- 23 hours ago
From Mary Shelley’s original creation to modern reimaginings, Frankenstein’s journey through media is a fascinating tale of horror, science, and humanity. Join us as we explore how this iconic monster has transformed from literature to silver screen classics, quirky comedies, and beyond. Discover the enduring legacy of a story that questions what it means to be alive and who the true monster really is.
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00:01Live! Live! Live! Live!
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:07And today, we're exploring the evolution of Frankenstein in media.
00:11Frankenstein.
00:13Frankenstein? All right, I can deal with that. I'll call you Frankenstein.
00:18In 1816, a teenage Mary Shelley traveled to Switzerland with her future husband,
00:23Percy Bysshe Shelley, visiting poet Lord Byron.
00:26I should like to think that an irate Jehovah was pointing those arrows of lightning directly at my head.
00:32The unbowed head of George Gordon, Lord Byron.
00:35Gathered at his villa, Byron suggested that each of them take a crack at a ghost story.
00:40Although Mary Shelley had writer's block, the idea of a reanimated corpse eventually struck her.
00:46Can you believe that bland and lovely brow conceived of Frankenstein?
00:50A monster created from cadavers out of rifled graves?
00:54Isn't it astonishing?
00:56What started as a short story evolved into a novel initially published in multiple volumes,
01:01Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus.
01:04In addition to the titan who gifted fire to humanity,
01:07Shelley's story of a doctor who plays God mirrors other figures from Greek mythology,
01:11like Pygmalion, who falls in love with a statue he carved.
01:15The book also echoes elements of Shelley's life, namely loss.
01:19Such an audience needs something stronger than a pretty little love story.
01:23So why shouldn't I write of monsters?
01:25No wonder Murray's refused to publish the book.
01:27He says his reading public would be too shocked.
01:30Shelley's mother, feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, died days after she was born.
01:35It was the first of several losses that Shelley endured.
01:38This included her prematurely born daughter, who died shortly before Shelley wrote Frankenstein.
01:44In 1815, in February 1815, she had a child by him.
01:48A daughter that was born prematurely when it was seven months old.
01:53That child died within a few weeks.
01:56Like Victor Frankenstein and his creature, Shelley had a strained relationship with her father,
02:01novelist William Godwin, who disapproved of her relationship with the then married Percy.
02:06She also possibly visited Germany's Frankenstein castle,
02:09where, coincidentally or maybe not so coincidentally,
02:13Johann Konrad Dippel had supposedly experimented on human bodies.
02:17Quite a good scene, isn't it?
02:19One man crazy, three very sane spectators.
02:25Published in 1818, Shelley's defining work would meet the silver screen almost a century later in 1910's Frankenstein.
02:33Produced through Edison Studios, this silent short sees the titular doctor use chemicals to create a monster,
02:39who is destroyed by his own reflection.
02:42Other Frankenstein adaptations followed, including a lost feature released in 1915 entitled Life Without Soul.
02:48It deals with the two great mysteries of creation, life and death.
02:55I think it will thrill you.
02:57In 1931, Universal produced the first sound version of Frankenstein,
03:01as well as what many consider to be the definitive cinematic classic.
03:05Along with Shelley's novel, James Whale's film drew from Peggy Webling's stage version, Frankenstein, An Adventure in the Macabre.
03:12Oh, can't you see? I mustn't be disturbed. You'll ruin everything. My experiment is almost completed.
03:19Wait a moment. I understand. I believe in you.
03:23Whale's film is responsible for many of the hallmarks we now associate with Frankenstein.
03:28Where Shelley never explicitly revealed how the doctor reanimates the dead,
03:32the film introduced the idea of using electricity.
03:35Along with the famous line,
03:37It's alive.
03:38It's alive.
03:39Oh, it's alive.
03:40It's alive.
03:41It's alive.
03:42It's alive.
03:43It's alive.
03:45In the name of God.
03:47Now I know what it feels like to be God.
03:51The monster in Shelley's novel develops into an intellectual,
03:55but the film's interpretation is mainly limited to grunts and roars,
03:58almost like a child trapped in a hulking body.
04:13Ironically, actor Boris Karloff was eloquent enough to play a more sophisticated monster.
04:17Regardless, the film provided a showcase for Karloff's incredible physical acting.
04:22Paired with Jack Pierce's phenomenal makeup effects.
