Public Domain Movie – Frankenstein (1910)

Frankenstein Movie Review

This 1910 Frankenstein movie was directed by J Searle Dawley and produced over a three day period at the Edison Studios in New York. Although the studios were owned by the inventor Thomas Edison his involvement in the project is disputable. Some sources credit Edison as the producer of this early Frankenstein movie, while others state that he had little to do with the activities of his motion picture company.

Frankenstein has a runtime of just 12 minutes, but Mary Shelly’s original story ran to over 200 pages, so you will probably not be surprised to learn that some major liberties were taken with the plot. Possibly two of the most notable differences are that the monster fails to kill anyone and Frankenstein and his bride are allowed to live happily ever after.

For many years this important part of cinematic history was believed to be lost. Thankfully, this was not the case. In the mid 1970s, the collector Alois F. Dettlaff revealed that he had bought a print of Edison’s Frankenstein movie in the 1950s. The movie you can watch on this page is taken from that print.