Frankenstein Universal Movie Sets
Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein Europe Village Universal Studios Tour
TCM cable channel Turner Classic Movies recently ran a Boris Karloff day and I had a chance to watch the 1931 Frankenstein and the 1934 Bride of Frankenstein shot four years later, both directed by James Whale. The difference between the two movies was quite fascinating. Boris Karloff had gone in the credits from a “?” to simply the one name KARLOFF by the send movie, having become a household icon in between. The original film deviated so far from the original book to be almost unrecognizable, and oddly switched Victor to Henry Frankenstein and Victor’s friend from the book to Victor in the movie. The Bride of Frankenstein went back to the book to borrow more, and famously dramatized the introduction with Byron and Percy Shelley in Geneva.
It is striking that the second movie relies much more on a humorous slant to the material, with the added villain character of Dr. Pretorius almost a comedy. Boris Karloff’s make-up had changed to a heavier face with almost a receding hairline in some angles rather than the black bangs of the first. If you go to the Universal lot you can still run into a green-faced Frankenstein monster wandering about, ready to snap a selfie. It’s become rather standard for the movie Frankenstein to be green, but in the black & white films, the make-up was actually a monotone gray.
The Frankenstein Village set had changed quite a bit as well. In the original it was a Bavarian style village with the Frankenstein family house a high ceiling mansion in the middle of the village with an entrance looking out on the street. In the Bride of Frankenstein, the town had turned into a larger walled castle city with a gate and drawbridge. In the first movie, the science lab was in a mill tower on a hill, in the second, a castle tower as part of the city complex. Both films were shot on the Universal studio back lot.
The 1931 Frankenstein village set was actually built for the World War I epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” shot by Lewis Milestone a year earlier in 1930, for where the soldiers left home to the fervor of marching bands, before the devastations of war. The archways and street scenes can be recognized between the two films, with the archway into town shot from different angles. Some small parts of the Old Europe called the Court of Miracles set on the Universal backlot is still there but much of the set areas were burned in a fire at the studio some years ago. A few remnants called Little Europe still remain on the Universal Studio Tour.
The stored laboratory sets and equipment were famously used again in Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein” and some of those props still remain in the Universal props shop. The lake where the little girl scene was filmed is out in Agoura about 40 minutes from Universal out the 101 highway. Malibu Lake is now surrounded by houses and a golf course. The Paramount Movie Ranch with its much used western town set is about five minutes away from the lake, and is now actually a National Park as part of the Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area, but the western sets, used for countless movies and TV shows also recently burned in a wild fire.
Curiously the idea of a Frankenstein Castle only comes from the movies, even though there never really was a complete one, and in the Mary Shelley novel, rather than working in a laboratory in a watch tower, Victor Frankenstein created his creature in his lodgings at Ingolstadt University. Imagine carrying dead body parts into your dorm late at night for a little all-nighter monster surgery. In the movie, the village where the Frankenstein’s lived was modified to a fictional “Goldstadt”. While a real village named Frankenstein, in the Rhineland of Germany where the ruins of a castle still guard on the hill above, bears little resemblance to the Bavarian Alps style architecture of the movie set design. TMC Hollywood Movie Locations Tour
Of course, the book is set in French speaking Switzerland and the country of the movie is never specifically stated, but it’s obvious German feel perhaps comes from the availability of the Bavarian style sets. The other oddity of the two movies Frankenstein and the Bride are the costumes. The original film was apparently set in contemporary 1930, post WWI, at least by the clothes, while for the Bride, they decided to make it more late 19th Century in style. It was the same director, so maybe budget played a part or they wanted to go more period in line with the Regency opening.
Secret Memoirs of Mary Shelley – E-Book