#RemakeThis #HalloweenEdition "Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley

6 years ago

Universal Pictures acquired the film rights to "Frankenstein" on April 31, 1931, but it was not the "Frankenstein" what many people believe to be as Mary Shelley's masterpiece. Technically, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to an unproduced American stage adaptation by John L. Balderston (who also composed the stage version of "Dracula") adapted from the British stage play by Peggy Webling. "Dracula" screenwriter Garrett Fort wrote the first draft almost immediately, believing that Robert Florey would direct and Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, would play Doctor Frankenstein. The initial vision involved that Victor, now Henry, would have more screen time against The Creature who was reduced to something even less than Shelley's Creature. Carl Laemmle Jr. decided that Lugosi should play The Creature instead.

Lugosi did some test makeup footage which made "Junior" "laugh[...] like a hyena" when he saw it and the otherwise pre-Method Method actor was furious. He was cited to have said "I was a star in my country and I will not be a scarecrow over here!" This was a legitimate and perhaps almost a prophetic concern. Some sources say he quit, others both Florey and he was fired, receiving the consolation prize of the B-picture "Murders of the Rue Morgue."

James Whale was brought from England and to take his pick of anything that fascinated him. He immediately grabbed "Frankenstein" and hired Francis Edward Faragoh to cut back on the Doctor's part. The Creature doesn't even speak except for a litany of grunts whereas Shelley's learns to speak and educates himself in defiance over his maker. Screenwriter John Russell also has a credit for the idea that Fritz would drop the "normal" human brain and resorted to taking the other criminal one instead. Variety would describe one of Universal's first horror films as "exploitat[ive], which dwells upon the shock angle, is also a puncful asset with hair-rising lobby and newspaper trumpeting."