All language subtitles for The Truth About Lady Frankenstein - A Factual Report - 2007 German TV special with director Mel Welles & actors Rosalba Neri, Paul Müller, and Herbert Fux.English

I think in here.
Is there something coming?

Yes, I hear you. All okay.

KINOMAGAZIN presents

After thirty years,
I'm seeing the film for the first time.

The operator is ready.
Herr Fux, are you ready, as well?

Sure, I'm ready.

[operator] _ _
I'll press the button and the video will appear.

THE TRUTH ABOUT
LADY FRANKENSTEIN

A FACTUAL REPORT

Even with these B-movies, I find it good
that the atmosphere and ambience

lead you into the story from the
beginning, so you know what to expect.

They don't desperately try to come
from normality to horror at a certain time.

It already starts with a skull
or someone slitting a stomach,

or impaling a stake through the heart,
so you know what to anticipate.

These kind of films have never been...

They've never been my favorite.

So I accepted to do
the film, like many others.

Later, I saw that it had
some success in its genre.

So, in my mind, I started to consider
it one of my more important films.

Outside!
I remember a castle!

An ancient castle, medieval.

Yes, I remember we spent
many days in that castle,

with those mysterious locations.

Dramatic lighting.

At the end of the day, it was
cheap to rent the whole castle.

It wasn't that expensive, especially in
Abruzzo, as there were a lot of empty castles

which were only used as sets, and the owners
also kept them for visitors from, like, England.

It was quite cold up there,
even in summer.

I stood there, it must have been June,
and it was ice cold at the end of May,

but at the beginning of June,
a real winter started to break out.

It was bitterly cold,
and the whole castle was icy.

I don't remember what
he looked like normally,

because I always saw him with those
big shoes and huge forehead!

They worked a long time
preparing the skull.

It was a difficult thing,
and a role I wouldn't like to play,

as you had to sit in the make-up
department for most of the time.

But they prepared it really nicely.
The eye looks really good.

I remember it was some guy.
He was young, I remember.

Yes, but physically perfect,
with a tall stature.

Well, wow, look at that.
This is incredible.

She is really the devil.

Now I know what Lady Frankenstein is.

The preparation before starting the film
is for the wardrobe, for the wigs.

All the costumes are carefully
prepared before.

So they fit perfectly.
Usually as tight as possible!

And then you rehearse
the lines before filming.

As always you get the script a few
weeks before, to get a better idea.

Then, before the scene, you rehearse it
and rehearse it until it's good.

And then one, two, three
or four takes and it's done.

I think shooting time
was around six to eight weeks.

You couldn't make it in 4 weeks as they
do today. It was around 6 to 8 weeks.

Quite a few weeks.
Maybe two months.

Yes.
Eight weeks.

Fellini's ROMA was meant to take three months,
and took nine months, or eight and a half in the end.

Longer production times at that time were normal.

We also made a Corbucci film,
which was three to four months,

so we filmed about
forty seconds to one minute per day.

For a Spaghetti Western, such a B-movie,
they spent a long time doing the shoot.

Therefore, taking six to seven weeks to
shoot was in comparison not so long,

even though compared to Fellini
it was like making a short film!

That was director
Mel Welles‘ intention.

She's a woman who had
some feminist tendencies.

She's a feminist!

An educated woman,
an energetic woman.

Awoman with a masculine personality.

I wasn't aware of it while
I was working on the film.

But, by the end of it, I was
starting to like this attitude of...

Of an intelligent woman.

Evil, negative, but intelligent.

Yes, I still remember that set.
It was quite impressive.

All the equipment they made from scratch,
and made the pieces really well.

They built them all up,
and it took several weeks to install.

A cosmopolitan family!

With rehearsals and with
the director's imagination--

He's the one who sees how it might
turn out, with the dubbing,

and it takes some imagination
to see the final product.

And above all, to rely on
the expressions.

If the director,
without understanding anything,

sees the right expression,
then they'll say that's okay.

And then there's the fact that it
would be impossible in the theatre.

But because films take one
little piece at a time,

it's much easier to imagine
how it all looks joined together.

I didn't dub myself.

I didn't dub myself.

