Baron Victor Frankenstein: Mad Scientist extraordinaire

A running theme in the genre of European Horror is that of the Mad Scientist. In this essay I point out how the depiction of Baron Frankenstein (specifically in the film Curse of Frankenstein) does or does not adhere to specific Mad Scientist paradigms within that genre, according to various scholarly essays that have been written about the topic.

HIS357
Troy
7 August 2009

Baron Victor Frankenstein: Mad Scientist extraordinaire

One of the most enduring images we have seen in 20th century horror films is that of the “Mad Scientist”. As discussed in class lectures, the archetypical mad scientist adheres to various conventions which define him as such. In Terence Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the character of Baron Victor Frankenstein exhibits many of these attributes, thereby illustrating the definition of this role quite well.
The Baron we see in Curse of Frankenstein is an interesting character because he is less personable, less forgivable, than his counterpart in the novel (and indeed in other film adaptations). The mad scientist often exhibits something lacking physically, thus he makes up for this with his over-achieving quest to play God. Yet for this Frankenstein, there is nothing outwardly indicative of his increasingly malevolent personality. His physique is unassuming; he’s distinguished but not overly attractive; slim but not particularly athletic. He dresses quite well, befitting his status; his speech reflects his privileged upbringing and considerable education. In fact, Frankenstein is a perfect gentleman and 19th century aristocrat; this is part of what makes his character so scary. Neither we nor any of the other characters in the story (even those close to him) can believe he is capable of performing any of the atrocities that he commits. Frankenstein’s behavior is dangerously arrogant from the very beginning of the movie, a characteristic which sets him up to become somewhat of a villain as the story progresses. He does exhibit several of the definitions of being a mad scientist as discussed in class: he does isolate himself from the community—almost as soon as the film starts and he enlists Paul to be his tutor, he shuts himself off almost completely from society. In order to get his grisly deeds done, he begins to operate only at night and only with other people who would also be involved in such sordid affairs; that is to say, the scum of society.
The most important characteristic of Frankenstein that is common to all mad scientists is that of developing a God complex. The further these experiments progress, the more consumed with playing God the character becomes; and no matter how gruesome the results, Frankenstein believes he is above them, believing he can somehow fix whatever went wrong.

In "Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film', Darryl Jones emphasizes the fact that most of the experiments utilized by these mad scientists begin as “fundamentally benign scientific endeavour[s]” (Paul comments on the possible medical advancement that the re-animation of dead tissue could have within the medical world), but that—usually through the fault of the increasingly delusional mad scientist—“go awry” (Jones 52). “Science” itself does not actually play a large role in The Curse of Frankenstein. Though the creatures are shown being animated and re-animated through the use of impressive high-voltage circuitry and bubbling vats of chemicals, the actual scientific processes of the procedure are not explicitly shown. This is one of the only similarities the film adaptation has to the novel, and is apparently not a major concern for the audience; we seem to be able to momentarily suspend our cynicism for a story whose entire premise centers around a scientific accomplishment so impossible as to be considered supernatural.

We are an educated, technologically-savvy society; ordinarily we would praise and admire Frankenstein for being able to create life and make possible the impossible. Yet Frankenstein’s lust for power, his obsession with playing God, and his ultimate descent into madness render him distasteful in the eyes of the audience. We question his morality and find his ever-increasing selfishness objectionable. Therefore, he cannot be classified as a hero but rather an anti-hero, and in this case even a borderline villain. The Curse of Frankenstein is an unusual case because there is no clear-cut protagonist in the film. Though the storyline centers around Frankenstein, his irredeemable behavior causes the audience to turn against him and side with Paul, who seems to have stronger morals; yet Paul’s failure to intervene ultimately enables Frankenstein in his macabre escapades. His saving grace comes at the end of the film, in which he finally puts his silence to good use: Frankenstein is sent to his death and thus punished for his crimes. In this story, the most antagonistic thing is Frankenstein’s mad scientist persona, his all-consuming desire to perpetuate his practices no matter the terrible cost. We cannot fully root for any one character and definitively say that he or she is the protagonist of the film; so perhaps we will just leave it at this: the entire cast of characters and the story itself (Jones 61) may function as a combined protagonist because their actions collectively represent the empathy of the audience.

