Terror of Frankenstein

The Universal classic films Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), by one of the most brilliant directors of any age, James Whale, are moving, subtle, brilliant, multi-faceted works of art. Nothing will challenge their place in the cinematic canon of great works. However, no one, including Whale himself, would ever claim that they have much relation to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, except on the most minimal thematic level, the author's red-herring appearance in the prologue of the latter film notwithstanding (Elsa Lanchester, in a sardonic Whale gesture, seen later as the Bride). The Hammer Frankenstein films of the 1950s-70s are even more remote from the novel, even thematically, though they are enjoyable nonetheless.

The novel itself reads like a depressing philosophical tract about the human condition. Victor Frankenstein of Geneva, a medical student working in Ingolstadt during the mid eighteenth century, assembles a body from pieces and gives it life through a means never described but which hints at alchemy. Victor deliberately makes his Creature enormous in stature--eight feet tall--and never notices that he has fashioned a monstrously ugly being until he brings the Creature to life: "a mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous." Repelled, Victor irresponsibly abandons him. The Creature finds humanity just as shallow, the reaction to his appearance uncomprehending and violent. A sensitive soul, he learns to speak and read by secretly observing a rural family who drive him away upon finally seeing him. Understandably and permanently embittered, the Creature finds Victor, and eloquently expresses his desire for a mate to end his solitude. Victor agrees to create one, but when he reneges on his promise, the Creature kills Frankenstein's family and friends so Victor will share his desolation. Frankenstein pursues the Creature to the North Pole where, exhausted, he is picked up by a ship headed by explorer Robert Walton, to whom he tells his story--the framing device for the entire novel; he then dies. The Creature appears, vowing self-immolation, and is "lost in darkness and distance."

The films cited above make no pretensions to literalism and can be evaluated with pleasure in their own right. Beginning in the 1970s, however, a number of films began to appear, claiming faithfulness to the source. The first of these, a three-hour epic, Frankenstein: the True Story (1973), was presented on NBC-TV in the US and, in a shortened form, theatrically in the UK. It is no closer than Universal or Hammer films, despite its misleading title and even a solemn prologue spoken by James Mason at the grave of Mary Shelley shown during its first airing. It depended on the assumption--or hope--that the viewer had never read the novel. An interesting outing on its own merits, NBC's marketing was a simple case of fraud. In point of fact, the distinguished author Christopher Isherwood, from whose original screenplay Victor Frankenstein this "wildly flapping adventure story"--as one critic put it at the time--was taken, had no intention of adapting the novel literally, and was more interested in exploring homoerotic themes in the character development; Isherwood, who wrote the text in collaboration with his partner of many decades, Don Bachardy, was inspired by his own sexuality and the sexually liberated attitudes of the author, her soon-to-be-husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their friend Lord Byron--all of whom contributed to Mary's original ideas. Of course, NBC's revision omitted any of these references, gutting Isherwood's original screenplay--not surprising for television or film in 1973. Fortunately, Isherwood's original text was published.

In 1994, on the heels of his successful, enjoyable, but misleading Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola, in conjunction with Kenneth Branaugh, produced an even more misleading, and truly horrendous, film which insults the author by its title Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It follows the outline of Shelley's plot to a certain extent, but has so many repugnant additions, tasteless alterations, and gratuitous violence that it is best forgotten. In 2004, a three-hour adaptation of the novel, simply called Frankenstein, was produced for TV by Hallmark--of all companies. It was directed by Kevin Connor, and has a mix of unknown actors in principal roles and well-known ones in minor roles (like William Hurt and Donald Sutherland). It stays rather close to the novel and is a sincere effort to evoke its spirit, but its extreme length necessitated various tedious expansions and embellishments. While it is a bit slow and never delivers the gloom of the book, it is available on DVD and still worth investigating.

Terror of Frankenstein, a 1976 Swedish-Irish co-production by Aspekt Film, shot largely in Ireland, is the "little film that could." All of ninety-one minutes, it is a dead-accurate (no pun intended), wonderfully literate retelling of the novel. It was written and directed by Calvin Floyd, who had previously made a weak documentary In Search of Dracula, ostensibly based on then-current researches by scholars Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu. Floyd was originally interested in a similar historical treatment of the Frankenstein story's roots, but instead, filmed a literal adaptation of the book. Leon Vitali, whose name generally appears on directorial and production credits, plays Victor, and the still-busy Swedish actor Per Oscarsson plays the Creature. The original title (like the screenplay that became Frankenstein: the True Story) was Victor Frankenstein, under which it was released in Europe. It never found a distributor in the US and sadly has therefore only been seen on TV and video.

Except for setting the action in the early nineteenth century--the author's "present" (and no film version is set in the previous century), telescoping Victor's two medical school professors into one, and a few minor narrative omissions, the film is completely faithful to the original text; moreover, it captures Mary Shelley's dark, claustrophobic atmosphere of very personal, nightmarish tragedy and alienation unlike any other production. It has an international cast, all speaking English with slightly different accents; somehow it is not problematic, given that the action occurs in the tri-lingual country of Switzerland. One feels the Creature's embitterment, his rage, and his remorse, which are very compellingly articulated, though with fewer words than in the long novel. We also feel Frankenstein's conflict about his responsibility to his "child" opposing his responsibility to his family and what he imagines to be "humanity." Like the novel, the film is a bleak vision of two souls in torment. It should be seen by anyone who has ever seen a Frankenstein film, and it has the added benefit of motivating the viewer to read the great novel if he so she has not done so.

Calvin Floyd's direction is very straightforward and he turns budgetary constraints to advantage by relying heavily on perfect European locations and natural settings, without any need for special effects. Gerrard Victory's score, performed by the Irish Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra, is dramatic and atmospheric, complementing both the tone of the film and period of the story. The one little irony is that, although this is by far the most literate, accurate, and satisfying film version of Mary Shelley's work, the author's name is misspelled in the credits as "Shelly."

The DVD has been issued twice under the title Terror of Frankenstein: first by Image and currently by Wellspring. Both are very inexpensive, and represent the same full-frame transfer in perfectly acceptable quality--though the source is not as clean as it might be. The current Wellspring version includes the European theatrical trailer and has a pleasant commemorative booklet, in addition to somewhat crisper sound. As this little jewel has been continually forgotten, it is unlikely to receive a better presentation. But the film is so good and unique that viewers should have no hesitation in spending the typical price of $7-9 US to own a copy.

Review by Robert E. Seletsky