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Frankenstein
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OverviewAI-generated
Frankenstein is a 1931 American black-and-white film directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. for Universal Pictures. The cast includes Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, and John Boles. Based on the work by Mary Shelley, the film features a screenplay by John L. Balderston, Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert Florey, and John Russell. It is classified as a horror, science fiction, and monster film, with a runtime of 70 minutes.
The production was part of the Pre-Code Hollywood movement and was distributed by Universal Pictures, Netflix, and iTunes. Arthur Edeson served as director of photography, while Charles D. Hall was the production designer. Bernhard Kaun composed the music. The narrative is set in the Alps and Bavaria. The film has received a Metascore of 91 and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94%.
Synthesized by Vinony from 50 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, Internet Archive, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.5Henry Frankenstein pieces together body parts in the hope of bringing a human-like creature to life. The mad scientist’s dreams are shattered by his monstrous creation awakening with rage to a world that hates and fears him.
Cast
- Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein
- Mae Clarke as Elizabeth
- John Boles as Victor Moritz
- Boris Karloff as The Monster
- Edward Van Sloan as Doctor Waldman
- Frederick Kerr as Baron Frankenstein
Themes
- fire
- monster
- experiment
- based on novel or book
- halloween
- reanimation
- laboratory
- mad doctor
- black and white
- pre-code
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.7/10
86,282 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
94%
Metacritic
91/100
- Year
- 1931
- Runtime
- 70 min
- Genres
- Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- 7 wins & 3 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- James Whale
- Screenplay by
- Garrett Fort Francis Edward Faragoh
- Adaptation by
- John L. Balderston
- Based on
- Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , by Mary Shelley Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre , by Peggy Webling
- Produced by
- Carl Laemmle Jr.
- Starring
- Colin Clive Mae Clarke John Boles Boris Karloff Dwight Frye Edward Van Sloan Frederick Kerr
- Cinematography
- Arthur Edeson
- Edited by
- Maurice Pivar
- Music by
- Bernhard Kaun
- Production company
- Universal Pictures
- Distributed by
- Universal Pictures
- Release date
- November 21, 1931 ( 1931-11-21 )
- Running time
- 70 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $262,007
- Box office
- $12 million
via Wikipedia infobox
~29 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Frankenstein is a 1931 American pre-Code horror film directed by James Whale and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.. It is adapted from the 1927 play Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston, while the screenplay was written by Garrett Fort and Francis Edward Faragoh, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.
Frankenstein stars Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, an obsessed scientist who digs up corpses with his assistant to assemble a living being from body parts. The resulting creature, often known as Frankenstein's monster, is portrayed by Boris Karloff. The makeup for the monster was provided by Jack Pierce. Alongside Clive and Karloff, the film's cast also includes Mae Clarke, John Boles, Dwight Frye, and Edward Van Sloan.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Frankenstein” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.