WraithApe’s review published on Letterboxd:
One more exhibit removed from my personal hall of shame - first time watch, shockingly! Every bit as good as its reputation would suggest; Jack Pierce's prototypical make-up work, which cemented the image of Frankenstein's monster in popular culture, Boris Karloff's iconic portrayal, the labyrinth of light and shadows that is the re-animator's lab; this adaptation of Mary Shelley's cautionary tale is up there with the early horror greats. Much like some other seminal genre films - King Kong springs to mind - it's not the acting or the script that shines brightest, but the iconography; the set work, lighting and make-up. The first reveal of Karloff's monster, square head framed in Chiaroscuro as he slowly turns towards the camera, like the long shadow of Nosferatu a decade earlier, is an image for the ages. The raising of the stretcher to the electrically-charged, effulgent skylight, the first twitch of the hand - IT'S ALIVE!! Horror's prima materia.
That's not suggest James Whale didn't do a fine job with the direction. At a little over an hour, it's understandably a bit nuts and bolts (sorry), racing through the key plot points like a slalom skier between poles, but he gives just enough time to each scene to make it stick and sustain the richly Gothic atmosphere. Some of the camera work is surprisingly sophisticated for the time as well; I was particularly impressed by the tracking shots in the Baron's home as Henry leads the search for the monster - the camera passes ghost-like from room to room, gliding in front of the stage set walls.
While some scenes are genuinely haunting - the little girl's drowning and her father carrying her body through the town - there's a delightful hokiness to others. The two jars, respectively marked NORMAL BRAIN and ABNORMAL BRAIN, give rise to a continuity error: the first time we see the jars, the labels are clearly printed, but then moments later, when the students have left the auditorium and Fritz steals down from his shadowy perch to do his master's bidding, the labels are suddenly in large handwritten block letters. Later, the echoing voices in what is supposed to be an outdoor scene mark it out as a studio-bound set as much as the ripples in the backcloth of the stormy night sky. Instead of detracting however, such things only add to the film's charm. It shies away from gruesome excess but being pre-Code, there was still a lot of material that may have been cut from the original negative and lost forever, had it been made a few years later.
The ending marks the most significant divergence from Shelley's novel - where originally the monster is banished to the ice fields, escaping his pursuer but facing an uncertain future, here, in elemental contrast, it ends with fire. Universal no doubt saw it as a more cinematic, dramatic finale and they were probably right - the burning windmill provides an indelible image as well as an unintentional illustration of the demonization of the other that plays differently to a modern audience. Personally, I'd have preferred if it ended there, rather than tack on a short epilogue with Henry's recovery and another opportunity for the boorish Baron to condescend to his staff, but I guess that's a 21st Century viewpoint. Still, it seems like Henry gets off lightly for his transgressions. One thing it keeps from Shelley, maybe the most important thing, is the humanizing of the monster. For all of its golem-esque monumentality, Karloff brings a pathos to the role that transcends mere miscreation; it's a blueprint not just for future portrayals of Frankenstein's monster but for horror in general.