REAL FRANKENSTEIN, THE: AN UNTOLD STORY (TV)
Summary
Sir David Frost hosts this special presentation which examines the origins of Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein," the treatment it has received in Hollywood movies, and whether genetic engineering is the "Frankenstein science" of our day. Aided by several dramatizations, Frost -- through interviews with scholars, scientists, bioethicists, filmmakers, and actors -- attempts to answer the many questions generated by the legend. Highlights include: footage of the 1910 "Frankenstein" movie made by Thomas Edison's company; low-budget auteur Roger Corman points out that although "Igor" appears in most film versions of "Frankenstein," the character does not exist in the Mary Shelley novel; director of the 1994 film "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" Kenneth Branagh assesses Boris Karloff as "beautiful" as the Frankenstein monster; Forrest Ackerman -- founder and editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine -- comments on the "hideous makeup" Karloff wore in the 1931 James Whale film "Frankenstein"; actor Peter Boyle recalls the 1974 Mel Brooks film spoof "Young Frankenstein"; Corman comments on his 1990 feature "Frankenstein Unbound" and analyzes the legend as a cautionary tale about modern genetic engineering; footage from Ken Russell's 1986 film "Gothic" which purports to tell the story of how, at a literary gathering, Mary Shelley was inspired by Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley to write "Frankenstein"; "historical detective" Radu Florescu -- author of "In Search of Frankenstein" -- tells an alternate story of how Mary Shelley's illicit love affair with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley may have inspired the famed novel; a dramatic recreation of Mary Shelley fleeing with the poet to Frankenstein's Castle in Europe in 1814, where they may have heard the tale of real-life Dr. Johann Conrad Dipple, who strongly resembles the fictional Victor Frankenstein; a biography of Dipple, who was an accused grave robber, alleged to exhume bodies in the quest for an elixir that assured immortality; U.C.L.A. professor Anne Mellor -- who wrote "Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters" -- comments that Mary Shelley's own life "was nearly as tragic as the creature's life in 'Frankenstein'"; footage from Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"; and Bernard E. Rollin, a Colorado State University bioethicist and author of "The Frankenstein Syndrome," comments about the dangers involved with the genetic engineering of animals. Includes commercials and promos. This program is closed-captioned.
Cataloging of this program has been made possible by the Bell Atlantic Foundation, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 28, 1995 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:35958
- GENRE: Specials
- SUBJECT HEADING: Fables; Films; Frankenstein (Fictitious character); Frankenstein films; Genetic engineering; History; Horror films; Legends; Monsters; Science fiction
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1995
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" cooking spray
- TV - Commercials - "The Real Frankestein: An Untold Story" videotape
- TV - Commercials - AT&T
- TV - Commercials - Campbell's Soup
- TV - Commercials - Celestial Seasonings Soothers Herbal Throat Drops
- TV - Commercials - Chevy Blazer automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Geo Metro automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Halls Vapor Action cough drops
- TV - Commercials - OceanSpray Fruit Waves candies
- TV - Commercials - Pizza Hut restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Pontiac Grand Am automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Prego spaghetti sauce
- TV - Commercials - Red Lobster restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Saturn automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Sprint long distance telephone service
- TV - Commercials - Thrifty car rental
- TV - Commercials - Trident chewing gum
- TV - Commercials - V-8 vegetable juice
- TV - Commercials - Wendy's restaurants
- TV - Promos - "Extreme"
- TV - Promos - "Senior Skins Game"
- TV - Promos - "Super Bowl XXIX"
- TV - Promos - "The 22nd Annual American Music Awards"
- TV - Promos - "The Commish"
- TV - Promos - "The Marshall"
CREDITS
- Dennis B. Kane … Executive Producer
- Jack Myers … Co-Executive Producer
- David Houle … Co-Executive Producer
- Lisa Ekberg Hopgood … Coordinating Producer
- Truusje D. Kushner … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Nicholas Stein … Producer
- Dahlia Greer … Associate Producer
- Dana Kaproff … Music by
- David Frost … Host
- Kenneth Branagh … Guest
- Roger Corman … Guest
- Forrest Ackerman … Guest
- Peter Boyle … Guest
- Radu Florescu … Guest
- Anne Mellor … Guest
- Bernard E. Rollin … Guest
- Konrad Dippel … Cast, Manifred Roth
- Martina Hildenbrand … Cast, Mary Shelley
- Peter Dechant … Cast, Percy Shelley
- Byron, Lord (Baron George Gordon Noel Byron)
- Johann Conrad Dipple
- Thomas Edison
- Frankenstein
- Boris Karloff
- Ken Russell
- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Percy Bysshe Shelley