Tales of Frankenstein

Anton Diffring stars as the Baron, an obsessive scientist attempting to create human life, but who keeps failing due to a substandard supply of brains which have been harvested from executed murderers; however, when a terminally ill man and his wife approach the Baron seeking medical help, he at last sees the opportunity to perfect a non-psychotic version of his experiment. All he has to do is wait a few weeks...

A collaboration between Universal and Hammer, this pilot for a TV series that never was condenses all the elements of your average Frankenstein movie into a no-nonsense, half-hour slice of Gothic horror which, given the pedigree of both studios involved, unsurprisingly proves to be an entertaining treat for fans of the classic movie monster and his maker.

Diffring's portrayal of the Baron is sufficiently unemotional and effectively tinged with madness, the Universal-style monster make-up is well realised, and the half-hour format ensures that the action whips along at a brisk enough pace to avoid boredom setting in. Sure, the plot (from classic Universal scribe Curt Siodmak) holds no real surprises, primarily consisting of well-worn ingredients of the genre—a creepy lab in a Gothic castle; a drunken grave-digger keen to earn a few extra bob; the hideous and rather unhappy monster—but it is this very familiarity that makes the whole thing so much fun.

It's a shame that this show wasn't picked up for a whole series; it would have been great to see where they might have gone next.