released by Thomas Edison’s studios
in 1910. Shot in three or four days in
the Bronx (New York City was then the
center of the burgeoning movie busi-
ness), the film tried, in the words of an
Edison spokesman, to “eliminate all
actual repulsive situations and to con-
centrate its endeavors upon the mystic
and psychological problems that are to
be found in this weird tale.”
But now, 20 years later, Universal
was planning Frankenstein as a
bona fide thriller, which was partly
why executives were nervous. “I knew
that most of the studios in town had
turned [the story] down,” said the stu-
dio’s founder, Carl Laemmle. “I don’t
believe in horror pictures. It’s morbid.
None of our officers are for it. People
don’t want that sort of thing.” But Carl’s
son, known as Junior, pushed for the
film and eventually won out—partly
because the newly minted star Lugosi
had signed on to play the monster.
Shelley’s book was in the pub-
lic domain, but Laemmle Sr. tried to
cover his legal bases by buying the film
rights to Frankenstein: An Adventure
in the Macabre, Peggy Webling’s popu-
lar 1927 stage play. Though critics had
called the work “illiterate” and “incon-
ceivably crude,” it introduced many
of the changes that came to define the
story. In the play, for instance, the mon-
ster is referred to as “Frankenstein,”
whereas the novel never gives him a
proper name. The play also eliminated
Mary’s multiple narratives, which
wouldn’t have worked in theater—let
alone in film.
Most of Webling’s changes were
retained by James Whale, whomWHALE’S FRANKENSTEIN WAS
hugely influenced by Fritz
Lang’s 1927 film, Metropolis
(above)—particularly when
it came to Frankenstein’s
literally electric creation
scene, which owes far more
to Lang’s masterpiece than
to Mary Shelley’s novel. The
golem’s encounter with a child
in the 1920 silent film The
Golem (opposite) is reflected
in Whale’s most notorious
scene, which shows the
monster befriending—and then
haplessly killing—a young girl
who is picking flowers.40 LIFE FRANKENSTEIN
© (^) U
FA,
(^) CO
UR
TES
Y (^) P
HO
TO
FES
T