Frankenstein Cliches that came from the Movies, not the Book.
By Mike Moran of the Confessional Podcast.
It takes a really strong motion picture to overtake the book it’s based on in pop culture, but it happens occasionally. When we think of The Shawshank Redemption, we picture Morgan Freeman as “Red,” instead of the white ginger of the novel, which…makes a lot more sense. When we picture Forrest Gump it’s sweet old Tom Hanks we see, not the selfish, profane, 6 foot 2, 200 pound man of the book.
And when we think of Frankenstein…
Of course this is the definitive portrayal by actor, Boris Karloff, from the definitive adaptation of Mary Shelley’s work: 1931’s Frankenstein by Universal Pictures. The film would be followed by a string of sequels, many of which further solidified Frankenstein cliches into the public. And though many other adaptations of Frankenstein would follow, none would match the iconography of the Universal Picture’s Frankenstein series.
Although Universal’s Frankenstein has become the dominant image in pop culture, the book by Mary Shelley remains a gothic standard, and is still studied and revered the world-over. But readers of the classic gothic novel are often shocked to find how few of the traditional Frankenstein troupes are found in Mary Shelley’s book, like…
#1.
The muteness
Everyone knows the Frankenstein monster doesn’t talk! He growls, he moans, and maybe he kind of utters a few dull words like “friend,” and “good.” But in fact…this is all the movies doing. The monster is mute throughout the first movie, and learns a few words in the first sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, but not much.
In the novel, not only does the monster learn to talk, he narrates much of the book himself.
And he doesn’t just mumble a few simple words either. Check out this quote:
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?”
Or this:
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
Not bad for a walking corpse.
Now, like I said, they started to follow the talking narrative in the 2nd movie, Bride; really the last movie of the Universal Frankenstein movies to be at all based on the book. In it, the monster slowly learns to speak and do other human things, from the blind-man he befriends, in an amazingly crafted scene.
He even ends The Bride of Frankenstein by uttering the words, “We belong dead,” before killing himself, and the bride.
They could have continued this into future sequels, until the monster could gab it up as eloquently as in Shelley’s writing, but when they finally made the third Frankenstein movie (and really the last of the classic ones), 1939’s Son of Frankenstein, he was back to being as mute as in part one. This was because legendary Frankenstein’s monster actor Boris Karloff never liked the idea of the monster talking. As Son was kind of a soft-reboot from the previous 2 films, and there are a few serious continuity issues, they didn’t bother explaining why the monster can’t talk anymore.
He briefly (with explanation) regains his ability to speak at the end of the fourth in the series, Ghost of Frankenstein (more on that later), but just as quickly losses it in it’s sequel, and never again speaks for the duration of the series.
#2.
The zombie walk
Quick, do your best impression of Frankenstein’s monster. I bet you put your arms out in front of you and stumbled around zombie-style, didn’t you? Would you be surprised to know that this cliche not only wasn’t to in the book, but wasn’t even in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th movie? It wasn’t until they got to the 5th in the series, 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (not exactly a great piece of cinema, but should be noted for being the first ever “shared universe,” movie of any kind).
This movie picked up after the events of The Ghost of Frankenstein, as well as the original Wolf Man movie. At the end of Ghost, the monster was implanted with the brain of the demented Ygor character (more on him, later) rendering the monster able to speak again (in Ygor’s voice), but also, blind as a bat (apparently the blood type was wrong). Stretching out his arms to feel his way around became a necessity.
Lon Chaney jr. played the monster in Ghost, and since he played the Wolfman as well, they decided to have Bela Lugosi, take over the role, in the Frankenstein/Wolf Man cross-over. This actually made a lot of sense as Lugosi had played Ygor in the previous movies, and did the Ygor-monster’s voice at the end of Ghost.
But…for some reason test-audiences hated hearing the monster talk with Lugosi’s strong Hungarian accent, and the producers recut the the film, excising the monster’s dialogue, though you can see his mouth moving uselessly in a few scenes.
The resulting cut, confusingly had the monster trying to feel his way around without having explained that he is blind. He also isn’t able to explain why he is frozen in ice at the beginning of the movie, when he was trapped in a burning building at the end of the last. This careless continuity was mocked by theater-goers, who saw this shoddy film as a huge step-down for Universal, and the resulting monster-walk impressions, made their way into the public conscience.
Really though, not only does the monster in the book, do the zombie-walk from Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, he doesn’t even have the the awkward stiffness the monster has in the other movies. In fact, quite the opposite.
As Shelley describes him throughout the book as “More agile,” “more supple,” “with superhuman speed,” “with greater speed than the flight of an eagle.”
Shelley’s creation was more of a meticulously constructed super-human, than the lumbering hodgepodge of body parts, we think of today.
#3.
Igor
You know Igor, that hunched-back, assistant who lurks around the lab helping Dr. Frankenstein in his nefarious deeds? Well, guess what, not only is there no assistant in the book but there is no one named Igor in the book, or movie version of Frankenstein.
But…of course you’re picturing this fellow who you definitely remember in the film…
Well…believe it or not, that guy ain’t Igor. Dr. Frankenstein did have a hunchback assistant in the first movie but his name in fact, was Fritz.
