History Trivia / Frankenstein1931

** Creator/BelaLugosi was originally set to play the Monster. He also created his own monster make-up, which is reported to have resembled the eponymous being from the 1920 film ''Film/TheGolem''. 20 minutes of test footage was shot with him, but it is considered to be [[MissingEpisode lost]]. Lugosi reportedly hated playing the character so left the project alongside the film's originally assigned director. Lugosi got his chance to play the Monster 12 years later in ''Film/FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan''. It could be argued that his instincts were correct as he is widely considered to have been miscast as the Monster. Before this, he was also offered the role of ''Dr.'' Frankenstein...which would've made for an especially amusing CastingGag, as the character's mentor is played by none other than [[Film/{{Dracula1931}} Dr. Van Helsing]], while his assistant is Renfield!

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/JamesWhale was responsible for picking Creator/BorisKarloff to play the Monster. Whale happened to spot Karloff at the Universal commissary and gave him a note offering a screen test, which Karloff jumped at. The rest — as they say — is history. Whale also insisted on casting Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein.

* ScienceMarchesOn: As mentioned on the LightningCanDoAnything page, the film extends the historical anecdote of Luigi Galvani, discovering in the 18th century that by shocking frogs' legs he could make them jerk about, to mean REALLY shocking a piecemeal corpse could bring it back to life. Yeah, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Neuroscience Does Not Work Like That]]. The dialogue gives some further explanation, but it falls short of a HandWave ...its talk of a "ray beyond the ultraviolet" which brings life is more a case of pre-Bomb ILoveNuclearPower than anything else.

* TheForeignSubtitle:
** France: ''Frankenstein, the Man Who Created a Monster''
** Uruguay: ''Frankenstein, the Creator of the Monster''
* IAmNotSpock: Boris Karloff subverted this by admitting that the ''Frankenstein'' movies are the only reason he became a successful actor; prior to this he'd been toiling in small roles and theatre for years.

* PropRecycling:
** Some of the sets were remainders from Universal's 1927 film ''Theatre/TheCatAndTheCanary''.
** Science equipment in the film were later reused in ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', though at great expense to stay faithful to the original.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/JamesWhale was responsible for picking Creator/BorisKarloff to play the Monster. Whale happened to spot Karloff at the Universal commissary and gave him a note offering a screen test, which Karloff jumped at. The rest — as they say — is history.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #87
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #56
** AFIS100Years100MovieQuotes:
*** #49, "It's alive! It's alive!"

* AFIS100YearsSeries:

* PlayingAgainstType: Carl Laemmle Jr. offered Creator/JamesWhale a list of 30+ film adaptations he could direct and Whale picked this one. Whale said he did so because he wanted to get away from the war pictures with which he had so far been associated. Ironically, Whale is now, by far, best-remembered for his four horror films.

* PlayingAgainstType: Carl Laemmle Jr. offered James Whale a list of 30+ film adaptations he could direct and Whale picked this one. Whale said he did so because he wanted to get away from the war pictures with which he had so far been associated. Ironically, Whale is now, by far, best-remembered for his four horror films.

** The reason that Victor Frankenstein's first name was changed to Henry (which was his best friends first name) was because the producers felt that Victor would sound too unfriendly and severe for Great Depression audiences (but maybe because they made Frankenstein's best friend Henry Clerval a bit of a severe character, they decided to change his name to Victor.)

* ScienceMarchesOn: As mentioned on the LightningCanDoAnything page, the film extends the historical anecdote of Luigi Galvani, discovering in the 18th century that by shocking frogs' legs he could make them jerk about, to mean REALLY shocking a piecemeal corpse could bring it back to life. Yeah, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Neuroscience Does Not Work Like That]]. The dialogue gives some further explanation, but it falls short of an AuthorsSavingThrow...its talk of a "ray beyond the ultraviolet" which brings life is more a case of pre-Bomb ILoveNuclearPower than anything else.

* BannedInChina: Banned in Kansas in its initial release.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/JamesWhale chose to direct the film because he wanted to do something other than war films.

* NotEnoughToBury: Unintentionally invoked due to a continuity error; Fritz's body vanishes between the time we see him hanging from a rafter and a few minutes later when Frankenstein, Waldman and Henry reenter the room carrying the now-unconscious monster. We see the same rafter, but there's no sign of Fritz, and Henry - who enters the scene late - gives no indication of seeing a dead body in there.

* IAmNotSpock: Boris Karloff subverted this by admitting that the ''Frankenstein'' movies are the only reason he became a successful actor.

* EvolvingCredits: Opening credits list all the actors ''[[NotNamedInOpeningCredits except]]'' the one playing the Creature, who is billed only with a question mark. Creator/BorisKarloff is only named in the closing credits.

* StockSoundEffects: The "Castle Thunder" effect makes its first appearance here.

** The role of the Monster was also offered to Creator/JohnCarradine, but he refused it because he felt that it was beneath him. Carradine later played Dracula in a couple of the lesser later Frankenstein-franchise films.