E X T E N S I O N HORRIBLE, WONDERFUL MONSTERS: FRANKENSTEIN AND THE CINEMA Mary Shelley s Frankenstein has been adapted for the cinema several times. The first film was made in 1910 but the most famous was the one interpreted by Boris Karloff in 1931. In this film the top of the monster s head was cut off. This had a great success and fixed the way to represent the monster in many following films. The next films dealt with the monster s family. In 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein and, four years later, The Son of Frankenstein in which two famous actors of horror films, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, acted together. We have to wait until 1958 to meet the monster s daughter, The daughter of Frankenstein, by Richard Cunha. Another trend consisted in putting together monsters coming from different stories. We have, for example, The House of Frankenstein (1944) in which Dracula, the Wolf Man and a murderous hunchback appear with Frankenstein or, many years later, in 1972, Dr cula contra Frankenstein (Dracula versus Frankenstein), a Spanish film directed by Jesus Franco. Successful parodies have also been shot. In 1948 Charles T. Burton directed two famous comedians, Bud Abbot and Lou Costello in The Brain of Frankenstein. Another successful series was The Addams Family which started as a strip cartoon in the 30 s, turned into a telefilm in the 60 s, a cartoon in the 70 s and finally a film in the 90 s. In 1994 we had Mary Shelley s Frankenstein directed and interpreted by Kenneth Branagh, starring Robert De Niro as the Monster. Boris Karloff. 45