Life Without Soul
Encyclopedia
Life Without Soul is a horror film
, directed by Joseph W. Smiley and written by Jesse J. Goldburg. This film is an adaptation of Mary Shelley
's Gothic novel Frankenstein
. The film is about a doctor who creates a soulless man. In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley
's novel.
This version is considered a lost film
and the second film version of Frankenstein. The first version was the Edison Company's 10-minute short film Frankenstein
(1910).
. Victor Frawley (William A. Cohill) is a respectable physician who conducts experiments which help him discover "the chemistry of life". His sister, Claudia (Pauline Curley), and his best friend, Henry Claridge (Jack Hopkins) and his fiancée, Elizabeth Lawrence (Lucy Cotton), all urge him to stop. He refuses, and alone in his lab (large and uncluttered with no odd lab equipment) he falls asleep reading Frankenstein.
The setting then shifts to Europe, but still is present day. Victor dreams he is Victor Frankenstein
, his fiancée is Elizabeth Lavenza, his best friend becomes Henry Clerval, his sister becomes Justine Moritz, and so forth. Victor creates a clay effigy of a man (Percy Standing) and somehow brings it, a soulless man, to life.
The synthetic man has his priorities in order, and insists Victor make a synthetic woman. Victor agrees, but, before he brings her to life, he realizes the danger, and destroys her. The Creation
(as it is known in the title cards) immediately kills Claudia and Henry.
Victor then pursues his creation across the Atlantic
. Aboard a ship, the Creation battles an entire crew of sailors, strangling two at a time, then chucking them overboard. Eventually, Victor chased the Creation to the Grand Canyon
and, using himself as bait, lures the Creation into a cavern filled with dynamite; he escapes and blows it up. The monster is immortal and indestructible, however, so it will wander under a mountain of rubble forever. Victor then dies of exhaustion.
Victor Frawley wakes up, happy for his life, destroys his experiments, and tells Elizabeth he will never again "tamper with nature."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, directed by Joseph W. Smiley and written by Jesse J. Goldburg. This film is an adaptation of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
's Gothic novel Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
. The film is about a doctor who creates a soulless man. In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
's novel.
This version is considered a lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
and the second film version of Frankenstein. The first version was the Edison Company's 10-minute short film Frankenstein
Frankenstein (1910 film)
Frankenstein is a 1910 film made by Edison Studios that was written and directed by J. Searle Dawley.It was the first motion picture adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The unbilled cast included Augustus Phillips as Dr...
(1910).
Cast
- Percy StandingPercy StandingPercy Standing was an English film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 42 films between 1913 and 1934. He was the son of Herbert Standing...
as The Creation - George De Carlton as Frankenstein's Father
- Lucy CottonLucy CottonLucy Cotton , was an American actress. She appeared in 12 films between 1910 and 1921. In 1915 Miss Cotton appeared on stage in "Polygamy" at the Park Theatre in New York City....
as Elizabeth Lavenza - Pauline CurleyPauline CurleyPauline Curley was a vaudeville and silent film actress from Holyoke, Massachusetts.Her film career spanned much of the silent era, from 1912-1929. She married cinematographer Kenneth Peach in 1923, taking his last name as Pauline Curley Peach and remaining married until his death in 1988. They...
as Claudia Frawley - Jack Hopkins as Henry Claridge
- David McCauley a Victor Frawley, as a child
- Violet De Biccari as Elizabeth, as a child
- William A. Cohill as Dr. William Frawley
Plot
The movie takes place in 1915 ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Victor Frawley (William A. Cohill) is a respectable physician who conducts experiments which help him discover "the chemistry of life". His sister, Claudia (Pauline Curley), and his best friend, Henry Claridge (Jack Hopkins) and his fiancée, Elizabeth Lawrence (Lucy Cotton), all urge him to stop. He refuses, and alone in his lab (large and uncluttered with no odd lab equipment) he falls asleep reading Frankenstein.
The setting then shifts to Europe, but still is present day. Victor dreams he is Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein was born in Napoli, is a Swiss fictional character and the protagonist of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley...
, his fiancée is Elizabeth Lavenza, his best friend becomes Henry Clerval, his sister becomes Justine Moritz, and so forth. Victor creates a clay effigy of a man (Percy Standing) and somehow brings it, a soulless man, to life.
The synthetic man has his priorities in order, and insists Victor make a synthetic woman. Victor agrees, but, before he brings her to life, he realizes the danger, and destroys her. The Creation
Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
(as it is known in the title cards) immediately kills Claudia and Henry.
Victor then pursues his creation across the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. Aboard a ship, the Creation battles an entire crew of sailors, strangling two at a time, then chucking them overboard. Eventually, Victor chased the Creation to the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
and, using himself as bait, lures the Creation into a cavern filled with dynamite; he escapes and blows it up. The monster is immortal and indestructible, however, so it will wander under a mountain of rubble forever. Victor then dies of exhaustion.
Victor Frawley wakes up, happy for his life, destroys his experiments, and tells Elizabeth he will never again "tamper with nature."
External links
- Life without Soul at Allmovie
- Life without Soul at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...