#John Henry Richardson

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

(Enclave and Institute supporters/justifiers/sympathizers/apologists will be blocked btw)

[anghraine]

I should be working on my dissertation, and have been, but I thought it'd be fun (for me :P) to loop you all in somehow. Therefore I bring you a very silly poll!

*best means whatever it means to you; feel free to propagandize

**yes, I deliberately excluded Shakespeare (from the poll, not the dissertation, lol)

[mariocki]

Murder Obsession (Follia omicida, 1981)

"Why are you interested in the occult?"

"The only way to discover life's secret is through magic."

"I don't understand."

"Death. That exact moment when the body and soul separate, that which in theosophy is known as the astral body. We would have to capture that exact moment to analyse it, but to do this we would have to kill with our own hands, so that not even a wisp of life escapes us. Don't you agree?"

"And would you kill someone for this?"

"I think so."

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949).

[spnwin-reader]

Loss in common:

Enter Millie, The Prickly-but-Hopeful Fixer

[We note that, even after all this time, Millie's building carries the MoL Aquarian star of protection, and it's still Winchester Garage, not...whatever-her-maiden-name is.]

When we first meet Millie, she's bitter. As the one who "kept the lantern on," "the one who stayed," she's hurt and defensive, a lot like how Dean grows to be in latter seasons of SPN.

(Even post-demonicity, Dean is still expected to be the soft place to fall for everyone. Even after Jack kills Mary, Cas has this expectation of Dean's soft-heartedness: "it's possible he could work through this. One day, he may explode and let it all out and breathe deeply and move on.")

Anyway, Millie!

Her reunion with John is part passive-aggressive but loving. We see that Millie, like Dean, has intense abandonment trauma. She speaks abrasively-but-affectionately. She calls John "Kid, Kiddo, etc." which was a go-to with Dean for both Claire Novak and Jack Kline.

JOHN: Love what you've done with the place. MILLIE (passive-aggressive): Well, my husband and son walked out on me, so. It's the best I could do. (growing emotional) Dammit. Welcome home, Kiddo.

Gruff, abrasive, imperfect? Maybe. But full of love.

Alt John and Millie are united by the common loss of Henry, just as Prime John, Sam, and Dean were united by the common loss of Mary.

John thinks Henry walked out on them, but I think Millie is likely more complex. With her tacit knowledge of the Men of Letters, I think it's reasonable that she at least suspects that he might be dead.

What does that tell us about her? It tells us that the loss of Henry was unbelievably painful--it's probably easier for her to consider he left than the very likely truth: his demise.

She's a fixer. That's what she does.

She holds out hopeless hope.

JOHN: I'm fine, Mom. MILLIE: The Hell you are. You've been chasing your dad since he walked out that door. I know that's why you enlisted. But it is time to let the past go, kiddo.

But Millie isn't healed either. She hasn't let the past go, even as she pursues her dream of being a mechanic and owning a garage (like her father). Letting the past go hasn't helped her heal.

In fact, carrying on hunting and the MoL business is what seems to soothe her loss, giving her new meaning and purpose. Millie and John's push-pull dynamic with hunting is much like how it was with Ellen and Jo Harvelle.

///

But overall, we see what Henry's absence wrought. It's just as Henry feared in SPN Prime (9x17 Mother's Little Helper):

HENRY: Therein lies the problem. As our initiation grows closer, I... I worry that this might be a selfish endeavor on my part. JOSIE: Selfish. How? HENRY: If anything were to happen to me, what of John? Millie? JOSIE: They'd be proud to know that you answered the call. HENRY: No. My wife would be a widow, and my son fatherless. I don't expect you to understand. You don't have a fam--[he pauses] I'm sorry, Josie. I didn't mean it that way. JOSIE: I know, Henry. You're a good man. Millie is lucky to have you.

This directly parallels Cas and his allegiance to his work, Heaven, (Heaven is a truck, and Cas is a truck-driver; Dean thinks he's Josie when he's actually Millie).

It also beings to mind the visual of ("little John") Jack's entrance as he wanders around muttering, "Father. Fa-ther. Father. I need to find him. Castiel. He was supposed to be here," while looking for his long-expected, lost father in 13x01 Lost and Found.

But it's also an off-key parallel to prime John, who would become as Millie was, a bereft widower in the cold, floundering and ill-equipped to handle the dangers of the supernatural world.

