A brilliant scientist (Colin Clive) creates a living being from parts of dead bodies in this stylish adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel, which helped establish Universal as the top studio for horror in the 1930s. Director James Whale (The Invisible Man) worked with cinematographer Arthur Edeson (Casablanca) and art director Charles D. Hall (Dracula) to evoke a properly Gothic, black-and-white look, while the striking makeup design by Jack Pierce and the eloquent, wordless performance of Boris Karloff helped to create what is, nearly a century later, still the most iconic cinematic depiction of Frankenstein’s monster.