the technological limits of the time, but some of the other problems are inexcusable (why are Victor and Henry's names switched? Why does the movie start of the way it doe?, etc.) All and all, it is a movie I wished I would have rented rather than purchasing because it is doubtful that I will ever use it in my classroom again.
Rating: - 77 and Still Kicking
Given that I already own The Monster Legacy Collection (Frankenstein / Dracula / The Wolf Man) (busts and all), I hemmed, hawed, and read other reviews prior to purchasing the 75th Anniversary Edition. However, an Amazon seller listed an offer I couldn't refuse, so I bit and, all things considered, have no cause for regrets.
The Good: First, the print looks and sounds better than the previous releases. Nice and clean with deep blacks, good contrast, and very little damage, the video is solid and a pleasure to watch. However, I'm especially appreciative of the audio remastering--it sounds ... Read More
Rating: - Boris goes out in a blaze of gory!
Another of my childhood favorite monsters - Frankenstein's monster. I have to admit I always thought it was the monster that was Frankenstein back in those days. I thought this was a better movie than the Mummy with Karloff that I reviewed earlier. At least in this one the monster was prevalent and there was lots of arms outstreched, slow deliberate strides and that unique grunting that characterized all Frankenstein movies. In all honesty I enjoyed the movie for the classic it was; however I would recommend "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" over this the original. In A&C you got the ... Read More
Rating: - "Now I Know What it Feels Like to Be God!"
-This review pertains to the Frankenstein: 75th Anniversary Edition DVD-
Mary Shelley's classic horror story, Frankenstein, has been dramatized countless times since the novel's publication in 1816. The first dramatization, a melodramatic stage play from the early 1820s, was called Presumption: The Fate of Frankenstein. The play resonated with audiences as it greatly emphasized the themes of scientific advances conflicting with Christian ideologies, of man's ego violating the laws of nature, and of ambition overwhelming conscience. A century later, in the year 1927, a playwright named ... Read More
Rating: - UNIVERSAL BLOWS SO BAD, WORST DVD PRODUCER?
i mean come on now, this is the second set that has arrived fallen apart,,,the book edition, in this and Dracula were unglued!Wow, i mean if it isn't the fiasco of the loose flippers in the Legacy set , its this mess.Karloff and Lugosi deserve better than the treatment they get from Universal, who seem only interested in making a quick buck!Universal sucks so bad it isn't even funny, the only reason i buy these is to show my loyalty to Karloff and Lugosi and the like and to honor them, not Universal dvds, what utter and complete garbage they produce!
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