This is the first of a review series that will cover the original Universal horror films. I am partnering a list with each that highlights the respective character. Frank's list is HERE

When I was not quite five, I woke up one night after my parents were asleep, crept into the den, and quietly put on the TV. Something was just ending (that I don’t recall), but what came on next changed my life forever. It scared the shit out of me, mainlined a horror addiction right into my little veins and pulled me into the world of cinema.

Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein, like it’s Dracula before, has more to do with the play Frankenstein than the Novel by Mary Shelley. It’s source-work affiliation is of no consequence, as director James Whale’s film stands on its’ own as his and producer Carl Laemmle Jr.’s creation as much as the novel is Shelley’s. Instead of a thin science amok piece, they created a textured and layered film that can stand up as well as any to time and scrutiny.

Whale creates a vibrant atmosphere with superb production design, eerie sound design and beautiful camerawork with Arthur Edeson. Sets, both interior and exterior are incredibly detailed, but the highlight of Charles Hall’s tour de force is the lab of Dr. Frankenstein. What he created can be seen in the workplaces of mad scientists and criminals in all genres to this day. With no score save the opening and closing of the film, sound was crucial, and C. Roy Hunter’s work is stellar. Whale uses a lot of lateral motion, close-ups, and several sequences, through both staging and use of light, clearly exhibit an influence from German Expressionism. The effective use of quick and moving edits are also way ahead of their time.

Of course the most iconic image from the film is Frankenstein’s monster. It is one of the most recognizable images from world cinema, and is the de facto monster in people’s minds the same way that Band-Aid or Kleenex came to stand for each product respectively. The make-up by Jack Pierce and the commitment by star Boris Karloff are extraordinary. The leg braces, heavy and hot makeups and paddings, the removal of his dental bridge and the head prosthetics are stunning, and Karloff is every bit as invested in creating this character as master Lon Chaney was in any of his. Pierce left his star’s face free for expression and emotion, which is crucial for your empathy for the creature in several key scenes. This is groundbreaking work that still looks amazing today.

While the performance by the aforementioned Karloff is superb, it obscures a great performance by Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein. His good doctor is complex; both refined man-of-means and madman. He occupies a world he knows he will always be a part of, but increasingly has more and more difficulty coming back to it from his scientific passions. Clive is supported respectably by Mae Clark as his fiancé, and character actors Edward Van Sloan and Victor Kerr as his mentor and father respectively. Kerr eats up the screen in every scene he is a part of.

James Whale’s Frankenstein is as famous as a film can be. Regardless of whether you have seen the film or not, you recognize an image of Boris Karloff in make-up immediately. The film has influenced not only the look of future incarnations of the character, but also the look of labs in films, the visual mechanisms by which things are brought back from the dead, and countless scenes, stories and spinoffs from Spirit of the Beehive and Jurassic Park to Frankenweenie and Frankenhooker. It is the yardstick for a story and character close to a century later, but more personally and importantly it sent me down a road that has been a large part of my life. For that I couldn’t be happier.