Any non-Bond film.....Comments while you watch...

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Comments

  • Posts: 15,785
    Popping in another one..................I may have time for the whole thing.................anyway I'll comment for a bit..........

    FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

    The Blu-ray is impressive..

    Opening warning...........Edward Van Sloan a few month after Dracula, actually looks a bit older . Classic thirties slicked back hair.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Title sequence............I always loved the music here.

    I think BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is the best of the Universal Frankensteins, but one is real close.

  • Posts: 15,785
    The Monster is credited with a question mark.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Henry Frankenstein (COLIN CLIVE) and his buddy Fritz (DWIGHT FRYE........also looking radically different) are about to rob a grave.

    Frankenstein's assistant is NOT named Ygor. That's a completely different character to appear much later in the series.
  • Posts: 15,785
    I first saw this on television at 4 am back in the 1980's. My folks let me stay up for it.

    I loved every frame.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Now off to the gallows to steal another dead body.
  • Posts: 15,785
    I like when Fritz climbs up to the top of the gallows.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Colin Clive had a cool voice.

    After Peter Cushing he's easily my favorite Frankenstein. Kenneth Branagh need not apply.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Edward Van Sloan lectures some college kids on abnormal brains.

    Fritz effs up and drops the normal brain. He grabs the criminal brain.

    YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN paid homage to this scene beautifully.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Frankenstein's best friend's name is Victor (JOHN BOLES). He has a cool 1930's Clark Gable mustache.

    MAE CLARKE plays Frankenstein's fiancee Elizabeth. A few months earlier she had her face mashed with a grapefruit by Jimmy Cagney.
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 15,785
    Victor and Elizabeth go to VAN SLOAN for advice on Henry's weird behavior. So they're off to the abandoned watch tower to straighten young Frank out.


    Extremely cool sets here. I absolutely LOVE the watchtower. Universal Horror sets at it' finest.

    Kenneth Strickfaden supplied the iconic lab equipment. Some later used in DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN (1971)and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974).
  • Posts: 15,785
    The Monster is about to be brought to life in one of classic horror cinema's most iconic scenes.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Amazing sets and sound effects. Atmospheric. I LOVE black and white cinematography.

    I am glad this film was never really colorized (though there is a colorized clip in WEIRD SCIENCE).

    A colorized version probably would have made The Monster far too green. So many reference books, magazines, and articles get it wrong. The make-up was mostly gray.

    In this film, though he does have quite a bit of shading. I'm thinking the blue/green hues were probably more in the shading over a dull gray base.
  • Posts: 15,785
    IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


    In this version you get to hear the "NOW I KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE GOD!" in it's entirety.
  • Posts: 15,785
    I would love a definitive answer on what color his suit was.

    Some books say black, though the Rolf Armstrong painting of Karloff on the set of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN shows him in a brown suit. I suppose it could have been a faded black or dark brown. I'm thinking dark brown.

    The flesh tone on the painting was a stronger blue/gray hue.

    I do think the later 1940's films might have given the Monster a black suit.
    By the time Bud Westmore took over as head make up artist for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN he gave GLENN STRANGE a latex head as opposed to the cotton and collodion Pierce used in these early entries.

    Westmore also changed the greasepaint color to silver/gray, described as aluminum after it gets old. Pity there are no color photos of STRANGE as the Monster from that film in existence.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Karloff looks great here- very gaunt.
  • Posts: 15,785
    The definitive Frankenstein Monster, IMO.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Fritz is tormenting The Monster. He's about to be killed for being an a-hole.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Henry and Waldman must subdue The Monster with an injection. Good luck.
    They pretty much get their asses kicked here, but accomplish their motive.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Shot in steaming hot and humid August of 1931, Boris is wearing very heavy clothes and make up.
    There was one day he was in that make up for 24 hrs as they had to shoot into the evening.
    He eventually hurt his back on this film. A true dedicated actor.

    Collodion REALLY smells strong. Hours and hours in the make up chair he sat for this film.
  • Posts: 15,785
    The famous lake scene!

    Shot at Lake Malibou late September, 1931.

    The spot where The Monster tosses Maria (MARILYN HARRIS) into the lake still remains, though some of that area has apparently changed. I'd love to visit that location some day if I'm ever in Hollywood.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Frankenstein's wedding day is about to be ruined.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Colin Clive is pretty suave.
  • Posts: 15,785
    Clive was 31 here, but to me looks much older.
  • Posts: 15,785
    The Monster sneaks up behind Elizabeth,

    His snarl sound is classic!
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 15,785
    Frankenstein heads to the village to lead a search for the Monster. The classic torch wielding villagers sequence!!!!!!!
  • edited May 2018 Posts: 15,785
    Nearing the climax here at the windmill..........then off to bed.

    FRANKENSTEIN (1931) remains a top 10 favorite.
  • Posts: 15,785
    @Birdleson,

    BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is my favorite as well. So many layers in that film, and Karloff's performance, IMO has never been equaled.
  • Posts: 15,785
    In honor of Margot Kidder popping in


    SUPERMAN THE MOVIE
  • Posts: 15,785
    Love the credits and art deco Daily Planet Building.
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