Don't listen to the negative reviews

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Yes, this pilot failed to sell a show to American TV. Nevermind; it is the first in the series of Hammer Frankenstein films that ran well into the '70s. Everything is here - the homage to universal, the darker characterization of Doctor Frankenstein, the decision to place the series in a 19th century setting.... The ending of this short film would be rewritten as the end of "The Curse of Frankenstein." Okay, it's not really much more than a neat little B-movie short; but what else would one want from a Hammer horror film? And the hiring of Universal horror films writer Curt Siodmak to write the script is a nice touch of linking with the 'grand tradition' of Frankenstein films. Besides, it must be noted that the budget here is really far beyond any American TV programming of the day; nice sets, nice photography, excellent acting.(What probably killed off this series was the follow up - there was actually a second episode produced - I've seen it, but can't remember the title - but it was pretty typical generic suspense fair for the time - well produced but unnecessary.) This wins high marks as a point of historical origin and thus very important. And a well done B-movie horror short in any event.

Baron Victor Frankenstein(Anton Diffring) needs to make quality alterations to his human junk heap which has a murderer's brain and is unstable. Ms. Halpert(Helen Westcott) begs for help in regards to her sick sculptor husband(he's ill, it's his heart), even pleading for Frankenstein himself, yet no one seems to be able to. Ms. Halpert had heard about Frankenstein's experiments with life and death and believed if anyone could assist her husband, it'd be him. But, Frankenstein was only concerned with what his own creation could attain from fresh corpses of the newly dead and when Christine's husband dies, he sees a golden opportunity to gain a new brain for his monster. After his death, Christine discovers Frankenstein raided her husband's grave, wondering if the scientist has brought him back to life. What Christine does see is anything but the man for whom she married. Frankenstein's efforts to control the monster once he awakens becomes taxing because the brain belongs to another man and he sees Christine who forces her way into the scientist's laboratory.After watching this pilot I will always question just how good such a show could've been with the caliber of an Anton Diffring in the role of Frankenstein. Hell, I'd like to have seen Diffring in a movie as the Baron. This pilot came right after Hammer's popular revival of the Frankenstein franchise with Cushing as Baron Victor. What might've been..*sigh*. Screenplay writer Curt Siodmak got a chance to sit in the director's chair, and this 28 minute show is but a brief glimpse at the potential of a major mind behind several Universal movies associated with Hammer studios. I had a good time while this lasted, but, damn, I wish it were longer. It's almost like the appetizer before a great meal, yet it never arrives. One of the only chances Hammer fans can see a horror film released by the studios in beautiful B&W. Interesting enough, this looks a lot like a Universal film!

Yet another short TV production of the horror perennial whose major point of interest nowadays resides in its being capped by the double-shocker end credits - "Produced by Michael Carreras" and "A Hammer Film Production" - despite the fact that, being shot in black and white and directed by Curt Siodmak, it is clearly emulating the Universal template of almost thirty years previously rather than the fresh angle given by Hammer themselves!; other remnants of that consequently archaic influence are shots lifted from Tod Browning's Dracula (1931; the brides of Dracula) and the INNER SANCTUM series (the talking head). Actually, this above-average program was a co-production between Hammer and Columbia and features both future Hammer (a respectable but dour Anton Diffring in the lead) and past Universal (Ludwig Stossel as a tavern-keeper) alumni. Intended as a pilot for a proposed 26 episode TV horror anthology series to be filmed partly on the Columbia backlot and at Hammer's Bray Studios, it is no surprise that it failed and the plans for the follow-ups aborted. Frankly, the new storyline is weak: despite the fact that Baron Frankenstein has still not completed his life-giving experiments, the villagers are already scared shitless of him(!) and, worse still, an out-of-town couple (including a moribund husband) call on him for a miracle cure!! Even so, the Karloff-like monster - another Universal nod in this anomalous Hammer entry - is suitably menacing (if nothing else) as played by Don Megowan - previously of the Columbia horror programmer THE WEREWOLF (1956), which I will be watching later on during this Halloween Challenge - and, as usual, that wholly intoxicating black-and-white Gothic atmosphere wins the day in the end.

Frankenstein's reputation has done well for him. He has created another "monster", but needs a mind to control it. When a terminally ill subject enters his lab, he sees an opportunity to create the perfect being -- not having to rely on dead or criminal brains.Anton Diffring ("Beast Must Die") stars as Baron Frankenstein and does a fine job. So does everyone else. For a television show, I'm uncertain ho this would have fared, particularly in the 1950s. And what would the story be? Would Frankenstein try a new brain each week? That would get old... or I've heard rumor it as to feature a different monster. That has some merit, but how many monsters are there? Dracula would make a much better ongoing character...Luckily for us this pilot survived as a short film, and a decent one at that. Perhaps not a memorable one, but a strong piece of the Frankenstein story from a director ho knows the man and the monster ("Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman", for example).This one crossed my desk through a box set. I'm not sure ho easily available it is, but if you get a chance to check it out, do so. It's only 27 minutes long, so you'd hardly be "wasting" time on this better-than-average attempt at a good horror story. "Tales From the Crypt" has done worse.