Tales of Frankenstein

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.

This unused pilot for a television series about Frankenstein's Monster is very good,for what it is. I would have liked to have seen what else they could have thought of. Yes it is cheesy,even for a horror film,but you must remember it was meant to be that way. The plot is great actually for a series pilot.I would have liked to have seen what would have happened next,and with Curt Siodmak,one of the fathers of the Universal Horror Genre,and Creator of The Wolf Man, in the writer,and directors chair we could have had a real treat.

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.

"Dr. Frankenstein has recreated his creature, but wishes to correct his previous mistake. He wishes to prevent his creation from any further murderous rampages by placing the brain of a good man inside the skull of the monster. The arrival of a woman and her terminally ill husband offer the doctor an opportunity to try his new theory," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Anton Diffring (as Baron Von Frankenstein) is an extremely enjoyable and effective leading man.

If this is, indeed, the pilot for an unsold television series, it's difficult to understand how they were going to come up with the nearly 40 per season story ideas. As a short movie, writer/director Curt Siodmak does surprisingly well in this format, creating a "new" story to work within the existing "Frankenstein" mythos; and, it's much better than the average 1958 half hour teleplay.

****** Tales of Frankenstein (1958) Curt Siodmak ~ Anton Diffring Helen Westcott, Don Megowan

For years the only thing I knew about TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN was from a still I had seen in "Famous Monsters" magazine. Then a promotional trailer for this film/T.V. pilot turned up in the Zacherle video "Horrible Horror." For years I remained very curious about this film/T.V. pilot, but the damn thing was impossible to see. Then one day a copy of this film turned up on the shelves at my favorite video rental store and I was able to satisfy my curiosity.

In TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN the good Dr. Frankenstein has created a being from bits and pieces of dead bodies stolen from graves. He brings the monster to life but discovers its mind is blank. Dr. Frankenstein decides a living brain is needed and is soon met by a dying man and is told by Dr. Frankenstein he can make him immortal if agrees to allow him to be used in an experiment. The dying man gets more than he bargained for when he wakes up in the horrible disfigured body of Frankenstein's creation.

The monster's make-up in the film resembles the classic Universal monster with puffy cheeks giving the impression it is starting to develop acromegaly. The production values are not up to Hammers usual standards. The films sets look very stagey. Then again, this was a 1958 T.V. show, not a feature film. I have heard conflicting accounts on what this T.V. series was supposed to be. One states its was supposed to be a weekly series with each weeks episode telling the tale of a famous monster (i.e one week Dracula, next week The Mummy etc.) Another account claims each week would be about a different adventure in the life of Dr. Frankenstein. The latter seems unlikely. However, its doubtful either could have resulted in a long running series. The show would have ran out of plots very quickly.