The 90th anniversary of the release of Frankenstein (1931) is later this year. This film made a star of the relatively unknown 44-year-old Boris Karloff.

The Monster's make-up design by Jack P. Pierce is under copyright to Universal through the year 2026 and licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc. The Monster in this film does not physically resemble the character in Mary Shelley's novel. 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.

In a moment of ghoulish humor, when Fritz is stealing the brain, he bumps into a human skeleton. This was a real human skeleton. Film producers found it faster and cheaper to purchase a real human skeleton from a biological supply house rather than creating an artificial one.

Assuming its copyright has not lapsed already, this film and all others produced in 1931 enter the U.S. public domain in 2027.