The most iconic horror movie ever? probably. The most remade movie ever? very possibly. What's for sure is it's the one that kick-started(along with DRACULA) the whole classic monster series that led to a zillion monster-obsessed kids including myself. I first viewed this as a young fellow early one Halloween morning as part of an all-day classic monster movie marathon where some fuzzy UHF channel was showing all the Universal greats in order. I think that might have been the perfect introduction for me. Before that I knew about Frank from reading tons of Famous Monsters magazines and any books I could find on the subject of horror films. Of course even if I didn't do any of that avoiding the imagery of Frankenstein's monster would have been impossible since the character has become as symbolic over the years as Superman or Mickey Mouse. A poster-monster for awkward youth and alienation. It's hard not to feel at least a little sympathy for old Frank.
Reviewing a movie like this today is kinda ridiculous since anyone that appreciates cinema of any sort and has half a brain would have to acknowledge this film as a milestone for what it did in it's era and beyond. Boris Karloff, Colin Clive and Dwight Frye are all amazing and it's a film that will be around long after everyone who had anything to do with it is long gone. Also you get to see a little kid killed and that's a rare thing in American films even today. It's too bad kids today will never get the chance to stumble across this playing on a dark and rainy Halloween morning. Maybe kids in the future will have it directly downloaded into their subconscious.
I caught this last night at a big screen showing along with it's arguably superior sequel and felt lucky to finally get a chance to view it closer to the way it was intended.
Re-release trailer:
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