Frankenstein - The True Story

I got my feathers ruffled by seeing people say Sarrazin was better than Karloff. The two are so different there's no comparison--though, let's face it , Karloff was simply legendary (and in serious pain from the costume and makeup!). The True Story is different from Karloff's, but as gorgeous as a Gothic film from the 70's could be! (And the Creature, Frankenstein and Clerval were all hot! At the age I am now, I find James Mason extremely dishy as well--but not when I was 10.)Like many of the reviewers, I saw it when I was about 9 or 10, and was absolutely overwhelmed by the music, scenery, beautiful actors, and chilling scenes that burned themselves into my memory (crawling hand. Prima gets hers. Polidori gets his. Terrifying storm tossing boat in arctic. Newly-woken Michael Sarrazin making my pre-teen heart throb). Anyone who likes beautifully done Gothic films will enjoy this. Here's some interesting info--Jane Seymour has a "Frankenstein" in the family tree! Apparently they changed the name to Frankenberg, for obvious reasons...

This might not be the close adaptation that was promised but I don't feel like that gets in the way of enjoying the film. It has the same feel as many of the Hammer Horror films of the late 60's that I enjoy. Jane Seymour is fairly creepy in her own way as the re-animated Prima. James Mason also gives a very good performance as Dr. John Polidori. Considering that this was originally aired as a miniseries it holds up pretty well. It really has a higher quality feel to it than some studio efforts of the era. I am very happy to have added this DVD to my collection and would recommend it to fans of the story.

No bolts, No green skin, and No electricity. The first two qualities make a good version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein possible on film, most of the time. Brought to life by sunlight, the Monster starts off beautiful, thanks to Dr. Victor Frankenstein's and Henry Clerval's experiments. Nothing gold can stay however, and the Monster soon begins to deteriorate into a ill-tempered, simplistic creature, after all, he's made out of corpses. Dr. Polidori provides the perfect solution it seems for the troubled Dr. Vic; starting over with the creation of a woman, Prima. This however is another failed experiment, as the Bride soon ends up a truly sinister character, despite her good looks. Check it out for the new take on the story, if for anything else.

Ok folks this is a VERY strange movie. Maybe it is because I am an American that this movie was so strange. It was just a really weird movie, and the more I watched it the more I relaized that this would be a homosexual's favorite Frankenstein movie.

Take this Dr. Frankenstein dude for instance. He is a dapper, upper crust man of the world. His hair is long and impeccable, he is snobby, and he believes he is superior to his fellow human beings. You can almost see him writing in his journal "I have decided to do the world a favor by creating a man in my own image. A man without body odor, bad manners, and whose poop has the fragrance of roses."

When the 'monster' actually arises, it is almost laughable. This is not Colin Clive meets Boris Karloff folks. This is more like two homosexuals getting ready to embrace. The monster looks VERY gay. It was almost as if they made him look that way on purpose. Dr. Frankenstein's first words were "You are beautiful". The monster mutters "beautiful". I swear I thought they were going to embrace and make out.

And what's up with the solar power? When did Mary Shelly ever mention solar power in her novel? It was hilarious when the lab began to explode. Everything is very clam, quiet, and very warm when the solar cells light up, and then for no reason at all, it looked like someone set off a hydrogen bomb. I know this was done for dramatic effect, but the explosions looked totally out of place.

Now the highlight of this flick was the female monster. Man she was a hottie. Those stitches around her neck were very erotic. I wouldn't have minded making her for myself.

The monster starts to look like a real monster once the process starts to reverse on itself. No longer is her the pretty man, now he is a beast. The best scene of the whole flick is when he storms the ball and rips the head off of the female creature.

Now we got some weird characters in this. We got a dude with no hands, he is a master hypnotist. That is probably how he controls his two Chinese man servants. I could imagine them holding his penis as he went pee pee.

Dr. Frankenstein didn't even start this whole mad dream. In this version there is another mad doctor who was 80% ready to create his creature by the time Dr. Franky came along. Frankenstein only got involved because he was distraught over his brother. His brother was a wimp and fell out of a row boat and drowned in under two seconds.

The climax of he movie is almost like Mary Shelly envisioned. They did end up in the North Pole, but in this movie they travelled together in the same boat!!! So anyway they share a good laugh just as an avalanche crushes them both.

I've seen better Frankenstein movies, but I've seen worse too. Again I would suggest this movie for homosexuals to watch together. I think they would be fascinated by the costumes and the sets.

I would call this the toy, soap opera, hair dressers version of Frankenstien. I'm not sure how I found this version of F'stien (recently which led to the purchase of the DVD)- I knew it was the one I had seen at a family party on TV around new years 1974 (?) ....so I must have been 7 years old at the time - certain scenes I recalled - and since that time I had never seen it on TV again - until now the new unedited DVD version!! - I've only watched it once since purchase (7/2007) 'I would call this the toy, soap opera, hair dressers version of Frankenstien' I was surprised to find the cast of familiar actors especially a young and "beautiful" Jane Seymour as Agatha and Prima ......the unforgetable scene which looked to be right out of H.P.Lovecrafts "The Outsider" - don't worry I won't tell you what happens....genuinely horrorfying in a comical way - as well as some interesting philosophiocal themes, great for a party!