Frankenstein Created Discussion

A new release from Anolis Entertainment in Germany offers an excellent follow-up course to the REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN audio commentary discussed earlier this week. Anolis' new Blu-ray disc of Terence Fisher's FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1966) - entitled FRANKENSTEIN SCHUF EIN WEIB, and available in both standard and "media book" editions - complements their superb 1.66:1 presentation of the film with two audio commentaries (by Dr. Rolf Giesen and Dr. Gerd Naumann, and Uwe Sommerlad and Volker Kronz, respectively), in German of course, with a few truly essential and exclusive bonus documents from Dima Ballin's Diabolique Films. The first and most important of these is a 67m documentary, FRANKENSTEIN AND THE TWO FACES OF EVE, which is not just a making-of story (told with the participation of Hammer historians Constantine Nasr and Steve Haberman, as well as the film's romantic male lead, Robert Morris) but a rigorous critical dissection of the picture by DIABOLIQUE editor Kat Ellinger, author Gavin Baddeley (LUCIFER RISING: A BOOK OF SIN, DEVIL WORSHIP AND ROCK 'N' ROLL), director-historian Joe Dante, and musicologist Dr. David Huckvale.

Watching this documentary took me back to the thrill of reading David Pirie's A HERITAGE OF HORROR: THE ENGLISH GOTHIC CINEMA 1946-1972 for the first time back in the Seventies, when a three-page accounting of FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN could hit one like a thunderbolt. Neither Pirie nor his book are mentioned here, but its foundation underlies everything discussed here, as does Harry Ringel's in-depth essay and interview for for the Fall 1975 issue of CINEFANTASTIQUE: the history of the Fatal Woman concept, the film's deeper debt to Mary Shelley as it moves away from grave-robbing to embrace metaphysics, Baron Frankenstein's comparative niceness in this story (which portrays him as someone whose visionary character is feared by the uncomprehending locals, rather than his evil or criminal character), the tragic love story at its core, Fisher's affection for the tragic love stories of director Frank Borzage, the film's actual place in Fisher's Frankenstein cycle, the arc of Peter Cushing's Frankenstein portrayal, the mystery of actress Susan Denberg, and a good deal more. At one point, Robert Morris remembers auditioning for the role of Hans and being asked by Terence Fisher and executive producer Anthony Hinds how he "saw" the character he was being considered for, which prompted an outpouring of thoughts about how he was one outside in the company of other outsiders who were all working together to produce a genuine miracle, which prompted Fisher to lean over to Hinds and ask wry, "Did we put all of that into this?" Well, perhaps not consciously, but the answer is ultimately yes, because it and every other idea explored in this thought-provoking video commentary fits together with the balance and inevitability of science. I believe Fisher and Hinds would have been both astonished and tickled to see how much deeper the conversation about this one film has gone since then, and I also believe that any of us who hope to keep such discussion moving forward needs to support a release such as this, regardless of whether we already own the movie or not.   

In a separate featurette, David Huckvale (himself a widely published author on such cinema-adjunct subjects as Hammer, Edgar Allan Poe, Body Horror, and the Occult) deconstructs the film's wonderful score by James Bernard, taking immediate notice of its commencement in tritones (the use of three adjacent tones, also known as "the Devil's Interval"), and pointing out how two distinct themes for Christina (Susan Denberg) and Hans (Robert Morris) are musically entertained from the moment their souls entwine as the result of Frankenstein's experiment. Allowing that Bernard claimed he was less fond of Wagner than Verdi, Huckvale also points out the ways in which Bernard's score for this film is more specifically Wagnerian. I've seen a number of David's musical profiles on different Hammer films, and they are always thoroughly informed and entertaining - he is an excellent speaker and educator - but the best of them really are akin to the very best film criticism because they illuminate so much that is inherent under the surface of the films, and that which also lurks in the viewer's subconscious felt but unprocessed due to a lack of musical education. This lecture, which extends to something over 20 minutes, ranks with the very best he's done. He's making any disc that comes out without his, or a similar, musical awareness attached look all the poorer for it. 

FRANKENSTEIN SCHUF EIN WEIB also includes a 9m stand-alone interview with Morris (taped somewhat earlier than his bits in the main documentary, and covering some - but not all - of the same territory), another with original crew members Eddie Collins and Joe Marks, as well as trailers, TV spots, radio spots, US and German publicity materials, and a poster and stills gallery. Anolis' "media book" edition is a compact, hand-fitting, hardcover that includes an addition 24-page color booklet with a German language essay by Uwe Sommerlad, who does quote David Pirie at one point, consciously and specifically. The media book is available in a choice of A and B cover designs, as shown here. 

It should also be mentioned that Anolis' recent companion release of Roger Corman's TALES OF TERROR (1962) - under the title DER GRAUENVOLLE MR. X - is likewise now available in a similar variety of forms and a wealth of tempting extras. Two of them are new audio commentaries from the same German commentators as the FRANKENSTEIN set, but the highlight is another new documentary from Dima Ballin and Diabolique Films, this one called THE TALE OF MR. CORMAN AND MR. POE, which runs roughly 52 minutes. It covers Corman's entire Poe Cycle (from 1960's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER through 1965's THE TOMB OF LIGEIA), in the process focusing on the place of the series within the general horror movement of the early 1960s, its innovation of "American Gothic" and the distinct ways in which such films differ from English Gothic, Corman's use of stylized set interiors and exteriors, Vincent Price and the reasons why he (with his specific theatrical demeanor and acting style) was the ideal figurehead for this series, the comic direction taken by TALES OF TERROR and THE RAVEN and its truthfulness to Poe's actual writing, the contribution of Richard Matheson, and more. 

For this program, Ballin narrows his base of commentators to the British authorities, Baddeley, Ellinger, and Huckvale (all excellent thinkers and speakers) - but the narrowing serves to sharpen focus, deepening everyone's individual contributions, giving them more time to talk and explore the points they make. We've all seen a number of featurettes covering this body of work, most of them made in America, and they tend to take a nostalgic, fun approach to the subject. THE TALE OF MR. CORMAN AND MR. POE is notable for approaching its subject from a more sophisticated, literary, and aesthetic perspective and one comes away from it feeling not only enriched and fortified, but in love with these movies all over again.

I understand the pain of double-, triple-, quadruple-dipping, so it might help those who already own these titles in other releases to think of these media-books in terms of their "book" aspect. As I say, these documentaries are mentally stimulating as well as entertaining, and their ability to describe things we can actively see or hear, to contrast an historical reference point with the subject or object being referenced, in such a fluid way makes me think that the way films are being seriously written about may be metamorphosing - away from separate monologizing to a more fluid interaction of art and scholarship.     

   

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