Frankenstein in Brisbane, Part 2: An Epic of Terror

June, 1932. In the week leading up to the June 10 opening of Frankenstein, the management of Brisbane’s Tivoli theater ramps up the promotion. On Wednesday, June 8, a private screening is held for the press, and this fever-pitch preview ad appears in The Brisbane Courier. Click the image to see it large.

The Chilling Horror… The Icy Mystery Of A Hundred Thrilling Tales Frozen Into An EPIC OF TERROR reads the copy, against an intriguing, featureless outline drawing of The Monster. 
                                                              
Conceived in Madness! He wrecked coffins and stole bodies to make a creature with blotchy face and blackened lips… He packed the brain of a criminal into its misshapen head…

Ballyhoo was the art of exaggeration, over the top was the only way to go, and a film as exciting and unusual as Frankenstein invited extravagant hype, but few ads we’ve seen were as delirious as this one. Witness this existential description of the film’s extraordinary Monster…

Out of the void of the Infinite it came, a snarling monster that sweated death and madness.

And the Tivoli’s PR people weren’t done yet! Next up in the series: The Monster, in Person!

Related:
Frankenstein in Brisbane, Part 1: Free Insurance!