Il Mostro di Frankenstein (1920)

Revealed: Umberto Guarracino in Il Mostro di Frankenstein (1920), the last silent Frankenstein film. Movie strongman Guarracino made a formidable-looking, bullet-headed Monster. The actor went on to play another artificial man, “the product of the secret workshop”, in Die Insel der Verschollenen (1921), a German-made adaptation of H.G.Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. 

The Mostro photo surfaced on the Italian site Sempre in penumbra, devoted to silent films and dedicated in its search for new information on the lost Frankenstein of 1920.

Of the silent movie Frankensteins, Il Mostro has proven the most elusive. Posters for showings in 1922 and 1926, as well as a Belgian program book, have surfaced (posted here and here), otherwise precious little is known about the film. The Penumbra site recently uncovered multilingual ads for an August 1922 screening in Port Said, Egypt. Also on the bill was a Snub Pollard comedy short from 1920, Call a Taxi.

Producer Luciano Albertini, who played the scientist, gets all the attention: “Original drama in 4 parts” the copy reads, “interpreted by SAMSON otherwise known as Luciano Albertini, the formidable artist of world fame.”

Albertini (1882-1945) was a former circus performer and trapezist who parlayed his athletics and gentlemanly good looks into a career as stunt-performing matinee idol and one of Italy’s biggest silent stars. He also made films in Russia and Germany, with a short and uneventful stint in Hollywood, circa 1924. His most famous role, referenced on one of the Egyptian posters for Il Mostro, was in The Bridge of Sighs, a 1921 costume drama.

Here, with thanks to collector George Chastain, is a very rare, autographed postcard of Albertini.

By all appearances, Il Mostro di Frankenstein circulated widely, and was still being shown six years after it was made. Research continues — and we’ll be keeping an eye on the superlative Penumbra site — as slowly, piece-by-piece, information surfaces and the Mostro puzzle comes together.

NEXT UP: Silent Movie Frankenstein Week is extended a few days as we look at all those OTHER Silent Frankenstein films (!?!!).

Coverage of Il Mostro di Frankenstein on Sempre in penumbra here, here and here.

A detailed biography of Luciano Albertini on Film Star Postcards.

Il Mostro di Frankenstein as covered here, on Frankensteinia.

Silent Frankenstein Week!

From the pages of the local Daily Herald, May 14, 1910, the New Lyric Theatre of Palestine, Texas, presents the High-Class Comedy, Songs and Dances of Ball & Dorris, the music of the seven-piece Triece’s Orchestra, and a program of High Art Motion Photographs, led by Edison’s feature film, Frankenstein.

Starting Sunday, and running all week, we will be celebrating the Silent Movie Frankensteins: Edison’s Frankenstein (1910), Life Without Soul (1915), and Il Mostro di Frankenstein (1920).

Turn off the sound and join us for High-Quality Motographic Archeology, High-Class Discoveries, High-Falutin’ Revelations, and Rare, High-Eye-Popping Photographs!

It starts right here, tomorrow!

Related Posts:

Edison’s Frankenstein:The First Frankenstein of the MoviesA Physicalogical Phantasy!A Weird, Fantastic Conception!After FrankensteinAll Posts about Edison’s Frankenstein

Life Without Soul:The Silent Frankensteins

Il Mostro di Frankenstein:A poster from 1922Il Mostro: A 1926 Playbill

The Posters of Frankenstein : Il Mostro di Frankenstein

There’s precious little material left attending the release of Il Mostro di Frankenstein, the lost Italian Frankenstein film of 1920. Here, recently surfaced, and predating a similar ad from 1926, is what becomes the earliest known poster of the film, for two showings in August 1922. Cheaply printed in two colors, these typographical posters were produced in low numbers for neighborhood distribution.

The “Frankenstein” name is misspelled, as it was, differently, on the 1926 poster. Producer/actor Luciano Albertini, an early Italian movie star known for his role as “Samson”, gets top billing.

“An extraordinary film of sensational adventures”, the copy reads, “superbly interpreted by Albertini and his troupe”. The troupe in question included fellow strongman Umberto Guarracino, who played The Monster to Albertini’s Frankenstein. “A Masterpiece without precedent… An enormous success”.

The accompanying film, La Caniglia — literally “the rabble”, and usually translated as “the gangster” — was another film from 1920, directed by and starring Enzo Longhi.

The long-lived Cinema Teatro Aurora opened in 1908 on the narrow Via Paolo Scarpi in downtown Milan. For a time, patrons could gather in an inner courtyard on warm days to be serenaded by the house orchestra. The Cinema switched to sound film in 1931 and underwent periodic upgrades through the years. After a season’s shutdown in 1980, the Teatro was revived as an adult movie house, operating briefly as the Aurora Pussycat. It closed definitely in 2003, after a remarkable 95-year run. The building is still standing, its façade intact, with the insides remodeled for commercial and cultural use.

