# So, who decided Frankenstein was set in Transylvania? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 23, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254 "2003-09-23T04:41:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/21 "2003-09-23T21:26:47Z")
Then, sir, you leave me no other choice. A duel. Choose your weapon. _En garde!_ ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/22 "2003-09-23T21:38:56Z")
I accept. I chose daggers flamberge. That is to say knives whose blades curve and twist like the twisting of serpents or the flickering of flames. I warn you that I own several such blades and am quite adept at their use. I shall wed Eve. But you shall marry the dancing maiiiiideeeen! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/23 "2003-09-23T22:04:09Z")
The 1931 Univesal Pictures _Frankenstein_ was set in Goldstadt, Germany. Frankenstein studied medicine at the Goldstadt Medical College, at which three scenes are set. The 1931 movie was adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel via Peggy Webling’s 1928 stage play, which sets Act I, Scene 1 in “The living room of Victor Frankenstein, in an old house in Goldstadt, Germany.” Presumably _Bride of Frankenstein_ (1935) and _Son of Frankenstein_ (1939) were set in Goldstadt, too. So, where did you get the idea that Frankenstein was set in Transylvania? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/24 "2003-09-23T22:23:39Z")
Oooooh, a _duel!_ I am so enjoying this. [Eve gets her Playbill and marons glaces and settles down with her opera glasses] ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/25 "2003-09-23T22:55:37Z")
Of couyrse, you can’t buy the movies today–none of them. I e-mailed Universal Studios today to ask when they would re-release their Classic Monsters Collection (because someone stole my copy of **Dracula** with the Philip Glass score, bastards) and their reply was, “Try [amazon.com](http://amazon.com).” Actually, I’m so ticked over this I may have to vent in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/26 "2003-09-23T22:56:01Z")
**THUNK** _blink blink_ “My arm! You cut my arm off! Oh well, 'tis only a flesh wound. Continue I saw!” ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/27 "2003-09-23T22:57:02Z")
I saw? I _say_, curse it all, _I say!_ ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/28 "2003-09-23T23:06:44Z")
Now, to attack on a second front. For just as your arm is no match for my arm, your mind is no match for my mind. Look at my blade! See how death lays upom its edges and hangs like a dark star from the very tip? See how she shines? _How she shines? How she shines?_ Folllllooow the shine. Folllloooow. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/29 "2003-09-23T23:16:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*The 1931 Univesal Pictures _Frankenstein_ was set in Goldstadt, Germany. Frankenstein studied medicine at the Goldstadt Medical College, at which three scenes are set. > > The 1931 movie was adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel via Peggy Webling’s 1928 stage play, which sets Act I, Scene 1 in “The living room of Victor Frankenstein, in an old house in Goldstadt, Germany.” > > Presumably _Bride of Frankenstein_ (1935) and _Son of Frankenstein_ (1939) were set in Goldstadt, too. So, where did you get the idea that Frankenstein was set in Transylvania? \*\* I’m not sure, but I think the answer may not reside in the old Universal flicks, but instead in the Hammer ones. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/30 "2003-09-23T23:27:08Z")
Dueling _saws_? **Eve** , my Great-Grandmother was Transylvanian, and I _love_ old cemetaries! Let me whisk you away to the South, where Winter never (not really never) comes, and Spanish Moss (not moss) grows on the cemetary trees. Murfreesboro, albeit a _smaller_ city, has both a Civil War era Military cemetary, Evergreen Cemetary (started _prior to_ the CW, lovely old tombs); and a small plot reserved for our Revolutionary War Hero, Colonel Rutherford, who served under Washington. **Eve** , Be mah little Scarlet O’Hara, mah sweet magnolia blossom. Leave these two crude cads to their common brawl. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/31 "2003-09-23T23:47:34Z")
Mah, [imah\*. Three big ol’ men duelin’ ovah stout little middle-aged _me_, while **gobeah** tries to keep the thread on-topic . . . [fans herself with her Playbill] ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/32 "2003-09-23T23:48:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\* > > **Eve** , Be mah little Scarlet O’Hara, mah sweet magnolia blossom. > > \*\* Bah! Fool! You’re a child playing a man’s game. The two flamberge daggers are not the only weapons in my arsenal. I own a tuxedo, a black velvet cape, and severl canes. And I’m prepared to use them. You think you can compete with me? Can you suddenly appear on the street beneath Eve’s window, dressed to the nine, dancing through pools of light and shadow as Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre echoes upon the stones? Of course you can’t. But I can. I am the dark prince of her dreams, riding up on my ebon steed to rescue her from the crowds of smiling fools to carry her back to my castle of midnight stone where she will dwell in rapture forever. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/33 "2003-09-23T23:48:45Z")
