Possibly the most influential American horror movie of all time, with several direct sequels, and countless remakes and re-tellings to its name, and the image of the monster instantly recognisable the world over, even several generations later.

It began British director James Whale’s classic Hollywood period in which he would also make The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man and The Bride of Frankenstein.  Halliwell singles out Whale’s introduction of the monster in this film as…

‘…a startling piece of cinematic legerdemain…Whale first lets us see the monster as it backs through a door and then slowly turns; then from long shot he jumps diagonally to medium shot, then diagonally again to close-up.  (A few years later he imitated this nicely judged shock moment in The Man in the Iron Mask and in 1963 Hitchcock quietly borrowed it in The Birds.’)

In 1956 Hammer began the cycle all over again, and Halliwell recalls his first encounter:

‘I remember all too vividly the unease with which I sat through The Curse of Frankenstein in a suburban cinema during the cold first month of 1957.  With Universal one had always known that nothing too ghastly would assault the eye; with Hammer one was in constant danger from the sight of dripping blood, rotting corpses and bits of brain, all in vivid colour, to say nothing of well-endowed young women falling victim to the monster in various stages of undress.’

Needless to say, its enormous success ensured several sequels, some of which were made in conjunction with Universal, thus enabling the use of make-up similar to that seen in the 1931 version.

Boris Karloff would play the monster twice more, in Bride of and Son of, before tiring of the part, although he did appear in a different role in House of.  Halliwell said of the British actor:

‘Achieved world fame as the monster in Frankenstein and became typed in horrific parts despite his gentle, cultured voice.’

LH gave him the following dedication in the Filmgoer’s Companion:

‘For his sinister Englishness, his sepulchral tones and his unfailing eagerness to please.’

Year: 1931