Frankenstein in popular culture

Frankenstein in popular culture

Frankenstein in popular culture lists the many ways the novel
Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster, have influenced film, tv,
games and popular culture in general and the many derivative works it
has inspired.
Contents

* 1 Film adaptations
o 1.1 Silent Era
o 1.2 Universal Pictures
o 1.3 Hammer Films
o 1.4 Other film versions
o 1.5 Trivia
o 1.6 Parodies and satires
* 2 Television adaptations
* 3 Other adaptations
o 3.1 Classical and Modern Music
o 3.2 Radio
o 3.3 Stage
o 3.4 Novels
o 3.5 Comics
o 3.6 Games
* 4 Influence
* 5 External links

Film adaptations

Silent Era

The first film adaptation of the tale, Frankenstein, was done by
Edison Studios in 1910, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley, with
Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Mary Fuller as Elizabeth, and
Charles Ogle as the Monster. The brief (16 min.) story has
Frankenstein chemically create his creature in a vat. The monster
haunts the scientist until Frankenstein's wedding night, when true
love causes the creature to vanish. For many years this film was
believed lost until a collector announced in 1980 that he had acquired
a print in the 1950s and had been unaware of its rarity.

The Edison version was followed soon after by another adaptation
entitled Life Without Soul (1916), starring William A. Cohill as Dr.
William Frawley, a modern-day Frankenstein who creates a souless man,
played to much critical praise by Percy Darrell Standing, who wore
little make-up in the role. The film was shot at various locations
around the United States, and reputedly featured much spectacle. In
the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the
film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley's novel.

There was also at least one European film version, the Italian Il
Mostro di Frankenstein ("The Monster of Frankenstein") in 1920. The
film's producer Luciano Albertini essayed the role of Frankenstein,
with the creature being played by Umberto Guarracino. Eugenio Testa
directed, from a screenplay by Giovanni Drivetti. The film is
apparently lost.

Universal Pictures

See also Universal Monsters

The most famous adaptation of the story, 1931's Frankenstein, was
produced by Universal Pictures, directed by James Whale, and starred
Boris Karloff as the monster. The film has been selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Its sequel,
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), was also directed by Whale and is
considered by many to be one of the greatest films of any genre. Son
of Frankenstein followed in 1939 and its sequel The Ghost of
Frankenstein in 1942. The latter film marked the series' descent into
B-movie territory; later efforts by Universal combined two or more
monsters, culminating in the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet
Frankenstein. The Universal films in which The Monster appears (and
the actors who played him) are:

1. Frankenstein (1931 - Boris Karloff)
2. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935 - Karloff)
3. Son of Frankenstein (1939 - Karloff)
4. The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942 - Lon Chaney Jr.)
5. Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943 - Bela Lugosi, with Eddie
Parker, Gil Perkins and a possible third stuntman often doubling)
6. House of Frankenstein (1944 - Glenn Strange)
7. House of Dracula (1945 - Strange)
8. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948 - Strange).

Hammer Films

In Great Britain, a long-running series by Hammer Films focused on the
character of Dr. Frankenstein (usually played by Peter Cushing) rather
than his monster. Peter Cushing played Dr. Frankenstein in all of the
films except for Horror of Frankenstein in which the character was
played by Ralph Bates. Cushing also played a creation in Revenge of
Frankenstein. David Prowse played two different Monsters.

The Hammer films are a series in the loosest sense, since there is
only tenuous continuity between the films after the first two (which
are carefully connected). Starting with The Evil of Frankenstein, the
films are stand-alone stories with occasional vague references to
previous films, much the way the James Bond films form a series. In
some of the films, the Baron is a kindly, even heroic figure, while in
others he is ruthless and cruel, and clearly the villain of the piece.

The Hammer Films series (and the actor playing The Monster) consisted of:

1. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957 - Christopher Lee)
2. The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958 - two Monsters: Michael Gwynn
and Peter Cushing)
3. The Evil of Frankenstein (1964 - Kiwi Kingston)
4. Frankenstein Created Woman (1967 - Susan Denberg)
5. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969 - Freddie Jones)
6. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970 - David Prowse)
7. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974 - David Prowse)

In 1959, Hammer shot a half-hour pilot episode for a TV series to be
called Tales of Frankenstein, in association with Columbia Pictures.
Anton Diffring played the Baron, and Dan McGowan his creation. Curt
Siodmak directed. The series was scrapped, largely because of the two
companies' disagreement over what the basic thrust of the series would
be. Hammer wanted to do a series about Baron Frankenstein involved in
various misadventures, while Columbia wanted a series of science
fiction stories loosely based around the idea of science gone wrong.
Though unshown at the time of its production, the episode is available
on DVD from several sources.

