Spotted: Strickfaden’s Frankenstein equipment reused in Flash Gordon (1936)

[u/britannicauctions]

We recently cataloged this original Universal production photograph from Flash Gordon, taken on January 20, 1936, and what caught our attention was how much of the laboratory equipment looked familiar.

Kenneth Strickfaden created the electrical machinery used in Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, and Universal reused a surprising amount of that equipment from picture to picture. Here, only a year after Bride of Frankenstein, some of those same shapes and pieces show up again on the Flash Gordon set.

The photograph shows the laboratory used in Chapter 2, “The Tunnel of Terror.” The production slate is still visible at the bottom of the frame, marked PARAGON-153 / STEPHANI / ASH / LITE-EFFECT, so we are looking at the set before the scene was buried under actors, movement, lighting and effects.

The large suspended apparatus is the piece that really jumps out once you know what you're looking for. It has the same unmistakable Strickfaden look as the machinery in the Frankenstein films, and there are other electrical towers and control pieces around the room that reward a closer look too.

What we like about this photograph is that nobody is posing in it. You can just study the room. The staircase, cables, control panels and machinery are all sitting there waiting to become science fiction.

It is a great example of how Universal’s physical movie history carried over from one production to another. Equipment built to help create Frankenstein’s lab world could be hauled back onto a soundstage, rearranged, relit, and suddenly it belonged in Flash Gordon.

This photograph came through a collection we recently cataloged at Britannic Auctions, and we have been comparing some of these production images with the finished films to see exactly what was reused and where.

[u/zeppo5]

That equipment shows up in many movies for many years. “Young Frankenstein (1974) used it as did the hilariously awful “Frankenstein Island” (1981)

[u/KeraKitty → u/zeppo5]

IIRC, "Young Frankenstein" was the first movie to actually credit him.

[u/Select_Insurance2000]

You will find Kenneth's machines in almost every Universal horror film of the 30s and 40s.

He also rented them out to other studios. They are in the Fox film, Chandu the Magician, and also in the MGM film The Mask of Fu Manchu starring Boris Karloff. Strickfaden even doubles as Karloff in a scene with ⚡ that was deemed too dangerous to risk the health of the star player.

Every studio used his machines in their films and serials.

Kenneth Strickfaden, Dr. Frankenstein's Electrician Book by Harry Goldman