ALL SCI-FI

Custer · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:01 pm Post subject:

That does look good. Posters do tend to fade over time - here's another copy, from a site that offers framed prints:

The Spike · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 8:22 pm Post subject: So it begins!

Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!

We will always see debates about which of the original wave of Universal Monster movies is the most important. With Dracula being released just under a year before Frankenstein, that tends to give the vampire crowd a sense of justifiable cause for a trumpet fanfare. Perhaps the more pertinent question is which is the better movie? Surely the most hardened of Dracula fans have to bow their heads in acknowledgement that Frankenstein quite simply is superior on every level - even if it itself is not as good as its sequel...

Narrative doesn't quite follow Mary Shelley's original source material (what a brain that lady had!), but the core essence of a tragic tale holds tight. Directing was one James Whale, who here was in his directorial infancy, he himself up for debate about greatest horror genre directors, but his masterful sense of theatrical staging, and that of the terror incarnate for the era, is sublime to the point that come 100 years after its release this will still be held up as a timeless horror classic.

The thematics of the story pulse with brilliance, the advent of berserker science, the alienation and confusion flow of the creature grips and stings the heart equally. The later camp of Whale's horror ventures is mostly absent here, instead we have a dark almost miserably bleak tone, which exists right up to the end title card which brings closure after the brilliant and iconic finale has made its mark. Jack Pierce's marvelous make-up and the birth of Karloff as a genre legend seals the deal on what is without doubt one of the genre's most important films. 9/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

Bud Brewster · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2020 4:06 pm Post subject:

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I've read about this deleted scene since I was just kid, but this is the first time I've seen it!

Wow . . . Shocked

_____ Frankenstein - The Monster Befriends Maria

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Tue May 12, 2020 3:22 pm Post subject:

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Here's a wonderful comparison of the two censored scenes from this legendary movie. Very Happy

FRANKENSTEIN (1931): The Infamous Censored Scenes

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2022 12:30 pm Post subject:

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It's amazing how different society's sensibilities were back then compared to today. The censors didn't want Henry Frankenstein exclaiming he knew what it was like to be God.

That would be the least bit objectionable today.

And in the scene with the little girl, we don't see a single shot of the little girl struggling or crying out as she drowned — which would indeed have been heartbreaking, even today.

But the scene has the monster standing in front of the spot where the girl hits the water, and in a few seconds he turns and walks away. The girl is gone.

It effectively portrayed the fact that the child has drowned, but it wasn't done a way that would be particularly disturbing, because we don't witness her suffering.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 8:53 pm Post subject:

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A modern version of this story could be done which retained all its vital concepts, but which brought the awesome science of the 2ist centuries into play.

Instead of cobbling together dead body parts and then reanimating the piecemeal body with lightning, a brilliant and wealthy scientist could carefully preserve the various body parts of great athletes and skilled artists who have died, as well as the brain of a brilliant man!

He could then assemble these parts by bringing together a team of world-renowned surgeons who would use their skills to recombine the parts into the Perfect Human — a superior being who combined all the skills and abilities of the men whose body parts he processed!

Naturally this supreme being would think of himself as being better than those around him — and that would be the conflict which drives this story!

What do you think, guys? Don't be shy, post a reply! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Gord Green · Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 12:30 am Post subject:

Keep in mind the sub title of this is "The Modern Prometheus".
Prometheus was a Titan who was punished by the Gods for bringing fire to Mankind.

Mary S S wrote Frankenstein as an intelligent, articulate "creation". Don't throw away the philosophy to concentrate on the horror!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.