Antonio
Margheriti was called by Carlo Ponti, who had produced its last four
movies, in order to help him with two films
that he had in preparation with Andy Warhol and Paul Morrisey: "Flesh for Frankenstein" and
"Blood for Dracula". The problems of Carlo Ponti were
manifold: both the authors were undoubtedly two big artists, but with a
technical experience very tied to their Underground movies; furthermore it
didn't exist a real screenplay, but a sort of synopsis of few pages on which they improvised with the actors day by
day (a scary things for a Producer); and the preproduction was
also proceeding in a confused manner.
But above
all, the idea of hiring Anthony
M. Dawson came to Carlo Ponti because in both films where a lot of scenes
to be realized in 3D, with a new kind of polarized lenses. Were a
difficult effects to obtain, but a daily bread for Antonio, which already had some experiences with three-dimensional in the
past. Antonio was hired as Co-Director, (or technical director) in order to assist Morrisey and Warhol
during the shooting and to supervise the special effects, directing the three-dimensional
scenes.
The work of Antonio Margheriti in the film has always been object of many
discussions,
which also ends to the Court, in one of the cases which involved the production Company. Like already
said, the shooting were proceeding without a script, Warhol and Morrisey improvised
every day together with the actors. A things which results in unconnected sequences and hard to
edit. The "paternity" of these two
films goes hundred per cent to Paul Morrisey, while Antonio was mainly directing the sequences in 3D and, after the end of the film, some retakes of the
scenes with the two children "Diastole" and "Systole" to be used as
"glue" between the other sequences, otherwise difficult to edit.
The direction of both films was attributed to the couple
Warhol/Morrisey in the American market, while in Europe, the distribution company decided to use the name of the
co-director, Anthony M. Dawson, a name who offers them more guarantees of returns on the Italian and European Market.
The situation was very embarrassing for Antonio because of the risen polemics
afterward, and in consequence to the declarations of Morrisey which disclaimed any of his operate. But the reality is that the films are imputable exclusively to Andy Warhol and Paul
Morrisey, from every shot it can be seen their direction and their taste for equivocal erotism and for the splatter.
(both very distant from the taste of Antonio), meanwhile are easily recognizable the few scenes directed by Antonio, even
purely from technical level, with his style of moving the Camera or his taste in the composition of the
shots.
Material however insufficient to attribute him any direction, an operation exclusively made by distributors for commercial
reason, which stain with a dark spot the honest career and filmography of a director like Antonio Margheriti, an artisan whose only guilt is to have worked for passion his entire life, and
sometimes, accepting projects and offers that amused him, but which he should have evaluated
otherwise.
If
you look well at the Italian posters, you will notice that the title is
mistaken, I'm not sure if intentionally or accidentally, in Frankstein
and not Frankenstein
as it's in the novel or in the English
title. I've wrote correctly not want to change the name of the mythical
scientist.
Edoardo Margheriti
