This was shown on Turner Classic Movies during October in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the novel. There were a series of weird avantgarde promos that TCM showed prior to the documentary with some guy who ultimately had nothing to do with the film droning on and on about painting his vision of Frankenstein's monster that made me wonder what I was getting into, but the documentary turned out to be quite enjoyable and thorough at just under an hour running time.
It was a well put together piece on the novel, how it presaged some scientific developments and probably drew from others of the time, and ultimately how the novel might have been joined to the psyche of its author Mary Shelley. She was disowned by her father when she married, yet she dedicated the book to him, for example. Was she saying that Frankenstein's creature, abandoned by his creator when he didn't turn out as intended, was a metaphor for her relationship with her father? Maybe.
There were bits and pieces of the Frankenstein films, particularly the first two from Universal, "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein", but mainly this was an examination of a literary work. I like how they worked in commentary from an expert in plastic surgery. I wasn't expecting that. There were also tales of other "mad scientists" - one who actually got so caught up in the idea of salvaging body parts that he transplanted one monkey's head to the body of another monkey. There were a bunch of protesters who did not share his enthusiasm.
I did have one "what the??" moment though. When the documentary is talking about Mary Shelley feeling like she had some kind of out of body experience the night that she conceived the idea behind "Frankenstein", one of the images put up on the screen, though only for a few seconds, appeared to be that of 1930s MGM actress Karen Morley. Maybe because this was largely made in other countries, the filmmakers did not think anybody would notice, but I couldn't help wondering what Miss Morley had to do with the tale of Frankenstein.
I would recommend it as a detailed documentary on the literary work that manages to not overstay its welcome by being too long.