Life Without Soul

Life Without Soul (1915) is a lost horror film, directed by Joseph W. Smiley and written by Jesse J. Goldburg. This film is an adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film is about a doctor who creates a soulless man. In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Shelley's novel.

Life Without Soul
Lobby card
Directed by	Joseph W. Smiley
Written by	Jesse J. Goldburg
Produced by	John I. Dudley
Starring	Percy Standing George De Carlton
Distributed by	Ocean Pictures
Release date	November 21, 1915 (1915-11-21) [1]
Running time	70 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	Silent film English intertitles

This version is considered a lost film and the second film version of Frankenstein.^[2] The first version was the Edison Manufacturing Company's 12-minute short film Frankenstein (1910), written and directed by J. Searle Dawley.

Production

This full-length film (broken into five parts), was produced by the Ocean Film Corporation and featured English-born actor Percy Darrell Standing wearing little to no make-up as the 'Brute Man'. The story is about the Brute Man killing the sister of his creator (Dr. William Frawley) on her wedding night. Frawley pursues his creation across Europe finally killing him by shooting him. Frawley then dies of exhaustion. A framing device reveals that the story is being read from a book.^[3] The film was reissued in 1916 by the Raver Film Corporation with added scientific documentary footage detailing the reproduction methods of fish.^[4]

Cast

• Percy Standing as The Creation / Brute Man
• George De Carlton as Frankenstein's Father
• Lucy Cotton as Elizabeth Lavenza
• Pauline Curley as Claudia Frawley
• Jack Hopkins as Henry Claridge
• David McCauley as Victor Frawley As A Child
• Violet De Biccari as Elizabeth Lavenza As A Child
• William A. Cohill as Dr. William Frawley

See also

• List of lost films