FRANKENSTEIN (1931) in Universal Horror Forum

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FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

Author	Comment
kevin g shinnick	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#41	[-]
Posts: 15102 Dec 18 01 10:36 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Heck, let's be modern- fill it with some Mariah carey,Marilyn Manson, and Brittany Spoears and just sell the album, the heck with how it destroys the mood of a classic film- bwaahahahahahah~
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HarryLong	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#42	[-]
Posts: 25163 Dec 18 01 1:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	You've officially ruined my entire day.
Richard Valley	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#43	[-]
Posts: 54081 Dec 18 01 1:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Yes, the Manson song worked so "well" in FROM HELL . . .
HarryLong	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#44	[-]
Posts: 25163 Dec 18 01 2:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't know about that, but I was getting hideous flash-backs to the Moroder METROPOLIS.
Rick D Atkins	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#45	[-]
Posts: 237 Dec 19 01 4:29 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Adding accompanying music to the original FRANKENSTEIN would be like making the Mona Lisa a black and white painting. Just wouldn't work in my opinion. (Let's not tamper with a masterpiece, just keep it preserved.)
phrankenstign	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#46	[-]
Posts: 56 Dec 19 01 10:38 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I lived in Chicago when I was 10. Around that period, I remember WGN-TV Channel 9 debuting a new series entitled Creature Features on Saturday nights at 10:30. This series showcased a double feature of early horror movies (mainly Universal films) every week at first. If memory serves me correctly, the first two movies shown were Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein. I'd never seen either movie up to that time, but I knew Herman Munster was based on the monster from the films. I decided to ask my parents if I could stay up late to watch the new series. They said it would be alright but that I would have to keep the volume down. I've got to say that the lack of music in the first film made the experience that much more eerie and terrifying. I remember wrapping myself in a sheet and blanket while lying on the floor with my head on a pillow. I peered through the small opening into the mesmerizing scenes unfolding before me. The warmth of the blanket was the only safety I could secure from the cold fear I felt throughout most of the two films. The music and happy ending of the second film made it somewhat easier to sleep afterwards, but I'll never forget the range of emotions stirred within me during that first impassioned dramatic outpouring. I agree with Rick.
DonM435	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#47	[-]
Posts: 9514 Dec 19 01 10:49 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< I lived in Chicago when I was 10. Around that period, I remember WGN-TV Channel 9 debuting a new series entitled Creature Features on Saturday nights at 10:30. >> I remember that very showing. I'd seen the films a decade earlier on SHOCK THEATRE, but a FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE double feature -- on Valentine's Day, I think (!) was the trial balloon for the new CREATURE FEATURES resurrection. I recall that, in order to get both films over by 1 a.m., they cut the whole "blind hermit" sequence from BRIDE! You can bet that this kid was furious. Funny how most people didn't seem to care . . . . I'm sure that the background music for THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was the first that ever made an impression on me -- that score or KING KONG's. And only then did I begin to notice the deathly silence surrounding FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA.
phrankenstign	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#48	[-]
Posts: 56 Dec 19 01 11:33 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It seemed strange to me that I didn't notice the lack of music until many years later. Each time I see either Frankenstein or Dracula, I don't think I'd want them tampered in any way . They seem so 'right' without it. This is not to say they are perfect---far from it. I perceive the storytelling techniques used as being appropriate for impressing upon audience members the intended gamut of emotions. Music isn't always playing in my life when I'm shocked, scared, or happy. These feelings can be manipulated without any orchestral score as I believe these films aptly demonstrate. BTW Don, since it was the first time I'd seen both films, I never realized at the time that the scene with the hermit had been excised. I don't remember when I first saw that particular scene for the first time, but it's difficult to imagine the film without it now.
Rick D Atkins	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#49	[-]
Posts: 237 Dec 20 01 3:54 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I was in seventh grade when CREATURE FEATURES began in Chicago...I remember the first two also! Two other classmates and I would list all the movies we saw back then which started me on the road to my first book. I was 14 when I started writing it...anywhooo...before this there was THRILLERAMA on WMAQ channel 5 on Saturday nights back when the news was only 15 minutes!! (I feel like an old Charlie Chaplin right now!!) These memories stayed with me for years and it is nice to read similar memories from the same town. Thanks 4 da memories!!
DonM435	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#50	[-]
Posts: 9514 Dec 20 01 10:23 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I remember the Channel 5 showings of the Universals, but had forgotten the "Thrillerama" handle. (Didn't they use the AUNTIE MAME overture as their theme? I remember it on my audio-tape of BRIDE.) That was the only time you saw them between the SHOCK THEATRE and the CREATURE FEATURES "eras." I used to keep an elaborate notebook with all of the cast and credit details that I could find on my favorite films. My excuse was that I'd write a book on them some day. But I had no idea then how much competition there'd be now if I ever did get around to doing that! I hope that neutral parties have noticed that the Chicago contingent on these boards is just as clever and knowledgeable as the New York group, but more humble and better-behaved.
