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The film that broke creative ground, shattered box office records of iys time , and cemented Karloff the Uncanny as the quintessential King of Horror; Mary Shelley's little novel started as a Gothic exploration of existentialism, and resulted in a film that has inspired generations of filmmakers. According to Wikipedia:
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"In the opening credits, Karloff is unbilled, with only a question mark being used in place of his name. This is a nod to a tradition of theatrical adaptations billing the monster without a name. Universal had not revealed in advance who was playing the monster, and had not released any pictures of the monster in order to conceal his appearance. Karloff's name is revealed in the closing credits, which otherwise duplicate the credits from the opening under the principle that "A Good Cast Is Worth Repeating"."
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Rare Movie Poster c.1931
"Bela Lugosi was originally set to star as the monster.[1] After several disastrous make-up tests, the Dracula star left the project. Although this is often regarded as one of the worst decisions of Lugosi's career, in actuality the part that Lugosi was offered was not the same character that Karloff eventually played. The character in the Florey script was simply a killing machine without a touch of human interest or pathos, reportedly causing Lugosi to complain "I'm an actor not a scarecrow!" However, the decision may not have been Lugosi's in any case, since recent evidence suggests that he was kicked off the project, along with director Robert Florey. Ironically, Lugosi would later go on to play the monster in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" a decade later, when his career was in decline and only after Lon Chaney, Jr. complained bitterly about the possibility of him doing double work through trick photography to appear as both the Wolfman and the Monster in the film for about the same pay rate. Chaney had already appeared as the Monster in the previous Frankenstein film "Ghost of Frankenstein," directly succeeding Boris Karloff in the role."
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"Jack Pierce was the makeup artist who designed the now-iconic "flat head" look for Karloff's monster (as well as Lon Chaney, Jr's Wolfman make-up and Karloff's look for the Mummy), although director James Whale's contribution in the form of sketches remains a controversy, and who was actually responsible for the idea of the look will probably always be a mystery."

"Kenneth Strickfaden designed the electrical effects used in the "creation scene." So successful were they that such effects came to be considered an essential part of every subsequent Universal film involving the Frankenstein Monster. Accordingly, the equipment used to produce them has come to be referred to in fan circles as "Strickfadens." It appears that Strickfaden managed to secure the use of at least one Tesla Coil built by the then-aged Nikola Tesla himself. According to this same source, Strickfaden also doubled for Karloff in the electrical "birth" scene as Karloff was deathly afraid of being electrocuted from the live voltage on the stage."

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The model I've designed is patterned directly from the poster above featuring the Monster in all his shambling sweetness. It is still in beta form, so if you build it, please send a pic or two, and let me know if there are any glitches that need fixing..

Happy Halloween!!
The Professor.

 

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