It's alive! Alive!" shouts Colin Clive's triumphant Dr. Frankenstein as electricity buzzes over the hulking body of a revived corpse. "In the name of God now I know what it's like to be God!" For years unheard, this line has been restored, along with the legendary scene of the childlike monster tossing a little girl into a lake, in James Whale's Frankenstein, one of the most famous and influential horror movies ever made. Coming off the tremendous success of Dracula, Universal assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley's famous novel with Bela Lugosi as the monster. When Lugosi declined the role, Whale cast the largely unknown character actor Boris Karloff and together with makeup designer Jack Pierce they created the most memorable monster in movie history: a towering, lumbering creature with sunken eyes, a flat head, and a jagged scar running down his forehead. Whale and Karloff made this mute, misunderstood brute, who has the brain of a madman (the most obvious of the many liberties taken with Shelley's story), the most pitiable freak of nature to stumble across the screen. Clive's Dr. Frankenstein is intense and twitchy and Dwight Frye set the standard for mad-scientist sidekicks as the wild-eyed hunchback assistant. Whale's later films, notably the spooky spoof The Old Dark House and the deliriously stylized sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, display a surer cinematic hand than seen here and add a subversive twist of black comedy, but given the restraints of early sound films, Whale breaks the film free from static stillness and adorns it with striking design and expressionist flourishes. --Sean Axmaker

DVD features
A 75th Anniversary Edition of Frankenstein is a fine gesture toward a film classic, although fans who have already bought Universal's previous Frankenstein DVDs might want to weigh how much they need to upgrade an already acceptable package. The picture quality of Frankenstein in the "Classic Monsters Collection" and "Legacy Collection" was already pretty good (unlike Dracula, which was significantly improved for its 75th-anniversary issue). A few new features are added here, joining a roster of previously available extras.

Returning from prior DVDs: The Frankenstein Files, an in-depth history of both literary and cinematic incarnations of Mary Shelley's monster; a feature commentary with Rudy Behlmer; various archival items; and Boo!, a comedy short with horror clips and spoofy narration. Added for this anniversary edition is a new commentary with Sir Christopher Frayling, who brings a spirited and learned attack to talking about the film. Also new is Universal Horror, a 95-minute documentary by Kevin Brownlow. As good as Brownlow's work generally is, this 1998 doc, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, is choppy, and ranges far afield from Universal's great run of horror movies. It's worth seeing for clips from very rare films and for interviews with the likes of Fay Wray, Gloria Stuart, Ray Bradbury, and Curt Siodmak. (It's also included in the Dracula anniversary set.) And there's "monster Tracks," a pop-up feature that gives onscreen info-bites about the film while you're watching it.

The best of the new features is Karloff: The Gentle Monster, a 38-minute documentary on the subject of the film's iconic star, whose career was made by the success of Frankenstein. It pays fond tribute to Karloff's beloved status as a horror giant, and makes the case that his career had real variety. Frayling and director Joe Dante are among the talking heads paying homage. --Robert Horton

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