Frankenstein's monster first hit movie screens as a sixteen-minute silent film by Thomas Edison (1847–1931) in 1910. The 1931 sound feature put out by Universal Studios truly made the character's reputation, however. The shambling man-made fiend, based on a creature in Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818), by British novelist Mary Shelley (1797–1851), so terrified audiences that he became a fixture of the horror movies (see entry under 1960s—Film and Theater in volume 4) genre (category) for decades to come. Over the years, Frankenstein has been remade, spoofed, and spun off as a television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3) sitcom (see entry under 1950s—TV and Radio in volume 3) and a Halloween costume. But the terrifying original feature has never been equaled.

Boris Karloff (1887–1969) was an obscure British stage actor when he was tapped by director James Whale (1893–1957) to play Frankenstein's monster in 1931. His interpretation of the character differed...