Le funeste destin du docteur Frankenstein

This under-an-hour documentary, premiering in the states on Turner Classic Movies after apparently traveling from France, "The Strange Life of Dr. Frankenstein" offers a good if brief investigation into Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" in relation to its cultural legacy from theatrical and cinematic adaptations, mainly the 1931 "Frankenstein" and its sequel "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), although the Japanese atomic giant monster clash "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965) and a couple films from the Hammer series are mentioned, as well as the non-Frankenstein-film "Metropolis" (1927). Perhaps, even of more interest, especially for one who already knew most of the information contained here, are the way the filmmakers edited together clips from films that mostly seem to have no connection to "Frankenstein," which helps to alleviate the usual scenes of talking-head experts and invites the classic-film buff to try to spot the origins of the black-and-white footage. The corridor shot from "The Cat and the Canary" (1927) and another moment from "Nosferatu" (1922) were easy ones for me since I've recently seen both.

The program is divided into six chapters (Mary Shelley's biography, "Dr. Frankenstein," "The Monster," "The Plea," "The Monster's Bride" and "The Prophecy") and an epilogue regarding polar exploration in the book. As members of The Classic Horror Film Board will attest, "Dr. Frankenstein" is a misnomer, as Shelley's protagonist wasn't a doctor, but also that this is one of the points of the doc--how this character, through the adaptations, has become part of the mad doctor trope. Likewise, her eloquent creature became renowned as a grunting monster. There's a lot more to Shelley's story, but with less than an hour to work with, this program does well--even going so far as to mention Rousseauian philosophy of innate goodness corrupted by society, as well as the novel's relation to the "Year Without a Summer," galvanism, electricity and surgery. Automatons to artificial intelligence and even the atom bomb are examined. While some of this seems far fetched in its connection to the book, I found the parts about the surgeon and eugenicist Alexis Carrel and the clips of head transplants by Vladmir Demikhov and Robert J. White to be especially intriguing and disturbing.

It's not a bad way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Shelley's story, and I'm surprised such a short doc held my interest after I've already spent much of the year re-reading the novel and reviewing 46 Frankenstein films--and I even skipped "Frankenstein Conquers the World." Guess I'll make that 47 films soon.

This was shown on Turner Classic Movies during October in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the novel. There were a series of weird avantgarde promos that TCM showed prior to the documentary with some guy who ultimately had nothing to do with the film droning on and on about painting his vision of Frankenstein's monster that made me wonder what I was getting into, but the documentary turned out to be quite enjoyable and thorough at just under an hour running time.

It was a well put together piece on the novel, how it presaged some scientific developments and probably drew from others of the time, and ultimately how the novel might have been joined to the psyche of its author Mary Shelley. She was disowned by her father when she married, yet she dedicated the book to him, for example. Was she saying that Frankenstein's creature, abandoned by his creator when he didn't turn out as intended, was a metaphor for her relationship with her father? Maybe.

There were bits and pieces of the Frankenstein films, particularly the first two from Universal, "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein", but mainly this was an examination of a literary work. I like how they worked in commentary from an expert in plastic surgery. I wasn't expecting that. There were also tales of other "mad scientists" - one who actually got so caught up in the idea of salvaging body parts that he transplanted one monkey's head to the body of another monkey. There were a bunch of protesters who did not share his enthusiasm.

I did have one "what the??" moment though. When the documentary is talking about Mary Shelley feeling like she had some kind of out of body experience the night that she conceived the idea behind "Frankenstein", one of the images put up on the screen, though only for a few seconds, appeared to be that of 1930s MGM actress Karen Morley. Maybe because this was largely made in other countries, the filmmakers did not think anybody would notice, but I couldn't help wondering what Miss Morley had to do with the tale of Frankenstein.

I would recommend it as a detailed documentary on the literary work that manages to not overstay its welcome by being too long.

Best Frankenstein doc ever! Anyone interested in the subject must wathch this.