Frankenstein (1994)

Director:

Kenneth Branagh

Writers (WGA):

Mary Shelley (novel)
Steph Lady (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 November 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

It's Alive.

Plot:

When Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man he just created, the monster escapes and later swears revenge.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Doctor | Escape | Death | Bone Saw

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 10 nominations

Cast

Robert De Niro	...	The Creature
Kenneth Branagh	...	Victor Frankenstein
Tom Hulce	...	Henry Clerval
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Elizabeth
Aidan Quinn	...	Captain Robert Walton
Ian Holm	...	Baron Frankenstein
Richard Briers	...	Grandfather
John Cleese	...	Professor Waldman
Robert Hardy	...	Professor Krempe
Cherie Lunghi	...	Caroline Beaufort Frankenstein
Celia Imrie	...	Mrs. Moritz
Trevyn McDowell	...	Justine
Gerard Horan	...	Claude
Mark Hadfield	...	Felix
Joanna Roth	...	Marie

Also Known As:

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (USA) (complete title)
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Frankenstein (Slovenia) [sl]
Frankenstein (France) [fr]
Frankenstein (Portugal) [pt]
Frankenstein d'après Mary Shelley (Canada: French title) [fr]
Frankenstein d'après l'oeuvre de Mary Shelley (Canada: French title) (complete title) [fr]
Frankenstein de Mary Shelley (Brazil) [pt]
Frankenstein di Mary Shelley (Italy) [it]
Frankenstein tis Mary Shelley (Greece) [el]
Frankenstein, de Mary Shelley (Spain) [es]
Mary Shelley'den Frankenstein (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Mary Shelleyn Frankenstein (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for horrific images.

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

UK | Japan | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS (8 channels) | Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Italy:VM14 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Portugal:M/16 | Brazil:14 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company:

TriStar Pictures

Trivia:

Producer Francis Ford Coppola had originally planned to direct the film himself as a companion piece to Dracula (1992), but eventually stepped back to let Kenneth Branagh direct. Coppola later regretted his decision after a number of disagreements with Branagh during filming.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Elizabeth, while engulfed in flames, falls to the floor from the staircase near the end of the film, ignition fluid is visible on the floor in order to cause the flames to spread.

Quotes:

The Creature: I'd keep my promises if I were you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Will & Grace: Yours, Mine or Ours (#1.16)" (1999)

The real monster here is Kenneth Branagh's ego

DeNiro playing Frankenstein's monster was great idea, and the performance feels true to the character in the book. Sadly it comes off as if he were cut out from another film and pasted into this farce. Seeing it in the theater back in 1994, I was embarrassed for everyone involved except for Branagh, who can share the blame with the producers in making this thing. Grown adults were pointing at the screen and laughing, and not just when John Cleese showed up. His scene was the first unintentionally funny one - Cleese's dour character was straight out of about twenty Python sketches. But the "birth" scene, dripping not just with melted jello but with shallow, pointless undercurrents of mother and child and homo-eroticism, was made more ridiculous with comically timed editing. It's one of the worst things I've ever seen in a Hollywood movie. You've got to wonder what people are thinking sometimes when making a horror film - did Branagh, or whoever had final cut of this thing, get chills up their spine at any point? Could they feel anything other than blind, empty sensation? "Yeah! That does something!" Yeah, it makes the movie really suck. This movie is a lot of things, mostly a really good lesson in really bad film-making, but it is not scary, nor does it carry any of the message or subtext of Shelly's book. One would like to think that Branagh approached this as an assignment with a big paycheck, which could cut him off from some of the blame, but from his blustery, overstuffed interviews at the time, he took it, and himself, very, very, very, very seriously, and I'm sure he thought he was adding something profound to the great cannon of the Frankenstein legend. What a pompous fraud.