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Richard Valley	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#51	[-]
Posts: 54081 Dec 20 01 10:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>>(Didn't they use the AUNTIE MAME overture as their theme? I remember it on my audio-tape of BRIDE.)>> Now THAT is truly bizarre . . . >>I hope that neutral parties have noticed that the Chicago contingent on these boards is just as clever and knowledgeable as the New York group, but more humble and better-behaved.>> Don't give me that; I saw THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE . . .
Rick D Atkins	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#52	[-]
Posts: 237 Dec 20 01 1:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	What I remember of the THRILLERAMA theme was that it made me so frightened I'd run to the bathroom and slam the door and cover my ears!! Don't remember where it came from? This tyke was about 6 then! We get such brunt about the gangsters, don't we?
phrankenstign	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#53	[-]
Posts: 56 Dec 20 01 4:35 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I really liked the musical theme used for the Creature Features opening sequence. It was a few years later before I saw the movie Experiment In Terror that it was taken from. The collage of Universal monster clips coupled with the frighteningly strange music left an indelible memory on me. BTW Us Chicagoans don't harbor grudges. We settle things once and for all so we can then get on with life. What's wrong with that?
DonM435	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931)	#54	[-]
Posts: 9514 Dec 20 01 4:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Did the THRILLERAMA theme involve a sound effect rather like a shrill alarm clock? That's about all I can remember. (I believe that the AUNTIE MAME music was a generalized movie theme used by WMAQ, and thus might turn up right after a horror film.) Yeah, I remember "Experiment in Terror," and the goofy poem the host would read. I think it was Carl Grayson (Greyson?) the news anchor, but some say it was someone else. I think we discussed it under "Horror Hosts" somewhere, along with Svengoolie's SCREAMING YELLOW THEATRE.
fantomas	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - Lack of Music ???	#55	[-]
Posts: 329 Dec 24 01 9:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When I saw "Frankenstein" for the first time, in 1958, I was 18 - so I was a "long-time" horror film fan since my first encounter with the Monster, at 12, when I saw "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein". Between 1952 and 1958, I saw horror films of any period, from the silent German "expressionist" films to "recent" Hammer movies - in fact I saw "Frankenstein" AFTER Hammer's "Curse of Frankenstein". And, in spite of my familiarization of music in films, I even DIDN'T noticed the lack of music in the James Whale masterpiece. Of course, this can be attributed to the wonderful soundtrack of this film, the eerie passing bell at beginning, the wind, the storm, the howling of the dogs, the electric laboratory equipment, etc. In fact, THERE IS music in "Frankenstein", but only when necessary, for instance during the village dances. It needs no more!
Richard Valley	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - Lack of Music ???	#56	[-]
Posts: 54081 Dec 24 01 4:01 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Funny, because I can remember to this day my initial disappointment due to the lack of music in FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA. I'd still prefer them with music, I think . . .
Ken Hanke	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - Lack of Music ???	#57	[-]
Posts: 71397 Dec 25 01 9:32 AM Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, as usual, I part company with Mr. Valley. It never originally even occurred to me that DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN had no musical tracks--they seemed perfectly fine without them when I saw them as a wee tyke. Now, of course, I know they don't, and I actually think it would harm the films if they did have musical tracks.
Richard Valley	Re: FRANKENSTEIN (1931) - Lack of Music ???	#58	[-]
Posts: 54081 Dec 25 01 2:58 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Provided the score was first-rate, I hardly think it would harm either film, though it would certainly alter them and that's enough to constitute harm in the eyes of some. A good score might help DRACULA move slightly faster than cold molasses . . .
phrankenstign	Re: Speeding molasses	#59	[-]
Posts: 56 Dec 25 01 4:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I like the slow-moving direction of Dracula. I always thought it gave the movie an other-worldly setting--in this case the netherworld of the undead. Certainly, the beginning scenes lifted from Nosferatu on the way to the castle move fairly quickly. Once Dracula makes his entrance, however, the audience is transported to the existence of the undead where time is meaningless. The king of vampires is not in any hurry. He's sustained himself for ages in his native land and plans on unleashing his presence on a hitherto unsuspecting country. Moving with the calculated, strategic manuevering found in a chess game, Dracula poises to add London to his territorial bounds. Mr. Browning's atmospheric direction exquisitely communicates the eternal nature of the vampire sans music.
Richard Valley	Re: Speeding molasses	#60	[-]
Posts: 54081 Dec 25 01 5:26 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, Mr. Browning's atmospheric direction exquisitely communicates the eternal nature of molasses sans music . . .
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FRANKENSTEIN (1931)