The Modern Prometheus Published

Boris Karloff On March 11, 1818, The Modern Prometheus was published, although the book is better known by the first part of its full title: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the 21-year-old author, is credited with creating a whole new type of novel, blending gothic horror with science fiction.

The Book

Shelley began writing the book in June 1816 while staying in Geneva with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their friend Lord Byron suggested they each compose a gothic ghost story.  And Mary Shelley produced the classic we know today. Well, what we sort of know today.

I remember reading the book in high school and being surprised to discover that the book differed somewhat from the movies. In the book, the Monster’s creator Victor Frankenstein is tracking the Monster.  But “the Monster” can speak intelligently instead of merely deliver grunts as the character does in the classic films.

There are many elements from the novel that do appear in the movies.  For example, there is the Monster’s desire for a mate, and the story raises interesting ethical questions about the creation of life.

Few characters in a novel have inspired so many creations, from movies to TV characters to a cereal character, although many mistakenly call the monster “Frankenstein,” which is actually the last name of the scientist who created the creature.

1931’s “Frankenstein” Film

Actor Boris Karloff is most famous as the Monster, beginning with his portrayal in 1931’s Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. Karloff creates a sympathetic creature that is both scary and sympathetic in the way he is misunderstood.

The Frankenstein film had a dark sense of humor, but it also was a product of a director who lived through World War I. Different viewers find different parts more disturbing than others.

But part of the scene below was originally cut by censorship boards in some states.  They found the Monster throwing the little girl in the water (and accidentally drowning her) as too disturbing.

1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein”

Many consider the 1935 sequel Bride of Frankenstein to be even better than the original. Again Whale directed the movie, which again starred Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as the Doctor.

Elsa Lanchester defined the role of the bride in a brief scene. But many forget that she also played the role of Mary Shelley in the movie.

Universal Studios played on the popularity of Frankenstein and its other monsters by putting them together in different movies in the 1940s.  For example, there was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and various other films followed with mixed results. Some movies expanded on the subtle humor in the original films.

Funny Frankenstein

One of the most famous funny versions of the monster appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Glenn Strange played the monster. The clip below from A Million Movies recounts “10 Things You Don’t Need to Know About Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.”

One of my favorite versions of the Frankenstein story remains the Mel Brooks’ interpretation, Young Frankenstein (1974). The Mel Brooks movie is a wonderful funny tribute to the original film and its sequel while still being a great comedy in its own right.

In Young Frankenstein, Peter Boyle played the monster while Gene Wilder played the young doctor. Below is this movie’s take on the blind man and cigar scene from Bride of Frankenstein above.

The Frankenstein humor was taken to a surreal extreme in The Munsters.  In that TV series, the monster character was imagined as a father in a sitcom setting.

The Munsters originally ran on CBS on Thursday evenings from 1964 to 1966. In the clip below, Herman Munster tries out for the Dodgers.

Modern Frankenstein

In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  That film tried to be true to novel’s plot while modernizing the scariness. The movie also starred Robert De Niro (as the monster) and Helena Bonham Carter.

Branagh’s movie, however, was a disappointment at the box office. I saw Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the theater and enjoyed it for what it was.  But it did not come close to the classic original films. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 40% critics score and a 50% audience score.

Another 1990’s take on the story with mixed reviews was Frankenstein Unbound.  The 1990 film that combined science fiction and horror elements was directed by Roger Corman.  The movie features a scientist from the future, played by John Hurt, going back to the 1800s and encountering Mary Shelly and the characters from her most famous novel. (Thanks to Tony Fontane for reminding me about Frankenstein Unbound.)

Even though it is almost two centuries since the story was written, there will continue to be new versions of the Gothic tale. Many more folks today know the story of Frankenstein than know the Greek myth of Prometheus, who supplied the subtitle to Mary Shelley’s monster book (and a poem by her friend Lord Byron).

The Titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Because of this rebellious act, Zeus punished Prometheus by binding him to a rock, where every day an eagle would return to eat his liver, which would then grow back for the next day’s torture. Like Prometheus, Dr. Frankenstein stole something from the gods — the ability to create life — and because of that, he was a tortured soul.

Most recently, Paul McGuigan directed a new version of Frankenstein called Victor Frankenstein (2015). The movie considers the story from the viewpoint of the assistant Igor, played by Daniel Radcliffe. The film also stars James McAvoy as Dr. Frankenstein. The movie received poor reviews, but I am certain it will not be the last retelling of the story that Mary Shelley published in 1818.

What is your favorite version of Frankenstein? Leave your two cents in the comments.

Photo of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein via public domain.

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    “I’m Walking Here”: 25 Famous Unscripted Movie Scenes

    Did you know that Dustin Hoffman’s line “I’m walking here!” from Midnight Cowboy (1969) was not in the movie script? Similarly, Robert De Niro came up with the classic “You talkin’ to me” line in Taxi Driver (1976). Check out this video to hear other classic unscripted movie scenes. The captions provide some additional explanations.

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    Did you Know Taxi Driver Was Inspired by Astral Weeks?

    Astral Weeks Van Morrison Taxi Driver Director Martin Scorsese once claimed that the first fifteen minutes of the movie Taxi Driver (1976) were inspired by Van Morrison’s album Astral Weeks (1968). How is this violent movie connected to one of the most beautiful albums of all time?

    Sources About the Connection

    One of the main sources for the link is the essay, “Save the Last Waltz for Me,” where Greil Marcus wrote about the documentary The Last Waltz (1978) and hanging out with Martin Scorsese. The essay was originally published in New West (May 22, 1978) and reprinted in Marcus’s book, Bob Dylan: Writings 1968-2010 (p. 79).

