Frankenstein (DVD)

"Frankenstein" is an iconic masterpiece of Hollywood cinema. British theatre director James Whale created the first humanistic horror film in which melodrama and horror were combined to create a film in which the horror or focal point of the film is not a malevolent insidious force but a walking corpse that the audience sympathises with. In 1931 "Frankenstein" was unleashed onto an unsuspecting public and it became a huge phenomenon and helped make Boris Karloff a star. The origins of "Frankenstein" lie in Mary Shelly's bizarre tale of death and resurrection by the aid of science. The novel was legend has it by a house ...

Mary Shelley’s tale has been brought to the screen on more than a few occasions, originally with the horror aspect very much in mind and then later with a much more comedic element sneaking in. The ‘monster’ has been played by everyone from Bela Lugosi through to Fred Gwyne(The Munsters) and yet the story has never really been realised in the way in which it was originally intended. Shelley’s Frankenstein was never meant to be a horror story, but perhaps more a gothic melodrama where man’s attempts to emulate or even reach higher than God were the main focus of the story, concentrating on the results of such foolhardy actions whereas movies ...

In 1931, people went screaming out of the cinema when this was screened. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Unfortunately, the following 60 years have not been kind, and though it certainly stands the test of time better than Bela Lugosi's Dracula, it cannot have anywhere near the same impact on a modern viewer. Based on Mary Shelley's novel (loosely in places), this movie changes the main character from a medical student, to a Baron living in a big castle. From here, he performs experiments using corpses to cheat death and prove that science is greater than God. Of course, things don't go to plan, when he creates a lumbering monster (Boris ...