CountVladDracula
Beginning cynically. Why is it people assume if it's made forty years ago it must be accurate to the book? The Count Dracula mini-series with Louis Jordan, so many people praise as being more accurate than the Gary Oldman film yet it's not. It makes Mina and Lucy siblings, it combines Arthur and Quincey, Dracula did not de age... But I diagress... On with this.Begins fairly well enough. It follows the book for the most part. It changes how the creature got the journal, how his hair looks (though it is long). Justine is left out entirely. Neither Victor or his creation are portrayed that sympathetically here. I think that's why I prefer the 2004 Hallmark version because you can see the mistakes they both make, the cruelty they both have, and yet you can also pity both of them.This version is not bad but it's slowly paced. It's odd. The 2004 Hallmark Frankenstein (which is a bit more faithful to the book in regard to how the creature looked and maintaining all the characters) is three hours yet this hour and a half version feels longer. It would also have done well with a better budget.Oh, one thing that I was very happy about is that they remembered Victor Frankenstein had not made the creature with pure science. He had studied books on alchemy and the occult, magick, Agrippa and Paracelsus. He even discussed homunculi. Very few versions acknowledge that there may have been alchemy and even magick in the creature's creation. Few people realize this was not an anti-science "Don't meddle in the affairs of God" story. The creature would have been fine if he had not been rejected by his creator. It was about parental responsibility, judging by appearances, forgiveness and how revenge brings no peace. Those were those were the real lessons of Mary Shelley's story. This version is not bad but I still strongly prefer the 2004 Hallmark mini-series of Frankenstein.This isn't a bad Frankenstein but the 2004 version with Luke Goss remains my favorite. I am happy this version exists so it's not a film I regret watching. I don't think there is any film I truly regret watching. There are just some films I feel better about being in existence than others because of what effort goes in to them. This tried to be true to the book but the 2004 Hallmark version with Luke Goss simply did it better.Also it was a little hard for me to get used to the light haired creature. He was so much like the book, including hair length, save for the hair color. It's a petty detail but it stood out for me.Something about it was a little dry, a little dispassionate. It's not horrible, just weak. Like the BBC play version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.At least they tried to follow the book.
Henry Kujawa
It seems in the early-mid 70's, everybody was making Frankenstein and Dracula movies, some of them purporting to be adaptations of their respective books. A few actually did come close, with mixed results. TERROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, as it turns out, is the single MOST faithful-to-the-book of the large (and still growing) number of Frankenstein films. It's got a good (if mostly unknown) cast, fabulous locations, a magnificent "classical"-style music score, and an almost tragically tiny budget. Oh well! A good friend of mine likes to say that a lot of great movies have been made from terrible books (though he seems to forget the reverse is also often true), and that being faithful to a novel, especially a "1st" novel by a particular author who may not have learned their craft yet, isn't necessarily a good thing. It CAN be done-- the BBC's "Count Dracula" with Louis Jourdan proves that beyond any shadow of doubt! TERROR... might make a good double-feature with that on those grounds, though it would come off looking bad by comparison (and considering the BBC film was shot on videotape, that should say a lot).I've been watching every Frankenstein film in my collection in a marathon, and that includes a number of adaptations, and it's interesting to note the differences in details and styles between them. Some things that stand out in this, from the beginning, include how wonderful some of the characters are, like Elizabeth (fiancee), William (younger brother), Henry (dashing best friend), and the comparatively dull and rather homely (in my opinion!) Victor does look nuts to be going away to school when he's got such a great home life. Then there's Prof. Waldman, who at first dismisses Victor's interest in alchemy and magic, then a mere 2 years later, actually encourages him to continue whatever experiment he's doing (despite moments earlier suggesting he take a much-needed vacation with his family), on a "grander scale"-- thus unwittingly planting the seed for the horrible, "unholy" experiment to come! Nearing the end, Victor suddenly starts asking himself, "What am I DOING?" --but continues anyway! And for the first time in any adaptation, he actually RUNS AWAY in fear from what he's brought to life, then wonders if he didn't imagine it, then nervously goes home for the holidays with his best friend, after being unable to locate his creation.And suddenly William, the sort of younger brother I wish I'D had, gets murdered-- for no apparent reason. Only when Victor catches up with the killer do we learn what went on in the meantime. Having recently seen the Dan Curtis version, which may the 2ND-most faithful adaptation, I have to say I think that film made a wise decision to eliminate the flashback structure and tell everything in the order it happened. (This entire film is one long flashback, as it STARTS in the Arctic, with Victor telling his story to the ship captain who's hell-bent on expanding man's horizons and seeking unknown benefits to mankind-- at whatever the cost! Interesting parallel there.) Also, every time the DC version made changes, it wound up making the creature MORE sympathetic, more sad, and that wound up turning that film into a heart-wrenching tragedy. Not so here. This monster is either amoral, or just plain EVIL, depending on mood-swings-- and repeatedly justifies every destructive action it takes-- like BURNING DOWN the house of the old blind man. After seeing the blind man and/or his family in several versions, even I was shocked by that turn! One minor failing of the DC version is the scene when Victor changes his mind about creating a mate-- SECONDS before completing the job. It was a moment that seemed ill-explained within that story. Here, Victor changes his mind after witnessing another family NEEDLESSLY slaughtered by his creation. How IS he to trust someone so blatantly evil? If anything, one might ask, WHY didn't he pack some serious firepower and try to KILL his monster when he was alone with the guy? (Of course, that's not how the author wrote it...) The ending, like the rest, remains faithful, as Victor dies (from exhaustion and stress?) before his creation's eyes, who then laments to the ship captain how Victor created him-- but then refused to take responsibility for life, and that now, death is the only consolation he has, as in death, he will no longer be a monster.Now, maybe in other hands, a truly faithful adaptation still awaits to be made which can also be artistically and emotionally compelling-- which this, admittedly, kinda falls short of. I'm afraid after all the carnage, I really had NO sympathy left for the monster at all, and not much more for Victor. I recommend to anyone who likes this film, to follow it up with a viewing of the Dan Curtis version-- and SEE if that one doesn't tear your heart out (emotionally speaking) by the end.
