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Peeping: Creation scene in 1910 Thomas Edison Frankenstein film. Note here the alchemical process by which the Creature is formed as well as the rather obvious sexual subtexts of the scene, which capitalizes on a homophobia latent in Shelley's novel. |
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Creation scene in 1931 Frankenstein. Note the multiple observers and the "It's alive!" line at the end. The scene is reproduced and spoofed in Better off Dead (1985)--see below. |
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Frankenstein meets fast food: Spoof of 1931 creation scene in Better Off Dead (1985). Note the immediate recognition of the scene, which attests to its familiarity across audiences. Note, too, the use of the "it's alive!" line, which is not in Shelley's novel but was a later invention that has come to stand as shorthand for the novel. |
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"It's alive": the shorter version. This soundbite is what most students recognize and associate with Shelley's novel, though it does not appear there. |
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"It's alive!" again: Heterosexual terror in Bride of Frankenstein (1935).This sequel capitalizes on the "it's alive" line while further exploring the sexual subtexts of Shelley's novel. |
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Scrotum sack, phallic eels, and anmiotic eroticism: Branagh's 1994 creation scene (in Spanish). Branagh's creation scene makes the homoerotic subtext of its source novel (and earliest adaptations) the focal point of the scene. The copper vessel with porthole recalls Edison's creation scene. |
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Monster in the Water: Robert DeNiro as Magwitch (1998). This scene in Alfoso Cuaron's Great Expectations places Robert Deniro (who had played the Creature in Branagh's film) under water to visually connect this film with Branagh's and, by extension, Great Expectations with Frankenstein. |
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Estella becomes Havisham: Lean's dead house (1946). In this scene from David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), Miss Havisham's project to transform Estella into an image of herself appears to have succeeded. This scene, not in Dickens's novel, draws upon the novel's roots in Frankenstein and incorporates Shelley's notions of the remaking of a being in one's own image. The creators of South Park spoof this scene in their "Pip" adaptation by importing the visual icons of the Frankenstein films. |
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Great Expectations meets Frankenstein meets The Wizard of Oz: South Park's Genesis Device. Miss Havisham's "Genesis Device" in the "Pip" episode of South Park (2000) reconnects Great Expectations with Frankenstein via the James Whale Frankenstein film. The Device further references the closing scene in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), in which Estella is in danger of turning into Miss Havisham and must be rescued--as she is here--by Pip, leading to a happy ending also produced here. |