///

Enter Mary, Action Hero

(Note: Mary's got a short range, so I love how she uses speed to her advantage to get larger targets off-balance.)

///

And importantly, John...is NOT allowed to look cool. It's a RULE. He's a dorky...little...guy.

Mary knocks the demon into a blessed holy water vat, a call-forward to something prime John will do in SPNprime 01x21 Salvation.

//

When Alt John and Alt Mary meet:

Mary's father has been absent (missing) from her life for a short time, and John's father Henry has been absent for most of his life, just as when Dean and Cas meet, theirs too is a tale of missing fathers. Cas's father was absent for all of his life, and Dean's flaky dad has been gone for a (relatively) short time. It also very obviously parallels Sam and Dean searching for their missing father.

When they break inside the Men of Letters clubhouse, Mary keys into John's emotions about his father. This reminds me of of the first time Dean keyed in really hard to Cas's emotions in 5x16.

///

JOHN: How do you cope with it all? MARY (wryly, jokingly): I'll let you know when I find out. (SPNwin 1x01)

//

DEAN: Yeah, I get it. I know how you feel. CASTIEL: How do you manage it? DEAN (wryly, jokingly): On a good day, you get to kill [The Whore of Babylon]. (SPN 5x17)

///

Recent losses of friends & family:

Additionally, Mary and John have both suffered recent losses. Mary lost her narrative twin Maggie, and John lost his comrade Murph to war.

[Mary's cousin went to Hell, just as Sam's brother went to Hell in season in vintage and mid-SPN.] Mary's hunting family was torn asunder, parents separating.

And John? WIth war, John signed up to fill a void left by his father, to find meaning in life.

We can even recall Dean's words to Gordon in 2x03 Bloodlust, how Dean struggled with the idea of "The Invincible Dad" and how his death made the word more terrifying, how it left a wound of depression inside of him that he sought to fill with meaning through work:

DEAN: Yeah. Yeah, you know. He was just one of those guys. Took some terrible beatings, just kept coming. So you're always thinking to yourself, he's indestructible. He'll always be around, nothing can kill my dad. Then just like that (snaps) he's gone. I can't talk about this to Sammy. You know, I gotta keep my game face on. (clears throat) But, uh, the truth is I'm not handling it very well. Feel like I have this - GORDON: Hole inside you? And it just gets bigger and bigger and darker and darker? Good. You can use it. Keeps you hungry. Trust me. There's plenty out there needs killing, and this'll help you do it. Dean, it's not a crime to need your job.

Dean lost his dad, and Gordon lost his sister. This emptiness is depression. John lost his dad and suffered that loss all his life. He signed up to the war for the GLORY OF PURPOSE. He didn't sign up to the war for more pain and grief, but that's exactly what he got.

What's the thing Dean can't fill up, not with booze or love or even sex? It's grief and pain. It can only be filled with love, which is what Cas's confession narratively does in 15x18.

It's also what Mary's love and the love of the Core 4 will eventually do for John.

///

SPN Prime season 8 side-parallel: Connections of recent grief ALSO calls to mind season 8, how Sam connected with Amelia when they had both suffered a loss, Sam lost his narrative twin to Purgatory and Amelia lost her husband to war.

Theirs was a fast-paced reactionary relationship born of grief, something that pinged and annoyed Amelia's father, leading him to be very passive-aggressive with Sam. (Her father was a dick, but he's both a soldier himself and does know her best and probably has her best interests in mind. He recognized that was Amelia mid-freakout, OOC. He pings that her out-of-characterness is a weird reaction to grief).

He was right to be concerned about the shallowness and stability of it. These types of reactionary relationships are well-known: they can be very shaky, melodramatic, idealized, and weak when stress-tested.

Sam (and vintage Dean) both have this tendency to be all-in or all-out when it comes to The Cause. Neither strike a balance very easily. They tend to either be ALL IN for the Perfect War with Perfect War Companions at Your Side...or rushing into something tenuous that represents a weak idea that winds up unsatisfying because it's not genuine: Perfect White Picket Fence or Howling-at-the-Moon Dishibitory Party Life.

In SPNwin, John is doing a lot of running, too. He rushes into the thing with Betty (weak and tenuous), then he rushes into war, he rushes into hunting, and he runs into the relationship with Mary.

This theme of Running into Danger / Running From Danger persists. John certainly struggles with it, BUT in a departure from his past behavior, this new thing with Mary gets a lot of stress-testing, eventually moving from limerence into turbulence, power struggle, and de-idealization. (SPNwin 1x12, The Tears of a Clown)

///

SO.

