Frankstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, starring Stranger Things’ David Harbour, is now available to watch on Netflix, but is any of the comedy movie based on a true story? The film, which clocks in at 32 minutes long, finds Harbour playing himself in a documentary and delving into his family’s past.
Netflix’s Frankstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein largely takes place in two timelines, frequently crossing between the pair of them: there’s the present day, in which Harbour - purportedly David Harbour III - interviews people about his father’s acting career, David Harbour Jnr (also played by Harbour himself). The other major part is in the past, showing us Harbour Jnr’s infamous televised production of Frankenstein, while we also see Harbour Jnr doing talk shows to promote his work and appearing in commercials too. Harbour III wants to learn more about his father, starting with the question: “why this play?”
The bulk of the comedy comes from the play itself, which switches the role of Dr Frankenstein and his monster: Harbour Jnr is the doctor pretending to be the monster, and Alex Ozerov plays another actor who is taking on the role of Sal, his assistant, acting as Dr Frankenstein. The monster is conspicuously absent. As Netflix’s Frankstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein goes on, with the action cutting between past and present, a number of dark family secrets begin to emerge. These range from the discovery that Harbour Jnr didn’t actually attend Julliard, despite his regular declarations of doing so, to the mysterious death of his young co-star and rival. The end result is Harbour III concluding that his “father was a monster”, but did any of this bizarre tale actually happen?
In a word, no. Despite what is said in the movie, Harbour isn’t David Harbour III, but simply just David Harbour. He also doesn’t come from a long, legendary line of actors: his father, in reality called Kenneth, was a commercial real estate agent. Little else is known about Harbour’s family tree, but there’s no record of him coming from a long line of actors. There are countless productions of Frankenstein to have existed over the years, so it’s plausible that someone, somewhere, produced a version which saw Dr Frankenstein pretending to be the monster, but the televised one shown in Netflix’s Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein is entirely fictionalized.
About the closest Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein comes to the truth is in its very literal use of Chekov’s gun throughout the play, and its attempt at satirizing theatre tropes and structure. That and the fact Frankenstein does exist as a story are the only real elements of this extremely strange comedy movie.
Directed by Daniel Gray Longino, written by John Levenstein, and featuring the likes of Alfred Molina, Kate Berlant, and Michael Lerner among its cast alongside Harbour in a variety of different roles, Netflix’s Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein is a weird and often baffling mockumentary. It’s the kind of thing you almost can’t believe got made, but it’s not a true story.
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