I think the reason why the story of Frankenstein is so ubiquitous across cinema is because
it's so basically frightening.
The Hammer Films, their horror films really indulge in the gothic.
It’s a castle.
It's darkness.
It's a stormy night.
This mournful music.
There's a heightened romanticism.
Asking yourselves who is the real monster is a huge part of what these films are about.
Who is responsible for creating life?
Not only the mechanics of the creation of life, but the idea of this higher power.
My name is Anne Morra.
I'm a film curator at the Museum of Modern Art.
And today, we're going to look at Frankenstein in the movies and pay special attention to
"The Hammer Horror Series."
So Hammer Films began in 1935.
And like many British film companies, they were really interested in this idea of realism
and reflection of daily life in the films that they were making.
And it really wasn't until the 1950s when they moved their operation to a place called
Bray Studios, and in this gothic house and that's when they really began to think
"How are we going to make money?
Aha, teenagers go to the movies.”
The Hammer studios begins their 1950s assault on the cinema with sci-fi films.
It's not till 1957 when they create their first Frankenstein movie, "The Curse of Frankenstein."
Mary Shelly was the author of “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.”
Her concept of what the monster looked like was a combination of Greek statuary, this
idea of the outrageous primitive man.
And if you look at the 1910 version of Frankenstein, you get that.
But Mary Shelley did not necessarily conjure the mechanical man.
He was definitely more human.
You know, there were no electrodes and things like that coming out of his neck.
The Hammer monster really has a different visage in each film.
Sometimes you have a monster that looks like a Sasquatch.
Sometimes you have a monster that is cobbled together of other bodies and then really glued
together with cement.
They're very strange-looking creatures.
But there's something weirdly human about them.
They're not so much a machine.
They're not so hard-edged.
They're much more anatomical.
They're much more flesh-like.
And I think that, in a way, that's what makes the monster much more sympathetic.
In the Hammer films, it doesn’t matter what the monster looks like.
Often the monster doesn’t even play a significant role until the last portion of the film.
They’re asking you to think more deeply about the doctor than they are asking you
to be scared of the monster – which isn’t to say the monster isn’t scary.
What the Hammer films do in terms of contributing to our broad view of Frankenstein is create
this conflicted Frankenstein who is so hell-bent on his experiments because he knows what's
right, although he knows around him that his colleagues believe what he's doing is wrong.
The church certainly doesn't want him to do what he's doing.
But he's going to go ahead and do these experiments anyhow.
Unlike the doctor in the 1931 Universal film, who was a bit hysterical, Peter Cushing’s
doctor is calm, collected, methodical, and very arrogant.
We see this doctor, he's a human being, but he may be more monstrous than the monster.
And I think that's something that the Hammer films really discuss in this psychological way.
The doctor is a murderer.
Essentially, he is an anti-hero.
If he needs a pair of legs, he's going to get those pair of legs, and he's not really
too picky about where they come from.
The evil is that he just has no self-awareness.
I don't think that the Hammer films today would be considered particularly gory.
But at the time at mid-century, following a debilitating war and the horrors that people
experienced, seeing a glass jar filled with eyeballs in formaldehyde would be incredibly
gory and gruesome.
They did receive an X rating, and that sort of propelled them forward.
People wanted to see those films.
There are so many contemporary movies that deal with that idea of the reanimation of
the dead, the reuse of the body.
All of these kinds of machine made men I think are all pulled out from the Frankenstein story.
Do people actually die?
Is there a finite sense of existence?
Frankenstein is a classic, and it will continue to be part of cinema.
So those are my thoughts on Frankenstein in film history.
What do you think?
Is the doctor more monstrous than the creature?
And amongst the Frankenstein films, which are your favorites?
Please let us know in the comment section.
My name is Anne Morra.
I am a curator in the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art.
See you next time.