Mary and her ragtag gang of friends embark on a journey to look for the missing Samuel Campbell the way Sam and Dean look for the errant John Winchester, the way the Banes twins look for their mother Tasha Banes in Twigs, Twine, & Tasha Bane.

Certainly the core 4 are all "running scared" and clinging to one another, having all lost loved ones in a variety of ways. They are united in empathy over their respective losses:

John (dad, comrades)

Mary (narrative sibling, missing dad, splintered family and parental separation)

Carlos (whole family killed by a monster)

Lata (no-contact with her family because they allowed her beloved nanny to die; nonsensical/cruel hierarchy of human society)

Ada (husband lost to madness, son potentially a puppy-destined-to-be-wolf)

And finally we get Henry's letter:

If you're reading this, then I'm gone. I'm sorry I kept the truth from you, John. There's a dangerous world out there, and our family has fought that danger for centuries. The answers to all your questions are at the address below. I love you and your mother. Always.

I think this idea of Henry Winchester as a secret-keeper, and as Mary-prime as a secret-keeper fed into what we know about John-prime turned into: a neuroses of paranoia and over-preparedness.

But thanks to Dean, Alt John has some new tools to work through this: knowledge. Even his anger is useful, openly telling his mother how disappointed and betrayed he feels over being kept in the dark. For her part, she gives him her emotional truth: that she only wanted to protect him.

It's the first healing step for both of them.

[blackramhall]

What is going on?

The Afterparty - Season 2, Episode 8

Mr. Feng

Created by Christopher Miller

Blackram Hall: whodunit, murder mystery, hardboiled, pulp, crime, thriller, italian giallo, noir and neo-noir, detectives and serial killers, spy stories, vintage, manor houses, art, life and death.

Avatar pic by Mitchell Turek

[une-sanz-pluis]

The terminology used for Humphrey’s palace is revealing. Several writers insist that he called it ‘Bella Court’, although apparently with little foundation. It seems to have been known as ‘the Pleasaunce’ (‘placentia’) during Gloucester’s lifetime, as letters patent dated ‘at his manor of Plaisance’ in 1445 attest, and it is referred to as such throughout Queen Margaret’s building accounts for 1447. The term was used from the later fourteenth century for relatively intimate buildings detached from main ranges and intended for use by a lord’s favoured circle. Perhaps the most notable example of this is type of building is the ‘Pleasaunce’ at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, fashioned for Henry V around 1414. This was a moated islet, approached, like Greenwich, by water, and accommodating a timber pavilion comprising a hall and chambers. Indeed, Gloucester may have intended deliberately to emulate Henry’s idyllic retreat, just as Bedford had replicated their brother’s ‘pleasaunce’ at Fulbroke, also using brick rather than timber.

Amanda Richardson, "Greenwich's first royal landscape: the lost palace and park of Humphrey of Gloucester" Southern History, 34, 2012.

[claudia1829things]

"THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" (1997) Review

"THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" (1997) Review

The year 1963 saw the release of Tony Richardson's Academy Award winning adaptation of Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling". Another thirty-four years passed before another adaptation of the novel appeared on the scene. It turned out to be the BBC's five-episode miniseries that aired in 1997.

"THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" is a comic tale about the life and adventures of an English foundling, who is discovered in the household of a warm-hearted landowner in Somerset named Squire Allworthy. The latter adopts the child and Tom Jones grows up to be a lusty, yet kindly youth; who falls in love with one Sophia Western, the only child of Allworthy's neighbor, Squire Western. Tom is raised with the squire's nephew, a falsely pious and manipulative young man named Mr. Blifil. Because the latter is Allworthy's heir, Sophia's father wishes her to marry Mr. Blifil, so that the Allworthy and Western estates can be joined as one. Unfortunately for Squire Western and Mr. Blifil, Sophia is in love with Tom. And unfortunately for the two young lovers, Tom is discredited by Mr. Blifil and his allies before being cast away by Squire Allworthy. In defiance of Squire Western's wishes for her to marry Mr. Blifil, Sophia (accompanied by her maid, Honour) runs away from Somerset. Both Tom and Sophia encounter many adventures on the road to and in London, before they are finally reconciled.

