# Why does Frankinstein have bolts in his neck? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664 "2003-10-31T15:56:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnBarleycorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@JohnBarleycorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBarleycorn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/1 "2003-10-31T15:56:24Z")
All the other parts and joints are just stitched together. Were they in the original fairy tail or just the movies? ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/2 "2003-10-31T16:00:04Z")
I think it was just in the movie, and it gave the doctor some place to connect the electrodes. Barry P.S. The doctor’s name was Frankenstein. The monster was simply known as “the monster” (or sometimes “Frankenstein’s monster”) ---
**Author:** ![RonA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@RonA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RonA)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/3 "2003-10-31T16:06:23Z")
I think that’s where doc attached the jumper cables. IIRC, he hoisted the creature thru the roof and lightening struck the lightening rod, passing electricity thru the cables and the neck bolts. This jump-started the monster, bringing him to 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:** [October 31, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/4 "2003-10-31T16:09:23Z")
Much of the Monster came from executed criminals. When men are hung, necks get broken. The bolts are part of a metal implant that holds his neck together. Or, it looks cool. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/5 "2003-10-31T16:27:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohnBarleycorn \* > \*\*All the other parts and joints are just stitched together. > Were they in the original fairy tail or just the movies? \*\* It wasn’t a fairy tale, it was a novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, _Frankenstein, or a Modern Prometheus_, first published in 1818. The movie differs greatly from the book, which contains almost no details about how the young student Victor Frankenstein brough life to his creation. This is the extent of the description of the climactic scene in the novel: > [@](#): > > It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs. In the movie, the bolts were electrodes to introduce the electricity that brought life to the creature. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/6 "2003-10-31T17:02:17Z")
In the Boris Karloff movies, the neck bolts were there for conducting electricity, not to hold the neck together. But the monster did have[staples](http://www.rsdstudios.com/desktops/images/1600x1200_Frankenstein_Fore.jpg) on his forehead and temples, presumably along the line that his cranium was opened to insert the brain. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/7 "2003-11-01T04:16:33Z")
They’re a fashion statement. He’s metrosexual, y’know. Platform boots, too. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/8 "2003-11-01T04:36:42Z")
Just watching SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, the third of the series with Karloff (following FRANKENSTEIN and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.) Basil Rathbone, as the Son of Doctor, finds the monster’s body and is trying to bring it back to life, holds the bolts and specifically describes them as where his father attached the electrodes. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/9 "2003-11-01T13:38:02Z")
In the movie _My Life_, Keaton videotapes instructions to his unborn son on how to use jumper cables to start a car. He says: “Do _not_ use these to play Frankenstein!” and winces at the thought of it. In Mary Shelley’s novel, the monster was usually called “the fiend.” I think “Frankenstein’s Fiend” sounds way cooler and I wonder why it hasn’t caught on. There was a movie titled _Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein_, but I haven’t seen it. Anyone who has seen it, is the filmed story more faithful to the novel as the title promises? How is the animation scene played? Any neck electrodes? Do they use the word “fiend”? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/10 "2003-11-01T13:52:05Z")
They do at least in one place, where this is quoted: [http://www.bartleby.com/100/340.15.html](http://www.bartleby.com/100/340.15.html) ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/11 "2003-11-01T15:03:36Z")
I read somewhere that those neck bolts were copyrighted or protected somehow - by the movie studio that first produced the Frankenstein (FrankenSTEEN!)movies. That screen monster is a wonderful intellectual property, and the neck bolts make him instantly identifiable. I wonder who thought them up - some unsung yet ingenious makeup man/woman? If you haven’t already, you might want to read Shelley’s book. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/12 "2003-11-01T16:28:28Z")
[Jack P. Pierce](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0682370/) (1889-1968) was the legendary makeup artist at Universal studios who created the special makeups for _Dracula_ (1931), _Frankenstein_ (1931), _The Mummy_ (1932), _Bride of Frankenstein_, _WereWolf of London_ (1931), and _The Wolf Man_ (1941). And yes, the particular look of Universal’s Frankenstein monster is under copyright, and must be licensed to be used elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/13 "2003-11-01T16:29:35Z")
Now how did that happen. That should be _Bride of Frankenstein_ (1935), _WereWolf of London_ (1935). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-frankinstein-have-bolts-in-his-neck/210664/14 "2003-11-01T16:39:37Z")
I wasn’t asking whether any other poets like Coleridge used the word “fiend.” I was asking about the screenplay for the movie _Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein_ that came out a few years ago. According to the credits at [imdb.com](http://imdb.com), Robert DeNiro starred as “The Creature.” Trivia: Kenneth Branagh apparently banned the term “Monster” from the set. He insisted that everyone refer to DeNiro’s character the way he was identified in the credits, as “The Sharp-Featured Man”.