Other film versions

* 1957: American International Pictures (AIP) released the
low-budget I Was a Teenage Frankenstein in November of 1957, a few
months after their wildly successful I Was a Teenage Werewolf. In a
desperate and vain attempt to be viewed as a great scientist, an
unscrupulous professor creates a monster out of parts of teenagers
killed in a car crash, then later directs his creation to rip the head
off a good-looking teenager to replace the monster's disfigured one.
Whit Bissell stars as Prof. Frankenstein, Gary Conway plays the
creature.

* 1958: Another wildly differing adaptation is the 1958 film
Frankenstein 1970, which focuses on the themes of nuclear power,
impotence, and the film industry. Boris Karloff stars as Dr.
Frankenstein, who harvests the bodies of actors to create a clone of
himself using his nuclear-powered laboratory. His intention is to have
this clone carry on his genes into future generations.

* 1958: This year also brought the bizarre Frankenstein's
Daughter, in which modern descendant of Frankenstein Donald Murphy
experiments with a Jekyll/Hyde type of serum before stitching together
a grotesque female creature. John Ashley and Sandra Knight co-starred.

* 1961: Frankenstein, el Vampiro y Cia ("Frankenstein, the Vampire
and Company") was a Mexican remake of Abbott and Costello Meet
Frankenstein.

* 1965: An extremely tangential adaptation is Ishiro Honda's 1965
tokusatsu kaiju film Frankenstein Conquers the World (Furankenshutain
tai Chitei Kaijû Baragon), produced by Toho Company Ltd. The film's
prologue is set in World War II, the monster's heart is stolen by
Nazis from the laboratory of Dr. Reisendorf in war-torn Frankfurt, and
taken to Imperial Japan. Immortal, the heart survives the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and is eaten by a savage child survivor, and
after discovered by scientists in Present Day Japan, he feeds on
protein, eventually growing into a giant humanoid monster that breaks
loose and battles the subterranean monster Baragon, which was
destroying villages and devouring people and animals. There was also a
sequel to this film (see below).

* 1965: Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster. Martians come to
Earth to steal our women, with the goal of repopulating their planet.
When they cause a NASA space craft to crash, the pilot (Captain Frank
Saunders) becomes horribly disfigured. Becoming a "Frankenstein" like
monster, it's up to him to save the women of Earth.

* 1966: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Director
William Beaudine's Sci-Fi\Western contribution has what would actually
be Frankenstein's granddaughter, Maria Frankenstein, cobbling a
monster out of Jesse James' (John Lupton) brawny partner-in-crime,
Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), after an ambush by the law. Frankenstein
re-names her creation Igor. Narda Onyx plays Maria Frankenstein.

* 1966: War of the Gargantuas (Furankenshutain no Kaijû: Sanda tai
Gaira), also directed by Honda, is a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers
the World (although this is obscured in the US version), with the
Frankenstein Monster's severed cells growing into two giant humanoid
brother monsters: Sanda (the Brown Gargantua), the strong and gentle
monster raised by scientists in his youth, and Gaira (the Green
Gargantua), the violent and savage monster who devours humans. The two
monsters eventually battle each other in Tokyo.

* 1970: Dracula Vs. Frankenstein by Al Adamson is an extremely
low-budget horror thriller, starring aged film stars J. Carroll Naish
and Lon Chaney Jr. In the film, Count Dracula (Zandor Vorkov) has the
last living descendant of Frankenstein (Naish) revive his famous
ancestor's creation (played by John Bloom). Dracula hopes to use the
creature in his bid to rule the world. Legend has it that the monster
was supposed to be turned into a vampire in the film, but that the
over-done make-up left no room for fangs. Lon Chaney Jr. played
Frankenstein's mute and homicidal slave Groton. Famous Monsters of
Filmland editor Forrest J. Ackerman cameoed as a hapless victim.

* 1971: The Italian La Figlia di Frankenstein ("The Daughter of
Frankenstein"), released in North America as Lady Frankenstein. Joseph
Cotton plays Baron Frankenstein, who is killed off by his grotesque
creation early on in the film. Sara Bay, as the Baron's daughter,
creates her own creature from a handsome young man and the brain of
her homely but brillant lover (Paul Muller). She uses her creature to
track down and destroy her father's monster, and also to satisfy what
the movie's ads referred to as her own "strange desires."

* 1972: Jess Franco contributed Dracula Contra Frankenstein
("Dracula Vs. Frankenstein"), which hit the North American drive-in
circuit as Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein. Baron Frankenstein
(played by Dennis Price, who was allegedly quite inebriated through
much of the filming) revives Count Dracula (Howard Vernon) in order to
enslave an army of vampires to help his monster (Fred Harrison)
conquer the world.

* 1972: Franco followed up his Dracula/Frankenstein effort with
The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (also known, somewhat heretically, as
The Curse of Frankenstein, but bearing no relation to the vastly
superior Hammer film). Here, Baron Frankenstein (Dennis Price again)
is killed off early on by minions of the evil Count Cagliostro (Howard
Vernon), who wants to use the monster in his plots to rule the world.

