Frankenstein - The Man and the Monster - A Stage Play (Fantasy and Horror Classics)

By Garrett Fort

Garrett Fort was a prolific writer who penned some of the most memorable screenplays of the 20th century. Frankenstein is one of his best-remembered works. Many of the horror stories of monsters and ghouls, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781447499534

Book preview

Monster

GARRETT FORT

Garrett Elsden Fort was born in New York City in 1900. He made his screenwriting debut came in 1917, with the silent film, One of the Finest. His first ‘talkie’ was Rouben Mamoulian’s innovative 1929 production of Applause – a film which the Library of Congress states has been compared "to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane due to its flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries, and which in 2006 was recognized as a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant film" by the National Film Registry. Following Applause, Fort is best remembered for his contribution to the original screen adaptations of melodramatic horrors such as Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), The Mark of Zorro (1940) and Blood on the Sun (1945).

In 1934, Fort met Indian guru Meher Baba in Hollywood, and as a result became deeply interested in spiritualism, even working on a screenplay based on Baba’s philosophy. He travelled to India some years later, but returned to America with depression, and subsequently found it hard to find profitable work. Fort died of an overdose of sleeping pills in a Hollywood hotel room.

Frankenstein:

The Man Who Made A Monster

By GARRETT FORD & FRANCIS

FARAGOH

THE WEEPING MOURNERS huddle around the open grave. Sad-faced, black-clad old women in peasant dresses and old men, their faces lined from hard work and a long life, bow their heads as the priest finishes the final blessing and sprinkles the grave with earth.

Two men watch the ceremony from behind a headstone. One is pale and dark; his wan skin seems to be lit from within as if he were being burned by some intense flame. His bright eyes are almost black in contrast to his skin. Everything about him implies a life of study, enrichment of the mind and some intense passion that is consuming him.

The other man is very small. He turns and we see that his spine is bent into a grotesque hump. He has thick, stupid features framed by ragged brownish locks that hang down to his brows. His eyes peer out from under them – burning orbs of fire staring from pits of carbon black. He