Frankenstein

With the awakening of classic monsters back onto film, such as "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "The Mummy," it's nice to see a "Frankenstein" film that manages to work nicely.

This was a made-for-cable production, and it was a good attempt. A lot more faithful to the novel than other carnations (but it still freely takes its liberties ), this movie presented some new ideas that were interesting to think about. But the major change was the film's biggest disappointment: The monster was no longer a resurrected assembly of corpses, but a being cloned from Dr. Frank himself. Therefore, they can feel each other's pain and emotions. "Two parts of a single man," as the good doctor states. The twist is more like a "Jekyll and Hyde" idea, rather than the usual father and son relationship. It was a fascinating concept, but not really a good idea for a Frankenstein film claiming it is faithful to the book.

Other than that, it is a top notch job. David Wickes directs with good timing and the suspense it well brought out. Bergin and Quaid are good in the leads as the doctor and the monster, and John Mills also brings in a powerful performance in a cameo as a blind man. This is worth a comparison to the much better "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein," directed by Kenneth Branagh. Both have similar style and terror.

***1/2 out of *****

This Version of Frankenstein is the best!

I won't even waste my time criticizing Branagh's Version. Branagh's Version stays with the book until it is time for the monster to kill Victor's wife,then Branagh throws in this ridiculous resurrection of Elizabeth scene which was totally horrible. Branagh ended his movie exactly as the book ended with the monster and his dead master floating away on a sheet of Ice burning up.

This Version of Frankenstein was made in 1993 for TNT. It was one of the first original movies made for that network, Gettysburg premiered that same year on that station.

This version stays pretty close to the basic plot of the book but it adds a twist. The Death of Elizabeth is exact to how she died in the book, the monster breaks her neck, the rest of the scene was different from the book.

The film adds some new twists to the story that make it all the more interesting. William is a teenager in this version not a child and has a somewhat different role.

This version remains pretty faithful to the basic plot of the book not the details of the book like Branagh attempts to stick to in his version but pathetically failed at towards the end.

John Cameron did a superb job with the music score for this film!

I give this film 4 stars. Excellent viewing for a rainy day!

Ok. It's only my opinion, maybe it's not "the best" adaptation, but one of the best TV movies of all time for sure. Frankenstein with Robert De Niro is good too, but this TV version is epic. It's not horror, more like love drama with dark fantasy elements. If you are into Mary Shelley, you should definitely watch this. 10/10 from me.

I really enjoyed this movie, far, far more than the over the top Kenneth Branagh version. Randy Quaid is fabulous as the monster. I particularly loved the monster in this film, as he was very sweet and childlike until he had negative experiences with humans. His expressions were very poignant and heartfelt. Also, the concept of Frankenstein feeling his monster's pain was original and interesting. Definitely impressive for a made-for-tv movie!

There have been so many versions of this story made that it would almost seem superflous to make another, yet this is the best version that I have seen because it is the most faithful to Mary Shelly's book. I saw the classic 1931 version where Karloff was the monster and he would have been proud of Quaid's performance. People who know Randy Quaid only for his role as "Cousin Eddie" in the Chevy Chase vacation films would be astounded by his fine work here. He does a remarkable job of making the monster both scary and pitiful as society treats him so badly. He screams at Frankentstein "Why did you make me like this". The scene where he murders Frankenstein's family is the most disturbing part of the film. This is a great film and with the exception of Karloff's version, it is the best Frankenstein that I have ever seen.