Actually, there is a lot more to "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING". But a detailed account of the plot would require a long essay and I am not in the mood. I have noticed that the 1997 miniseries has acquired a reputation for not only being a first-rate television production, but also being superior to the 1963 Oscar winning film. As a five-part miniseries, "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" was able to adhere more closely to Fielding's novel than the movie. But does this mean I believe that the miniseries is better than the movie? Hmmmm . . . I do not know if I can agree with that opinion.

I cannot deny that "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" is a well made television production. Director Metin Hüseyin did an excellent job of utilizing a first-rate production crew for the miniseries. Cinders Forshaw's photography was well done - especially in Somerset sequences featured in the miniseries' first half. Roger Cann's production designs captured mid-18th century England in great detail. And Rosalind Ebbutt's costumes designs were not only exquisite, but nearly looked like exact replicas of the fashions of the 1740s. The look and style of "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" seemed to recapture the chaos and color of mid-18th century England.

"THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" could also boast some first-rate performances. The miniseries featured solid performances from the likes of Christopher Fulford and Richard Ridings as Mr. Blifil's allies, Mr. Square and Reverend Thwackum; Kathy Burke, who was very funny as Sophia's maid, Honour; Celia Imrie as Tom's London landlady, Mrs. Miller; Peter Capaldi as the lecherous Lord Fellamar; Tessa Peake-Jones as Squire Allworthy's sister Bridget and Benjamin Whitrow as the squire. The episode also featured solid turns from the likes of Kelly Reilly, Michelle Fairley, Camille Coduri, Matt Bardock, Roger Lloyd-Pack, and Sylvester McCoy. Max Beesley was solid as Tom Jones. He also had good chemistry with his leading lady, Samantha Morton, and did a good job in carrying the miniseries on his shoulders. However, I do feel that he lacked the charisma and magic of Albert Finney. And there were times in the miniseries' last two episodes, when he seemed in danger of losing steam.

But there were some performances that I found outstanding. Brian Blessed was deliciously lusty and coarse as Squire Western, Allworthy's neighbor and Sophia's father. I really enjoyed his scenes with Frances de la Tour, who was marvelous as Sophia's snobbish and controlling Aunt Western. Lindsay Duncan gave a subtle performance as the seductive Lady Bellaston. James D'Arcy was outstanding as Squire Allworthy's nephew, the sniveling and manipulative Mr. Blifil. Ron Cook gave the funniest performance in the miniseries, as Tom's loyal sidekick, Benjamin Partridge, who had earlier suffered a series of misfortunes over the young man's birth. Samantha Morton gave a superb performance as Tom's true love, Sophia Western. Morton seemed every inch the graceful and passionate Sophia, and at the same time, conveyed the strong similarities between the young woman and her volatile father. But the one performance I truly enjoyed was John Sessions' portrayal of author Henry Fielding. I thought it was very clever to use Sessions in that manner as the miniseries' narrator. And he was very entertaining.

The producers of the miniseries hired Simon Burke to adapt the novel for television. And I believe he did an excellent job. I cannot deny that the miniseries' running time allowed him to include scenes from the novel. Thanks to Burke's script and Hüseyin's direction, audiences were given more details on the accusations against Jenny Jones and Benjamin Partridge for conceiving Tom. Audiences also experienced Bridget Jones' relationship with her cold husband and the circumstances that led to the conception of Mr. Blifil. Judging from the style and pacing of the miniseries, it seems that Hüseyin was inspired by Tony Richardson's direction of the 1963 film. There were plenty of raunchy humor and nudity to keep a viewer occupied. More importantly, "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" proved to be a fascinating comic epic and commentary on class distinctions, gender inequality and social issues.

However, I still cannot agree with the prevailing view that the miniseries is better than the 1963 movie. Mind you, the latter is not perfect. But the miniseries lacked a cinematic style that gave the movie a certain kind of magic for me. And due to Hüseyin and Burke's insistence on being as faithful to the novel as possible, the miniseries' pacing threatened to drag in certain scenes. The scenes featuring Tom and Partridge's encounter with an ineffectual highwayman, their viewing of a puppet show, and a good deal from the London sequences were examples of the miniseries' slow pacing. I could not help feeling that "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING" could have easily been reduced to four episodes and still remain effective.