* 1972: Frankenstein `80, a film by Mario Mancini, featured a
modern-day scientist named Albrechtstein (Gordon Mitchell) creating a
monster called Mosaico (Xiro Papas). Mosaico is driven to homicidal
mania by lust, and by his body's constant rejection of its constituent
parts. The ingenue was played by Dalila di Lazarro (under the
pseudonym "Dalila Parker"), who later appeared as the female creation
in 1973's Flesh for Frankenstein (see below).

* 1973: Considered among the goriest Frankenstein movies was Andy
Warhol's Flesh for Frankenstein. Udo Kier plays the Baron, a bizarre
but brilliant scientist who creates a male and female zombie in hopes
of breeding a superior race. Joe Dallesandro plays the handyman who
attempts to thwart the Baron's mad dream.

* 1976: Victor Frankenstein (a.k.a. The Terror of Frankenstein,)
was the first version to truly attempt to remain faithful to Mary
Shelley's novel, though it was generally discarded as a failed and
slow-moving attempt. Per Oscarson played the creature.

* 1981: Another Japanese version, this one animated, was Kyofu
densetsu: Kaiki! Furankenshutain (called in the U.S. simply
Frankenstein,) released in 1981. In this violent, adult-oriented film,
the Creature was portrayed as a sort of tragic superhero.

* 1985: The Bride was an adaptation directed by Franc Roddam. It
stars Clancy Brown as the monster, with rocker Sting as Dr. Charles
Frankenstein. The plot features the Monster wandering about Europe
with a tragic circus midget (David Rappaport) while the Doctor himself
engages in a Pygmalion-inspired relationship with a female creation,
the eponymous monster's bride played by Jennifer Beals. A love
triangle between Doctor, Monster and Bride provides the film's pivotal
conflict.

* 1987: The Monster Squad is a comedy/horror film written and
directed by Fred Dekker that was released by Tri-Star Pictures. The
film features the reunion of a number of classic monsters, led by
Dracula (Duncan Regehr) and including Frankenstein's monster (Tom
Noonan), The Wolf Man (Carl Thibault), The Mummy (Michael Reid
MacKay), and The Gill Man (Tom Woodruff Jr).

* 1990: Frankenstein Unbound was a science fiction movie based on
the novel by Brian Aldiss. In it, a scientist travels back in time to
meet Victor Frankenstein and his Creature, as well as Mary Shelley
herself.

* 1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was directed by Kenneth
Branagh, who also portrayed Victor Frankenstein. It featured a star
cast with Robert De Niro as the monster, Tom Hulce as Henry, John
Cleese as Professor Waldman, Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth, and
Aidan Quinn as Captain Robert Walton. As its title suggests, Branagh
strived for an adaptation faithful to Mary Shelley's original novel,
however the film portrays the creature as a barely-speaking brute (he
was extremely well-spoken in the novel), and the final third of the
movie strays from the novel considerably.

* 2004: Van Helsing. This film was a reinvention of the famous
Universal stable of monsters of the 1930s and 1940s. Shuler Hensley
plays the Monster who, contrary to usual practice, is directly
referred to by the name Frankenstein. He sees himself as Dr.
Frankenstein's son rather than his creation. The portrayal of the
creature in this movie--intelligent, articulate, sympathetic and a
hero--is somewhat close to the portrayal in the book.

* 2006: Perfect Woman. This film, produced by Olympic Productions
and due for release later this year, is a modern spin on the tale. The
plot follows a reality game show that is looking for the perfect woman
to win the perfect man, played by Marcus Schenkenberg. Little do the
girls know that the game show is a mask for an evil genius who is
literally trying to make the perfect woman, using various body parts.
David Prowse also appears in this film as a cannibalistic gardener.

* 2006: Subject Two. This film, written and directed by Philip
Chidel, has a modern nanotechnology spin on the tale. The plot follows
a disillusioned medical student's journey to a remote snowbound
mountain location where he is met by Dr. Vic.

Trivia

* Depictions of The Monster have varied widely, from mindless
killing machines (as in many of the Hammer films) to the depiction of
The Monster as a kind of tragic hero (closest to the Shelley version
in behavior) in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Bride and Van
Helsing. Throughout the Universal series, he evolves from the latter
to the former.

* Three films have depicted the genesis of the Frankenstein story
in 1816: Gothic directed by Ken Russell (1986), Haunted Summer
directed by Ivan Passer (1988) and Remando al viento (English title:
Rowing with the Wind) directed by Gonzalo Suárez (1988). The opening
scene of Bride of Frankenstein also dealt with this event.

* Victor Frankenstein studied in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt.
The medical department of the University was famous up to the year
1800, when the University was closed by royal order.

* The regeneration sequence of the seventh Doctor, Sylvester
McCoy, into the eighth incarnation, Paul McGann, in the 1996 TV movie
Doctor Who is set in a hospital morgue. The night attendant at the
morgue is watching the 1931 Frankenstein in the next room, and scenes
in which the monster is brought to life are intercut with images of
the Doctor's "resurrection" – his appearance then causing the
attendant to pass out.

