The word "classic" seems to be thrown around a little too easily. You hear frat boys calling films like Fast Five or Transformers classics, and the same goes for wannabe protesters and that film V for Vendetta. Well, I disagree. A classic is a film that helped to shape a genre and is clever and entertaining. That's exactly the case with James Whale's Frankenstein.
Dr. Henry Frankenstein(Collin Clive) and his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz(Dwight Frye), rob graves in order to find the perfect brain. Eventually, said brain is found in a college lab and their experiment begins. Frankenstein mixes and matches different body parts to create a man. What starts off as a miracle of science spirals out of control into a nightmare when the doctor's creation starts to cause murder and mayhem. It all leads up to one of the original "angry villager" scenes.
Though it doesn't quite measure up to its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, this is a very fun and classic picture that formed a lot of what we see today. Collin Clive, Dwight Frye, Mae Clarke and Boris Karloff all give stellar performances and James Whale's direction is genius. The sets and all the other images are beautiful as well. I could ramble about this movie for hours, but I think you'd rather watch it.
10/10 Jack O' Lanterns
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