I also had a few problems with other matters. One, I never understood why Lady Bellaston continued her campaign to get Sophia married to Lord Fellamar, after Squire Western prevented the peer from raping his daughter. Why did she continued to make life miserable for Tom after receiving his marriage proposal . . . the same proposal that she rejected with contempt? And what led Sophia to finally forgive Tom for the incident with Mrs. Waters at Upton and his marriage proposal to Lady Bellaston? After he was declared as Squire Allworthy's new heir, Sophia refused to forgive Tom for his affair with Lady Bellaston. But the next shot featured Tom and Squire Allworthy returning to Somerset . . . and being greeted by Sophia, along with hers and Tom's children. WHAT HAPPENED? What led Sophia to finally forgive Tom and marry him? Instead of explaining or hinting what happened, Burke's script ended on that vague and rather disappointing note.

But despite my problems with "THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING", I cannot deny that I found it very enjoyable. Director Metin Hüseyin and screenwriter Simon Burke did a first-rate job in bringing Henry Fielding's comic opus to life. They were ably assisted by an excellent production staff and fine performances from a cast led by Max Beesley and Samantha Morton.

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Super Fly 1972

[tudorblogger]

Book Review - ‘Tudors and Stuarts on Film: Historical Perspectives’ by Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman

This is a book that I first read while at university while studying for my two history degrees. It’s quite a comprehensive look at the Tudors on film, at least up to 2009 when the book was published. Of course, there have been several new adaptations of the Tudor stories published in the last decade and a half but naturally these are not discussed, so the book does now feel a little outdated, but…

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales

The Best of Tharg's Terror Tales preview. Tharg the Mighty presents the creepiest tales to ever grace the pages of the galaxy's greatest comic! #comics #comicbooks #graphicnovel

[floorman3]

1982: The Greatest Geek Year Ever Review- A Docuseries That Brought Me Back to My Childhood in a Great Way

The fact that 1982 is a year that has been one that made me who I am today is pretty incredible to me. That year had so many of my favorite movies. ET the Extraterrestrial is a film that has been one of the most influential movies of my lifetime. I was only 8 years old at the time, but I loved that movie so much. I still remember watching it at a drive-in theater, and I felt ET and Elliot (Henry…

[godzilla-reads]

🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃 Happy October 🎃

Being the last day of the month, I thought I’d do my Reading Wrapup. I finished 18 books and my Top 3 are starred below:

⭐️ Godzilla: Unnatural Disasters by IDW Publishing

🍞 The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz

🐦‍⬛ Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow by James Howe

🖤 The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

🐲 A Town Called Dragon by Judd Winick

🍂 October, or Autumnal Tints by Henry David Thoreau, Robert D. Richardson, and Lincoln Perry

🧚 Arthur Rackham’s Book of Pictures by Elizabeth Congden Kovanen and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

🍁 Autumn: A Folio Anthology edited by Sue Bradbury and Kathleen Jamie

🌵 The Evil Garden by Edward Gorey

🥶 The Iceland Wyrm by Dugald Steer

✨ The Dragon Star by Dugald Steer

🪩 The Dragon Dance by Dugald Steer

🦋 The Winged Serpent by Dugald Steer

⭐️ Mural by Mahmoud Darwish (trans. John Berger and Rema Hammami)

🍄 How to See Fairies by Charles Van Sandwyk

🌋 The Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland and Mike Holmes

⭐️ Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll

🏴‍☠️ One Piece Vol. 8: I Won’t Die by Eiichiro Oda

What books did you enjoy? 😊

[medium-observation]

MAY RELEASE

Hadestown - First US National Tour

March 16, 2024 - Medium Observation

Video | Matinée

Cast:

John Krause (t/r Orpheus), Cecilia Trippiedi (u/s Eurydice), Matthew Patrick Quinn (Hades), Lana Gordon (Persephone), Will Mann (Hermes), Marla Louissant (Fate), Lizzie Markson (Fate), Hannah Schreer (Fate), Sevon Askew (Worker), Jamal Lee Harris (Worker), Cate Hayman (Worker), Quiana Onrae'l Holmes (Worker), Daniel Tracht (Worker)

Notes:

Near Perfect video of Cecilia and John as Eurydice and Orpheus respectively. They are incredibly fantastic and are such a cute pair. Some washout and shakiness throughout.

