Horror On Stage • Peggy Webling FRANKENSTEIN book

Peggy Webling and the Story Behind Frankenstein, The Making of a Hollywood Monster has two subtitles, two authors, and three (count 'em) versions of Webling's Frankenstein play included.  I got a lot of out of reading the Deane/Balderston DRACULA play as a waystation in understanding the changes from novel to the '31 film.  Webling (and Deane's) FRANKENSTEIN is much more obscure, so the publication here is much appreciated.  Co-Author Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum is a great-grand-niece of Webling, and fills in some family history on the ambitious and resourceful Peggy.  Bruce Graver has a good writeup on prior stage versions of Frankenstein, the various iterations of Webling's play, and her fractious relationship with John Balderston, who, late in the game, did a much delayed rewrite as it was on its way to James Whale.  As for the play, while it's not the turkey that I've occasionally seen it characterized as, it (in whatever version) is also pretty light on the mad science and murders, which Balderston apparently juiced up later.  In all fairness, I see just a scant few elements original to Webling's version that really carry over to the Universal film.  Still, essential reading for FRANK fans.  This may be referenced in other books, but I learned here for the first time that Webling and Deane also wrote an unproduced Abominable Snowman play, I bet that would be a bunch of fun to read. 

statistics: Posted by Red Gargon — 3:31 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 0 — Views 149

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