Jonathan recognizes "the home of my youth," returning as a "prodigal" son after wenty years.He bears a striking resemblance to "Boris Karloff" (and he monster in the horror filmFrankenstein (1931)) [Karloff originated the homicidal role on stage, but wasn""t released to star in the film, so Massey was ""made up"" to look like him], due to a previous bungled, face-scarring third operation (in a period of five years) while the careless Einstein was drunk: "That last face - I saw that picture too just before I operated.Frank: Yeah.(He winks at her) Watch.(Toward Nick) Nick, I""ve seen many a sign in my time, but that""s the daddy of them all.I certainly got to hand it to ya.Nick: Why, Frank?Frank: Well, there I was, trying to get the old one fixed up, and already you""d seen the neon salesman - and BINGO! A new sign prettier han a Christmas tree.Other plagues were only mentioned in the dialogue: lice, flies, sickness, boils, and three days of darkness.The screenplay for director Ridley Scott""s film (only his second feature film followingThe Duellists (1977), although Walter Hill was originally to be the director) was written by Dan O""Bannon, who based the script upon a story (originally titledStar Beast) that he had written with partner Ronald Shusett.