What is your favorite adaptation of Frankenstein?
I still have a soft spot for the 1931 Boris Karloff film, but I also enjoy the Hammer productions. This film just gets it all wrong.
I still have a soft spot for the 1931 Boris Karloff film, but I also enjoy the Hammer productions. This film just gets it all wrong.
None of the films actually get it right at all, and it can be argued that this film is the nearest. However, since reading the book years ago and rereading it over the years, I actually don't care too much for any version. The 1931 one might well be good for a popcorn monster film, which is essentially what it is despite the pretensions of others to dress it up as something profound, but it's a poor adaptation of the book and has only served to do disservice to Shelley's work. The book really does need justice given to it, which no film has yet delivered.
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Young Frankenstein is the best frankenstein film out... and laughably, it's arguably the closest to the source.
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=30520828
Gotta be the 1931 version with Karloff.
What do you think this is, a signature? It's a way of life!
I like this version. I also like Bride of Frankenstein.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness"
Bride of Frankenstein. I worship Karloff and Ernest Thesiger was absolutely, Oscar worthy AMAZING.
Peter Boyle also has a special place in my heart when he puts on the Ritz. :)
Although by contemporary standards it's a bit slow but I like "Frankenstein: The True Story" because of how it combines faithful elements from the story but also turns it on its head by making the Creature handsome in the beginning and, then, gradually falling apart.
shareThe 1931 movie is NOT an adaptation of the novel, its an adaptation of a play BASED on the novel, thats why the movie basically has nothing to do with the novel except for some names and the broad idea of a man creating a hideous being.
To answer this thread's question, by far my favorite is MS Frankenstein. Such deliciously operatic and dramatic and cruel, and so close to the novel. I think the movie actually improved the novel in places. I like that in the movie its Victors mothers death that starts his obsession with creating life. I like that Victor is a medical student and scientist as oppose to philosopher and the whole subplot with reanimating Elizabeth.I like the irony of creating the creature from both the killer and its victim. I like that the movie cut out what I thought was very unnecessary, like Victor being framed for monsters murders or Justine's trial. And on top of it all, I like the more realistic look of the Creature, as being a stitched up man rather than a giant with long hair. It only make sense that he would be bald since the hair needs to be shaven for head operations. I also like the dramatization of events that Branaghs did, like making the mother die violently in childbirth, Victor witnessing Elizabeth's murder etc
http://frankensteinfilms.blogspot.com/
I think the movie actually improved the novel in places.
First off I don't go by the "the closer to the book, the better" philosophy. My favs would probably be Frankenstein '31, Bride of Frankenstein, The Curse of Frankenstein (the first Frankie movie I ever watched), and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in spite of its flaws. And does anybody remember the Patrick Bergin/Randy Quaid version from the early 90s? Very nostalgic for me, and reasonably close to the book.
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