FRANKENSTEIN
1931 | dir. James Whale

“…In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate, and the wonderful facts which he relates, soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm. A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind; and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title page of my book, and said, “Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”

If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents; and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.”

Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous? Where should we be if no one tried to find out what lies beyond? Have you never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or to know what causes the trees to bud? And what changes the darkness into light? But if you talk like that, people call you crazy. Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn’t care if they did think I was crazy.

IT’S ALIVE! FRANKENSTEIN’S CREATION MYTH IN CINEMA

FRANKENSTEIN (1931) dir. James Whale

“UNIVERSAL CLASSIC MONSTERS”

You really believe you can bring life to the dead?
Frankenstein (1931), dir. James Whale

Universal Horror, Tristan Eaton

Universal Monsters through the years: Frankenstein’s Monster

• Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931)
• Bela Legosi in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943)
• Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974)
• Tom Noonan in The Monster Squad (1987)
• Robert De Niro in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
  
• Shuler Hensley in Van Helsing (2004)
• Rory Kinner in Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)
• Spencer Wilding in Victor Frankenstein (2015)