CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 10/27/06

More Than the Sum of Its Parts:
The Writing of Frankenstein (1931)

By stephen Jacobs

With Halloween upon us, writer Stephen Jacobs takes some time out from writing his book More Than a Monster: The Life and Work of Boris Karloff to peer behind the lab door at the making and writing of the film that made Karloff an eternal piece of pop culture: 1931's Frankenstein.

Seventy-five years ago this November, Frankenstein went on general release. While some quarters condemned the picture, the public flocked to see it. It consistently broke house records and helped Universal out of its financial difficulties. Yet, despite the picture's success, its journey from the pages of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel to the silver screen was a troubled one.

The original story of Frankenstein was conceived in June 1816 at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva. Eighteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her lover, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, joined Lord Byron and his physician, Dr. Polidori, and one stormy night Byron suggested that all present should write a ghost story. Mary, however, remained uninspired and did not put pen to paper. A later discussion between Byron and Shelley about the possibility of reanimating a corpse proved to be the inspiration for Mary's tale and haunted that night's sleep. The next day she began to write her story. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, was completed in May 1817 and was published, anonymously, in January 1818.

Five years later the novel was adapted for the stage by Richard Brinsley Peake. Presumption: or, the Fate of Frankenstein, had various elements that would be reflected in the 1931 movie, all of which were not to be found in Shelley's original novel: both contained a creation scene, an assistant named Fritz, and a mute monster.

In 1927 Peggy Webling wrote her own adaptation, Frankenstein: an Adventure in the Macabre, for the actor/producer Hamilton Deane. Webling, like Peake before her, made changes to Shelley's original story, and when playwright John L. Balderston adapted Webling's play for the American stage he made further changes of his own. Balderston retained Webling's curious decision to swap the forenames of Victor Frankenstein and his friend, Henry Clerval, added a creation scene (missing from both Shelley's novel and Webling's play), and had Frankenstein treat the Monster cruelly, viciously beating him with whips and hot irons.

The Broadway production was planned for 1931, but when the play's producer, American publisher and producer Horace Liveright, lost his finances in the stock market crash, he sold his option to the Frankenstein film rights to Webling and Balderston who, subsequently, offered the material to Universal.

In early 1931, French director Robert Florey suggested Frankenstein as a suitable property for Universal's latest star, Dracula's Bela Lugosi. Following a meeting with the Vice President in Charge of Production, Carl Laemmle Junior, Florey wrote a five-page synopsis reducing the creature from Shelley's eloquent, intelligent creation to a thuggish monster.

Florey worked on the screenplay with Dracula scenarist Garrett Fort. It was during this partnership that Florey had the idea of inserting a criminal brain into the Monster. The draft was completed on June 8, and eight days later Lugosi submitted to a screen test as the Monster, despite bemoaning that "any half-wit extra" could play the role.

The test was a disaster, and from that moment Florey's removal from the picture was assured. With news of the test doing the rounds at the studio, the English director James Whale paid Junior a visit. Whale had directed the successful First World War picture Journey's End. Now, with Waterloo Bridge in post-production, Whale was asked to choose his next project. He chose Frankenstein. "[I]t was the strongest meat and gave me a chance to dabble in the macabre," he later said.

For inspiration, Whale screened Der Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and Rex Ingram's The Magician, all of which would furnish him with elements to use in Frankenstein. He read Florey's draft and Balderston's adaptation and, having decided that the picture "might just as well be as horrible as possible," briefly recalled Garrett Fort to make "minor changes."

By mid-July the screenplay had still not been completed to Whale's satisfaction and the roles were still being cast. Dwight Frye would play the hunchback assistant, Fritz, and Edward Van Sloan would play Frankenstein's mentor, Dr. Waldman. For the part of Henry Frankenstein's father, the Baron, Whale asked for 72- year-old Frederick Kerr, who had appeared in Waterloo Bridge. Although Junior preferred Leslie Howard, Whale gave the role of Henry Frankenstein to his Journey's End star, Colin Clive. Mae Clarke, Whale's star of Waterloo Bridge, was assigned the role of Henry's fiancée, Elizabeth, while John Boles was given the thankless role of Henry's friend, Victor. Yet as the parts were being filled, Lugosi, never happy with his role, asked to be released from the picture. The studio was suddenly without a monster.

The inability to find an actor to play the role caused Whale some concern, a fact he reflected to his lover, film producer David Lewis. "Jimmy was absolutely bewildered, although I didn't realize they needed a monster as badly as they did until he told me one day." Then, during the filming of his latest assignment, Graft, the 43-year-old English actor Boris Karloff entered the Universal commissary. "I was having lunch," Karloff recalled, "and James Whale sent either the first assistant or maybe it was his secretary over to me, and asked me to join him for a cup of coffee after lunch, which I did. He asked me if I would make a test for him tomorrow. 'What for?' I asked. 'For a damned awful monster!' he said."

To prepare for the test Karloff was sent to Universal's head make-up artist, Jack Pierce, who made "hundreds of sketches and models" and a "life-size mould." "I made him the way textbooks said he should look," Pierce later said. "My anatomical studies taught me that there are six ways a surgeon can cut the skull in order to take out or put in a brain. I figured that Frankenstein, who was a scientist but no practicing surgeon, would take the simplest surgical way. He would cut the top of the skull off straight across like a pot lid, hinge it, pop the brain in and then clamp it on tight… Those two metal studs sticking out at the sides of the monster's neck…are inlets for electricity… I made his arms look longer by shortening the sleeves of his coat, stiffened his legs with two pairs of pants over steel struts and… covered Karloff's face with blue- green greasepaint, which photographs grey." Mortician's wax was added to Karloff's eyelids and, to add height, the actor wore a pair of asphalt spreaders boots.

