Time and memory are strange phenomena to say the least, especially when it comes to items such as films. Frankenstein: The True Story was originally broadcast in the early 1970s on the BBC on New Year’s Eve/Day. The film was praised highly at the time, and certainly it cannot be faulted in terms of production values, with an all-star cast of the finest actors of that generation, and some lavish and exquisite sets. Now, forty-odd years later, Second Sight DVD have seen fit to re-release it on DVD, so the question becomes: has it stood the test of time?This is a long film, clocking in at 185 mins (or 3hrs 05 mins, in old money), but it be summarised thusly: Victor Frankenstein (Whiting) is training to be a doctor, but after his brother William drowns he becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life from death. In London, in the hospital where he’s due to further his training in anatomy, he meets Dr.
FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY also boasts a soundtrack by the talented jazz musician and composer Gil Melle (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, ROD SERLING’S NIGHT GALLERY, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, etc.) that manages to be both eerie and moving at the same time.
Henry Clerval (McCallum), a surgeon who also harbours the same interests, and the two begin working together. However, Clerval dies soon afterwards from a heart condition, leaving Frankenstein to continue the work.
Using his mentor’s notes (and misinterpreting a single line) Frankenstein creates a living creature (Michael Sarrazin) from dead flesh, with the brain of Clerval transplanted into its head.The experiment isn’t a success – the creatures degenerates physically from that of a handsome man into a brute, causing it to be rejected by its creator, thus setting off a chain of events leading to tragedyOne thing to note here – although based on the novel by Mary Woolstonecraft Shelley, it barely resembles that story in any way. Rather, it’s a different take on the basic premise, concentrating more on the creature and its sufferings. Furthermore, we are meant to empathise with it, in the sense of it suffering unnecessarily as a consequence of Frankenstein’s rejection after it begins to lose its beauty. Plus, as was meant by Shelley herself, it is not the creature who is the monster, but his creator. In much the same way when we hear of a parent rejecting its child, we feel it to be a moral abomination and a derogation of responsibility.So, how does it fare after 40 years? On the plus side (as mentioned above), it’s a lavishly produced affair with a star-studded cast, a veritable supergroup of some of the finest actors of their day, as well as wonderful costumes and great sets.
From that perspective, the performances are good, especially those of McCallum as the perpetually grumpy Clerval and James Mason as Polidori, the villain of the piece. The latter steals the show with a gleefully wicked performance. Sarrazin turns in a nuanced interpretation of the tortured creature, pulled this way and that by the winds of fate not of his making.Looking at the negative aspects, Whiting as Frankenstein, is weak in comparison to Polidori: we are meant to somehow believe he’s a driven man, desperate to discover the very secret of life itself, but he just comes across as being a bit of a wet cabbage. Plus, having such a famous cast is a problem in itself, detracting from the film’s storyline – a form of exercise in spot-the-well-known-actor, in essence. This is not to say that relatively unknown actors would have made this any better, of course, but it might have worked more to the film’s advantage.It’s a brave attempt at injecting new life into the familiar story, and of restoring the true aim of the novel: the creature was never the monster we’ve come to know through the Universal and Hammer interpretations, for instance. It succeeds on that level, insofar as one tends to sympathise with the creature’s plight, but beyond that just it’s just a slickly produced and acted TV drama with the added trappings of fantasy and genre.
As a period piece of television production, it’s a historical artefact, but a not very spectacular one.There is only a single extra on the DVD – an introduction by James Mason, which is infamous in certain circles because it purports to show Mary Shelley’s grave marker in a London cemetery. In fact, she’s interred in St Peter’s, Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, quite a way from London.SIMON MARSHALL JONESDirector: Jack SmightStarring: James Mason, Leonard Whiting, Nicola Pagett, David McCallum, Michael Sarrazin, Jayne Seymour, Ralph Richardson, Sir John Gielgud, and Agnes MooreheadCertificate: 12Running time: 185 minutesDVD Release Date: 10 March 2014If you enjoyed our review and want to watch Frankenstein: The True Story, please consider clicking through to our Amazon Affiliate links.
