Tuesday, April 07, 2009

TV review – “Tales of Tomorrow – Frankenstein”

The Frankenstein story condensed to 30 minutes – the doctor has dinner, brings the creature to life, the creature goes for a rampage, falls out window, comes back lured by kid and is electrocuted. The most notable thing about it is Lon Chaney’s performance as the monster – he’s got a bald smooth head as opposed to Universal’s make up, enabling him to be a lot more expressive than in Ghost of Frankenstein.

Dr Frankenstein has this really bratty annoying kid and there’s a satisfactory scene where the monster flings him around the room and forces him to go on his rocking horse. There’s also a famous live TV moment where Chaney picks up a chair as if to smash it then puts it down again – apparently he was so drunk he thought it was a rehearsal and didn’t want to smash the furniture (the camera quickly cuts away from him.)

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