Dr. Frankenstein's first name is Henry, while his best friend's name is Victor Moritz. In the novel, the doctor's name is Victor Frankenstein, while his best friend is Henry Clerval.
During production there was some concern that seven-year-old Marilyn Harris, who played Maria, the little girl thrown into the lake by the creature, would be overly frightened by the sight of Boris Karloff in costume and make-up when it came time to shoot the scene. When the cast was assembled to travel to the location, Marilyn ran from her car directly up to Karloff, who was in full make-up and costume, took his hand and asked "May I drive with you?" Delighted, and in typical Karloff fashion, he responded, "Would you, darling?" She then rode to the location with "The Monster.".
Extant copies of the 1938 re-issue trailer show The Monster rising from the operating table and stalking away after strangling Dr. Waldman. In the finished film there is a dissolve from The Monster still on the table choking Waldman to The Monster descending the tower stairs.
In one scene, the Monster (Boris Karloff) walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves toward her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because Karloff - objecting to the director's interpretation of the scene - felt that the monster should have gently put Maria into the lake. This scene is restored in the videocassette reissue.
Part of the original SHOCK THEATER package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with SON OF SHOCK, which added 21 more features.
Some of the sets had originally been constructed for Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary which Universal had produced four years earlier.
The casting of the monster was the most difficult aspect of the casting process. James Whale happened to spot Boris Karloff in the Universal commissary and passed him a note offering a screen-test, which Karloff jumped at. Karloff later joked that he was offended by being viewing as such an ugly character, since on the day that Whale spotted him, he was wearing his most elegant suit and thought he was looking handsome.
The film was banned in Kansas upon its original release on the grounds that it exhibited "cruelty and tended to debase morals".
The first film to use the famous Castle Thunder sound effect.
The method of animating the creature is never discussed in Mary Shelley's novel. In the book, Frankenstein, narrating, refuses to divulge how he did it so no one can re-create his actions. However, the use of lightning to resurrect the monster has become the accepted methodology and appears in virtually every Frankenstein movie since.
The Monster in this film does not physically resemble Mary Shelley's character. It was make-up artist Jack P. Pierce who came up with innovations such as the Monster's flat head, the bolts through the neck, the droopy eyelids, and the poorly-fitted suit. Any future Frankenstein film that features any of these physical abnormalities is taking its inspiration from Pierce's make-up work.
The monster make-up design by Jack P. Pierce is under copyright to Universal through the year 2026, and licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc.
The movie's line "It's alive! It's alive!" was voted as the #49 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).
The opening credits list the novel's author as "Mrs. Percy B. Shelley" rather than "Mary Shelley" as she is now credited.
The popular image of Frankenstein's monster as green-skinned was sourced in this film. Actually, Jack P. Pierce's monster make-up gave the monster yellow skin, one of the few consistencies from Mary Shelley's original description of the monster.
The screenplay originally called for Henry Frankenstein to die from his fall from the burning mill. When Universal decided for a happy ending (see "Alternate versions"), Colin Clive was in England, so his stand-in was used for the far shot of him recuperating in his bed, with his fiancée at his side.
The set design of the windmill sequence was inspired by a building in Los Angeles that housed a local bakery, Van de Kamp, which displayed a large windmill as its corporate logo.
Those originally considered for the cast included Leslie Howard as Henry Frankenstein and Bette Davis as Elizabeth. Director James Whale insisted on Colin Clive for the role of Henry.
Universal studios owns the Copyright to the make up designed by Jack P. Pierce for Frankenstein's Monster.
What are commonly called bolts on the neck of the monster are in reality electrodes.