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Contents PlotScript error is a newly trained doctor, engaged to. After Victor's younger brother, William, drowns, Victor renounces God and declares he would join forces with the devil if he could restore his brother to life.Victor leaves the Fanshawe estate for further medical training. He meets Henry Clerval , who has discovered how to restore dead matter to life. Clerval reveals his ultimate plan: to create a new race of perfect beings created from corpses. Clerval persuades Frankenstein to help and the lab is soon completed.Seven peasant laborers have been killed in a local mining accident. The doctors quickly dig up the bodies and stitch together pieces from them, producing a physically perfect body. Clerval is shocked to discover that a previously reanimated arm from weeks earlier has become unsightly and deformed.
Clerval suffers a heart attack and dies before completing his journal entry.The next morning, Victor finds Clerval's body and misreads the incomplete journal entry as a sign of success. Victor transplants Clerval's brain into their creation.Victor soon introduces his creation into high-class London society, passing him off as a friend from a far-off country with little grasp of English. Shortly thereafter, Victor discovers the now repulsive arm in Clerval's laboratory cabinet and realizes there is a flaw in the process. He destroys the deformed arm, but sees the same problem affecting the creature. Victor soon realizes the degeneration is irreversible.
After Victor's landlady, Mrs. Blair , dies from shock from seeing the creature, Victor retreats with him to the laboratory. He contemplates destroying the creature but cannot bring himself to do it. The creature discovers his deformed appearance and unsuccessfully attempts suicide. He then flees the laboratory and jumps into the sea. Victor assumes the creature is dead and realizes that perhaps it is for the best.The creature washes up on the beach, unharmed.
He soon befriends an elderly blind peasant. The blind man is eager to introduce his new friend to his granddaughter Agatha and her boyfriend Felix , but the creature hides. He observes the family from afar and falls in love with Agatha. When Agatha and Felix return home unexpectedly one morning, they encounter the creature and react in horror.
Felix is killed by the creature and Agatha, fleeing in terror, is struck by a carriage and is also killed.The creature takes Agatha's body back to the laboratory, intent on asking Victor to restore her to life. He arrives to find that Victor has left and the laboratory is now occupied by Dr. Polidori , Clerval's former mentor.
Polidori, aware of the creature's origins, plans to force Victor to help him create another creature. In the meantime, Victor has abandoned his experiments and has married Elizabeth. He is confronted by Polidori, who blackmails him into assisting with his procedure.Polidori reveals that it was he who perfected the reanimation of dead flesh, secrets stolen by Clerval. He rejects Clerval's use of solar power in favor of his own chemical reanimation process. Victor attaches Agatha's head to a new body and they reanimate a female creature whom Polidori names Prima. Victor leaves for his honeymoon with Elizabeth.While Victor and Elizabeth are away, Polidori persuades Elizabeth's family to take Prima in as a houseguest. When the couple returns, it becomes evident that Prima is evil, and Elizabeth begs Victor to send her away.
At the laboratory, Victor confronts Polidori, who agrees to leave with Prima as soon as she has become an established member of society. Before they leave the laboratory, Polidori attempts to destroy the original creature by having two of his assistants push him into a vat of acid as he sleeps, but Victor stops them. The enraged creature throws one of the assistants into the acid bath as the others make their escape. Polidori locks the creature in the laboratory and sets the building on fire, resulting in a series of huge explosions.A few days later, a lavish ball is held at the Fanshawe mansion to present Prima to the social elite. Prima delights the guests, and Polidori reveals his plan to use her as a courtesan to gain international political influence.
Suddenly, the badly burned creature bursts into the ballroom and confronts Prima, who attacks him. He rips her head off and throws it at Polidori's feet as the surviving guests flee. Weeping, Victor asks the creature why he has done this. The creature gently responds and exits into the night.The next morning, Victor and Elizabeth are questioned by the local constable. They learn Polidori has suffered a nervous breakdown and admitted to reanimating Prima.
Victor admits to fashioning the creature from bodies, but Elizabeth convinces the constable that her husband is deluded and the police leave. Elizabeth persuades Victor to travel to America in order to begin a new life.After setting sail, Victor and Elizabeth are dismayed to discover that Polidori is also on the ship. Polidori tries to convince Victor to resume the experiments.