Bradley Mercer
This title suggests a very traditional Frankenstein film and Per Oscarsson's makeup is similar to Universal's defining appearance for the Frankenstein Monster that Make-up Wizard Jack Pierce created for Boris Karloff in 1931.Plus,Mr.Karloff gives the defining performance as the Frankenstein Monster in that film as well as it's sequels-The Bride Of Frankenstein(1935) and in his final performance as the Frankenstein Monster in The Son Of Frankenstein(1939). Every performer has since had to follow in those asphalt spreader's boots....which is almost an impossible task. However in 1977,Calvin Floyd decided to make this superb film with his wife Yvonne Floyd that is a Swedish-Irish production. Terror Of Frankenstein is the result and it is this writer's opinion that it's the best version of the very difficult Mary Shelley novel which was first known as The Fate Of Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus.This Classic novel was written in the early part of the 19th century. This is not Kenneth Brannagh's film(thankfully). Terror Of Frankenstein in it's own way is a disturbing adaption that while closely following a classic piece of literature,this filmmaker was able to find a way to tell a story about a man and his genius dooming himself,his family,his friend and his creation ...all because this man's genius wasn't farsighted enough to handle an enormous mistake...that mistake was the Frankenstein Monster.This film stars: Leon Vitali in an excellent performance as Victor Frankenstein, Per Oscarsson as Frankenstein's Monster, Stacy Dorning as Elizabeth Frankenstein and Nicholas Clay as a superbly cast and unique version of Henry Clerval.This Frankenstein is set in the 19th century as well ...and Victor Frankenstein follows the philosophy of alchemists.Soon after this film begins, Victor wants to study in Ingolstadt at a medical university where he can advance in his studies. Frankenstein rents his own rooms there and after studying life in closer detail,he decides to create life in a dead man who's made up of other parts of dead men.The creation scene is not a moment to equal the Universal or Hammer scenes of Frankenstein creating life from the dead...it's really a scene of surprise as this gigantic,patchwork man comes to life while Frankenstein realizes that his enormous man is not a man who's perfect in every bit of his being;HE'S AN 8 FT.TALL,BLACK-LIPPED,MOANING,MONSTER!(later in this film the audience is given a chance to look at the creation scene in greater depth and detail) Victor Frankenstein is terrified by his creation and passes out on his bed from fright. Frankenstein is later visited by Henry Clerval who takes his friend back to the Frankenstein family home.While Victor Frankenstein is recovering at his family home,his little brother William is murdered for no apparent reason. Later,Frankenstein is forced to meet with his Monster who's now verbally adept and begging his creator for a mate. Frankenstein relents and goes to a remote area of Scotland where he begins working on a mate for his Monster...but he stops when he realizes how this creation could create evil for mankind if the Monster and this mate were to give birth to an entire race of monsters! The Monster begs Frankenstein to continue but the creator cannot and will not continue.The Monster(with this new turn of events) warns Frankenstein,"I will be with you on your wedding night". Victor prepares to return to his home while the Monster murders Henry Clerval. Victor and Elizabeth's wedding ceremony is played not with a sense of joy but with a sense of doom as the scene is played from Victor's feelings and point of view as he and Elizabeth are walking toward the altar.The musical score and the way Victor keeps looking around the church allows the viewer to know he's not forgotten his Monster's warning while high pitched musical notes suggest a foreboding menace is all around them and can strike at anytime. On their wedding night,the Monster keeps his promise and murders Elizabeth by strangling her to death. Victor Frankenstein has to bury the last of his family and takes it upon himself to follow The Monster to the arctic. Finally Frankenstein comes upon a ship that's trapped in the ice.Frankenstein is now showing the effects of everything that he's been through.He's put on a bed in the Captain's quarters. That evening,the Monster comes aboard the ship and both creator and creation bitterly face each other but it's Victor Frankenstein who reaches out for his creation in a fit of rage screaming,"MONSTER!!"Frankenstein now dies and the Monster tells the ship's captain that he has nothing left to live for.This Frankenstein Monster leaves the ship and ventures off into the arctic never to be seen again. Per Oscarsson's Monster is an intelligent and cunning being whose brain works perfectly. This writer declares that this film is superb but not excellent. Even if the viewer watches this film only once...it is still worth the experience.Don't miss this Classic.
