With the success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it only made sense for France Ford Coppola to get his hands bloody with another classic monster movie. Frankenstein was a natural pick since the monsters have been connected over the decades thanks to both the Universal and Hammer films. It also helped that like Dracula, Frankenstein is a novel in the public domain so there’s no pesky rights issues. Instead of directing, Coppola stuck to producing the film. He brought on board Kenneth Branagh, who was still hot from Henry V. Branagh could also play Dr. Frankenstein. The biggest piece of the project was landing Robert De Niro as Frankenstein’s monster. He had just scared audiences in the remake of Cape Fear. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was going to be a very classy production with lots of random body parts.
Captain Walton (Desperately Seeking Susan‘s Aidan Quinn) and his crew are stuck in the ice while heading to the North Pole. In the midst of their crisis, Dr. Frankenstein comes out of the frozen wasteland. He offers to tell them the story of how he ended up in such a place. He tells them the tale of how he was once a plucky medical student with a good pal in Henry (Amadeus‘ Tom Hulce) and teacher in Professor Waldman (Monty Python’s John Cleese). The trio explored ways to bring the living back to dead mostly through electricity. He’s driven to this exploration by the loss of his mother. He doesn’t want anyone to die ever again. Even though his wife (Fight Club’s Helena Bonham Carter) isn’t quite into this resurrecting people business, he can’t stop. After a tragic incident, Frankenstein goes into overdrive and patches together a person with parts from various bodies. He super-electrifies his lab including using electric eels and succeeds in bringing his creation (Robert De Niro) back to life. Except things don’t go according to plan. The creature is rather nasty looking with his stitched together body that’s rather bloated in places. Frankenstein is ready to scrap him and move onto the next attempt. The creature escapes and has to figure out how to survive in the wild and get a bit of revenge on the doctor for bringing him back.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein does a fine job of capturing elements from the original novel. The film goes to the frozen ends of the book versus the paths taken by the Universal and Hammer versions. While not a literal translation, you could almost fake your way through a book report with the movie and the Cliff’s Notes. Do take note if you’re cheating with the film that the climax changes up the book. The alteration makes cinematic sense. It ties so much together and leads to the finale in the North Pole. The movie wasn’t a massive hit like Bram Stoker’s Dracula since lacks intensity of the love triangle. There is a bit of tension between Dr. Frankenstein, his wife and the creature, but most of the film is about the doctor and his creature. There’s not that much seduction between the undead and living. Branagh does get a bit carnal for the audience by dumping the white coat so he can race around his laboratory with a bare chest and flowing long hair. You can almost believe that he had also created the Chippendales. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein still has electrical moments on the screen.
Along with the 4K UHD version, Arrow Video is releasing a Blu-ray that includes all the bonus features.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 4K restoration is from the original camera negatives. It looks sharp and you can see all the work went into De Niro’s monster face. The audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1 so you can hear the electricity all around the room. There’s also an LCPM 2.0 of the stereo mix. The movie is subtitled.
Audio commentary by film historians Michael Brooke and Johnny Mains bring a lot of background details about the book, the production, cast and crew. We learn what De Niro’s character was called on the set since “Monster” was forbidden by the director.
We’ll Go No More a Roving Brand (12:40) goes into the music of the lab with composer Patrick Doyle. He visited the film set to get a feel for what the music should sound like.
Stitching Frankenstein (14:53) interviews costumer designer James Acheson. He goes into his collaboration with Kenneth Branagh when it came to dressing the characters and Frankenstein’s creation.
Making It All Up (14:22) allows make-up designer Daniel Parker to talk about working with animatronics with traditional effects to create the faces of Frankenstein’s creations.
Mary Shelley and The Creation of a Monster (29:37) delves into the origins and evolution of the Frankenstein story, featuring Gothic specialists David Pirie, Jonathan Rigby and Stephen Volk. There’s quite a bit of literary history here that might come in handy in your freshman English classes.
Dissecting Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (15:32) with David Pirie, Jonathan Rigby and Stephen Volk discussing the differences between the novel and Kenneth Branagh’s screen adaptation. They point out that the film is largely the book. There are also cases where they changed things over including the Bride element.
Frankenstein: A Liberal Adaptation from Mrs. Shelley’s Famous Story for Edison Production (12:55) is the first screen version of Frankenstein. It was released in 1910. For the longest time, this film was thought to be lost. But it is now here for you to see. The monster is rather scary for the time.
Original trailers includes trailer #1 (1:29) hides the face of his creation and trailer #2 (1:53) is more talky with glimpses of De Niro as the monster.
Image Gallery (2:40) includes production photos.
Illustrated booklet with essays by Jon Towlson and Amy C. Chambers.
Arrow Video presents Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Screenplay by Steph Lady & Frank Darabont. Starring Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Aidan Quinn, Ian Holm and John Cleese. Running time: 123 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: April 12, 2022.
