'70s *TV* Class: Frankenstein- The True Story- Part 2

Previously on this same Site that you're hopefully reading, we got this stuff that happened...

- Dr. Frankenstein becomes an Atheist who tries to create life.
- He joins forces with another Doctor, who dies before revealing that the process will not last.
- The Doctor's attempts to humanize Adam seems to be working, until his body breaks down.
- The Creature/Adam tries to kill himself/itself, but survives a cliff dive...unbeknownst to the Doctor.

Now that you're caught up, here is Part 2...

Adam observes a blind man and his family.  Sadly, it's not Gene Hackman in this and not nearly as funny.

Unfortunately, his time there ends in tragedy as he kills the young man (with a light shove against a wall) and the lady with him is killed by a sudden, surprise carriage.

Adam takes her body and finds...the guy from the beginning who broke the 4th Wall.  He's a key character in Part 2, so enjoy James Mason.

The Doctor, meanwhile, has gone back to his lady and is now happily-married.  That bit with James Mason finally connects to the Story (over 90 minutes later!).

To avoid having his acts brought up (with what evidence?!?), he agrees to help Mason create a new creature- a woman.

As it turns out, Mason has damaged/missing hands from an experiment too.  Now look back at all the times he grabbed things with them and don't think about how he must make his twin servants help him go to the bathroom.

Too late.

The Bride- not called that- is set up to join High Society, but that all ends when a burned up Adam (escaping an attempt to destroy him) shows up.  His plan- rip the woman's head off!

Oh well- you always have your QVC Jewelry Line, Jane Seymour.

The Doctor and his wife go on a boat to America, but have company- Mason and Adam!

This can't end well for anyone!

Adam seems to revert to the personality/mind of the original helper and kills Mason, as well as scaring the crew off of the boat as he steers it to...

Antarctica!

What a great shot.  Even better if it was actually convincing, right?

The wife is killed and the Doctor goes to see the Monster.  They both decide to leave society and an Iceberg crashes around them.

Yes, they did show this in the Teaser bit covered last time.  The End.

All of the stuff you actually wanted to see last time!  Yes, this one is all of the payoff from the last Film.  You obviously can't have one without the other.  Even so, this 2nd Half is so much more interesting that its kind of sad to look back at the other half.  In this one, we get the famous Blind Man bit, albeit more in line with the Book.  We get the Monster killing quite a few people.  While they can't actually afford the effect, we get to picture him ripping someone's head off.  Hell, a man is struck by lightning and turned into a skeleton!  What happened in the last part again?  Oh right- he took Adam to see an Opera and his face got kind of ugly.  Oh the horror!  It's obviously way too late to do anything about it, but maybe there's a lesson here.  Don't make a 3-Hour Film if you only have 90 or so minutes of really good and interesting content.  Don't make it longer just to make it more 'epic.'  Likewise, maybe sticking stringently to parts that work in a Book and not on Film isn't the best idea.  Frankenstein- The True Story is a great example of what's wrong and right about these 2-part Miniseries Films.  Yes, you get more context and more detail.  Yes, sometimes you get too much and you could have lived with less.  I'm not being snide because alot of good, talented people worked on the Film.  Besides Mason and are other Leads, we get Sir John Gielgud and the 4th Doctor himself- Tom Baker- in small Roles.  Yes, this was the best shot I could get of him.  Sorry, Tom.

Next time, I look at more Films from this time period.  They surely won't be this classy though.  Stay tuned...