Parodies and satires

* In a 1968 episode of The Inspector entitled Transylvania Mania,
a smart Dracula-like character and a stupid Frankenstein-like creature
try to steal The Inspector's brain to put it in a new creature the
vampire is building.

* Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder created the satirical "Frank N.
Stein!" for Mad 8 (December 1953).

* The Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder comedy, Young Frankenstein
(1974), borrows heavily from the first three Universal Frankenstein
films, especially Son of Frankenstein. The production used many of
James Whale's original laboratory set pieces and employed the
technical contributions of their original creator, Kenneth
Strickfaden. The Frankenstein Monster in this film was played by Peter
Boyle.

* The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) was a musical parody of the
story. In this twisted comedic tale, Dr. Frank N. Furter creates a
creature for his own pleasure (named 'Rocky') and finds he cannot
control the creature's lust. A prototype version that he discarded,
Eddie, has a look inspired by Boris Karloff's Frankenstein - with a
scar across his forehead.

* Frankenhooker (1990) is a parody of the Universal films in which
"Jeffrey Franken" gathers body parts from various streetwalkers in
order to build the "perfect" woman. This same concept was borrowed for
2006's Perfect Woman (mentioned above).

* Frankencelery appears in Where's God When I'm S-Scared?, the
1993 debut episode of the children's video series Veggietales. The
star of Tales from the Crisper calms a frightened asparagus with the
message that he's a harmless actor named Phil, from Toledo.

* Pumpernickel the mad Swiss professor from Restart by Komedy
Kollective, is a sinister professor based on the Frankenstein novels,
who makes a secret elixir using body parts.

* Lisa of the Weird Science film and television series was a sort
of computer-generated Frankenstein monster, designed to be a toy for
Gary and Wyatt. Though not technically undead, the method of her
creation and her rebellious nature make constant references to the
Frankenstein's monster. There is even an episode of the television
show where Gary and Wyatt match their creation Lisa against
Frankenstein's monster to see who has created the superior being.

* The Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands bears many references to
the Frankenstein story. An old inventor creates a man called Edward,
but dies before he can finish him, leaving him with scissors for
hands. Edward is found and looked after by Peg Boggs, the local Avon
lady, who attempts to introduce him to her fellow neighbours in her
perfect suburban home. But soon, the residents begin attempting to
manipulate Edward (played by Johnny Depp), especially when he falls in
love with Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder) and will do anything for
her. Because his creator never taught him consience, he does not know
the laws of society. However, unlike Frankenstein's monster, who
treated his creation with disgust, Edward's creator loved him like a
son, and taught him to love.

* The Cartoon Network show Robot Chicken featured a Frankenstein
parody character called "Frank Enstein."

* In the Histeria! episode "Super Writers", at the end of a sketch
about Edgar Allan Poe publishing The Raven, Mary Shelley appears
(portrayed by Charity Bazaar dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein) to
pitch the book to Sammy Melman.

Television adaptations

The Frankenstein story and its elements have been adapted many times
for television:

