Vintage Bride of Frankenstein Letterhead

Awash in green, orange and purple, this letterhead for the Universal Film Exchanges promoting Bride of Frankenstein (1935) makes for a very unusual and thoroughly gorgeous piece of memorabilia.

A photo of Boris Karloff’s sad-eyed Monster dominates, highlighted in fiery pastels against a Deco background. The overall design closely matches that of an editorial page in the April 6, 1935 issue of the Universal Weekly trade herald (seen here), substituting Valerie Hobson, standing at left, for the editorial page’s spookier grouping of a skeleton, Una O’Connor, and a leering Dwight Frye.

The film’s title swooshes across the page in 3D block letters that predates the famous Superman logo. The images at the bottom are particularly interesting in that they don’t actually appear in the film.

The Monster carrying his Bride is a fantasy image also offered on a large banner for theatrical display. The Bride, in a nightgown-like dress, sheer stockings and pumps, revels in her fractured Romeo’s clutch, swinging a bridal bouquet with abandon.

The next image is the most curious, showing a bandaged Bride reclining, her hands held together. The image is actually from a backstage photograph of Elsa Lanchester, bound in creation scene bandages, reclining in a wicker chaise. In the photograph, you can see she’s holding a cup of tea up to her mouth.

The stunning letterhead was found on the fascinating Letterheady blog.

Images from The National Theatre's Frankenstein

The reviews are still pouring in after this week’s Press premiere of the National Theatre’s Frankenstein. Even The New York Times weighs in, cross-pond, on what has become an international phenomenon. Back in London, The Guardian reviewed the reviews, recapping the glowing press pronouncements as “Stunning, stunning, stunning, boring briefly, stunning again.”

Now, photos from the play are flooding the net, if you care to Google. The Monster sports cruel stitching down his face and body, as if he’s been assembled from two halves. The sets show a floating ceiling, like candles burning overhead, there’s a fiery steampunk machine and a manor suggested in filigree. Actors appear in elegant period costume, in sharp contrast to the barefoot Monster’s rags.

I’m posting a link to a fine picture gallery on The Guardian, but beware of spoilers. If you are planning to see the cinema broadcast in March, you might want to save yourself some surprises. There’s one photo, in particular, that reveals a significant departure from the original Mary Shelley novel.

The Guardian’s Frankenstein gallery.

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The Reviews Are In
The National Theatre's Frankenstein

The National Theatre's Frankenstein: The Reviews Are In

First up, here’s a trailer for the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle.

After 17 days in previews, the play was finally staged for the Press on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, two evenings being necessary to accommodate the alternate performances, with stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller swapping roles as Frankenstein and Creature.

The word is very good indeed. Critics unanimously praise Danny Boyle’s powerful and innovative stagings, conjuring up birds, rain and lightning, and his drawing out moving and mesmerizing performances from his actors.

The Guardian’s Michael Billington positions the play as “a humane, intelligent retelling of the original story in which much of the focus is on the plight of the obsessive scientist's sad creation, who becomes his alter ego and his nemesis.” He pronounces Danny Boyle’s staging as “brilliant” and “a bravura triumph in which Mark Tildesley's design provides a whole series of visual coups.”

Of the performances, Benedict Cumberbatch’s take on the Creature is “unforgettable”, with “an epic grandeur” about it. “He has humor as well as pathos.” Of Jonny Lee Miller’s version of the character, his strength “lies in his menace. Stockier than Cumberbatch, his Creature makes you believe in the character's Satanic impulse and in his capacity for murder.”

In The Telegraph, Charles Spenser reports that director Boyle “pulls off something truly spectacular here… there is no doubt that Frankenstein is the most viscerally exciting and visually stunning show in town.” Libby Purves of The Times calls it “a hell of a production: the set itself conveys unease, rising and revolving into harsh surprises.”

Nick Dear’s adaptation, overall satisfying, comes under mild reproach for some slow patches and, according to Patrick Marmion of The Daily Mail, dialogue that is often “drably pedestrian”, but he concludes that “this is a memorable production and will doubtless be spoken of for years to come."