Meanwhile the script still needed work. Schayer hired short story writer John Russell "to do dialogue." Russell lasted only a week, so, to complete the screenplay, Schayer recruited Little Caesar screenwriter Francis Edwards Faragoh. He gave dialogue to the previously mute Fritz and introduced the premise of the criminal brain being used as a replacement for the dropped normal brain. He also made Frankenstein and the Monster more sympathetic characters, akin to Shelley's novel and more to Whale's liking.

With a budget of $262,000 and production scheduled at 30 days, filming began on August 24. Whale began by shooting the cemetery scene. This was followed by the lecture at Goldstadt Medical College and Fritz's bungled attempt to procure a normal brain. Five days later Karloff arrived at Universal for his first day of filming, the shooting of the creation scene. To dress the laboratory set, the studio leased electrical equipment created by Kenneth Strickfaden. "I'd put something together and then sit back and marvel at it," Strickfaden explained. "The styling depended upon what kind of junk I had at hand."

Karloff would arrive at the studio at 4 a.m. to submit to the four- to six-hour makeup session. Once applied, the makeup would cause problems throughout the shoot. Under the lights the wax eyelids would crumble, painfully, into Karloff's eyes. The costume was also an added burden. "To fill out the monster costume I had to wear a doubly quilted suit beneath it," Karloff said. "After an hour's work I would be sopping wet. I'd have to change into a spare undersuit, often still damp from the previous round."

In late September the unit moved to Lake Sherwood in the Santa Monica mountains to shoot the controversial lake scene in which the Monster meets Little Maria. The two throw flowers into the water but, when the flowers are exhausted, the Monster throws the girl into the lake believing she, like the flowers, will float. When the child drowns the Monster runs away, horror-struck by his actions.

On the trip to the lake Karloff found an unexpected travelling companion in seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who had been cast to play Maria. "Boris Karloff was in his makeup," Harris recalled, "and nobody wanted to ride with him but he didn't bother me. I had such love for that man. I went over to him and said, 'May I please ride with you?' and he said I could."

Following shooting and supper, Karloff was required back on the soundstage to film Frankenstein's confrontation with his creation. Frankenstein is struck down and the Monster carries him up the hill toward the old windmill. The scene was repeated over a dozen times before Whale was content. It would have severe repercussions for Karloff, who was later plagued by back troubles.

Filming ended on Saturday October 3, five days over schedule and almost $30,000 over budget. On Thursday, October 29, Frankenstein had its first public showing in Santa Barbara. Its effect was instantaneous. "Up came the first shot in the graveyard and you could hear the whole audience gasp," Lewis recalled. "As it progressed, people got up, walked out, came back in, walked out again. It was an alarming thing." The preview cards were not kind. "Story is about a man destroyed by his own creation. Look out this doesn't happen to Universal," one viewer wrote. Changes had to be made. Following revisions, which included a prologue and a new ending in which Henry Frankenstein survives, the picture opened towards the end of November. It was an instant success.

Yet most moviegoers were viewing an incomplete film. The lake scene was trimmed in many cities. Likewise, some censor groups cut the creation scene, editing Colin Clive's line, "In the name of God? Now I know what it feels like to be God!" Scenes of Fritz tormenting the Monster were cut, as was a close up of Dr. Waldman injecting the Monster. Reacting to parental complaints, theaters in Virginia stopped admitting children under the age of 14, unless accompanied by an adult. In England the censors demanded the removal of several scenes, while Italy, Australia, Sweden, and Czechoslovakia banned the film outright. Regardless of the controversy, the New York Times listed the picture as No. 7 in its "ten best" for 1931 and amongst the top hits of the 1931/32 season. In June 1932, Variety reported that the foreign and domestic rentals (i.e., the monies returned to the studio by exhibitors) totalled $1,400,000.

For Whale and Karloff, too, Frankenstein had been an unparalleled success. In the years to come Whale would direct The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, and, for many, his masterpiece, Bride of Frankenstein. Karloff had given a star-making performance, and with his portrayal, and Jack Pierce's makeup, created one of the most instantly recognisable cultural images of the 20th century. For Robert Florey it was a different matter, however. Removed from the project he had initiated, his work received little recognition. At Whale's insistence, Florey's name had been removed from the credits and appeared only on French posters.

In 1986 Universal restored film missing for over 50 years, including Colin Clive's creation speech and most of the excised lake scene footage. The picture currently appears on three of the American Film Institute's lists; ranking no. 87 on the America's Greatest Movies list and no. 56 on the list of America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies, while "It's alive, it's alive!" was voted the 49th Greatest Movie Quote. Seventy- five years after it was made, Frankenstein remains a milestone movie and one of the finest horror pictures ever made.

Stephen Jacobs is currently writing his first book, More Than a Monster: The Life and Work of Boris Karloff, and hopes to finish the manuscript next year. He lives in South London, England and can be contacted via his website at www.morethanamonster.com.

Frankenstein courtesy Universal Studios

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