Geek Syndicate Issue 8 | Page 82

Geek Syndicate
That said Karloff’s turn is still
the most memorable and his
look was so iconic that it has
been copied repeatedly. Karloff often referred to Frankenstein’s Monster as “the dear
old boy”. His first turn in the
role was in the 1931 film, Frankenstein. It’s worth noting that
both John Carradine and Bela
Lugosi turned the role down
beforehand.

Our Monstrous Picks
Currently, there are over 200
Frankenstein related movie
titles. From that mega-list we
picked these memorable versions of the Monster:
Robert de Niro plays a Monster that is closer to the book
opposite Kenneth Branagh’s
Baron in the 1994 film Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein. This film
was also directed by Branagh
and was much more of a theatrical affair, with a very erudite Monster scripted with
plenty of dialogue – probably
the truest representation of
the literary work to date. In
truth, this is probably why it
bombed at the cinema.

Image © Universal Pictures, 1931

Of all the mythology surrounding Karloff in the role,
my favourite is this: during the
film the Monster encounters a
young girl throwing flowers
into a pond. The monster joins
her in the activity but soon
runs out of flowers. At a loss
for something to throw into
the water, he grabs the girl
and hurls her into the lake, departing in confusion when she
fails to float as the flowers had
done. In all American prints of
the movie, this scene was deleted because the censors objected to the violent end of the
little girl. This scene is restored
in the DVD re-issue. You can
also check it out on YouTube.

Karloff’s fate was sealed – all
the roles he performed after
that, including as the Mummy
or Fu Manchu was overshadowed – he was the Monster
forever. Of his 205 cinematic
roles, Karloff went on to make
only two Frankenstein sequels
as the Monster (Bride of Franksenstein and Son of Frankenstein) .

Maria, the little girl who befriends a monster. For a little while ...

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• Peter Boyle plays the Monster to Gene Wilder’s Baron
and Marty Feldman’s bugeyed Igor in Mel Brooks’
1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, which in my mind
is still probably the funniest thing Brooks has done
outside of Blazing Saddles.

Image © Gruskoff/Venture Films, 1974

Karloff’s Definitive Creation

Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein

• Frankenstein Meets the Wolf
Man (1943): Bela Lugosi finally played the role he
turned down in 1931, only
to be completely outshone
by Lon Chaney Jnr.’s Wolfman in one of the better
Universal Studios team-ups.
The film was bulk produced
during the B-movie Golden
Age of the Second World
War.
• My
personal
favourite
Frankenstein’s
Monster
film is Budd Abbott Lou
Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948). This film saw Bud
and Lou up against The
Monster (this time personified by Glenn Strange), Lugosi’s Dracula and Chaney’s