NFT Date: November 1st, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBiBBy

Video is $20

Les Misérables - Sixth US National Tour

February 6, 2024 - Medium Observation

Video

Cast:

Nick Cartell (Jean Valjean), Steve Czarnecki (u/s Javert), Hayley Dortch (Fantine), Matt Crowle (Thénardier), Victoria Huston-Elem (Madame Thénardier), Devin Archer (Enjolras), Mya Rena Hunter (Éponine), Jake David Smith (Marius), Delaney Guyer (Cosette), Sky Vaux Fuller (Young Éponine), Olivia Grace O'Sullivan (Young Cosette), Henry Kirk (Gavroche), David Andino (Bamatabois/Babet), Matt Rosell (u/s Feuilly), Kyle Timson (u/s Factory Foreman/Brujon), Kelsey Denae (Wigmaker), David Young Fernandez (Jean Prouvaire), Randy Jeter (Bishop of Digne/Lesgles), Cameron Loyal (Claquesous), Andrew Marks Maughan (Combeferre), Julia Ellen Richardson (Factory Girl), Ethan Rogers (Courfeyac), Juliette Redden (u/s Old Woman), Christopher James Tamayo (Montparnasse), J.T. Wood (Joly), Mikako Martin (u/s Ensemble), Arianne DiCerbo (Ensemble), Genevieve Ellis (Ensemble), Greta Schaefer (Ensemble), Veronica Stern (Ensemble)

Notes:

Perfect video of this incredible cast. Steve tears the house down as Javert and is near perfect in the role. The video has very little washout and the colors are very pretty. There is some grain when it's very dark but it's not distracting. Some shakiness throughout.

NFT Date: November 1st, 2024

Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBdxRt

Video is $20

Videos can be purchased through me at

mediumobservationtrading@gmail.com

[thealmightyemprex]

Halloweenathon :Frankenstein the True Story

So tis the last film of spooky season ,and while I didnt end on the note I wanted to (I might do a special review for Ginger Snaps or save it for next year ) I did find a good film to wrap up the month and it was a good Halloween movie .An epic 3 hour retelling of the classic tale of Frankenstein !!!!

In this 1973 Two Part TV Movie ,Victor Frankenstein (Leonard Whiting ) ,after the death of his brother William becomes obsessed with bringing life from death teaming up with the sickly Henry Clerval (David McCallum)who has been experimenting on such a subject ,seeking to make man,however Clerval finds a flaw in their process but dies before he can tell Victor who uses Clervals mind for his creation ,a beautiful man (Michael Sarrazin),while a sinister figure named Polidori(James Mason ) seeks to use Victor and his creation for his own purposes

Now this is one of the most unique takes on Frankenstein I have ever seen .IT takes influence from every major Frankenstein before it .It takes from the book,the two James Whale films from the 30's and Hammers FRankenstein series ,but mix it all to be really its own thing .I love the twist of the creation being beautiful but deteriotaing into a more monstrus figure .The film is also heavilly queer coded ,the connection between Frankenstein and the creature is protrayed almost romantic,I think it is clear the monster is in love with Victor .Unlike other versions the Monster NEVER harms Victor ,his victims are either self defense ,accidental ,those who wronged him......OR in some cases seem to be jealousy .The queer themes I feel come the cleares when Elizabeth confronts the Monster near the end ,and I find it very apparent in the ending .Also there are some wonderfully twisted scenes

The films cast includes notable names as John Gielgud ,Agnes Moorhead ,Margaret LEighton ,Tom Baker (Pre Doctor Who ) ,Michael Wildling ,and I think the most notable is Ralph Richardson as a blind violinist ,all in good supporting roles .David McCalum steals his scenes as Victors desheveled colleague and mentor Clerval..Jane Seymor is wonderfully unnerving as Polidori and Frankensteins creation Prima .James Mason plays the purely villainous Polidori ,a take on Pretorious from Bride of Frankenstein ,and no surprise he makes for an entertaining villain .Nicola Paget is probabbly my favorite cast member ,being very meciinary in her goals to protect Victor from consequences and her disdain for the creature he created .Michael Sarrazin is VERY good as the creature,still having menacing moment but honestly selling the tragedy of the being .And at the head of the cast is Leonard Whiting as a young ambitious and tragic Frankenstein,and one of my favorite takes on him as he realizes his mistakes,and I am fascinated by him and his creatures relationship

I will say this was paced for TV to be aired on two nights so that might affect enjoyment it is a bit slow

OVerall,I love this film,might be a while before a rewatch but it is one of the best Frankenstein movies Ive seen

Oh it also inspired Interview with a vampire and I think thats neat

@ariel-seagull-wings @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie

@theancientvaleofsoulmaking @countesspetofi @princesssarisa

@amalthea9 @filmcityworld1 @barbossas-wench