"Frankenstein's Aunt" begins where the story of "Frankenstein" ends: after the failed experiment and the disastrous encounter with the angry mob of torch-bearing villagers, the castle lies in ruins and doctor Henry Frankenstein is nowhere to be found. Enter baroness Hannah Von Frankenstein - a cigar-smoking, sherry-drinking upper class lady who happens to be Henry's aunt. She's terribly cross with her loopy, good-for-nothing, mad-scientist nephew, even more so when she gets to see the sorry state of the family castle. Since the villagers refuse to cooperate in the reconstruction of the castle (unsurprisingly so, considering the fact the name "Frankenstein" is rather unpopular in the neighborhood), she has to find a way to get Henry's former associates to work. Except those associates are a vampire, a werewolf, an alcoholic merman and a couple of cursed spirits, who, of course, refuse to work under any circumstances.
The screenwriters took a lot of liberty with the source material. A.R. Pettersson's novel was a short, witty homage to classic Universal horror movies, featuring or at least mentioning pretty much everybody from that era: Dr. Pretorius, the Monster, Frankenstein's Bride, Count Dracula, Lawrence Talbot. The script omits the whole Bride thing, instead opting for an entire new love interest for the Monster (who somehow also became a main protagonist of the story). As a result, the second half of the series feels rather different from the first half, relinquishing the "gothic horror slapstick comedy" feel of the first few episodes in favor of somewhat mundane tale of love, loneliness and redemption, which sets the whole series firmly in the sombre and mildly distressful land of Central European cautionary fairy-tales. In order to drive the whole point in, a host of new characters is introduced in the script, arguably the least necessary among them being a generic orphan boy Max, whose only point of existence is to provide younger viewers with a child hero to identify with. It is fairly obvious that Jaroslav Dietl, a noted screenwriter of many excellent Czechoslovak comedies and social dramas (who, sadly, did not live to see this series on TV) was not used to writing the stories for children; the fact he was only one among four different screenwriters probably didn't help either. The result feels stitched together like the Frankenstein's monster: rather makeshift in many regards, somewhat clumsy too, but lovingly crafted as a whole.
All complaints aside, "Frankenstein's Aunt" is a nice and refreshing piece of European TV. Being a multi-national production, the production values are rather high for an 80s European TV series, with period costumes, real exteriors and the like. Both the castle and the village are real (although in reality, they are some 50 kilometers apart). Amongst the multinational cast, Viveca Lindfors, Ferdy Mayne and Jacques Herlin are especially enjoyable to watch; not surprisingly, as they were probably among the most experienced actors of the whole cast.
The screenwriters took a lot of liberty with the source material. A.R. Pettersson's novel was a short, witty homage to classic Universal horror movies, featuring or at least mentioning pretty much everybody from that era: Dr. Pretorius, the Monster, Frankenstein's Bride, Count Dracula, Lawrence Talbot. The script omits the whole Bride thing, instead opting for an entire new love interest for the Monster (who somehow also became a main protagonist of the story). As a result, the second half of the series feels rather different from the first half, relinquishing the "gothic horror slapstick comedy" feel of the first few episodes in favor of somewhat mundane tale of love, loneliness and redemption, which sets the whole series firmly in the sombre and mildly distressful land of Central European cautionary fairy-tales. In order to drive the whole point in, a host of new characters is introduced in the script, arguably the least necessary among them being a generic orphan boy Max, whose only point of existence is to provide younger viewers with a child hero to identify with. It is fairly obvious that Jaroslav Dietl, a noted screenwriter of many excellent Czechoslovak comedies and social dramas (who, sadly, did not live to see this series on TV) was not used to writing the stories for children; the fact he was only one among four different screenwriters probably didn't help either. The result feels stitched together like the Frankenstein's monster: rather makeshift in many regards, somewhat clumsy too, but lovingly crafted as a whole.
All complaints aside, "Frankenstein's Aunt" is a nice and refreshing piece of European TV. Being a multi-national production, the production values are rather high for an 80s European TV series, with period costumes, real exteriors and the like. Both the castle and the village are real (although in reality, they are some 50 kilometers apart). Amongst the multinational cast, Viveca Lindfors, Ferdy Mayne and Jacques Herlin are especially enjoyable to watch; not surprisingly, as they were probably among the most experienced actors of the whole cast.
