Tales of Frankenstein

Frankenstein's reputation has done well for him. He has created another "monster", but needs a mind to control it. When a terminally ill subject enters his lab, he sees an opportunity to create the perfect being -- not having to rely on dead or criminal brains.

Anton Diffring ("Beast Must Die") stars as Baron Frankenstein and does a fine job. So does everyone else. For a television show, I'm uncertain ho this would have fared, particularly in the 1950s. And what would the story be? Would Frankenstein try a new brain each week? That would get old... or I've heard rumor it as to feature a different monster. That has some merit, but how many monsters are there? Dracula would make a much better ongoing character...

Luckily for us this pilot survived as a short film, and a decent one at that. Perhaps not a memorable one, but a strong piece of the Frankenstein story from a director ho knows the man and the monster ("Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman", for example).

This one crossed my desk through a box set. I'm not sure ho easily available it is, but if you get a chance to check it out, do so. It's only 27 minutes long, so you'd hardly be "wasting" time on this better-than-average attempt at a good horror story. "Tales From the Crypt" has done worse.

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.

Definitely something of interest for the lover of early monster movies. It's only a pilot and it's short but its good. If you liked the Frankenstein monster concept, this is a tidy tidbit of a good old monster movie that I think you will enjoy. This black and white gem has a good plot, good acting, great atmosphere and all you would expect from an old fashioned monster movie. Too bad the pilot was never picked up. What if there was a field of these little gems instead of just one. Oh well, we'll never know how a series would have done but do take a look at Tales of Frankenstein the one that was made. Have fun and enjoy this short well done monster movie.

The idea of making a weekly monster show for television was very clever--and a soap opera-like version of this concept was successful in the late 1960s with "Dark Shadows". However, while the idea was great, the execution left a lot to be desired. In this pilot episode, the entire story you'd find in a full-length Frankenstein film is crammed into this tiny time slot. As a result, all the subtlety and atmosphere is diminished. It's obvious that it just wasn't working when an excellent choice for the Doctor (Anton Diffring) came off as bland. He should have been a lot better and easily could if they had done just one thing that "Dark Shadows" did--don't try to tell the entire story in 27 minutes but make the stories multi-part so they aren't rushed. The pilot could have easily lasted two or three or even more episodes. But, because it is rushed, the story is flat...and there was too much use of poorly integrated stock footage (such as the vampire women from Dracula). Too bad, as a weekly monster show was a great idea.

If you are curious and wish to see it, it's available for free download at archive.org--a site often linked to IMDb.

Like a previous poster I was familiar with this unsold pilot mostly through stills in the old Famous Monsters magazine. I recently picked up a cheap DVD (from Alpha Video, who release a lot of interesting stuff) containing TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN with Corman's THE TERROR as a second feature. TERROR I'd seen many times before, but FRANKENSTEIN was truly interesting. It has the unmistakable feel of a 50s TV show but at the same time is reasonably well mounted and maintains a lot of the atmosphere of the old Universal Frankenstein movies, complete with raging thunderstorms and a laboratory full of crackling equipment. It was supposedly a co-production between Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems division and Hammer films, but there's very little Hammer atmosphere here (except for the costume worn by Anton Diffring as Frankenstein, which looks like Peter Cushing's hand me downs). Don Megowen makes a very formidable Monster, with a flat-topped make-up not unlike the old Karloff monster. Which is strange since Universal usually protected their copyright quite aggressively. At any rate, fans of vintage horror could do a lot worse than check this out.