The top 20 Frankenstein films

[Nick Dando]

An opinion.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...n-films-ranked

[wadsy]

Who does these ratings? Nice to see a couple of Hammer's in there but where was "House of Frankenstein"?

[Seaton]

I was going to start a thread based on this! As a fan of any Frankenstein film, I enjoyed the article. But you have to ask, as wadsy has, who does the ratings? “Young Frakenstein” is one place higher than James Whale’s Frankenstein? However it’s nice to see “Curse” so high up the list. It is magical.
But the thing that confuses me with these Frankenstein reviews is why(oh why oh why) is “The Bride of Frankenstein” always so high? OK so Ernest Thesiger is in it and the design is spectacular, but it has no pace or sense of danger or wit ... Thesiger’s character is a comic relief role, with his hilarious (yawn) Henry VIII characters in their jars, but takes centre stage. Why? And his argument that (this is not a direct quote) “I have managed to perfectly reproduce men and women who can sing and walk and dance and speak, each only a foot tall, but you - YOU- must teach me how to make a lumbering, confused, mute, terrified, half-dead monster. You MUST!!!”. Ridiculous, and it completely undermines any gravity or heavy atmosphere present in the 1931 Frankenstein or, indeed, in the later “Son of ...”.

That saves me signing on at the Guardian to make a comment!

[Silver Bullet]

Out of that 20 no mention of Lady Frankenstein from 1971.

[cassidy]

For me The Curse of Frankenstein would always be numero uno. I am however rather surprised that neither The Ghost of Frankenstein or Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman even got into the top twenty . As Wadsy has said I also wonder who does the ratings

..Although I have never seen The Ghost of Frankenstein with Lon Chaney playing the monster I can remember reading Famous Monsters of Filmland years ago in which they rated it very highly. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman has Bela Lugosi playing the monster, a role he turned down when offered the original part which of course Karloff accepted. Lon Chaney reprises his role as the unfortunate lycanthrope.

[Gerald Lovell]

For me The Curse of Frankenstein would always be numero uno. I am however rather surprised that neither The Ghost of Frankenstein or Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman even got into the top twenty . As Wadsy has said I also wonder who does the ratings

..Although I have never seen The Ghost of Frankenstein with Lon Chaney playing the monster I can remember reading Famous Monsters of Filmland years ago in which they rated it very highly. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman has Bela Lugosi playing the monster, a role he turned down when offered the original part which of course Karloff accepted. Lon Chaney reprises his role as the unfortunate lycanthrope.

Chaney is not great in emoting in The Ghost of Frankenstein, but he is certainly a powerful monster. Although Chaney had a much fuller face than Boris Karloff, at certain angles and with sympathetic lighting, you could swear it was still Karloff under the make-up. Poor old Bela wasn't done well by Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man what with all the editing, dialogue removal and use of stunt doubles, but he does have one gloriously evil close-up when his eyesight is restored (the loss of eyesight in the screenplay, however, having been edited out).

[Robin Davies]

But the thing that confuses me with these Frankenstein reviews is why(oh why oh why) is “The Bride of Frankenstein” always so high? OK so Ernest Thesiger is in it and the design is spectacular, but it has no pace or sense of danger or wit ... Thesiger’s character is a comic relief role, with his hilarious (yawn) Henry VIII characters in their jars, but takes centre stage. Why? And his argument that (this is not a direct quote) “I have managed to perfectly reproduce men and women who can sing and walk and dance and speak, each only a foot tall, but you - YOU- must teach me how to make a lumbering, confused, mute, terrified, half-dead monster. You MUST!!!”. Ridiculous, and it completely undermines any gravity or heavy atmosphere present in the 1931 Frankenstein or, indeed, in the later “Son of ...”.

I was happy to read this. I thought I was the only person in the world who thought "The Bride of Frankenstein" was overrated!

[Toscana]

I very much enjoyed Hammer's "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" Took the story a whole step up for me. No monster, except Frankenstein himself. More thriller than horror film.