Additional performances have been scheduled beyond the original planned run, but they’ll likely sell out before I finish this sentence. Nevertheless, everyone gets a chance to see this Frankenstein when it comes to cinemas worldwide on March 17, with some venues offering an alternate performance on March 24, and repeat showings. Check the National Theatre Live page for broadcast details and a list of venues.

The Daily Mail carries several excellent photographs from the production.

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The National Theatre's Frankenstein

The Art of Frankenstein : Byron Winton

“Then the camera moved in on Sid… He was extremely tall, pale, and cadaverous. With his drooping eye and malevolent expression, he had to be the creepiest-looking young man on the face of the earth. He looked like Frankenstein's monster. My daughter was living with Frankenstein's monster.”
— Deborah Spungen, And I Don’t Want To Live This Life (1983)

Sid and Nancy as Monster and Bride, doomed couples both, mashed in monochrome by Pittsburgh-based artist Byron Winton.

Zooming-in reveals how perfectly Winton blends the likenesses while suggesting deep sadness and, perhaps, inevitable tragedy. The piece, called Vicious and Abnormal, is available as a print.

Byron Winton’s website and gallery, and deviantArt page.

The Posters of Frankenstein : Art House Revival

An electric, color-intense poster for an 80th Anniversary showing of Frankenstein (1931) at the venerable Plaza Theatre in Atlanta.

The Art Deco Plaza, built in 1939, is the city’s oldest continuously operating cinema, now devoted to the promotion of independent films, as well as event-centered and audience-interactive entertainment. The recent Frankenstein event included Spook Show and Burlesque performances.

If anyone can identify the artist — my inquiries have gone unanswered — please post in comments.

Vote Frankensteinia!

I’m happy to report that FRANKENSTEINIA has been nominated ­— again! — in the BEST BLOG category of the prestigious Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards “honoring the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation”.

We were First Runner Up last year, second only to Max Cheney’s Drunken Severed Head blog. Won’t you help us get over the bump (the bump being Max’ head) and go for the win?

Voting is open to everyone and is done through email. The ballot, with voting instructions, is here. Basically, you make your picks, you sign your name to make it official, and you send it in. The ballot is huge but you can vote in as many or as few categories as you wish. Yes, you can vote in the blog category only.

Should you want to give us your kind consideration, send your vote in for Category 16: Best Blog, FRANKENSTEINIA.

Voting closes March 27 and winners are announced the following day. The awards will be presented at the next Wonderfest, in Louisville, Kentucky, in May.

Best of luck to all the nominees and big time thanks to David Colton for running the show.

The Rondo Awards ballot.

The Rondos are sponsored by the Classic Horror Film Board.

The National Theatre's Frankenstein

It is the hottest theater ticket in London. In March, it goes global with a live broadcast to cinemas. The Royal National Theatre is staging an ambitious new Frankenstein with a high profile cast and crew including playwright Nick Dear, director Danny Boyle, music by Underworld and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, seen in Creature makeup in the above photo.

Nick Dear and Danny Boyle first discussed the project in the early nineties, only to shelve it when the Kenneth Branagh/Robert DeNiro film was released. In the intervening years, Dear’s career as a playwright and screenwriter continued to flourish, while Danny Boyle stepped away from the stage and onto film sets, directing such titles as Trainspotting (1996) and 28 Days Later (2006), culminating with a Best Director Academy Award for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). Now he’s up for another Oscar as Best Director, as well as one for Best Film, for the harrowing real-life survival drama 127 Hours (2010).

Actor Jonny Lee Miller was in Boyle’s Trainspotting and, in an indirect Frankenstein connection, he played Lord Byron in a TV movie written by Nick Dear. Miller began his career as a child actor with a bit part in a 1982 episode of Doctor Who. Speaking of which, Benedict Cumberbatch, an avowed fan of the classic series, briefly considered taking over the Doctor’s part after David Tennant’s tenure. Instead, he took on the lead of BBC’s updated Sherlock (2010) to considerable critical and popular acclaim. Among his television roles, Cumberbatch played a young Stephen Hawking and Vincent Van Gogh.

