Bride of Frankenstein - 'Carl Dreadstone'

[sean]

I treated myself to this little beauty a few days back:



... and here's an alternate cover:



Anyway, I'll post some ramblings about it in the next few days. Has anyone here already read it?

[dem bones]

Is the 'Classic Library' one a double header like The Werewolf Of London/The Mummy, Sean? I'm not sure, but I think these were only made available to Public Libraries.

I don't have The Bride of Frankenstein, but I've read the above and the 'E. K. Leyton' paperbacks of Dracula's Daughter and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. None of them really stuck around in my head after I finished them though I'm sure I'll give them another go some day.

According to Ian Covell (and Tartarus) the only one's Ramsey Campbell was responsible for were The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolfman and Dracula's Daughter.

[sean]

Nah, the Classic edition is just the one novelisation in this case. Cost me a fiver (plus postage) as well!

That's right, Dracula's Daughter, The Wolfman and Bride of Frankenstein are the only Ramsey Campbell ones. Theres a passage from the intro to Strange Things and Stranger Places about these, which I'll dig out and type up later.

Dracula's Daughter was published as by both Dreadstone and E.K Leyton, for some inexplicable reason. All three have introductions written by RC and signed under his own name.

[sean]

THE BLURB:
RETURNED FROM THE DEAD

Burnt to death - the monster had been destroyed forever and the villagers witnessing the conflagration returned home, satisfied that they were safe again. But beneath the charred remains of the fire, badly injured and in pain, the monster lived on...

At Castle Frankenstein, the young Baron and his evil mentor Dr Pretorious began another experiment: the creation of beauty - the creation of a mate for the mindless creature that Frankenstein had once made and which now roamed the land at large...


It has been years and years and years since I have seen this film so, unfortunately I can't remember in any great detail how close the book is to the film, but as far as memory serves, I'd say it was pretty close.

A bit of an odd one, this. Written (as with his other two Dreadstone contributions) between the publication of his first and second novels ('The Doll Who Ate His Mother' and 'The Face That Must Die'), the style is pure Campbell. Put to use in a tale that moves at the speed of a '30s Universal film, this very occasionally clashes with the story been told, but otherwise it is a smooth read with some scenes rendered in a much more modern manner that the film version. I'm afraid I couldn't take the blind hermit scenes seriously though, not after 'Young Frankenstein'!

Here's what R.C had to say about the Dreadstone books (from the intro to 'Strange Things and Stranger Places'):


...1976, the year when much of my energy was devoted to writing novels based on classic Universal horror films. These were published undr the house name of Carl Dreadstone - my original suggestion had been Carl Thunstone, but Manly Wade Wellman understandably thought that people might assume that the pseudonym was his - though in England, to add to the confusion, some were credited instead to E.K. Leyton. I was hoping to reissue my Dreadstone books as an omnibus, but alas, this was not to be. I can at least atke this opportunity to make it clear that I wrote only 'The bride of Frankenstein', 'The Wolfman' and 'Dracula's Daughter'. The other novels are nothing to do with me, and by now even Peirs Dudgeon, the editor who commissioned the series, can't recall who wrote them.


This is what 'The Core of Ramsey Campbell' (Necromonicon Press, 1995, by Ramsey Campbell, Stefan Dziemianowicz and S.T. Joshi - intro by Peter Straub) has, in part, to say about 'Bride of Frankenstein':


Frankenstein's monster has been destroyed -or so the people of the Bavarian Countryside think. Even as the body of Henry Frankenstein is borne by them back to Castle Frankenstein, after having been thrown from the top of the windmill where they trapped the monster before putting it to the torch, the monster emerges from the water beneath the mill, burnt and bent on revenging himself against those who have caused it pain and suffering.

Back at the castle Henry, who has become the new Baron Frankenstein since his father's recent death, plans to resume his marriage to his beloved Elizabeth, interrupted on their wedding night by the monster's rampage. Before the ceremony can be planned, though, henry is visited by Dr Pretorious, his old school teacher, who claims that henry's irresponsible bestowal of life on the monster has resulted in Pretorious's dismissal from the university. pretorious threatens to blacken Henry's name if he does not team up with him for further experiments in reanimation...


The novelisation also contains a pretty interesting introduction about the film itself, discussing changes in the script, cut scenes, unfilmed scenes, various different prints, etc etc.

Of interest to both fans of the original film and of R.C, I would think. I'll certainly be looking out for his other two novelisations.

It's a shame that there weren't more novelisations in this series as there were plenty of Universal films that would have been worthy additions. Video killed the speed-written book-of-the-film, I suppose.

[sadako]

Well this is all very confusing. I think I've seen one title from this series - CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - hoping for a reprint of a fifties novelisation. But it struck me as very much written by someone who'd seen the film - which is not how novelisations are normally done.

Disappointed, I looked back further to find contemporary novelisations of Universal classics. Two are particularly interesting - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN because of its many cut scenes, and LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT which is a famous lost film.

My confusion comes from my hardback copy of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN - the copyright is 1936 but the edition was reprinted in 1976 - when these Dreadstone books were also coming out. Must have been confusing to have different books with the same title.

BRIDE was written by Michael Egremont and published by Bookfinger.

[kooshmeister]

There's some weird name swapping going on in the Dreadstone novel concerning who is who's assistant. In the film(s), Frankenstein had Fritz and Pretorius had Karl.

Here, however, when Frankenstein recollects on the brain mixup, he blames "Igor" (!), and instead of Karl, Pretorius is assisted by a guy named Fritz.

What kind of mixup is that?