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Intrada announces the premiere release of Universal's 1973 unique take on Mary Shelly's horrifying tale, Frankenstein: The True Story. Gil Mellé's score has been in demand ever since the film aired back in 1973 and remains the crowning achievement in his vast and truly singular body of work. As writer Jeff Bond mentions in his notes, the film "required a lush, gothic score and Mellé delivered what may be considered his magnum opus. Recorded at Anvil Studios, Mellé's Frankenstein music blended Victorian scope and romance with spine-chilling modernist techniques and effects and a leitmotivic approach with major themes for the story's important characters and situations."
Time has not been kind to the music assets, however. Most of the album is sourced from 1/4" stereo session masters stored at Universal Studios, which had shown deterioration over the decades. Restoration master Chris Malone was able to work his usual magic and resolve the issues with these sources. All that work would not fix a few missing sequences that had to be sourced from the mono film stems. Yet again, Malone was able to stereorize and blend the tracks, so their differing sound quality is barely noticeable in the final program. With some additional assembly work from our hero Neil S. Bulk and the loving commitment and knowledge of both Jeff Bond and Tim Ayres, the team was able to put together the album that has been so long in coming. As many collectors noted when they heard the album was on its way, it's another grail release they can cross of their lists.
The story follows young doctor Victor Frankenstein (Leonard Whiting), who, with the help of his mentor Dr. Polidori (James Mason), succeeds in creating a creature that is strikingly handsome, gentle and childlike. Victor introduces him to society, hoping to prove his experiment a success. But the results of the life-creating experiment are unstable; the creature's body begins to deteriorate, and people who once admired him recoil in horror. As he experiences rejection, betrayal and isolation, he becomes increasingly bitter and unstable. Victor, horrified by what he has done, distances himself from his creation instead of helping him.
- Intrada
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