* Universal produced a television sitcom from 1964 to 1966 for CBS
entitled The Munsters with Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, a character
physically resembling the Universal's cinematic depiction of
Frankenstein's monster, who was the patriarch of a family of kindly
monsters. The rest of the family included a grandfather resembling the
Universal Dracula (who may actually be Dracula), a vampire wife, and a
werewolf son. The Munsters' house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane can still
be seen on the Universal Studios' backlot tour at Universal Studios in
Universal City, California.
* An infamous half-hour segment of Tales of Tomorrow with Lon
Chaney Jr. as the monster. This version, which was broadcast live, is
notable for the fact that Chaney believed it to be a dress rehearsal
rather than an actual broadcast, thereby resulting in what appeared to
be bizarre behavior on the air, such as picking up a chair and waving
it menacingly over his head and then putting it gently back in its
place. It has been suggested that Chaney was also inebriated at the
time, but this has not been confirmed.
* A British version from the 1960s with Ian Holm as the Creature
* Although not an adaptation of the story, an early 1960s episode
of Route 66 saw Boris Karloff wearing his classic Frankenstein monster
make-up one last time for a special Halloween episode.
* Milton the Monster (1965-1967) was a cartoon character developed
shortly after The Munsters about a kind-hearted Frankenstein monster
who famously "flipped his lid" (emitted steam like a whale's blowhole)
when angered, and who was constantly nearly kicked out of the lab by
his scheming creator.
* A 1973 Universal production, Frankenstein: The True Story was
more an amalgamation of various concepts from previous films than a
direct adaptation of the novel. It starred Leonard Whiting as
Frankenstein and Michael Sarrazin as the Creature, with a star
supporting cast including James Mason, David McCallum, John Gielgud,
Ralph Richardson and Jane Seymour.
* Dan Curtis' 1973 adaptation with Robert Foxworth as Frankenstein
and Bo Svenson as the Creature. It was probably the most faithful film
version of the book up to that time.
* In an episode of Fantasy Island, Dr. Anne Frankenstein, a
descendant of Dr. Frankenstein, visits the island to try to find out
about her ancestor. A being created by the elder scientist appears,
and Anne is determined to take the being with her, naively believing
it will be treated with proper care in the 1980s.
* A 1976 Doctor Who serial, The Brain of Morbius, has a Time Lord
criminal body brought back to life by a mad scientist.
* A 1984 BBC version starring Robert Powell as Victor, David
Warner as his creature, and Carrie Fisher as the doomed Elizabeth.
* Frankenstein's Aunt
* The late eighties/early nineties cartoon, Captain N: The Game
Master was partially based on Castlevania, (see below) and features
the Monster as a servant of Count Dracula in various episodes.
* A 1992 production for the American TNT cable network, with
Patrick Bergin as Victor and Randy Quaid as his hapless creation.
* "Frankenbone", a 1996 episode of the children's show Wishbone
had an adaptation of the Shelley story with the canine star in the
role of Victor.
* A 2004 production for the American USA Network starred Thomas
Kretschmann as Victor and Vincent Perez as his original creature. It
was not a direct adaptation but a postmodern gothic reinvention set in
present-day New Orleans that recast Victor as the villain and the
creature as a tragic hero determined to stop him; the primary action
involves two police detectives (Parker Posey and Adam Goldberg) who
enlist the aid of the creature ("Deucalion" in this version) to stop a
serial killer(Michael Madsen) who may be one of Victor's later
creations. It was produced by Martin Scorsese and based on a treatment
by Dean Koontz. The film was originally intended as the pilot for an
ongoing series, but this was not successful. Koontz is in the process
of developing the concept into a series of novels (Dean Koontz's
Frankenstein: Prodigal Son and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: City of
Night are the first two volumes).
* A second 2004 adaptation of the Frankenstein story created for
the American Hallmark Entertainment Network starred Alec Newman as
Frankenstein and Luke Goss as the creature. It won the Emmy Award for
Outstanding Makeup that year.
* In the TV show Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Frankenstein's
monster is a recurring character in the segment "Frankenstein Wastes A
Minute of Our Time".
* As played by Phil Hartman, The Monster was also a popular
recurring comedic character on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s,
often delivering the line, "Fire bad!"
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer has also faced "Frankensteinian"
creations: a season two creation was a reanimated high school jock
(killed in a car accident) who only wanted his brother/creator to
build him a mate; however, his brother eventually refused, as the
rapid decay rate of brain tissue meant that he would have to 'kill' a
girl to acquire a head (Some Assembly Required). The season four Big
Bad was Adam, a conglomeration of robot, human, and demon parts
created by a government scientist in charge of a demon research
facility, whom Adam regarded as his mother.
* A season five episode of The X-Files, "Post-Modern Prometheus,"
played up a campy re-telling of the Frankenstein legend updated with
genetic engineering technology. The episode, the only one of the
series filmed exclusively in black and white, parodies the film
adaptations of the legend as the creature, shunned by the mad
scientist who created him, seeks a mate in a small town who has
immortalized him as an urban legend and comic book villain; the
episode reaches its campy conclusion when the women of the town take
their monster-babies on Jerry Springer and the monster finds his true
love by attending a Cher concert. The monster is played by Chris
Owens, who had already played a younger version of the
Cigarette-Smoking Man and would go on to play his son in season six,
and the scientist was portrayed by Seinfeld alum John O'Hurley.
* In the 1994 animated television series Monster Force
Frankenstein's monster alias "Frankenstein" or "the Monster" becomes
humanity's ally in a desperate fight against evil Creatures of the
Night.
* The children's animated series Arthur has an episode depicting a
re-enactment of the night the novel was created. Titled Fernkenstein's
Monster, it was described as: "Inspired by Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein, Fern tells a tale so scary that Arthur and the gang
become afraid of her. Can Fern prove her skills as a writer and create
a different story that's fun instead of frightening?"
* The 2000 anime television series Argento Soma draws a large
amount of inspiration from Frankenstein. The show's plotline revolves
around an ambitious scientist assembling a giant silver creature from
scattered components. The giant (aptly nicknamed "Frank") possesses a
tender and compassionate nature but has a bizarre and hideous exterior
and the potential to inflict death and destruction.
* The Duck Dodgers episode "Castle High" revolved around the main
character explaining to I.Q. High what had happened to his castle, the
flashback based off of the story.
* One of Arale's classmates in Dr. Slump was named Monsuta (aka Frank).
* In Dragonball, young Goku befriends a cyborg named Number 8
(Whom he nicknames Ha-chan) who was similar in appearance to
Frankenstein's monster.
* An episode of Goof Troop had a spoof called Frankengoof {The
monster is a mirror image of Black Pete}.
* An episode of Jimmy Neutron has Jimmy creating Brobot a little
brother/robot with Jimmy as mad scientist and Goddard as assistant.
* Scooby-Doo has a TV movie entitled "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul
School", in which Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy-Doo meet the daughters
of several monsters at "Miss Grimwood's School for Girls". One of the
'girl ghouls' (as they are called in the movie) is named Elsa
Frankenteen, her father being Frankenteen Sr. Though both resemble the
creature, Frankenteen Sr. is the best representation. 'Frankenteen' is
also a portmanteau of 'Frankenstein' and 'teen' because Elsa is a
teenager.
* An episode of Star Trek The Next Generation # 168 Thine Own Self
has Data losing part of his memory and ends up saving primitive
villagers-who attack him.
* There were two instances where the concept of Frankenstein's
monster was used in the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series. In
Kyouryuu Sentai ZyuRanger, the monster Dora Frank was an obvious nod
to the monster, as well as its Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
counterpart, which was simply referred to as the "Frankenstein
Monster". Then in Mahou Sentai Magiranger one of the main villains,
Victory General Branken, was inspired by Frankenstein's Monster.
Branken's Power Rangers: Mystic Force counterpart was Morticon.
* An episode of SpongeBob SquarePants is called Frankendoodle and
involves SpongeBob creating an evil doodle.
* A prank used on Prank Patrol (called "It's Alive!") is a direct
parody of Frankenstein, with Andre Simoneau playing "Frankenstein".