[She’s too ovah-come to even _preview_!] ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/34 "2003-09-23T23:52:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DocCathode \* > \*\*Now, to attack on a second front. For just as your arm is no match for my arm, your mind is no match for my mind. > > Look at my blade! See how death lays upom its edges and hangs like a dark star from the very tip? See how she shines? _How she shines? How she shines?_ Folllllooow the shine. Folllloooow. \*\* Oh ho, is that so? Well let me draw my trusty quarterstaff. And now, Ho! Hah-hah! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Hah! Thrust! **THUNK** Damn. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/35 "2003-09-23T23:59:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Michael Ellis \* > \*\*Oh ho, is that so? Well let me draw my trusty quarterstaff. > > And now, Ho! Hah-hah! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Hah! Thrust! **THUNK** > > Damn. \*\* Victory is mine! Though my use of mesmerism failed, the duel is mine. We agreed upon the weapons. By drawing a staff you have violated that agreement. You are in forfeit. Now all that remains is to select the proper diamond poisoner’s ring and slip it on to the finger of my lady. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/36 "2003-09-24T00:00:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DocCathode \* > \*\*Now all that remains is to select the proper diamond poisoner’s ring and slip it on to the finger of my lady. \*\* Poisoned rings? Feh. Story of my life. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/37 "2003-09-24T00:13:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DocCathode \* > \*\*Bah! Fool! You’re a child playing a man’s game. > > The two flamberge daggers are not the only weapons in my arsenal. > > I own a tuxedo, a black velvet cape, and severl canes. > > And I’m prepared to use them. > > You think you can compete with me? > > Can you suddenly appear on the street beneath Eve’s window, dressed to the nine, dancing through pools of light and shadow as Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre echoes upon the stones? > > Of course you can’t. > > But I can. I am the dark prince of her dreams, riding up on my ebon steed to rescue her from the crowds of smiling fools to carry her back to my castle of midnight stone where she will dwell in rapture forever. \*\* I have a tuxedo, a cane, a _red silk lined_ cloak, _and a top hat!_ HO-HO! And several medals, awarded by fictional-but-real-sounding European Orders! Top that! ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/38 "2003-09-24T00:16:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*Poisoned rings? Feh. Story of my life. \*\* Not a _poisoned_ ring my dear. I shall gift you with a _poisoner’s ring_, beneath the stone shall be a compartment for the storage of poison, the better to drop it into a glass of wine. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Eve_ > **Remember the fad for “poison rings” it spawned? My sister and I each had one.** Just as I said, I am the fulfillment of your heart’s wish. You knew the ring upon your finger was but a prop. I offer you the real one, bearing a diamond and my heart. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/39 "2003-09-24T00:17:27Z")
In the theater the professor patiently explains the audience that he was talking about the later movies not getting it right, not the originals, the professor gets hopeful he is getting somewhere since it is possible that the blame is the Hammer films, and then Mel Brooks… Suddenly, the scenery falls back and shows a duel to death with **Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, DocCathode** and **Michael Ellis**! Poison is mentioned, then **Eve** says: “Poisoned rings? Feh. Story of my life.” Out of nowhere **Vincent Price** stands up and says with a wild expression: …“Do you remember the fun we had when you poisoned me?”… ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254/40 "2003-09-24T00:19:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DocCathode \* > \*\*Now all that remains is to select the proper diamond poisoner’s ring and slip it on to the finger of my lady. \*\* Ring schming. How would you like a diamond necklace that formerly belonged to the Princess of Wales? Not the current one, one of the old whales. And when I say Whales I mean whales. Anyone want to jump in here? Anyone at all. Anyone can jump in. Into this beautiful rope net. Jump into rope. Jump rope. Does anyone want to jump rope? I challenge you to a jump rope contest, and while you’re jumping rope I’ll dump you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-who-decided-frankenstein-was-set-in-transylvania/203254.md?page=3)