Tag: Dwight Frye

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935). 75 minutes. Directed by James Whale. Starring Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein’s monster), Colin Clive (as Baron Henry Frankenstein), Valerie Hobson (as Elizabeth Frankenstein), Ernest Thesiger (as Doctor Pretorius), Elsa Lanchester (as the monster’s mate/bride of Frankenstein, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley), Gavin Gordon (as Lord Byron), Douglas Walton (as Percy Bysshe Shelley), Una O’Connor (as Minnie), E. E. Clive (as the Burgomaster), O. P. Heggie (as the hermit), and Dwight Frye (as Karl). Cinematography by John J. Mescall.

Bride of Frankenstein is one of those rare sequels that outdoes its predecessor. Frankenstein (1931), rooted in pre-Code and Depression-era culture, was itself a work of art and offered us insight into the 1818 novel of the same name by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. In the first film, Shelley’s protagonist, Henry Frankenstein, embarks on a grisly campaign to revivify human corpses with the aim of becoming god-like; he successfully regenerates life in the form of a humanoid monster. Bride … Read the rest

Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein (1931). 71 minutes. Directed by James Whale. Starring Colin Clive (as Henry Frankenstein), Mae Clarke (as Elizabeth Lavenza), John Boles (as Victor Moritz), Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein’s monster), Frederick Kerr (as Baron Frankenstein), Dwight Frye (as Fritz), Edward Van Sloan (as Dr. Waldman), Lionel Belmore (as the Burgomaster), Marilyn Harris (as Little Maria), and Michael Mark (as Ludwig). Based on the novel by Mary Shelley and the play adaptation by Peggy Webling. Make-up by Jack Pierce.

Frankenstein is an iconic pre-Code monster movie released by Universal Studios—the film studio that, with the release of Frankenstein, Dracula (1931), The Mummy (1932), and a slew of other movies, would become the premiere horror workshop of Golden-Age Hollywood. Like many of those early 1930s films, Frankenstein is more than just a scary movie: at times profoundly psychological, it explores complex identity issues, tortured family relationships, and the thin line between order and chaos as it questions what defines us as … Read the rest

The Maltese Falcon (Three Versions, 1931-1941)

The following article is a review of three film adaptations of Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon: the pre-Code Maltese Falcon (1931), the bizarre comedic Satan Met a Lady (1936), and the superb film noir version (1941).

Synopsis: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1929)

Sam Spade is a private detective working in San Francisco. A woman identifying herself as Miss Wonderly appears in his office one day and asks for his help: she claims her sister is visiting the city in the company of a disagreeable man, and Wonderly wants the two separated. Spade’s partner Miles Archer takes over the case and agrees to shadow the man, Thursby, but that evening both Miles and Thursby are shot dead.

The next day, Spade meets up with Wonderly, who explains that she and Thursby were involved in a plot to capture an illusory, legendary, jewel-studded falcon statuette that has been smuggled around the world by treasure hunters through the ages. … Read the rest