Unbeknownst to all, the creature has stowed away and soon emerges from a lifeboat, looking for Victor. Elizabeth sees the creature hiding in Polidori's cabin and locks the two of them together in the room. Clerval's mind has resurfaced in the creature and he is determined to have his revenge on Polidori. Victor unlocks the door and as the ship's captain and crew become involved, the conflict moves to the upper deck.
The creature yards Polidori to the top of a mast, Polidori is struck by lightning and killed. Victor, attempting to climb the mast to reason with the creature is knocked unconscious and falls to the deck. The crew members flee in a lifeboat and the creature takes Victor below deck to care for him.The creature lashes the wheel of the ship on a heading straight for the. In Victor's cabin, Elizabeth cruelly repudiates the creature, who (his mind now that of Clerval) then strangles her.
As Victor remains unconscious below deck, the creature maintains the course to the north. When Victor awakens, he finds the frozen body of Elizabeth on deck and the ship locked in ice. He follows the creature to an ice cave where he confesses that the entire tragedy was caused by his rejection of the helpless, deteriorating creature. He also knows that, upon his death, the creature will be utterly alone, cursed with an 'iron body' that will keep him alive against his will. As Victor begs the creature's forgiveness, the sound of his shouts sets off an ice avalanche. As tons of ice begin to fall upon them both, the creature (in Clerval's voice) forgives his creator, who laughs as he realizes that their ordeal is at an end.Cast.
as Dr. Polidori. as Dr. Victor Frankenstein. as Dr.
Henry Clerval. as Agatha/Prima. as Elizabeth Fanshawe. as The Creature. as Sir Richard Fanshawe. as Lady Fanshawe. as Mrs.
Blair. as Francoise DuVal. as Mr.
Lacey. as Chief Constable (Police). as Sea Captain. as Young Man. as Passenger in Coach. as Hospital Matron. as Priest.
as FelixProductionThe character of Dr Polidori, who did not appear in the original, was based on the character of from Universal Pictures, but named after the real-life, an acquaintance of author Mary Shelley who was part of the competition that produced her novel. Polidori's own contribution was the first modern vampire story (1819).A notable feature of the production is that, instead of being ugly from the start, the Creature is portrayed as physically beautiful but increasingly hideous as the film progresses. The make-up was by veteran artist.It was originally broadcast on NBC-TV in late 1973 in two 90-minute parts, but is often seen edited into a single film.
Its debut date was September 26, 2006. Included at the beginning is a short intro featuring wandering through churchyard, London. He suggests that this is where is buried, which is incorrect (she is in fact buried in the family plot in ), despite standing beside a bearing her name.The film's development and production has been detailed extensively in Little Shoppe of Horrors issue 38 - which was released in June 2017 - by film director/historian, who served as guest editor on this issue.Paperback tie-inThe script for the film, by and, was published in paperback as a tie-in. The script contains a prologue in which is telling her tale of horror to and, as sulks nearby.
As she reaches their parts in the tale, they rush to join the main action and the story proper begins. Some shots in the film indicate that at least part of this prologue may have been filmed. If this segment had been included, it would have featured Nicola Pagett as Mary, Leonard Whiting as Shelley, David McCallum as Byron, and James Mason as Polidori.The script also contains an epilogue, following the avalanche: the season changes and the northern ice begins to break apart.
The Creature's body, still entombed in the remainder of the berg, begins to float south into warmer waters. As the ice melts, one of his hands is exposed. Absorbing the rays of the sun, the hand responds, flower-like, and slowly begins to open.See also.References. Hirschmann, Kris (2012).
Pp. 49. Hitchcock, Susan Tyler (2007). Frankenstein: a cultural history (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Pp. 322–323. ↑ Berg, James J.; Freeman, Chris (2000). The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood.
University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 111. Berg, James J.; Freeman, Chris (2000). The Isherwood Century: Essays on the Life and Work of Christopher Isherwood. University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. 117–118.External linksWikiquote has quotations related to:.
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