The reverse of its Frankenstein monster, who begins beautiful, but becomes ugly after "the process reverses itself," this two-part television movie, "Frankenstein: The True Story," begins rather clumsily and suffers from the TV standards of its age, but grows more interesting and becomes better by the end. This may also be true for anyone who has only seen the two-hour abridged version; there's better in store for you, if you seek out the three-some-hour original cut (which isn't to say that this one couldn't benefit from more cutting, as it does drag in its less-interesting parts). Although it doesn't fully lock in particularly well on any one theme or reworking of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," a few intriguing concepts, re-imaginings and borrowings from other horror films bounce around throughout, that the creature that is the movie ultimately has some life to it.
It begins like a bad recap to a prior TV episode, as well as announcing its first of many departures from the book, with Victor Frankenstein narrating the apparently-past scene of the death of his younger brother, William. A bewildering close-up of an expressionless Elizabeth is intercut within this montage, too (the first of many distasteful alterations made here to this character). After this, we follow Victor, as he is made dull and the pupil to the more compelling Henry Clerval, who is completely redone from Shelley's version of him, into one of the movie's two doctors to precede and surpass Victor in the science of reanimating cadavers. The other doctor is John Polidori, the name of the author of "The Vampyre" and one of the guests at Lord Byron's villa near Lake Geneva where Mary conceived the Frankenstein story, but in this movie, he's a deformed practitioner of hypnosis and a cross between Dr. Pretorius, of "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and Dr. Fu Manchu.
Meanwhile, Frankenstein's creature is an Adonis, at first, but transforms into a dark and slightly-Neanderthal-looking version of Mr. Hyde, but he remains clearly human in appearance, which makes the adverse reactions of the blind man's fellow cabin dwellers to his hideousness rather unbelievable. Later, he suffers burns, becoming more grotesque, which leads to, perhaps, the movie's best and most gruesome scene in a ballroom--a scene that may even benefit from focusing mostly on the reactions of the other characters instead of on the act. Otherwise, the monster follows in the footsteps of Boris Karloff by being an inarticulate childlike figure who loves music, as opposed to Shelley's philosophical creation. The monster's "bride," however, is a more perfect specimen (even more so than in the 1935 film) and, in keeping with the story's overall misogyny, an insensitive and catty schemer, who draws the ire of Victor's wife, Elizabeth.
As aforementioned, Elizabeth is a distasteful character this outing, Bible thumping and becoming hysterical at the sight of anything reanimated, including a ridiculous scene involving a butterfly brought back to life. A sexist treatment of Shelley's story isn't necessarily an inappropriate tract, though. The novel, after all, concerns a mother-less creation and largely relegates its female characters to the sidelines. This adaptation takes that further, including by removing Victor's mother all together and portraying its women as either or a combination of being cruel or vapid. Written by a homosexual couple, the movie also follows somewhat in the spirit of "Bride of Frankenstein" with hints of gay romantic affections between the men, of Victor's relationship with the other two doctors and, especially, with his Adonis. These relationships are far more tender than those between Victor and Elizabeth and the female creature.
Another intriguing aspect of this one is the use of mirrors, especially how they support the dopplegänger theme. I haven't seen another Frankenstein adaptation (and I've seen near 50 by now) explore this angle so thoroughly since the earliest Frankenstein film, a short by the Edison Company in 1910. Scenes with mirrors become prominent after Frankenstein's creature is born. Along with the two actors similar good looks, including their anachronistic 1970s shaggy hairstyles, the use of mirrors reflect that the creature is Victor's double--his mirror image. That both creatures mirror the actions of their same-gendered counterparts also reflects this. When the monster turns ugly, Victor appropriately takes his frustrations out on mirrors by smashing them. There are also a few shots where otherwise out-of-frame characters are seen via their reflections, and there's a blunt metaphor where Clerval is figuratively getting a big head as he holds a mirror that literally distorts his head's reflection to gigantic proportions.
More doubling upon that, we get two original creation scenes here, too. Appearing on the boob tube during the 1973 Oil Embargo, the first employs the alternative energy of solar power and, fittingly, uses a series of mirrors to reflect the sun. The second is a kind of elaboration on the Hammer Frankenstein films, with a chemical bath, but involving lava-lamp-like, multi-color bubble animations and pyrotechnics. The use of acid is also taken from Hammer. There's also the usual playing God parable, which isn't handled particularly well here and includes quite a few rather unnecessary anti-clerical remarks by Victor and others. Most of the camerawork is of the typical, straight-on variety of old, videotaped TV, including minimal editing and forcing the actors to do most of the work while the musical score is ever present to cue the appropriate reaction from viewers. Fortunately, this project managed to enlist some good actors, including big names like James Mason. The use of mirrors and the original creation scenes enliven the production values some. And the script reworks Shelley's story in enough novel ways to, ultimately, make for some engrossing television.