Baron Frankenstein is the archetypical “mad scientist” because he fits very nicely into certain definitions of this role: he descends into insanity, he isolates himself from the community, he has delusions of grandeur and a God complex; his experiments begin innocuously enough, yet go awry and eventually spiral out of his control. The Curse of Frankenstein provides an interesting example of the “mad scientist” persona because its is a little different from the norm; Curse’s Frankenstein is darker, less accessible man, more mad than scientist; therefore from the audience’s point of view he is a much scarier character.

Profondo Rosso - European Horror and the Giallo

This is my reaction to "Profondo Rosso", a European Horror film that belongs more specifically to the sub-genre of the Giallo. In case you're unfamiliar with the Giallo style of movies, here's a little background on it:

http://www.kinoeye.org/02/11/needham11.php

The "Gialli" are an Italian style of horror movie, centering principally on a detective-solving-a-murder plot and often containing very gory scenes. The name comes from the Italian word for "yellow" and refers to the color of the covers of Italian horror serials published in the 1920s and '30s.

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Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso or Deep Red is a classic example of European Horror, and in particular the sub-genre of the Giallo. According to Maitland McDonagh’s "Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento", Deep Red is definitely a Giallo in that it is a “psychological/detective thriller whose overt concerns are the mechanics of crime and punishment; however this film’s particular style leans closer to the “serie noir”, in which the two stories (the first being the initial murder which sets the events of the film in motion, and the second being the unraveling of the case itself) are fused together (McDonagh 5). The movie opens with a murder scene: we see someone get stabbed, and the feet of a nearby witness, who is obviously a child. The next big event is the fate of a German clairvoyant; after she psychically identifies the presence of a murderer in the audience of her press conference, she is followed back to her apartment and brutally murdered, presumably by the same person who committed the murder in the opening scene.

The rest of the story follows one Marc Daly, a pianist, who witnesses the crime while hanging out in a downstairs courtyard with his friend Carlo. After picking up on something that the police don’t notice, he teams up with Gianna, a female journalist he meets at the crime scene, and the unlikely pair spend the remainder of the movie trying to solve the mystery of the perpetrator’s identity. Marc cleverly notices that a certain song (a child singing, or a children’s record maybe) is always playing when these murders are committed. His friend the Professor (also a friend of the dead psychic Helga) makes the ingenious connection that the song must have played a crucial role in the murderer’s childhood, and has had a lasting psychological impact on him or her. We find out at the end of the film that the killer is Carlo’s mother. Notably, we discover that the song which heralded the murders was actually a children’s record; Carlo had put it on immediately beforehand, and it played throughout his experience of witnessing the death of his father at the hands of his mother. McDonagh makes note of the extensive use of music in Deep Red, yet he doesn’t really touch on this aspect of it (McDonagh 9-10). From this reading, we are meant to understand that music plays an integral part in the Giallo, which it definitely does in this case. He mentions the importance of diegetic music in the film, especially the jazz which both Marc and Carlo play, but doesn’t discuss this particular plot device (which is actually really important and kind of central to the story).

Ultimately, I did enjoy the film, although I thought it was a little slow-moving in parts. The scene in which Marc is chipping away the plaster which covers the drawing on the wall seemed to take FOREVER, and the fact that it dragged on didn’t really seem to increase the suspense. My favorite aspect was the mystery of the killer: several red herrings are thrown in, such as the fact that the killer wears thick black eyeliner (but so do almost all the main characters), and also that we are led to believe that Amanda Righetti (who has written a book about the event shown in the opening scene) is the child who witnessed (committed?) the murder years ago, now grown up. Of course, we find out she’s not the killer once she’s murdered, but the ruse is entertaining anyway. I also think (and we discussed this in class) that the goriness of the murders and the fakeness of the red blood detract from the scariness or the horror of the story. This gory, bloody mess is also a characteristic of the Giallo (as evidenced by the films of not only Argento but also of his mentor Mario Bava (McDonagh 6)), but because the horror in this film is so explicit I found much of it to be ineffective (or at least, it smacked strongly of B-movieness).

Overall I think this movie is a good choice to show as a model for the Giallo; it was interesting and seemed to conform to all the characteristics of the genre. From the reading we get the impression that it is probably one of the better films within this class of horror and I’m glad I got the chance to see this movie rather than one of Argento’s other works such as Tenebre or Suspiria .