I was five years old in 1931 when James WhalesFrankensteincame out.
It was a big mistake.
It was the scariest thing I saw in my life.
Credit: Steven R Stack
I said to my mother, Mom, hey wrap up the window.
She said, Its a hundred degrees in here, I cant exit the window.
I said, If you leave the window open, Frankenstein will come and eat me.
(We called the monster Frankenstein because we didnt know the difference).
My mother said, Okay, lets talk about this.
First of all, the monster lives in Romania, in Transylvania.
Romania is not near the ocean.
So hes going to have to get to Odessa.
Hes going to have go a long way to get to a boat.
Then he has to have money to pay for his passage.
He may not have any money if he is just a monster.
He may not have pockets.
Lets say he makes his way to Odessa and he gets a boat to America.
The boat may go to Miami.
It may go to Baltimore.
It may not go to New York.
If it goes to New York and he gets off there, he doesnt know the subway system.
Lets say he does find our street.
But remember, the people on the first floor have their window open.
He is not going to climb way up.
If hes hungry, he is going to eat whos ever there on the first floor.
And you know, Mom made sense.
So I said, OK, leave the window open.
Of all of my films, I am the proudest of this one.
I think we succeeded, and in this book I will show you how we did it.
Dr. Frankenstein is bereft and heartbroken.
The monster has attacked him.
Inga comforts him, maybe a little too much.
Here is Peter Boyle having fun as the monster, choking his director.
Our genius black-and-white cinematographer, Gerald Hirschfeld, is looking on, enjoying the fun.
I had a great idea for the end credits of the film.
I thought we should all walk down the castle steps and take a bow.
I loved it until I saw it, and then I knew it was a beautiful waste of time.
