So this was back when they could only afford square film with no color. Actually, kinda lucky this one even had dialogue. The “talkies” didn’t really hit until the late 20’s (of, like, 100 years ago), so this was a relatively new medium. Think about like the beginning of YouTube. Just a lot of cat videos. For years. Well, and bum fights. Took awhile to get to, uhm, that great stuff, you know, that you always see on YT now. Well, that isn’t cat videos and bum fights. I’ll give Frankenstein props for that, considering some of the awkward editing and pacing issues. They were just figuring that kinda shit out here. But considering the story it was based on by Mary Shelley from over 100 years before THAT (1818, allegedly), we gots a monster story of the ages.
Nothing like startin your flick with a funeral and a graverobbin, with a gallows theft as well. Classy! I think at this point everyone knows that basic plot even without having seen the movie. Sheeeit, unless I saw it as a kid, I don’t remember actually seeing the original movie, mostly just through Young Frankenstein and references/odes/homages via shows like The Simpsons. But honestly, mostly from Mel Brooks’s send-up. Though interesting to note that in this original, “Fritz” the hunchback is kind of a dick.
This is a monster movie wrapped in a romantic drama (and suitably lame one at that if I do say so myself). I’d call it a period piece too but I think that’s just kinda how it was back then. So much leiderhosen. Get the locals drunk on free beer for a wedding, then Pow! Dead kid turns into Drunk Angry Mob, a bobsled team full of barky dogs, and a shit-ton of torches. What could go wrong? Well, needless to say, it doesn’t end well. Ok to see for a nice snapshot in film history and a pretty good performance by Boris Karloff as The Monster, the rest of the acting is rather dreadful but I imagine typical of the times.