04:25Sit down.
04:29Go and sit down.
04:31While the movie maintains the monster's tall build that Shelley described,
04:35Pierce incorporated many now iconic elements,
04:38including the flat head, neck bolts, and stitches.
04:41Despite being in black and white, Karloff's makeup was green,
04:45although Shelley described the monster as yellow.
04:47The film also makes it clear that the monster is comprised of different body parts,
04:51which is more ambiguous in the novel.
04:53What will happen to the records of my experiment?
04:55We will preserve them.
04:57And then...
04:58I will see that it is painlessly destroyed.
05:00Yes, yes, leave it all to me.
05:02Although much of this would become the norm,
05:04Walesville made some other alterations that didn't endure,
05:07like changing Victor Frankenstein to Henry Frankenstein,
05:11and giving him an assistant named Fritz.
05:13It's a common misconception that the monster is named Frankenstein,
05:27rather than the doctor.
05:29The films may be partially to blame.
05:31Well, as I said before, I say again,
05:35here's... here's to a son to the house of Frankenstein.
05:40Leave, sir.
05:41Leave, sir.
05:42We will, sir.
05:43Whale and Karloff re-teamed for the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein.
05:47While the title suggests the bride is Henry Frankenstein's,
05:50she's actually created for the monster, hence the confusion.
05:53The Bride of Frankenstein.
06:01In the book, Victor destroys the bride before she can be given life,
06:05prompting the monster to murder his fiancee, Elizabeth.
06:08In these two films, Elizabeth survives,
06:10while Elsa Lanchester's bride rises, creating another screen icon.
06:15She hates me, like others.
06:23Roland V. Lee replaced Whale on the third film, Son of Frankenstein,
06:27but Karloff returned one last time.
06:29The film also saw Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, play Igor,
06:33although his hunchbacked appearance had yet to be firmly established.
06:37Has he always been here?
06:39Nearly always.
06:41This is the place of the dead.
06:45You're all dead here.
06:48Lon Chaney Jr., better known as The Wolfman,
06:51took over the monster role in The Ghost of Frankenstein.
06:54They didn't kill you.
06:58You lived through the pit.
07:00The south of pit.
07:02While the monster became more intelligent,
07:04the material was dumbed down,
07:06with Frankenstein becoming a B-movie franchise.
07:09Weirdly enough, Universal's best Frankenstein movie post-Whale
07:13was Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein,
07:15where Glenn Strange played the monster for a third time.
07:18Lie down.
07:20Here.
07:21Yes, master.
07:24Although Abbott and Costello were their usual funny selves,
07:27the monsters didn't wink at the camera,
07:29resulting in a unique blend of comedy and horror.
07:32Mel Brooks took a similar approach when he directed Young Frankenstein,
07:36which had a laugh-a-minute script.
07:38Don't put the candle back.
07:41With all of your might,
07:43shove against the other side of the bookcase.
07:47Despite the difference in tone,
07:49the craft and atmosphere faithfully emulated Wales Gothic films,
07:53working as a parody and homage,
07:55right down to the black-and-white cinematography.
07:58It's moving!
07:59It's alive!
08:01Oh, that fellow at Radio Shack said I was mad!
08:04Well, who's mad now?!
08:07Frankenstein has been spoofed in everything from shows like The Munsters,
08:11SNL, and The Simpsons,
08:13to movies like Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, and Lisa Frankenstein.
08:18There have also been some unintentionally funny versions,
08:21like Frankenstein's Daughter, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, and Blackenstein.
08:33Beyond Universal, the most successful run of Frankenstein movies came from Hammer Film Productions,
08:38which first adapted the source material with 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein.
08:43Peter Cushing played Victor Frankenstein,
08:45while the monster was played by Christopher Lee,
08:48who'd also portray the Hammer Horror versions of Dracula and The Mummy.
08:52Who are you?
08:54Tell me who you are.
08:58What do you want with me?
08:59Can't you see I'm only a poor blind man?
09:02To avoid comparisons to Universal's version,
09:04makeup artist Phil Leakey conceived an original look for Lee's monster.
09:08Being a Hammer production, the film could also be bloodier than Universal's.
09:13Oh no! No, Paul!
09:15Paul, you must tell them.
09:17You know what's going to happen, only you can save me.
09:19You must tell them.
09:22Hammer produced six more Frankenstein films with a loose continuity.
