YMMV / Frankenstein (1931)

• Accidental Aesop: Maria’s death at the Monster's hands could be interpreted as an object lesson on why you shouldn’t leave your children home alone. Or make sure they know how to swim if you live right next to a body of water.
• Adaptation Displacement: The novel is still fairly remembered today and on the required reading list of several high schools, but when Frankenstein's brought up in pop culture, it's usually this version. And those reading the novel for the first time knowing only this film are usually totally lost.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: The film simplified and compressed the original story considerably and changed the character of the Monster. In particular, the monster in the original story was actually very intelligent and able to speak and move like a normal human, not the stiff, shambling, groaning monster of the movies. He also did not have bolts in his neck or a cylindrical flat-top head. Lightning being used to animate the creature was also solidified by this movie, while in the book, Victor refuses to explain the procedure and never goes beyond very vague descriptions of what he did so no one will be tempted to make the same mistakes as him. Bride of Frankenstein solidified the idea that the monster was called Frankenstein, though this mix-up was already in effect in the preceding decades. And the idea of the monster being brutish, unintelligent, and unable to speak was established by the book's first dramatic adaptation, Richard Brinsley Peake's stage play Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein, as early as 1823.
• Common Knowledge: Due to innumerable sequels, adaptations, parodies, homages, references, and the original novel, plot points from this specific movie are often misremembered.
  • Dr. Frankenstein does not live in a gigantic gothic castle up in the mountains where he conducts his experiments, his laboratory is in a windmill outside of town where he is basically squatting.
  • Dr. Frankenstein is also not a crazy recluse with only his assistant Igor for company whom the townsfolk shun, he's known by the townsfolk and his marriage to Elizabeth is a large public event.
  • As noted under I Am Not Shazam, Frankenstein's assistant is named Fritz, not Igor, and he doesn't speak with a lisp, nor is he devious. The misconception may be at least partly due to unintentionally conflating him with Ygor from Son of Frankenstein.
  • The secret to bringing back the dead is not lightning. As Frankenstein explains to his professor, he found a new frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum and turned it into a ray which somehow brings the dead back to life, the lightning is to jumpstart the body. This would be more memorable if the ray was demonstrated like the lightning instead of just being mentioned.
  • Frankenstein is not the only member of his family, his father is a baron, the local Reasonable Authority Figure, and is most certainly not a scientist.
  • The Monster doesn't have green skin. It's not easy to tell from watching the movie itself, since it's in black and white, but there are colorized publicity photos that clearly show him as having ordinary flesh-colored skin.
  • Most parodies feature an Angry Mob trying to storm Frankenstein's lair after learning about the monster. In the actual movie, Frankenstein leads the mob to find the monster after it goes missing.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Maria — the little girl the monster befriends and accidentally drowns — has a grand total of two minutes of screentime, but man, what an impact she's left on the viewers.
• Evil Is Cool: Both Frankenstein and his monster are easy contenders for this trope for a couple of reasons. Aside from being two of the most iconic horror characters ever, Frankenstein's more sympathetic and caring towards the monster here, than his novel's counterpart ever was. And as for the monster himself, he's just too mindless, innocent, and unaware of the harm he's causing to be truly detestable.
• I Am Not Shazam:
  • The Monster is not named Frankenstein. In fact he is assigned no name at all.
  • The hunchback assistant for Frankenstein is not Igor, but rather Fritz. Igor (or rather Ygor) is a broken-neck assistant for Frankenstein in the third film Son of Frankenstein.
  • Dr. Frankenstein's first name is Henry in this version, not Victor like it was in the book and later adaptations.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • IT'S ALIIIIVE!
  • The final confrontation between Frankenstein and his monster.
• Narm:
  • When the Monster confronts Elizabeth. While the scene is still fairly chilling and unnerving even by today's standards, right as she discovers the Monster behind her and screams for her life, the Monster lets out a snarl that... well, let's just say it gives the scene a healthy dose of unintended hilarity.
  • People who've only seen Young Frankenstein are certain to find unintentional comedy in the scenes of Frankenstein that went for a close parody.
• Older Than They Think: The idea of Frankenstein's Monster as dimwitted, brutish and mute is often said to have started with this movie. In fact, this characterization of the creature is over a century older than the movie, dating back to the 1823 play Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein.
• One-Scene Wonder: Maria, the girl who the monster accidentally drowns left a lasting impact on audiences who were horrified by her character's death.
• Signature Line: "It's alive!"
• Signature Scene: The monster comes to life.

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