This is the version, I believe, that was used for clips in the TLC’s old “Great Books” documentary. Notable to me as a kid for 1) apparently being very faithful to the book (complete with articulate monster), and 2) the brief topless shot of the female monster as she lay on her assembly table. (Hey, I was eleven.)
As far as I can tell, though, it doesn’t seem to be available as a video recording, even on VHS. But would anyone here happen to know if I’m wrong?
Is it this one? Available on VHS from A&E:
I don’t think so. That’s described as a documentary about Frankenstein movies not a version of the story itself.
I thought the OP was asking about this movie but apparently not.
1986 and BBC indicates this documentary with various well-known names, British Film Institute, who with the coy incompetence of modernists appear to prefer to be known simply as the BFI.
Who indicate it is not available. And I can’t even find a torrent for it.
The fact that it is a documentary would in no way hinder the BBC from including topless shots of heaving bosoms.
It is slightly complicated by the presence of Mel Brooks: in 1994 he is included with a host of others ---- some dead — in the documentary, ‘It’s Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein’; yet in 1986 he appeared in the documentary considered here, '“Everyman”: The True Story of Frankenstein.
Directors, or others, labelling their opinions ‘The Truth’ are an absolute curse.
I remember in the early 70s one called Frankenstein the True Story on TV, it featured a scene of a severed arm walking across the floor.
This is the version from American TV. It is actually quite good, and featured a very young Jane Seymour. I rented it from Netflix a year ago and it has help up pretty well.
It’s an interesting story, but don’t take its name at face value – it’s nothing at all like Mary Shelley’s story, but a weird re-interpretation of it, in which the created monster starts out handsome, but deteriorates, the female Bride (played by Seymour) is beautiful, and James Mason plays Dr. Polidori!*
A couple of years ago I watched every version of Frankenstein I could get my hands on. If it’s accuracy and faithfulness you want, watch the Per Oscarsson Victor Frankenstein and the A&E version of * Frankenstein* that starred William Hurt and Donald Sutherland. Kenneth Branaugh’s version takes a few more liberties than these two, but it IS more dramatic and exciting. I didn’t even know about this BBC version.
*The real Dr. Polidori was a young friend of Lord Byron who was there in Switzerland at the party that gave birth to “Frankenstein”. Polidori’s vampire story, “The Vampyre”, is credited with starting the craze of vampire stories that culminated in Dracula.
Wow was I off base! I thought it was pretty accurate (having never actually read the book.)
Thanks for the other info as well, Cal.
I think I’ve got that version on tape somewhere. Local horror host Count Scary ran it in the 80’s. I remember thinking “True story? like any of this actually happened, yeah right”