1910 Movie of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

This presentation of the movie "Frankenstein," by director J. Searle Dawley in 1910 with Thomas Edison's Company, gives a first film depiction of the monster. His look is similar in some ways to Nosferatu, although the 1910 film predates the film of "Nosferatu" in 1922, by director F.W. Murnau, which is a German Expressionist film.

The special effects of the creation of the monster is a possible inspiration to the recent movie, "Frankenstein" with Robert De Niro as Frankenstein, as Dr. Frankenstein also looks through a sealed window to see his creation coming to life. The mirror image in the 1910 version is used to reflect a juxtaposition of Dr. Frankenstein as both the monster and man, the nature of good and evil, with good prevailing. The movie plays on the idea of man playing God, by creating life, which results in an extension of his evil nature.

The twist in the movie is that the monster disappears and Dr. Frankenstein prevails. In the book, as Dr. Frankenstein dies, the monster appears and makes his final comments before retreating to the North Pole to destroy himself on his funeral pyre. The novel's subtitle,"The Modern Prometheus," makes the connection to fire. The monster's end being fire, it ties in with Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus, to return it to the human race after he withheld it to punish Prometheus for swindling him by placing two offerings before him, one with good interior and undesirable exterior, and the other with a desirable exterior and undesirable interior of bones. The two offerings could be seen as a metaphor for the doctor and the monster. Ovid's "Metamorphoses" depicts Prometheus as a creator of mankind from the earth, like a potter makes clay, which is also similar to the theme of "Frankenstein."