The scene in which the Monster throws Maria, the little girl into the lake and accidentally drowns her has long been controversial. Upon its original 1931 release, the second part of this scene was cut by state censorship boards in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York.[13] Those states also objected to a line they considered blasphemous that occurred during Frankenstein's exuberance when he first learns that his creature is alive. The original relevant passage was:
VICTOR: "Henry, in the name of God!" HENRY: "In the name of God? Now I know what it feels like to BE God!"[13]
Kansas requested the cutting of 32 scenes, which, if they had been removed, would have cut half of the film.[17] Jason Joy of the Studio Relations Committee sent censor representative Joseph Breen to urge them to reconsider. Eventually, an edited version was released in Kansas.[13]
As with many Pre-Code films that were reissued after strict enforcement of the Production Code in 1934, Universal made cuts from the original camera negative,[18] and thus most of the excised footage is often lost. However, the scene of the girl being thrown into the lake was rediscovered during the early 1980s in the collection of the British National Film Archive, and it has been restored to modern prints of the film.[19]
In the Irish Free State, the film was banned on February 5, 1932, for being demoralizing and unsuitable for children or "nervous people" – age-restricted certificates were not introduced in the country until 1965. The decision was overturned by the Appeal Board on March 8, and the film was passed uncut on March 9.[20] The film was successfully banned in Northern Ireland, Quebec, Sweden, Italy, and Czechoslovakia.[8]
