You all can guess the gist of this movie by the title alone. This 1935 release starred Boris Karloff (billed simply as "Karloff" - mysterious, right?).
The opening is precious and kind of goofy. Three aristocrats, "Lord Byron" (Gavin Gordon), "Percy Bysshe Shelley" (Douglas Walton) and "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley" (Elsa Lanchester) are sitting around during a violent storm. We get a lot of florid language and posturing, but it sets a tone.
The plot is clear, but there were some things within it that caught my attention. The monster is lonely, starved for human affiliation and contact. He doesn't go out of his way to cause a ruckus, but merely reacts to the fear and misunderstanding he encounters from the local populace. No, the monster isn't some kindly woodland inhabitant - he's still dangerous. But, he's not some mindless villain. Karloff gives the monster a sense of humanity that, in my mind, gets overlooked.
Over the course of the movie, we see the monster enjoy good music and a cigar. We see the monster take a nip of an adult beverage. We see the monster's body language and facial expression change when he first sees his potential mate. We finally see the monster make a huge sacrifice when he realizes his fate is sealed. Maybe we can see ourselves in the monster.
A lot of people are familiar with the visage of the bride, with bug eyes and frizzy hair. She doesn't get a lot of air time. I don't know if her lack of scenes lifts the movie or or merely misdirection based on the movie's title.
The title premise is a hook, but the real story is about a march to the inevitable. As much as we too try to resist our life's path, sometimes circumstances pull us back to what we are. In the meantime, how do we manage our time on earth? There are profound life questions one can pull from this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment