FRANKENSTEIN 1931 TRAILER

Plot

Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), an ardent young scientist, and his devoted assistant Fritz (Dwight Frye), a hunchback, piece together a human body, the parts of which have been secretly collected from various sources. Frankenstein's consuming desire is to create human life through various electrical devices which he has perfected.

Elizabeth (Mae Clarke), his fiancée, is worried to distraction over his peculiar actions. She cannot understand why he secludes himself in an abandoned watch tower, which he has equipped as a laboratory, and refuses to see anyone. She and her friend, Victor Moritz (John Boles), go to Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan), his old medical professor, and ask Dr. Waldman's help in reclaiming the young scientist from his absorbing experiments. Elizabeth, intent on rescuing Frankenstein, arrives just as Henry is making his final tests. They all watch Frankenstein and the hunchback as they raise the dead creature on an operating table, high into the room, toward an opening at the top of the laboratory. Then a terrific crash of thunder, the crackling of Frankenstein's electric machines, and the hand of Frankenstein's monster (Boris Karloff) begins to move.

Through Fritz's error, a criminal brain was secured for Frankenstein's experiments which results in the monster knowing only hate, horror and murder. The manufactured monster despite its grotesque form, initially appears not to be a malevolent beast, but a simple, innocent creation. Frankenstein welcomes it into his laboratory, and asks his creation to sit, which it does. Fritz, however, enters with a flaming torch which frightens the monster. Its fright is mistaken by Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman as an attempt to attack them, and so it is taken to the dungeon where it is chained. Thinking that it is not fit for society, and will wreak havoc at any chance, they leave the monster locked up where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch. As Henry and Dr. Waldman consider the fate of the monster they hear a shriek from the dungeon. Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman rush in to find the monster has strangled Fritz. The monster makes a lunge at the two but they escape the dungeon, locking the monster inside. Realizing that the creature must be destroyed Henry prepares an injection of a powerful drug and the two conspire to release the monster and inject it as it attacks. When the door is unlocked the creature emerges and lunges at Frankenstein as Dr. Waldman injects the drug into the creature's back. The monster knocks Dr. Waldman to the floor and has nearly killed Henry when the drug takes effect and he falls to the floor unconscious.

Henry leaves to prepare for his wedding while Dr. Waldman conducts an examination of the unconscious creature. As he is preparing to begin dissecting it the creature awakens and strangles him. It escapes from the tower and wanders through the landscape. It then has a short encounter with a farmer's young daughter, Maria, who asks him to play a game with her in which they playfully toss flowers into a lake and watch them float. The monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers, tragedy occurs. Because of his defective brain, the monster thinks the little girl will float, so he picks her up and throws her into the lake, and the girl drowns. Realizing he has made a terrible mistake, the monster walks away feeling troubled and remorseful. This drowning scene is one of the most controversial in the film, with a long history of censorship.

With preparations for the wedding completed, Frankenstein is once again himself and serenely happy with Elizabeth. They are to marry as soon as Dr. Waldman arrives. Victor rushes in, saying that the Doctor has been found strangled in his operating room. Frankenstein suspects the monster. A chilling scream convinces him that the monster is in the house. When the searchers arrive, they find Elizabeth unconscious on the bed. The monster has escaped. He is only intent upon destroying Frankenstein.

Leading an enraged band of peasants, Frankenstein searches the surrounding country for the monster. He becomes separated from the band and is discovered by the monster who, after the two stare each other down for a curious moment, attacks him. After a struggle, in which Frankenstein's torch fails to save him, the monster knocks Frankenstein unconscious and carries him off to the old mill. The peasants hear his cries and follow. Finally reaching the mill, they find the monster has climbed to the very top, dragging Frankenstein with him. In a burst of rage, he hurls the young scientist to the ground. His fall is broken by the vanes of the windmill, saving him from instant death. Some of the villagers hurry him to his home while the others remain to burn the mill and destroy the entrapped monster.

Later, back at Castle Frankenstein, Frankenstein's father, Baron Frankenstein (Frederick Kerr) celebrates the wedding of his recovered son with a toast to a future grandchild.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• FRANKENSTEIN
• 1931
• TRAILER

[steve9142]

@ugh1134 you do know that frankenstein is the doctor not the monster. the monster doesn't have a name... i don't care for a touching story blah blah, i wish it was re made with dark satanic themes and make the monster like jason an unstoppable killing machine

[ugh1134]

@steve9142 In the novel, Frankenstein was an intelligent man, not that different from you and I, and the modern interpretation of him is an unintelligent brute that walks around stiff-legged and groaning. A beast, only able to be subdued by the charms of a female. I'm not going to lie, a large driving force in the psyche men is pursuit of women - often only certain parts of women - but, I think there is more power in the story of pursuit of a father's love than that of a woman's.

[ugh1134]

@steve9142 The story about the man who became the monster, not because he was an abomination created by the insane experiments of a man obsessed with beating death, but because his creator - his father - declared that he wasn't worth of the life that he had been given. Because his father decided that he was nothing more than a hideous monster that should be destroyed. Because there was no love in the world for one such as him. I have never seen that in the modern image of frankenstein's monster.

[ugh1134]

@steve9142 I'm not saying to copy Mary Shelly, but I would love to see a story that goes into the themes that Mary Shelly put into the book. I'm not saying take the book and use it as the script, that would be rediculous, but give me the abandonment story, the love story that is at the core of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

I want to see the monster genuinely torn by the fact that he is the only of his kind, that his father despises him.

[steve9142]

@ugh1134 i'd like someone to make a re make and not copy mary shelly or anyone else. i would love if rob zombie would do it, everyone makes the wolfman and dracula and the mummy, but why is this story buried in time with no good re makes?

[ugh1134]

I never have been a fan of the Frankenstein's monster image this movie created, though a classic in it's own right, it pales in comparison to the story that Mary Shelly wrote back in 1818. It does kinda sadden me that when people think of Frankenstein this image is the first to come to mind, and with it Castle Frankenstein, Igor, etc.

Personally, I'd love to see another Frankenstein movie come out, like the one with Kenneth Branagh, which goes into the deeper meanings in the book.

[FlyPinkFloyd]

a million times better than twilight :)

[jgrab1]

This looks to be a trailer for a rerelease, because the caption at the beginning says millions have already been thrilled and millions will *be* thrilled. Plus almost no trailers from that time survive, only the reissue trailers do, though they are often billed as the original trailers.

(Actually, yes, when I got to the end it said "rerelease" right there.)

[jgrab1]

This looks to be a trailer for a rerelease, because the caption at the beginning says millions have already been thrilled and millions will *be* thrilled. Plus almost no trailers from that time survive, only the reissue trailers do, though they are often billed as the original trailers.

[islandboy4445]

this is where the castle thunder sound effect came from. thanks for the upload! :)