We're back from Spring Break, discussing James Whale's 1935 classic featuring Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, and Ernest Thesiger. Our guests are the authors of the new book Peggy Webling and the Story Behind Frankenstein: The Making of a Hollywood Monster, about the woman who wrote the stage play from which Universal's Frankenstein (1931) was adapted. Also: a new superlative honoring one of our favorite actors, the inimitable Béatrice Dalle.
Intro, Debate Society, To Sir With Love (spoiler-free): 00:00-27:40
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy): 27:41-56:04
Superlatives (spoiler-heavier): 56:05-1:16:04
Director James Whale
Screenplay William Hurlbut, adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley by John Balderston & Hurlbut
Featuring Colin Clive, E.E. Clive, Dwight Frye, Gavin Gordon, O.P. Heggie, Valerie Hobson, Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Una O’Connor, Ernest Thesiger, Douglas Walton
Bruce Graver has taught British Romantic literature and art at Providence College since 1985. He has prepared scholarly editions of the works of the Wordsworth family, has a special interest in 19th-century 3D photography (The Stereoscopic Picturesque is about to be published), and is a classically trained pianist and tenor who has performed with various New England choirs and chamber ensembles. In good weather, Bruce can be found hiking along the Appalachian Trail, or across the mountains of the English Lake District, where the Wordsworths and Beatrix Potter once lived.
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum is an ancient historian who teaches postgraduates at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, and writes on the history of astrology, divination, and ancient medicine. She has been an amateur genealogist for the past 23 years. Peggy Webling is Dorian’s great-grandaunt, and she grew up hearing family tales about her writing of the play Frankenstein. In 1991, she and her mother discovered a large cache of letters that Peggy and her sisters wrote to Dorian’s great-grandmother over almost 30 years, and Dorian now owns an unpublished archive of Peggy’s letters, papers, manuscripts, and photographs.
To find out more about Bruce and Dorian’s book, click here.
Our theme music is by Sir Cubworth, with embellishments by Edward Elgar. Music from Bride of Frankenstein by Franz Waxman.
For more information on this film, essays from your hosts (including why the Professor chose it, on Our Blog), and other assorted bric-a-brac, visit our website, scareupod.com.
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