Other adaptations

Classical and Modern Music

* The multimedia musical composition of Ukrainian born Russian
composer Evgeni Kostitsyn entitled How I Made This utilized acoustic
and electronic instruments as well as lights and a painter as part of
the piece, which won first place at the First International
Competition for Composers in the Ukraine in 1998.
* Frankenstein is an instrumental by the Edgar Winter Group

Radio

In 1938, George Edwards produced a 13-part, 3-hour series for radio.
It follows the structure and spirit of the novel closely.

Two other versions were made in both 1944 and 1955.

Stage

Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is an 1887 musical comedy
composed by Meyer Lutz and written by Richard Henry.

Novels

The story of Frankenstein, or to be precise, "Frankenstein's Monster",
has formed the basis of many original novels over the years, some of
which were considered sequels to Shelley's original work, and some of
which were based more upon the character as portrayed in the Universal
films. Yet others were completely new tales inspired byFrankenstein.

* 1957: French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière wrote six
Frankenstein novels in 1957 and 1958 for Angoisse, the horror imprint
of publisher Fleuve Noir, under the house pseudonym of Benoît Becker
(with plotting assistance from Guy Bechtel for the first novel).

* 1. La Tour de Frankenstein [The Tower Of Frankenstein] (FNA
No. 30, 1957)
* 2. Le Pas de Frankenstein [The Step Of Frankenstein] (FNA
No. 32, 1957)
* 3. La Nuit de Frankenstein [The Night Of Frankenstein] (FNA
No. 34, 1957)
* 4. Le Sceau de Frankenstein [The Seal Of Frankenstein] (FNA
No. 36, 1957)
* 5. Frankenstein Rôde [Frankenstein Prowls] (FNA No. 41, 1958)
* 6. La Cave de Frankenstein [The Cellar Of Frankenstein] (FNA
No. 50, 1959)

Carrière followed the footsteps of the Monster, christened
Gouroull, as he made his way back from Iceland, to Scotland, and then
Germany and Switzerland, from the late 1800s to the 1920s. The plots
have the Monster pursuing his own, evil agenda, unafraid of the weaker
humans. Even people who try to help or reason with him are just as
likely to be killed by the inhuman fiend.

* 1978: Frankenstein's Aunt
* 1986: In The Frankenstein Papers, Fred Saberhagen retells
Shelley's story (with significant modifications) from the creature's
point of view.
* 1997: Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan is one of a
series of parody novels by Spike Milligan. In this, Milligan crafts a
bizarre story, with many gags based on specific moments and instances
from the text of the novel, such as "I am self-educated: for the first
fourteen years of my life I ran wild on the common. At the end of that
time I fell exhausted to the ground."
* 2004: Dean Koontz has written a series of Frankenstein novels:
Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. These reimagine Frankenstein in the
setting of modern-day New Orleans.

Comics
Marvel Comics' The Monster of Frankenstein #1 (Jan. 1973), the
premiere of a five-issue adaptation of the novel by writer Gary
Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.
Marvel Comics' The Monster of Frankenstein #1 (Jan. 1973), the
premiere of a five-issue adaptation of the novel by writer Gary
Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.

