Supernatural (TV Mini Series) Night of the Marionettes (1977) User Reviews

Scary Variation on the Frankenstein Story

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 8 November 2014]

Set in a lonely inn in Switzerland, Robert Muller's drama follows the fortunes of a family headed by Howard Lawrence (Gordon Jackson), his wife Elsbeth (Kathleen Byron) and their daughter (Pauline Moran) as they encounter a strange maitre d' Herr Hubert (Vladek Sheybal) and a mysterious old man with a penchant for quoting from Shakespeare's RICHARD III (Frederick Radley). Howard is engaged in a quest to retrace the steps of great Romantic poets such as Byron and Shelley; this is what encourages him to travel abroad in the first place.

Through a combination of accident and luck, the family learns about Herr Hubert's puppet-show, which is advertised as being not exactly family fare. They attend the show, and discover to their horror that the puppets are life-size; this leads them on to the discovery that they are actually human beings engaged in a macabre ritual of killing and life-creation.

From then on, the family's ordeal becomes more and more difficult to bear, involving possession, the discovery of a lair (illuminated with lurid yellow light) in Hubert's house, and the realization that past and present have been unified in a strange and sinister way.

Alan Cooke's production relies for much of its effect on the use of atmospheric music (by Paul Lewis) and rapid cutting between close- ups of Lawrence's increasingly tortured countenance and the people he interacts with - his daughter, M. Hubert, and the old man. The sequence where Lawrence discovers the lair is especially memorable, involving an abrupt contrast between dark and light.

Technically speaking, "The Night of the Marionettes" makes some awkward transitions between video and location filming - notably in the puppet-show sequence. Nonetheless the cinematography (by Nigel Walters) is both bold and eloquent, the camera sweeping past the actors in a series of extravagant pans both sideways and upwards. There are some genuinely scary moments, especially when viewers are placed in the same position as Lawrence - not knowing precisely what they will discover behind locked doors or around darkened corners.

Unique take on the Frankenstein tale

[Prof-Hieronymos-Grost · 7/10 · 22 September 2009]

Howard Lawrence (Gordon Jackson) the esteemed biographer of romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, enters the Club of the Damned, (a London based secret society that admits only those whose stories of the supernatural are believed as true) to regale the members with his truly shocking story. A story, he tells them that can never be published, such is its horror. His story begins near Geneva, where while travelling with his wife Elsbeth and daughter Mary, he was researching the aforementioned biography of Shelley. Shelley, his wife to be Mary and author of Frankenstein, along with Lord Byron had made some names for themselves across Europe, especially their renowned escapades at the Villa Deodatti. Lawrence had long dreamed of writing the definitive story of Shelley's life and had long been a believer that due to her worldly writings and her young age, her influence for Frankenstien had not come from a dream, but from another more real source. Lawrence's travels had proved fruitless and he was resigned to writing another successful, but unremarkable tome on the renowned author. So it was that on his way home, he and his family stopped at an Inn, The Ritterhoff, to shelter from the incumbent cold weather, there they are welcomed by the owner Herr Hubert (Vladek Sheybal) an odd personage, of cool demeanour and pale complexion, whom if one were to guess, would probably say he had noble blood. Elsbeth cannot settle in the Inn, her sleep is disturbed by strange visions and soon she wants to leave, but Mary has fallen in love with the Inn, it has an air about it, that transfixes her and prompts her to return to her writings with gusto. Lawrence himself would have been happy to abide by his wifes wishes had he not stumbled upon some old complimentary books provided in his room, that would seem to belong to Percy Shelley, he also finds a copy of Frankenstein there, his imagination runs riot, what if the three famous poets had stayed here on their travels, they had after all lived close by, maybe this is where he will find his holy grail. The deciding point for his decision is that their host Herr Hubert is putting on a show in their own theatre, a show as Herr Hubert puts it, "with a difference", the Marionettes contained within having somewhat of a reputation locally as do the productions. The family gathers in the small put packed theatre, full of local colourful characters, it is lit by candlelight, that glistens in the cobwebs in the rafters above, a perfect setting for an unusual show? The lights dim, the show begins, a pale white princess is at home in her bedroom, unseen by her, outside her window lurks a demon. Back in the demons lair, he contrives to give life to a tall, burly dark haired creature, with a pale white face, he is dressed in black and white clothes, a striking image, the creature stirs into life and is soon at the princess's room where he proceed to defile her before killing her. Lawrence is convinced this is the influence Shelley's Frankenstein and confronts Herr Hubert, little knowing the truth is far worse than the fiction.