It begins like a bad recap to a prior TV episode, as well as announcing its first of many departures from the book, with Victor Frankenstein narrating the apparently-past scene of the death of his younger brother, William. A bewildering close-up of an expressionless Elizabeth is intercut within this montage, too (the first of many distasteful alterations made here to this character). After this, we follow Victor, as he is made dull and the pupil to the more compelling Henry Clerval, who is completely redone from Shelley's version of him, into one of the movie's two doctors to precede and surpass Victor in the science of reanimating cadavers. The other doctor is John Polidori, the name of the author of "The Vampyre" and one of the guests at Lord Byron's villa near Lake Geneva where Mary conceived the Frankenstein story, but in this movie, he's a deformed practitioner of hypnosis and a cross between Dr. Pretorius, of "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), and Dr. Fu Manchu.
Meanwhile, Frankenstein's creature is an Adonis, at first, but transforms into a dark and slightly-Neanderthal-looking version of Mr. Hyde, but he remains clearly human in appearance, which makes the adverse reactions of the blind man's fellow cabin dwellers to his hideousness rather unbelievable. Later, he suffers burns, becoming more grotesque, which leads to, perhaps, the movie's best and most gruesome scene in a ballroom--a scene that may even benefit from focusing mostly on the reactions of the other characters instead of on the act. Otherwise, the monster follows in the footsteps of Boris Karloff by being an inarticulate childlike figure who loves music, as opposed to Shelley's philosophical creation. The monster's "bride," however, is a more perfect specimen (even more so than in the 1935 film) and, in keeping with the story's overall misogyny, an insensitive and catty schemer, who draws the ire of Victor's wife, Elizabeth.
As aforementioned, Elizabeth is a distasteful character this outing, Bible thumping and becoming hysterical at the sight of anything reanimated, including a ridiculous scene involving a butterfly brought back to life. A sexist treatment of Shelley's story isn't necessarily an inappropriate tract, though. The novel, after all, concerns a mother-less creation and largely relegates its female characters to the sidelines. This adaptation takes that further, including by removing Victor's mother all together and portraying its women as either or a combination of being cruel or vapid. Written by a homosexual couple, the movie also follows somewhat in the spirit of "Bride of Frankenstein" with hints of gay romantic affections between the men, of Victor's relationship with the other two doctors and, especially, with his Adonis. These relationships are far more tender than those between Victor and Elizabeth and the female creature.
Another intriguing aspect of this one is the use of mirrors, especially how they support the dopplegänger theme. I haven't seen another Frankenstein adaptation (and I've seen near 50 by now) explore this angle so thoroughly since the earliest Frankenstein film, a short by the Edison Company in 1910. Scenes with mirrors become prominent after Frankenstein's creature is born. Along with the two actors similar good looks, including their anachronistic 1970s shaggy hairstyles, the use of mirrors reflect that the creature is Victor's double--his mirror image. That both creatures mirror the actions of their same-gendered counterparts also reflects this. When the monster turns ugly, Victor appropriately takes his frustrations out on mirrors by smashing them. There are also a few shots where otherwise out-of-frame characters are seen via their reflections, and there's a blunt metaphor where Clerval is figuratively getting a big head as he holds a mirror that literally distorts his head's reflection to gigantic proportions.
More doubling upon that, we get two original creation scenes here, too. Appearing on the boob tube during the 1973 Oil Embargo, the first employs the alternative energy of solar power and, fittingly, uses a series of mirrors to reflect the sun. The second is a kind of elaboration on the Hammer Frankenstein films, with a chemical bath, but involving lava-lamp-like, multi-color bubble animations and pyrotechnics. The use of acid is also taken from Hammer. There's also the usual playing God parable, which isn't handled particularly well here and includes quite a few rather unnecessary anti-clerical remarks by Victor and others. Most of the camerawork is of the typical, straight-on variety of old, videotaped TV, including minimal editing and forcing the actors to do most of the work while the musical score is ever present to cue the appropriate reaction from viewers. Fortunately, this project managed to enlist some good actors, including big names like James Mason. The use of mirrors and the original creation scenes enliven the production values some. And the script reworks Shelley's story in enough novel ways to, ultimately, make for some engrossing television.