Brought together for Frankenstein, Miller and Cumberbatch take turns, daily, at playing Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, a conceit that addresses the symbiotic relationship between the creator and his creation.

After barely one week in Preview mode, Frankenstein is already sold out for it’s entire original run, straight through April 17. Additional performances are being scheduled. Though the show won’t be subjected to press scrutiny until February 22nd, blogs and social networks are already abuzz with early if fannish reviews. No spoilers repeated here except to say that most of the talk is about a nude Monster and how the play needs to be tightened up — which is the whole point of the current shakedown period — though every performance to date has been crowned with a standing ovation.

Most everyone reading this will have a shot at seeing the play thanks to the National Theatre Live broadcasts to cinemas worldwide. Two performances are being beamed out in March. The March 17 show has Benedict Cumberbatch as The Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor, with the roles reversed for the March 24 broadcast. Several venues are also scheduling repeat showings of the recorded performances.

Click The National Theatre Live to find a venue near you.

The National Theater’s Frankenstein page.

Frankenstein at the National Theatre, The Guardian.

Q&A: Playwright Nick Dear on Adapting Frankenstein, The Arts Desk.

An interview with Nick Dear, The Financial Times.

Out of the Vault

Daniel Horne’s fabulous painting — previously featured, sans overprinting, here — fronts the current issue of Monsters from the Vault, celebrating the 75th Anniversary (in 2010) of James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein.

The main article presents reflections on and tributes to the enduring classic by horror film experts and historians the likes of Bryan Senn, Greg Mank, Mark Clark, Steve Thornton, David Colton, Gary D. Rhodes and editor/publisher Jim Clatterbaugh. All beautifully written and illuminating. What’s more, the article is illustrated with numerous photographs stunningly reproduced in black, white and silvery grays.

To be honest, the stratospheric quality of the writing, the iconography and the layouts is on par for the title. Monsters from the Vault is, dependably and consistently, the very finest magazine devoted to classic horror films.

I urge you to purchase your copy directly from the publisher.

Shelley's Ghost

A rediscovered painting of Mary Shelley, never shown before, is just one of the treasures currently on display at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England. The small oil painting, dated to 1843 and attributed to Richard Rothwell, surfaced in 1955 and has only recently been recognized for what it is. Another, later portrait of Mary by the same artist is quite famous.

Shelley’s Ghost is an extraordinary exhibition devoted to Mary Shelley, her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. On show are notebooks, letters, art and artifacts, over 100 pieces in all, including the original manuscript of Frankenstein and precious personal objects such as Mary’s delicate dressing case and Percy’s carefully preserved baby rattle.

One particularly poignant object is an elaborate gilt display containing locks of Mary, Percy and their child Florence’s hair, along with one of Percy’s quill pens.

There was a time when a snippet of hair was a prized memento and Mary no doubt cherished these souvenirs of her beloved Percy. One of his tresses is dated 1822, the year he died. Mary was apparently generous with her own clipped curls. Mary Shelley expert and collector Daniel Raymond of Montreal reports that another lock of Mary’s hair, originally sent to an admirer, is kept at the New York Public Library.

Barring a trip to England, Shelley’s Ghost can be experienced through its dedicated and amazingly complete website, a stunning achievement in itself. All the exhibits are pictured and heavily annotated, and you can even read Frankenstein in manuscript form. There are numerous supplements including podcast readings of letters and poetry, contemporary music, and a map of a walking tour of Shelley in Oxford. There's also a fascinating video introduction by the show's curator, Stephen Hebron. The site’s layout is beautifully realized, navigation is easy and perfectly intuitive. One hopes the site, a significant resource, will stay up well after the show closes, come March 27.

Click through to the Shelley’s Ghost website and explore the lives and works of a remarkable literary family.

Shelley’s Ghost website.

Frankenstein manuscript.

Shelley's Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family is the exhibition's companion book, by Stephen Hebron and Elizabeth C. Denlinger.

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Portraits of Mary Shelley