Every year we have a tradition in the Forto house where we celebrate the greatest month of the year, October, with scare your socks off, hide under the covers, turn on all the lights, sleep with one eye open, fright fest, movie marathon every night of the month! We call it 31 Days of Horror
Day 2 Movie: Frankenstein (1931)
I love the scary movies from the old Universal Studios. They were kitschy and they even had a plot! Frankenstein is one of my favorites from this Depression era and I love the story of a doctor that has gone mad.
This story has had many knock-offs. Everything from the Bride of Frankenstein to that goofy Gene Wilder movie: Young Frankenstein(1974) and lets not forget The 1960’s TV show: The Munsters with one of my favorite actors, Fred Gwynne (My Cousin Vinny, 1992 and Pet Sematary 1989) who played Herman. Did you know that his birth name was Herman Malkin!
- Herman “Malkin” Munster
Most people think the Monster is named Frankenstein but that is actually the name of the Doctor (Henry) who ‘made’ the Monster. According to The People’s Almanac, at one point the movie was to have included a line of dialogue giving the Monster the name, Adam. The Almanac indicates that an early print of this film may have indeed been released with just such a scene, but that it was cut when audiences began referring to the Monster by the name Frankenstein.
Fun Facts:
In one scene, the Monster (Boris Karloff) walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because Karloff – objecting to the director’s interpretation of the scene – felt that the monster should have gently put Maria into the lake. This scene is restored in the videocassette reissue.
After bringing the monster to life, Dr. Frankenstein uttered the famous line, “Now I know what it’s like to BE God!” The movie was originally released with this line of dialogue, but when it was re-released in the late ’30s, censors demanded it be removed on the grounds that it was blasphemy. A loud clap of thunder was substituted on the soundtrack. The dialogue was partially restored on the video release, but since no decent recording of the dialogue could be found, it still appears garbled and indistinct. The censored dialog was partially returned to the soundtrack in the initial “restored version” releases. Further restoration has now completely brought back this line of missing dialog. A clean recording of the missing dialog was reportedly found on a Vitaphone disc (similar to a large phonograph record). Modern audio technology had to be used to insert the dialog back into the film without any detectable change in the audio quality.
What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.
Boris Karloff’s shoes weighed 13 pounds each.
Plot: Henry Frankenstein is a doctor who is trying to discover a way to make the dead walk. He succeeds and creates a monster that has to deal with living again.
What is your favorite scary an/or Halloween movie? I would love to hear from you!