So, if there is no Igor in the book, Frankenstein, nor the movie, Frankenstein, who the hell is Igor?!
This guy…
…kinda.
That’s Bela Legusi (who played Dracula) as Ygor in the movie, Son of Frankenstein. He’s neither a hunchback nor an assistant, but is more of a…well it’s hard to say. He’s kind of just some weird dude who befriends the monster, and gets him to kill his enemies. He doesn’t have a hump, but does have a broken neck because of the time the villagers attempted to hang him.
Ygor is a memorable, oddball character for sure, and is one of the best in the series, up there with Dracula for best Legosi roles.
After his brain was implanted into the monster’s body in Ghost of Frankenstein, you could make the argument that all further sequels were in fact about Ygor inside the monster’s body. But…the filmmakers kind of just abanonded this idea, and never really mentioned the fact that it’s not the monster’s real-self after the 4th film.
The confused troupe of Igor as hunchback assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, and other villains, seems to have slipped into the public conscience in the 50s or 60s, and began appearing in film in the 70s, though no one is quite sure how, or why.
To make it even more confusing, many have pointed out that this faux-Igor that seems to exist more of a Mandela Effect than anything else, also has the catchphrase, “yes, master,” which isn’t from any Frankenstein movie, but in fact from Universal’s Dracula film, by the character Renfield, who is played by Dwight Frye, who also played Fritz!
Whatever the case, no one has been able to pinpoint the exact moment the Fritz character got mixed up with the Ygor character but it’s clearly not from the initial run of Universal Movies, and definitely not from Mary Shelley’s novel.
#4.
The Bride of Frankenstein
Now this one (like most things in Frankenstein media), is a bit confusing. A large plot device in the book, is that the monster demands a woman from the doctor, who concedes, as the monster promises he and his mate will hit the road for good. But…Dr. F. starts worrying about these 2 living-dead creatures getting it on, and breeding a race of zombies together (I mean you’re making the woman Doctor, can’t you just make some adjustments?).
He ends up getting cold feet and destroying the monster-bride, which infuriates the monster, who kills the doctor’s wife in return.
So ultimately, there is no actual bride of Frankenstein in the book, except for in the planning stages. And there’s certainly no indication she looked like this…
The weird thing is though, there’s barely a bride of Frankenstein in the Universal movies. She gets a few minutes in the movie named for her, and never shows up again…ever. Not in any of the Frankenstein sequels, any of the Universal “monster mash-up” movies, not even in Abott and Costello meet Frankenstein.
There have been variations of the Bride in several different forms of Frankenstein-related media, but as far as this lady, the “classic,” Universal Bride of Frankenstein…
She exists in literally less than 5 minutes of footage.
And we don’t meet her once in the book.
#5.
The, “Uh…actually, Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster,” troupe.
No great mansplainer worth his salt can pass up a conversation involving anything Frankenstein-related, without mentioning that of course Frankenstein is the name of the doctor, and not the monster. Many seem to attribute this common belief to the Universal movies as the promotions for which often featured the monster alongside the title.
But, in fact no one in the Universal movies ever calls the monster, Frankenstein. They even go out of their way in a scene in Son of Frankenstein to try and sort out the confusion.
I mean it’s even called Son of Frankenstein (clearly the monster doesn’t have a son) and Ghost of Frankenstein (ain’t about a ghost-monster). Even in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, they make sure to have a relative of Dr Frankenstein in the movie, so that the title isn’t referring to the monster.
The one exception to this, as far as the Universal movies go, is the spoof film, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, where the title seems to refer to the monster, and the comedy duo call the monster, Frankenstein. But that one was more of a comedy spin-off, that came well after the classic films.
What a lot of people don’t get, is that the name confusion was an intentional theme by Shelley in the novel. She intended for the Monster’s name to be a big old question mark, for readers to debate.
He’s referred to by many different monikers in the book, and declares himself to be a Frankenstein, and that Victor Frankenstein is his father, while Victor refuses to name him, and grant him that humanity. She clearly describes the monster in an array of terms; examples; “dæmon,” “specter,” “devil,” “monster ”, “fiend”, “thing,” etc. to keep an unstable identity, as identity is the theme.
Who is the real monster? Who is driving who? Is the monster a child of Frankenstein? Is the Doctor actually the monster, and the creation the real Frankenstein?
These are the question Shelley wanted the reader to ask themselves.
Shelley was pleased when early stage productions of Frankenstein left the characters name a blank in the cast playbills, stating “This nameless mode of naming the unnameable is rather good.” This became a running theme, and Boris Karloff was even credited first as ? (literally, ?) for the opening credits of the original movie.
So the next time some dweeb hits you with a “well, actually,” in regards to Frankenstein’s name, tell him Mary Shelley doesn’t agree.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was an international phenomenon, that inspired the Universal Frankenstein film franchise, which was even more of a phenomenon. We got two distinct pieces of art, one for academia, and the other for pop-culture. So really, Mary Shelley created two monsters! Quite a feat.
By Mike Moran of the Confessional Podcast:
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