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Frankenstein in popular culture lists many ways the novel Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster, have influenced film, TV, games and popular culture in general and the many derivative works it has inspired.
The first film adaptation of the tale, Frankenstein, was done by Edison Studios in 1910, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley, with Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Mary Fuller as Elizabeth, and Charles Ogle as the Monster.
The most famous adaptation of the story, 1931's Frankenstein, was produced by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale, and starred Boris Karloff as the monster. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
In Great Britain, a long-running series by Hammer Films focused on the character of Dr. Frankenstein (usually played by Peter Cushing) rather than his monster. Peter Cushing played Dr. Frankenstein in all of the films except for Horror of Frankenstein in which the character was played by Ralph Bates.
Hammer thrillers are beloved by horror movie fans, and for good reason:
They're the perfect mix of kitsch and gore. In Night Creatures, Captain
Clegg (Peter Cushing)
looks into reports of federal crimes in a village but quickly discovers
the town is overrun by ghosts. The Evil of Frankenstein has the
legendary doctor (Cushing) resuscitating his creature once more, but
he's woefully misled by a hypnotist to whom he had entrusted the
monster.
Lon Chaney Jr. stars as the unfortunate Larry Talbot, who gets bitten by a werewolf and survives to carry the curse. Bela Lugosi, Claude Rains and the wonderful Maria Ouspenskaya
(as a spooky gypsy woman) co-star in this Universal classic. In
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Larry (Chaney Jr.) seeks out Dr.
Frankenstein to help him lift the curse, but encounters the doctor's
monster (Lugosi) instead, which leads to a classic showdown.
This final episode of Hammer Films' 1930s Frankenstein franchise was directed by Terence Fisher and produced by Universal Studios. Peter Cushing (starring in his signature role) and Shane Briant
play Baron Frankenstein and his assistant Helder, who are still at work
bringing the dead to life -- with "monstrous" results. Using body parts
"donated" by the inmates of a prison, Frankenstein creates a gruesome
ghoul that looks in part like an ape.
Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing)
sparks up the laboratory equipment to reanimate one very sexy body in
this horror film. When Frankenstein's assistant, Hans, is unjustly
executed, his distraught girlfriend (Susan Denberg) kills herself. The mad doctor, along with help from Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters),
transfers Hans's soul into the dead woman's curvy body. Frankenstein's
experiment works, but his creation seeks revenge on Hans's executioners.
After a drunk wanders into and disrupts his secret lab, Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) decides he must find a new place to set up shop. Conveniently, he finds an innocent young girl (Veronica Carlson) who happens to have a boyfriend (Simon Ward)
employed by the local hospital. Seeing his opportunity, Dr.
Frankenstein kidnaps the couple and forces them to take part in a
dangerous brain-swapping experiment.
An evil scientist (played Boris Karloff, of course) and his hunchbacked flunky (J. Carrol Naish)
pose as traveling horror-show carnies -- a perfect cover for their
diabolical dealings, which include resurrecting the doctor's monster
creation (Glenn Strange). But things get really interesting when they
run into Dracula (John Carradine). Costars Lon Chaney Jr., Elena Verdugo and Lionel Atwill. Erle C. Kenton directs.
In Ghost of Frankenstein, the not-so-good doctor (Cedric Hardwicke) thinks his monster could be cured if he only had a normal brain … so, with Ygor's (Bela Lugosi) "help," he takes it from the top. In Son of Frankenstein, the doctor's son (Basil Rathbone) returns to the ancestral castle 25 years after his father's demise. There, he meets Ygor (Bela Lugosi), who urges the young sawbones to take up where his father left off … so to speak!
This Abbott and Costello horror-comedy flick features the bumbling
buddies as railroad baggage clerks who receive a strange shipment --
the last remains of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Trouble is
they're still alive! When the deadly duo escape to a remote island,
Abbott and Costello follow their trail and find not only the two
ghouls, but also a mad scientist who wants to switch Costello's brain
with that of Frankenstein's monster.
Straight from Britain's legendary Hammer Studios comes this thoughtful
sequel to The Curse of Frankenstein. The not-so-good doctor (Peter Cushing)
is up to his old lab tricks again -- suturing arms, legs and torsos
together in hopes that the sum of the parts will make a greater whole.
This time, he's ably assisted by a hunchback dwarf and a willing
medical student.
Baron Victor Frankenstein, in prison for murder and trying to evade the
fate of the guillotine, confesses how he and his mentor had performed
scientific experiments, eventually leading to the resurrection of a
dead body. The Baron's obsession and this monster's homicidal nature
bring the bloody death toll higher and higher, until, finally, Victor
himself is confronted by an enraged monster.
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