Source: Wonderful research by film historian Giuseppe Rausa, notably a detailed account of the Cinema Teatro Aurora (in Italian), with links to numerous placard-type posters.

Related:
A placard from 1926 and a Belgian ad for Il Mostro di Frankenstein
The Silent Frankensteins

The Posters of Frankenstein : Il Mostro di Frankenstein

This Italian playbill from 1926 is one of the earliest of all Frankenstein movie posters. There are heralds or pressbooks for the two previous Frankenstein films, the Edison Company’s Frankenstein (1910) and Ocean Films’ Life Without Soul (1915), but this is a rare instance of a true poster, meant for display. A typeset placard without illustrations, measuring 24 by 38 inches, it is typical of theater or movie playbills printed in very low numbers for local distribution.

Il Mostro di Frankenstein (1921) was made in Italy with German backing. Its stars, Luciano Albertini and mostro Umberto Guarracino were well known as sword-and-sandal movie strongmen. Albertini is identified on the Frankenstein poster as Samson, a character he reprised in several films.

The film mentioned at the top of the bill, Bebe Gode, is I Do (1921), a frantic two-reeler written and produced by Hal Roach. Star Harold Lloyd would marry his co-star, Mildred Davis, in 1923. A line at the bottom announces the upcoming Galaor contra Galaor (1924). This one’s a peplum attributed to Eugenio Bava, a cinematographer acclaimed as a pioneer of movie special effects in Italy, and father of cult director Mario Bava. In 1960, Eugenio sculpted the memorable torture mask for his son’s Black Sunday.

A lost film, very little evidence remains of Il Mostro di Frankenstein. A tantalizing image appears on a Belgian flyer, and now this poster, with the main character’s name misspelled, reveals that the film was still touring rural Italy five years after its initial release.

With information gathered from The Classic Horror Film Board.

Related:
The Silent Frankensteins

Silent Frankensteins

Here’s a trivia question I’ve stumped film buff friends with: Who was the fourth actor to play the Frankenstein Monster in the movies?

The answer is: Boris Karloff. The most famous of all Frankenstein Monsters was preceded by 3 silent era actors.

The first was Charles Ogle, the scarecrow-like Monster in the so-called “Edison” Frankenstein of 1910. The film was lost and forgotten for over 50 years, only to miraculously surface in a private collection. Today, you can watch or download the sixteen-minute silent on Archive.org.

The second Frankenstein Monster of the movies was played by English-born Percy Darrell Standing in the 1915 feature-length Life Without Soul. The film is lost but a publicity sheet clearly shows the Monster as a dimwitted brute in a torn shirt, without disfiguring makeup. The whole drama, as it often turned out in films of the era, is revealed in the end to have been a dream.

The third interpretation is infinitely more mysterious. Its existence was largely unknown through most of the 20th century and, still today, very little is known about it.

The 1920 Il Mostro di Frankenstein was produced in Italy, with German investment, by Luciano Albertini, who also portrayed Dr. Frankenstein. It co-stars his frequent film collaborators: Wife Linda Albertini and the imposing Umberto Guarracino as The Monster. Of the plot, all we know is that the Doctor confronts his creation in a dark cave. The whole thing clocked in at some 39 minutes of screen time. The film was reputedly censored by Italian authorities, compelling Albertini and company to pursue their film careers in Germany.

The following year, 1921, Guarracino played “the product of the secret workshop” in Die Insel der Verschollenen (Island of the Lost), an unauthorized adaptation of H.G.Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. Trivia question #2: Can you name the only other actor to ever play both the Frankenstein Monster and a creation of Dr. Moreau?

Guarracino is perhaps best remembered as Pluto, the fuzzy-bearded King of Hell to “strong man” genre superstar Bartolomeo Pagano’s Maciste in the classic Maciste all'inferno of 1926, the film that is said to have inspired a young Federico Fellini to become a filmmaker. By the way, Maciste in Hell is a special effect knockout with very elaborate sets and all manner of beast men, alluring she-devils, and a giant fire-breathing dragon identified as “Hell’s Aeroplane”!

Of Frankenstein’s Mostro, nothing survives save an illustration on a Belgian promotion flyer. It shows the monster surrounded by smoke or flames, menacingly brandishing a stick. In the background, an urgent figure appears on a staircase. A “mysterious vision”, the caption reads, “from the novel by Mrs. Shelley”.

I found the small picture on the net years ago, but the source seems to have disappeared. If anyone has access to a better, larger copy, please share!

Out of curiosity, I scanned the image at high resolution, enlarged and photoshopped it a bit to see if any detail could be brought out. I humbly submit the result of this experiment. The Monster appears as a bald-headed, muscular man. The face remains a cipher. A tantalizing image that’ll have to do, at least until a better one is found.