Frankenstein’s Brains

This chapter documents how, in the long history of Frankenstein productions, the original theme of the creation of life was replaced by brain transplantation, and explores various forms of that radical transformation. It discusses the origins of the brain subplot and the relation of motion pictures to Mary Shelley’s novel (1818). It also examines the entire Frankenstein film industry since 1910, with emphasis on the series produced by Universal (1931–1948, including James Whale’s foundational classic) and Hammer (1957–1973). In contrast to the tendency to find in the Frankenstein motif all sort of societal “anxieties,” this chapter demonstrates the significance of factors internal to the film industry in the formation of a narrative and visual tradition.