That was an excellent one.

Simply A Masterpiece

Boring

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.

This short has a place in film history, due to the fact that it is the first filmed version of the FRANKENSTEIN story. The piece will be familiar to any horror fan, with the creator making his creature which then terrorises lover Elizabeth.The acting is over the top and the film is crudely simple, yet it holds a certain charm due to the period in which it was made. Although the special effects are extremely primitive, there is a spooky moment of a flesh-covered skeleton waving at Frankenstein out of a creation bath.The Monster is a strange looking beast, played in a stilted manner typical of the era by Charles Ogle, and its appearance is unlike any other screen monster, the bushy hair and dirty clothing a total contrast to Karloff's black-clad and deathly pale figure. Although this film is too short to summon up anything other than some ghastly imagery and a few moments of atmosphere, it's a must for horror fans interested in the evolution of the genre.

From Thomas Edison's production studio and directed by J Searle Dawley, this adaptation of Frankenstein is regarded as the first American horror film.It is a silent short film that is only about 13 minutes along and some of the narrative conveyed by insert cards in the film which includes passages from Mary Shelley's novel.Frankenstein creates his monster by use of a portion and the coming together of the monster is still effective and I can imagine the monster lumbering around would had scared audiences at the time.The film is grainy in places and of course it does not all make sense with some choppy editing but we are talking early cinema here which was still in an experimental phase. The film was considered lost for many years as it was in the hands of a private collector.

This short adaptation of Frankenstein is not what you would call an exceptional film. It's more of a condensed version of the book with a new ending and no real resolution on hard to see grainy film. The only novelty this film really has going for it, is it's age, and it's connection to Thomas Edison, whose production company made the film. A stage play would have served the story justice better than this.Dr. Frankenstein wants to make a perfect human, but his heart is too full of hate to truly make the creature pure. He ends up making an evil creature who runs off, and causes chaos on the day of Dr. Frankenstein's marriage.It's understandable that this film was made a hundred years ago and the special effects are going to be virtually nonexistent, but there actually is a cool effect here. When Frankenstein's monster is cooling off and being created, we get to see inside the "furnace", where a burning lump is transformed into a skeleton. Looking back on how old this was, it's a pretty neat effect. But with the good comes the bad. Once the Monster is created, it looks horrible. It looks like a less threatening deformed Cowardly Lion with bad makeup. Again, obviously movies back then were essentially filmed stage plays, but knowing this was going on camera, they should have spruced up the monster a bit.The story itself is rather bland here, and much less interesting than it's source novel, but it isn't horrible. It's just a simplified version of a much better book told with very little pizazz. The ending doesn't make sense, and doesn't resolve things, but it's interesting, especially for it's time.Not much of a movie, but more a small piece of history. Worth a look for film enthusiasts. My rating: ** out of ****. 16 mins.

This twelve minute adaptation of Mary Shelley's tale has an element that the later versions don't have. In this version Frankenstein apparently uses some kind of potion to create the monster in a large pot. You then get to see the monster emerge from the pot, first as a skeleton, and then skin and even clothing form over the skeleton. This was filmed by starting with a model of the monster, melting the form, and then filming the reverse of this melting as the creation of the monster.The story starts with Frankenstein going to college. Here he never becomes a doctor, but apparently two years into his studies he has discovered the secret of life and death and is ready to create a perfect human being. Instead he forms an extremely mishapened creature. The creature then follows Frankenstein around, even becoming jealous of Frankenstein's bride-to-be. How the monster is eliminated is very odd, and I'll let you see it for yourself to find out how it ends. Just let me say that there are no crowds of villagers with torches and pitchforks in this one. Instead the ending is very Victorian and even magical.This is very much worth looking at if you get the chance.