09:26Cushing was a constant presence, excluding the 1970 remake The Horror of Frankenstein.
09:31How'd you do?
09:33I'm Victor Frankenstein.
09:38The monster went through a revolving door of actors with different looks.
09:42In The Revenge of Frankenstein,
09:44a hunchback named Carl has his brain put into another body.
09:47Frankenstein!
09:49Who?
09:50The evil of Frankenstein was distributed through Universal,
09:51allowing Hammer to create a monster closer to Pierce's design.
09:52Frankenstein Created Woman was a very different take on Bride of Frankenstein.
09:54You see? The hair has changed color.
09:56Yes, that's it.
09:57The creature designs got progressively sillier, looking like Dr. Evil in Frankenstein must be destroyed,
10:01and whatever that is in Frankenstein and whatever that is in Frankenstein and the monster from Hell.
10:06David Prowse of Darth Vader fame played the monster in the latter, which was Hammer's final Frankenstein movie.
10:11Funny to think Cushing was also Grand Moff Tarkin.
10:16Who am I?
10:17Dr. Victor.
10:18You've done it.
10:19You've done it.
10:20You've done it.
10:21You've done it.
10:22You've done it.
10:23The 1973 TV movie Frankenstein The True Story was among the more well-respected
10:24and the more well-respected people in Frankenstein and the monster from Hell.
10:28The evil of Frankenstein must be destroyed and whatever that is in Frankenstein and the monster from Hell.
10:30David Prowse of Darth Vader fame played the monster in the latter, which was Hammer's final Frankenstein movie.
10:35Funny to think Cushing was also Grand Moff Tarkin.
10:38Who am I?
10:40Dr. Victor.
10:45You've done it.
10:47You've done it.
10:48The 1973 TV movie Frankenstein The True Story was among the more well-received adaptations of Shelley's novel.
10:55With slashers taking over the horror genre in the late 70s and 80s, though, Frankenstein saw fewer big screen adaptations.
11:02The characters still worked their way into movies like The Monster Squad.
11:06In 1994, director Kenneth Branagh and producer Francis Ford Coppola aimed to create a more faithful film based on the source material,
11:13even entitling it Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
11:16Let me help you, professor.
11:21You shall, of course, tell no one.
11:25They wouldn't believe you anyway.
11:27Branagh's version still took some liberties while alluding to elements from the Universal films.
11:32Robert De Niro's performance and the makeup effects were well-received,
11:36but tonally, the film was seen as a messy hodgepodge, kind of like The Creature.
11:41People are afraid, except you.
11:50It can't be as bad as that.
11:52It was refreshing to see a more intellectual monster,
11:55which would also be present in 2004's Van Helsing, of all movies.
11:59Oh my God! The Frankenstein monster!
12:02The monster! Who's the monster here?
12:08There's nothing wrong!
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12:262025 marked a comeback year for Frankenstein.
12:29Epic Universe's Dark Universe reinvented the studio's classic horror characters,
12:33with Monsters Unchained, The Frankenstein Experiment.
12:37The Land introduces Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, Henry's great-great-great-granddaughter,
12:42who assembles several monsters in a triumph of animatronics.
12:46And they are visceral, they are powerful, they are intense,
12:50and from a technical standpoint, they exceed beyond everyone's wildest expectations.
12:55Director Guillermo del Toro fulfilled one of his longtime passion projects,
12:59adapting Shelley's novel with Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein,
13:03and Jacob Elordi as the creature.
13:05That's why he's like, he's the greatest filmmaker of life.
13:07I love that guy!
13:08Yeah, me too.
13:09Did you fan out? Did you geek out when you first met him?
13:12Yeah, yeah. Inside I exploded, I think.
13:16While most adaptations present the creature in a sympathetic light,
13:19Del Toro's, in particular, leaves us to question who the true monster in this story is.
13:24One could argue that Del Toro already made a Frankenstein movie with his feature debut, Kronos.
13:31Intentional or not, the ideas of Frankenstein have worked their way into countless stories,
13:36from John Hammond resurrecting dinosaurs, to Skynet pushing AI too far.
13:41With more adaptations like Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride,
13:44it's safe to say that Shelley's impact is still alive.
13:47Everything we did, we did it on purpose.
13:53What's your favorite version of Frankenstein? Let us know in the comments.
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