Night of the Marionettes is an enjoyable twist on the Frankenstein tale, the setting is excellent, a labyrinthine Gothic guest house with plenty of odd characters, not least Herr Hubert, whose pale skin and gaunt bone structure would strike fear into anyone. Gordan Jackson plays the troubled biographer Lawrence, supremely well, calling on all his experience to give a rather unique performance in his filmography. The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the Marionette show, which one soon realises is done with real people and not puppets, the demon is Japanese in origin and boasts a mask with a terrifying facial expression, one to even rival that from Kaneto Shindo's classic Onibaba (1964). The monster is also certainly one with a memorably striking image, despite the film being in colour, the monsters monochrome image will remain in your memory for some time. Overall there's a decent atmosphere built up, but the video quality lets it down somewhat. Night of the Marionette's had previously been derided as a bad film from a bad series, i wholeheartedly disagree, its a unique tale given a delightful Gothic touch.

Oh and i nearly forgot, you may want to know how Lawrence got on in the Club of the Damned, did they believe his story, remember those not accepted faced death, hey its a horror flick you work it out? ]

Much like Supernatural as a whole, flawed but worth watching

[dr_clarke_2 · 7/10 · 20 September 2020]

The penultimate episode of Supernatural sees Robert Muller returning to scripting duties for a story that riffs off that most gothic of tales, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And the result is, frankly, bizarre.

'Night of the Marionettes' sees Gordon Jackson's Howard Lawrence recounting what happened when he sailed from England in 1882 with his wife and daughter and they stayed in a strange inn on their way to the Vila Diodati. On discovering that Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and the others stayed there on their own trip to the famous house, he wonders if events in the nearby village inspired Frankenstein and soon discovers that this is indeed the case when he and his family watch Herr Hubert's puppet show featuring life-size marionettes - one of which looks suspiciously like a certain famous literary monster.

'Night of the Monsters' is deeply macabre, from the revelation that the performers have their marionettes kill people and then resurrect them to create more marionettes, to the unexpected hint of father-daughter incest between Lawrence and Mary. The latter seems entirely gratuitous, adding little to the plot except to explain Elsbeth Lawrence's alcoholism, but it helps to make this the most horrific episode of the series. It doesn't quite work: the deliberately sinister marionette show is really well staged and directed (it helps that director Alan Cooke gets to shoot this sequence on film), but it's also quite lengthy, and thus smacks of padding. Having come up with an episode that pays homage to Frankenstein, Muller can't seem to work out how to conclude it satisfactorily, and it loses steam towards the end.

Nevertheless, the episode's striking visuals (in a series that rarely shows monsters, the Frankenstein's monster marionette works really well) ensure that it stands out, and as usual there is an impressive cast, with Jackson giving a fine performance and getting strong support from Kathleen Byron as Elsbeth and Pauline Moran as Mary. Vladek Sheybal is brilliantly cast as the sinister Herr Hubert. The sets also look the part, proving rather more gothic than the program's usual period sets. 'Night of the Marionettes' thus reflects Supernatural as a whole: flawed, but worth watching.

Another brilliant episode

[eppingdrwho · 5 August 2017]

This is another entry into a series which has quickly become a favorite of mine. Here everything develops gradually as with some other episodes of the series, but nothing is wasted. Characters, setting and story-line all fit neatly together. Based primarily on a piece of literary history and then expanded and fictionalised, this story is very novel. The marionettes plus the inn keeper work well as does the mysterious old man and the possession etc. If there is one minor criticism it would be that we are told no guests have stayed at the guest house for a number of years, yet if marionettes are killed as is suggested on stage, how do they have a fresh group to perform each year? This is only a minor quibble.

Supernatural: NIGHT OF THE MARIONETTES {TV} (Alan Cooke, 1977) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 27 October 2013]

I came by pure coincidence on this, yet another segment from Robert Fuller's interesting but obscure (in every sense) British TV series, while performing a "You Tube" search for more MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION (1966-1970) episodes! Like the previous ones I caught a few days ago from the same source, the print quality is far from optimal and time coded throughout; this particular entry is also plagued by intermittent audio issues which required me to alter the volume as it played out! Anyway, as with the other two episodes I watched, the main narrative of this is retold in flashback to a gathering of disbelieving men; here the raconteur is a long-white-haired Gordon Jackson – who, on his quest to chronicle what really went on in the Villa Deodati in that haunted Summer of 1816 in Geneva – lands his wife (the aptly-named Kathleen Byron) and daughter in Vladek Sheybal's pretty vacant guest-house. The enigmatic exploits of Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley and John Polidori – which spawned the publication of the latter's "Frankenstein" and "The Vampire" respectively – will later also engage the imaginations of Ken Russell in the maligned Gothic (1986) and Ivan Passer in the ultra-rare HAUNTED SUMMER (1988). What we have here, however, is that Sheybal's previous lodgers were transformed into life-size (and very rowdy) marionettes for his own act and one of them – dressed as Frankenstein's Monster, no less! – runs amok and assaults Jackson's daughter who, in the meantime, seems to have become possessed by the spirit of the latter's literary creator herself! Incidentally, I have two (or three) more adaptations of "Frankenstein" to go through before this ongoing Halloween Challenge reaches its conclusion...