Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was published in 1818, about 200 years ago.

For its first 100 years, it was most enjoyed as drama. At the time, a novel could be adapted to a play without crediting or paying the author, meaning that the many Frankenstein knockoffs did little to save Shelley from a life of poverty and struggle.

The story's creature did not fare well either. In the novel, he is created ignorant and wordless, but after being abandoned by Frankenstein, he makes his way in the world as an invisible observer. He acts as a kind of angel to a family living in bad circumstances, helping them as he learns to read, to speak, and to understand what people are about. His eventual violence comes from his need for companionship, and betrayal that denies his need.

But in the plays of the 1800's, he is a destructive brute — a monster. In comes the rise of moving pictures, about 100 years ago.

Universal Pictures was a mid-tier studio whose biggest movies adapted popular novels into sweeping melodramas, including the silent films The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923, The Phantom of the Opera in 1925, and The Man Who Laughs in 1928.

As each studio hurtled into the sound era, Universal hit on several Gothic novels that essentially created the horror genre and its most enduring characters: Dracula in 1931, our subject Frankenstein in 1931, The Mummy in 1932, and Werewolf of London in 1935.

Being the midpoint of the Frankenstein history (to us), the director James Whale borrows the monster from the plays. It grunts, it wails, it wreaks havoc. The stunning makeup by Jack Pierce is the picture in your mind: the flat head, the scar, and the bolts at the side of the neck.

It's Boris Karloff that makes the picture for me. Even wordless, his creature has an inner life and a need to be understood. His rage is a reaction to his abandonment. His stumble and awkwardness are a mind trying to live in an awkward body.

Being the midpoint of silent films and talkies, Frankenstein has a remarkable property for Modern Robot. A few minutes of the movie have music, but in 1931, adding music under the dialog would have been unconventional. Some music appearing from somewhere would have broken the realism of the movie.

That is the blank canvas that Modern Robot will happily fill, as we add a new and modern soundtrack to this gem, a film that's both iconic and underappreciated. Join us for the premiere of Modern Robot's Frankenstein.

The show will be performed by Ben Singer on guitar and Tyler Monroe on drums.