At least, I don't remember
dubbing myself.

And I don't know who dubbed me.

Have we heard my voice yet?

I'm keen to hear how I was dubbed!

He was very decayed,
but we couldn't find a better one.

Jesus, what was his accent like?

Again, a really good
German dubbing actor dubbed me.

This is incredible.

My goodness. This, this...

I like to hear this, "something special."
I can smell the money already.

Obviously back then, I made six to seven
movies a year all over the world,

so dubbing myself was not possible, as I was
already somewhere like Bangkok or Manila,

and so they had the right to dub
any actor who wasn't available.

They would never have paid
a return flight from Hong Kong

just for dubbing, as this was
really expensive back then.

A return ticket cost
something like 18,000 Marks,

and that made production think
twice about using the original actor.

I remember, I remember.

I remember.
I was a bit suspicious of him.

I didn't really warm to him
because of his face.

Now, I really understand the effect
of my face on women back then.

Today it's a bit difficult, but back then,
with one look, it was a good time in Italy for me!

But she was taken already,
the main actress.

Obviously I didn't
have a chance with her.

On anotherfilm I met someone
and he said,

"As you are already here,
let's film another movie."

That was the pleasant thing.

But this was not a co-production
with Germany as the others were.

I think I even got
my salary with this one.

[in heavily Austrian accented Italian]
Thank you, my Director. Many thanks.

Normal situation,
it's a terrible German synchronisation.

Thank you, my director.

Back then it was a
casual colony in Rome.

It was people from large U.S.
businesses who really liked Italy,

especially Rome,
which was fashionable at the time.

Most of them stayed in the hotel Della Ville,

at the Spanish steps,
and it was a very comradely atmosphere.

There was no star arrogance
or anything like that.

The Americans don't need that at all,
even if it's just in pretence.

On the first day they meet you,
they call you by your first name.

"Hello, Herb" and "Nice to meet you."

"Okay, let's go on.
Dirty day today. Okay, dirty movie,

but doesn't matter,
money is coming, coming and going.

I like home, they pay.

They got a lot of money. It's coming from
Hollywood, from our country.

Poor Italy needed the money,
and we needed movies."

They were all really nice.

I don't remember the
exact day I met them.

But I remember the sensation

with Joseph Cotten, who I'd seen
in lots of important films.

He was accompanied by his
beautiful wife, Patricia Medina.

I remember the pleasure.
I remember the sense of privilege,

working with an actor of his fame,

of his bravura.

What?

A sex scene?

And I wasn't there?

Incredible!

Wow, was that also in the movie?

I'm impressed.

That scene I would
have liked to play, as well.

Really, the movie has everything,

taking into account obviously
the time when it was made.

You always have to look at it with
historical background... What is he doing now?

I don't remember it!

Also because

I was making a film. I respected
Mel Welles. He was a good director.

So I followed
what he said in every scene.

Repeating it.
Maybe changing the angle.

But I didn't think about
how it would come out.

I really don't remember it.

I remember the cold.

I remember it was so cold.

That is what happens when
you never watch your own movies.

It really is like that.

Look at that primitive sensuality.
There is nothing of... No, wait... Oh, him!

What, that's the end already?
But it must be.

Incredible!

Did that crush me?

Dead, that was it.
I would have...

[background voice]
You will be back in a second as a corpse.

No, that shot is too short.

I could have,
when watching it now,

thought of a more drastic,
more dramatic death.

Again, too short.

Too short.

You should have stayed
on the smashed face.

But there was always the fear the distributor
wouldn't use it. You fear censorship too much.

I would say no,
you could have done more with it.

Is that enough?

THE TRUTH ABOUT
LADY FRANKENSTEIN

The end!

Ha, this movie really has everything.

It's always nice when you
watch a movie for the first time.

No, it really moved me.

It took my breath away.

This is good for a movie,

that you can sit there with an
open mouth and think, "That's |ife."

It contains everything there is in this world:
love, passion, death, burning, crime.

It's all there.
A complete work.

German translation:
Ingo Ebeling & Marcelle Perks

Italian translation:
Anthony Baggaley

Subtitles © 2018 Nucleus Films Ltd