EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Chatverock Takes itself way too seriously

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

MARIO GAUCI Among the myriad 'offsprings', I have watched a dozen direct adaptations of the Mary Shelley horror tale (1910, 1931, 1935, 1952, 1957, 1958, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1985, 1994, 2004); this new addition to the list is an average production, not too bad in itself but hardly inspired. The best thing about it is the reasonably strong presence of creator (Robert Foxworth) and creature (Bo Svenson) – the former is as engrossed in his Great Experiment as he is detached from his home life, while the latter handles the character' essentially guileless nature, developing into (and alternating between) brute strength and pathos, quite well. The rest of the cast hardly matters – John Karlen (from Harry Kumel's arty vampire flick DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS {1971}) as one of the Baron's (technically, he is not one since his father is still alive!) associates is killed off early (his inadvertent death at the monster's hands effectively replacing the celebrated one of the little girl from James Whale's seminal 1931 version!) and Susan Strasberg is wasted as Elizabeth.Interestingly, when the film begins, Frankenstein is already a pariah among his own peers – yet, nothing is subsequently made of this, with Dr. Waldman barely figuring in the narrative at all! Again, however, the creation scene being disrupted by the arrival of Frankenstein Senior, Elizabeth and his clueless old colleague (not to mention the harnessing of natural electricity, i.e. lightning, to this end) shamelessly rips off the classic Colin Clive/Boris Karloff picture! The famous educational scenes with the blind hermit from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) are there (except the visually-impaired one is a girl) but these have none of the poignant beauty of that film. However, there is no malevolent figure like Ernest Thesiger's Dr. Praetorius from Whale's even better sequel or James Mason's Polidori in the rival (and decidedly superior) production to the film under review, FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY (1973). The death of Young Frankenstein{sic}'s kid brother and Elizabeth herself are ported over from the original source…but the finale is rather tame, bafflingly eschewing a decent final confrontation between monster and mad scientist by having Foxworth slip and impale himself on a spike(!) and Svenson conventionally expiring to bullet wounds fired by the conveniently-arriving Police!! Incidentally, despite being part of a TV series called "Wide World Mystery" and originally shown in 2 segments, the film has been released on DVD as DAN CURTIS' FRANKENSTEIN – even if he only served as Producer/Co-Writer on it. For the record, this was the third of his TV adaptations of literary horror classics: the others were THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1968), THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (the only one I have not watched and do not own yet!), Dracula (both 1973) and THE TURN OF THE SCREW (1974).

Skragg I first saw this movie when it was first shown on TV, months before the other TV version from ' 73, the famous James Mason / Michael Sarrazin one. So to me, it's always the "early" one, and I'm partial to it, partly because I'm that way about all those Dan Curtis TVMs (and of course, Dark Shadows itself). As good as everyone in it is, Robert Foxworth and Bo Svenson were really great as Victor and the Creature. I really agree with Michael Morrison - Bo Svenson has to be the most underrated actor ever to play that part. Just about everything he did was so believable, including the "De Lacey" scenes - this might be the only version that shows that whole family from the book (though, strangely, it made the daughter the blind character in place of the father), and it might be the only one that shows the Creature spying on them at any real length, which makes the next thing that happens that much sadder.

ERASMUS_JR The production values are not great and Foxworth is a barely capable actor but Svenson is remarkable. Despite claims to the contrary neither the 70s TV extravaganza with Michael Sarrazin nor Kenneth Branagh's adaptation even come close to the Frankenstein novel. This modest little adaptation is completely faithful to it's source material. It's a pity that's it is not available on tape or DVD. I saw this on late night television in the early seventies and since I was familiar with the novel I enjoyed seeing it and was surprised by how effective Svenson was as the monster. Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows) who produced and adapted this also did a wonderful version of Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde with Jack Palance. I'd like to see that again as well.

MichaelM-3 In some ways, this was the best of the Frankenstein monster sagas.Bo Svenson, a terribly underrated actor, gave surely the best performance of anyone as the monster.Svenson gave a humanity to the creature that no one else ever has achieved.It's a good movie, but the Svenson performance was great!