The Monster has also been the subject of many comic book adaptations,
ranging from the ridiculous (a 1960s series portraying The Monster as
a superhero; see below), to more straightforward interpretations of
Shelley's work, such Marvel Comics' The Monster of Frankenstein, the
first five issues of which (Jan.-Sept. 1973) contained a faithful (in
spirit at least) retelling of Shelley's tale before transferring The
Monster into the present day and pitting him against James
Bond-inspired evil organizations. The artist, Mike Ploog, recalled, "I
really enjoyed doing Frankenstein because I related to that naive
monster wandering around a world he had no knowledge of — an outsider
seeing everything through the eyes of a child." [1]

In 1940, cartoonist Dick Briefer wrote and drew a
Frankenstein's-monster comic book title for Crestwood Publications's
Prize Comics, beginning with a standard horrific version, updated to
contemporary America, but then in 1945 crafting an acclaimed and
well-remembered comedic version that spun-off into his own title,
Frankenstein Comics. The series ended with issue #17 (Jan.-Feb. 1949,
but was revived as a horror title from #18-33 (March 1952 - Oct.-Nov.
1954). The original Prize version served as catalyst for an
inner-company crossover, where all Prize characers starring in Prize
Comics at the time teamed up to fight Frankenstein.

Classic Comics #27 December 1945 reprinted in Classics Illustrated#26
had versions of the Shelley novel.

The Monster appeared in Superman No. 143 February 1961 in a story
entitled "Bizarro Meets Frankenstein!"

Dell Comics published a superhero version of the character in the
comic book series Frankenstein #2-4 (Sept. 1966 - March 1967; issue
#1, published Oct. 1964, featured a very loose adaptation/update of
the 1931 Universal Pictures movie).

The monster appeared as a foe to the X-Men in issue #40 (January
1968). In the story, written by Roy Thomas, the monster had various
powers, including incredible strength, optic beams, and magnetized
feet. He was an ambassador sent to Earth by aliens in the 1850s, but
upon arrival, he went berserk. His fellow aliens followed him to the
North Pole, where he was frozen. In the present, he was discovered by
scientists and thawed. According to Professor X, this android was the
inspiration for Shelley's novel.

In 1972, French comics publisher Aredit devoted seven issues of its
digest-sized Hallucinations horror comic magazine to adapt Jean-Claude
Carrière's Frankenstein novels.

In 1988 the "Spawn of Frankenstein" appeared in the Young All-Stars
comic from DC Comics, written by Roy Thomas. The portrayal of the
monster was as a reclusive, sympathetic character who had been living
alone in the Arctic since the death of his creator.

In 1991 Dark Horse Comics issued an adaptation of the 1931 Universal film.

The Monster is Monster in My Pocket #13. He appears among the good
monsters in the comic book (1991), the video game (1991), the animated
special (1992) and the 2003 animated series. In the comics, he was
relatively inarticulate, represented by hyphens between each syllable
he spoke, but possessed of simple wisdom and strong morals. This
characterization was essentially characterized in the video game,
where he was a playable character, and his only line of dialogue in
the cut scenes was "Yeah..." In the animated special, he was known as
"Big Ed" and was essentially a comic simpleton.

A 1995 Batman special called Batman: Castle of the Bat by Jack C.
Harris and Bo Hampton amalgamates Batman and Frankenstein.Bruce Wayne
fills the role of Victor Frankenstein, wishing to revive his deceased
father. Having successfully done so, his creation becomes the
monstrous "Bat-Man", a hulking figure in a rough analogue of the
Batman costume who preys upon highwaymen, similar to the one who took
the lives of the (this story's) parents of Bruce Wayne. Batman's
butler Alfred Pennyworth is changed to a hunchbacked dwarf named
Alfredo, filling the "Igor" role, and there is also a chimera, the
result of combining a bat and a dog, a reference to Ace the Bat-Hound.

In The Superman Monster (1999), Lex Luthor is Viktor Luther, the
creator. He discovers the spacecraft that would have carried the
infant Superman to Earth. Inside, however, is only the skeleton of a
child. Using the Kryptonian technology, he is able to animate his
(unintentionally) super-powered creature, which initially resembles
Bizarro. The creature flees and is raised by the kindly couple Johann
and Marta Kant. They name the creature Klaus, after their dead son.
The story features the Lois Lane character becoming "The Bride" to
Superman's Creature. The story is unclear as to whether the Bride also
gains superpowers.

2004 saw the debut of Doc Frankenstein, written by the Andy and Larry
Wachowski, the writer-director team of The Matrix), and drawn by Steve
Skroce. The book tells the continuing adventures of Frankenstein's
monster, who has since adopted his creator's name and became a hero
through the ages.

In 2005, Dead Dog Comics produced a sequel to the Frankenstein mythos
with Frankenstein: Monster Mayhem, written by R. D. Hall with art by
Jerry Beck. In Dead Dog's version, the monster sets out to create his
own Necropolis.

Also in 2005, Speakeasy Comics put out their sequel, The Living and
the Dead, written by Todd Livingston and Robert Tinell, with art by
Micah Farritor. In it, Victor, now calling himself Hans, must create a
new body for his first cousin who wants her syphillitic son to remain
alive after a vicious beating, and she coerces him to do so under fear
of exposing him for who he really is. Half-crazed due to the disease,
the newly born monster proceeds to start a Grand Guignol theater in
Ingolstadt until Victor puts him down with the help of the first
monster he ever created. As thanks, Victor begins work on the last
attempt he will make at playing God, and begins to build the original
creature a mate.

