Frankenstein (1931)

Victor Frankenstein removes himself from society, becoming obsessed with his attempts to create life from dead tissue. Nothing can tempt him away from his experiments: not his old professor, his father, nor even his girl. But, of course, they eventually prevail and drag him away to convalesce and finally return to his old self. Too bad his creation doesn't also have a retreat from his hell.

It's one of those films that is familiar through so much parody that I knew it even though I'd never seen it. It's got everything a good story needs, including a powerful sense of the tragic -- I really felt for the sad-eyed beast who didn't know his own strength -- but it's been done so much better so many times since. It will just have to content itself with being the first rather than the best.

C+