    Several Internet sources claim that the “first half” of Taxi Driver is based on Astral Weeks.  These sources may be perpetuating misinformation from Wikipedia based on a later Marcus interview.  Instead, Marcus’s 1978 essay actually asserts that much less of the movie is based on the album.

    According to Marcus’s story, Scorsese put on the album when Marcus was visiting. “Madame George” came on.

    Down on Cyprus Avenue,
    With a childlike vision leaping into view,
    Clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe,
    Ford & Fitzroy, Madame George
    Marching with the soldier boy behind;
    He’s much older with hat on drinking wine,
    And that smell of sweet perfume comes drifting through
    The cool night air like Shalimar;
    And outside they’re making all the stops;
    The kids out in the street collecting bottle-tops,
    Gone for cigarettes and matches in the shops.

    Scorsese said, “That’s the song.” He explained, “I based the first fifteen minutes of Taxi Driver on Astral Weeks, and that’s a movie about a man who hates music.”

    The First Fifteen Minutes of Taxi Driver

    During the first fifteen minutes of Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) drives around the dirty 1970s New York streets.  He applies for and gets the job as a taxi driver. Writing a letter, he describes how he cannot sleep at night and that after his shifts he has to clean off the back seat of his taxi.

    Additionally, we see Bickle going to a pornographic movie.  There, he unsuccessfully tries to strike up a conversation with the woman who works at the concession stand.

    Interpretations of “Madame George”

    Critic Lester Bangs wrote an outstanding essay about Astral Weeks that gives some insight, even though he does not address the Taxi Driver rumor. But he did write about the “desolation, hurt, and anguish” in “Madame George.”

    Bangs called the song, “Possibly one of the most compassionate pieces of music ever made, it asks us, no, arranges that we see the plight of what I’ll be brutal and call a lovelorn drag queen with such intense empathy that when the singer hurts him, we do too.” He added, “The beauty, sensitivity, holiness of the song is that there’s nothing at all sensationalistic, exploitative, or tawdry about it.”

    A number of writers have offered various interpretations of the song “Madame George.” And Van Morrison has reportedly disputed some of the interpretations.  But a piece in Rolling Stone correctly asserts that “Madame George” is “a cryptic character study that may or may not be about an aging transvestite but that is certainly as heartbreaking a reverie as you will find in pop music.”

    The Connection Between Movie and Song?

    So what is the connection between the movie and the ambiguous song? Part of the connection seems to be that both are about lonely men wandering the dirty streets.

    There is heartbreak in both the movie and the song, so the connection seems more of tone than a literal connection. In his essay, Bangs also declined to “reduce” the other songs on the album by trying to explain them.

    You should read Bangs’s essay, but I will follow his lead and not try to explain the unexplainable any further. But the next time you watch Taxi Driver, think of the poetry found in the misery.  And reflect on the beauty of both the film and Astral Weeks.

    Check out our other posts on connections between music and the movie Taxi Driver: Kris Kristofferson’s “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33” and Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky.”

    Another Scorsese-Morrison Connection and Bonus Information About Taxi Driver: Martin Scorsese later used Van Morrison’s music for the beginning of another movie, Bringing Out the Dead (1999).  That film features some similarities to Taxi Driver.  Bringing Out the Dead opens with the main character driving a vehicle, although in this movie it is an ambulance instead of a taxi, and he is played by Nicolas Cage. During the scene, the music playing is Van Morrison’s “T.B. Sheets.” Regarding Taxi Driver, Obsessed With Film recently posted “50 Reasons Why Taxi Driver Might Just Be The Greatest Film of All Time.”

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    Is it Safe?: Torture American-Style

    In the movie Marathon Man, there’s a famous sequence where the Nazi war criminal (played by Laurence Olivier) uses dental tools on Dustin Hoffman’s mouth to torture him into answering the code question “Is it safe?”  I remember the movie from my youth, as well as movies like The Deer Hunter, which shows America’s enemies using torture techniques on American prisoners of war — played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage.  In The Deer Hunter, the captors force the three Americans to play Russian Roulette and punish the soldiers by putting them in an underwater cage full of live rats and dead bodies.

    Watching these movies as a kid, these torture techniques were things that our enemies did.  Americans do not torture.  If we adopt the techniques of the bad guys, then there is no longer a difference between us and them.

    Torture has been in the news lately because of the release of former Pres. George W. Bush’s book, Decision Points.  In it, he describes how when the CIA asked him whether he would support waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammad, he responded, “Damn right!”  Former Vice-President Cheney has stated he is a “big supporter” of waterboarding.

    Waterboarding is torture in violation of international law.  But what about when government officials feel the country is in danger and it is necessary?

    Pres. Obama has been criticized for his failure to investigate and prosecute the Americans who used torture techniques.  I understand his aversion to opening up a partisan fight.  Some claim, though, that the failure to pursue the perpetrators leaves a precedent for future presidents that torture techniques will be tolerated.

    There’s an old joke about a man who goes to a woman and asks, “Will you sleep with me for a million dollars?”

    The woman thinks for a few minutes, and responds, “Sure.”

    Then the man asks, “Will you sleep with me for ten dollars?”

    The woman says, “Certainly not!  What kind of woman do you think I am?”

    The man responds, “We’ve already established that.  Now we’re just negotiating on a price.”

    The joke reminds me of our attitudes about torture.  You’re either for it or against it, and then it’s just negotiating when to use it.  Nobody advocates torture for jaywalking.  If you’re for it, it’s for the extreme situations.  So you can’t rid yourself of the responsibility by saying “I only advocate it for certain situations.”  You’re pro-torture or anti-torture.  That part is simple.

    Unfortunately, the line about what my country does and tolerates is not as simple as I believed when I was a kid watching movies.

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