DC Comics also has made use of the character. He appeared as a backup
feature in the Phantom Stranger stories written by Len Wein. Roy
Thomas revived the character in Young All-Stars; he then appeared in
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers of Victory. Here, Frankenstein is a
Milton-quoting, gun-toting warrior battling to prevent the end of the
world. In addition, DC's team of movie monster-esque soldiers known as
the Creature Commandos featured a character that resembled the
Universal Pictures version of Frankenstein's monster; Private Elliot
"Lucky" Taylor was nearly killed after stepping on a land mine, but
was grotesquely reconstructed into a "Patchwork Creature" (as
designated by the Who's Who in the DC Universe entry on the Creature
Commandos), and later rendered mute by a failed suicide attempt.

Japanese Mangaka Junji Ito also wrote a Manga faithfully adapting the
story of the original novel.

Frankenstein's monster is also mentioned in Alan Moore's comic book
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In this, the creature's
wandering through the Arctic has led it to the bizarre 'Toyland'
populated entirely by living toys and dolls. The creature has
apparently married the doll-like Queen Olympia and become Toyland's
King.

In the comic book Major Bummer, Louie defends the common mis-naming of
the monster as "Frankenstein": Dr. Frankenstein is, so to speak, the
monster's "father," and it is only right that a son should have his
father's family name.

In 2005 Puffin Books released a graphic novel adaptation adapted by
Gary Reed with art from Frazer Irving.

The 2006 Beckett Entertainment/Image comics graphic novel The
Cobbler's Monster: A Tale of Gepetto's Frankenstein features an
amalgamation between Gepetto and Victor Frankenstein, who reanimates
his dead son.

In 2006, Big Bang Comics published an issue of Big Bang Presents
featuring a superhero incarnation of the monster called Super
Frankenstein.

Games

Frankenstein's monster appears in the Konami video game series
Castlevania, numerous times, with its name being "The Monster" or "The
Creature", often as a major boss, but sometimes as a regular enemy.
His presence is technically an anachronism since he appears several
hundred years before his date of creation in the 18th century.

Several other video game version are also available, including
Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster - A Cinematic Adventure
Starring Tim Curry (PC) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (Super
Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega CD) based on the 1994 film of the same
name. For the original Nintendo (NES) was Frankenstein: The Monster
Returns! and for the Atari 2600, Frankenstein's Monster.

A Frankenstein-like monster called Victor von Gerdenheim is a playable
character in the fighting game series Darkstalkers, along with many
other monsters from popular culture.

Frankenstein's monster also appears in the videogame adaptation of the
film Van Helsing. He only appears as a non-playable character.

The roleplaying game Promethean: The Created, published by White Wolf,
Inc., focuses on beings created from human remains and animated by
"the Divine Fire" who seek to attain humanity. One of the "Lineages"
(groupings) of said creatures is that of the Frankensteins, who, like
their namesake, are crafted from the best parts of multiple corpses
and brought to life by lightning.

Influence

The concept of the 'mad scientist' creating a creature / monster /
weapon that eventually falls out of his (the scientist is usually a
'he') control, leading to the scientist's eventual defeat or ruin, is
a common narrative trope in science-fiction / horror tales. For
example, Robert Louis Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde also features a scientist destroyed by a creature of his own
making (although the circumstances are, of course, quite different).

Science fiction author Isaac Asimov coined the term Frankenstein
complex for the fear of robots.

Frankenstein or Franken- is sometimes used for nuancing artificial
monstrosity as in "frankenfood", a politically charged name of
genetically manipulated foodstuff. The Franken- prefix can also mean
anything assembled haphazardly from originally disparate elements.
Especially if those parts were previously discarded by others, for
example, a car built from parts salvaged from many other cars.
Similarly, for many years Eddie van Halen played a guitar built in
such a manner which he called the "Frankenstrat".

In 1971, General Mills Cereals introduced "Franken Berry", a
strawberry-flavored corn cereal whose mascot is a variation of the
Monster from the 1931 movie.

The hit song China In Your Hand by the British rock band T'Pau employs
the story of Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley's writing of it, in its
role as a classic cautionary tale.

In David Brin's science-fiction novel Kiln People, defective golems
that become autonomous are called "frankies".

The Incredible Hulk, the title character of a popular comic book
series, was partially inspired by Frankenstein. He not only looks much
like the typical version of Frankenstein's monster, but in the most
enduring of different versions can acts in a similarly brutish,
volatile manner yet still be a gentle being who wishes to be left
alone.

In 2006 the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived
listed Dr. Frankenstein's Monster (sic) at #6.[2][3]

The rebirth of Darth Vader, as seen at the end of Star Wars Episode
III: Revenge of the Sith is comparable to the story of Frankenstein.
Notably Vader being assembled from various parts (although in the film
they are mechanical), he is then raised on the platform he was
assembled on. He then struggles and breaks free from the platform,
stumbling forward awkwardly.

Frankenstein