There are listed 112 movies on or dealing with Frankenstein and his monster. The very first film on Frankenstein was Edison Studio's "Frankenstein," released March 1910. Using the basis of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, this J. Searle Dawley written and directed film goes more for the psychological aspects of the monster and his creator rather than the true horror killings of the book.
Unlike its successors, this debut of Frankenstein has the monster created not from body parts but chemically-prepared and made from scratch. The monster then rises up behind a sealed room rather than electrically charged on a gurney like we're familiar with in the 1931 classic. And instead of the monster running amok throughout the countryside terrorizing the villagers, the Frankenstein monster here exists largely in its creator's imagination. Many credit this movie as the first horror film in cinema. They may be correct in labeling the movie as the first existing horror production that can be viewed, but the first acknowledge horror movie made was William Selig's 1908 sixteen-minute "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as well as the Sidney Olcott's version of Dr. Jekyll in the same year. Both films, however, are lost.
1910's "Frankenstein" was considered lost for decades until emerging from a private collection in the mid-1970's. Only forty copies of the movie had been made by Edison Studios, and once they were shown, the reels were sent back to the studio to be melted down for the films' silver content--all except for one. Somehow a solitary reel was saved and remained practically in the dustbin until an inheritor of the movie eventually publicized its existence. Thanks for recent restorations, "Frankenstein," the grandfather of them all, can now be seen.
Unlike its successors, this debut of Frankenstein has the monster created not from body parts but chemically-prepared and made from scratch. The monster then rises up behind a sealed room rather than electrically charged on a gurney like we're familiar with in the 1931 classic. And instead of the monster running amok throughout the countryside terrorizing the villagers, the Frankenstein monster here exists largely in its creator's imagination. Many credit this movie as the first horror film in cinema. They may be correct in labeling the movie as the first existing horror production that can be viewed, but the first acknowledge horror movie made was William Selig's 1908 sixteen-minute "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" as well as the Sidney Olcott's version of Dr. Jekyll in the same year. Both films, however, are lost.
1910's "Frankenstein" was considered lost for decades until emerging from a private collection in the mid-1970's. Only forty copies of the movie had been made by Edison Studios, and once they were shown, the reels were sent back to the studio to be melted down for the films' silver content--all except for one. Somehow a solitary reel was saved and remained practically in the dustbin until an inheritor of the movie eventually publicized its existence. Thanks for recent restorations, "Frankenstein," the grandfather of them all, can now be seen.