Frank Watch: Frankenstein (1931)

Watched:  10/30/2026

Format:  4K Disc, kids.  Yes, I bought a 4K disc so I could see film grain, I guess.

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  James Whale

Uh...  I have watched this movie a lot, and written about it a lot.  We do watch this movie every Halloween, which happens almost every year, from what I'm told.

Think, me, think.  What's our angle this time?

So, I think it's worth talking about the movie in non-poetic terms and just what actually happens.  

Henry Frankenstein creates his human, and clearly shows why he should never be asked to raise a puppy.  One, he mostly leaves his creation in the care of his helper, Fritz (you think his name is Igor.  It's Fritz.) who is a malicious bastard and tortures the monster.   Two, rather than initially being horrified, it seems Henry Frankenstein just gives up on the creature because he's too much work.

A few days after being shocked into existence, our newly made human is walking, he's following simple commands.  Our creature has barely seen *light*, which is his favorite thing.  This seems like terrific progress to this blogger.

At first, Henry is smug, pleased with his success.  Then, because of an incident, Henry and his Doctor pal who is convinced the creature is *evil* because of brain shapes, decide to put our creature down.  The creature, who *just* came to life and spends all his time in the dark, is not yet reading Thomas Pynchon novels or something.

Henry swoons and is whisked away, so he isn't even there when the professor starts poking and prodding instead of, say, setting the evidence on fire.  

Our creature throttles the doctor and escapes into *the light* where he eventually *accidentally* kills Maria, which he regrets.  It's bad, but he doesn't know what death even is.

It is not a new observation the creature is an innocent here.  Which is why it's a bit odd his next act is to surprise Elizabeth.  But what did he *do* and why?  We never learn.  She's seemingly physically unharmed, just very scared.  But Henry is now out for revenge, and to cover his tracks before anyone knows what he did.

I'll skip past the angry mob forming - going after the creature because of Maria and Elizabeth, and jump to the end where we trap Henry Frankenstein and his creature in the tower.  Henry survives after the creature angrily tosses him onto a windmill blade that slows his fall.  And the monster is - seemingly - burned alive.  And then we have a toast, pointedly, to a Son to the House of Frankenstein.  In this case, I assume we're meant to know it's for the creature if we're the audience.

And, of course, Henry gets off scott-free to live a life of happiness with the dishy blonde.  

we rarely talk about Mae Clarke but here she is

And one half wonders, if Henry's former professor hadn't been there needling him, what might have happened?  And especially, what if everyone *did* leave Henry alone like he asked?  We can only speculate, but it seems less bad than what *does* happen.

I guess, I'm working through how, without Bride of Frankenstein, this movie just... ends.  There's no speechifying or consideration given.  And the simplicity of it was read into the public consciousness that the creature was the fiend the mobbing villagers believed.  

No one says otherwise.  No one speaks on the creature's behalf.  The monster was a brainless wretch at best, we decided - or malicious! we also decided.  

Clearly Whale knows better, and leaves clues.  It can seem our cultural opinion of Frank comes from half-remembered viewings from behind the haze of youth or what we've seen in derivative works or Halloween decorations.  Much like when I see art depicting Frankie and the Bride in love, it feels like we've all deliberately chosen to miss the point.  

I'd argue the creature of the novel, who we all agree is sympathetic, is far more malicious than this Monster.  He bumps off innumerable friends and family in his bid to give his "father" a hard time in the book, but in the movie, he kills an annoying know-it-all doctor using bad science.

Anyway, I still want to keep aging into becoming exactly like the Baron in his movie.