Sensational publicity photograph featuring Leonard Whiting (Dr. Victor Frankenstein) looking up as he opens a brown leather satchel revealing a bloody severed arm.

Frankenstein: The True Story is a 1973 British television movie loosely based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. It was directed by Jack Smight, and the screenplay was written by novelist Christopher Isherwood and his longtime partner Don Bachardy. The film stars Leonard Whiting as Victor Frankenstein, Jane Seymour as Prima, David McCallum as Henry Clerval, James Mason as Dr. Polidori and Michael Sarrazin as the Creature. James Mason's wife Clarissa Kaye-Mason appeared in the film.

The character of Dr. Polidori, who did not appear in the original novel, was based on the character of Dr. Pretorius from Universal Pictures Bride of Frankenstein, but named after the real-life John Polidori, an acquaintance of author Mary Shelley who was part of the competition that produced her novel. Polidori's own contribution was the first modern vampire story The Vampyre (1819). A notable feature of the production is that, instead of being ugly from the start, the Creature is portrayed as physically beautiful, but then becoming increasingly hideous as the film progresses.

The make-up was by Hammer horror veteran artist Roy Ashton. It was broadcast on NBC in late 1973 in two 90-minute parts, but often is seen edited into a single film. Its DVD debut date was September 26, 2006. Included at the beginning is a short introduction featuring James Mason wandering through St John's Wood churchyard, London. He suggests that this is where Mary Shelley is buried, which is incorrect (she is in fact buried in the family plot in Dorset) despite standing beside a gravestone bearing her name.

The film's development and production has been detailed extensively in Little Shoppe of Horrors #38 - which was released in June 2017 - by film director/historian Sam Irvin, who served as guest editor on this issue. The script for the film by Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood was published in paperback as a movie tie-in novel. The script contains a prologue in which Mary Shelley is telling her tale of horror to Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, as Dr. Polidori sulks nearby.

As she reaches their parts in the tale, they rush to join the main action and the story proper begins. Some shots in the film indicate that at least part of this prologue may have been filmed. If this segment had been included, it would have featured Nicola Pagett as Mary, Leonard Whiting as Shelley, David McCallum as Byron, and James Mason as Polidori.

The script contains an epilogue following the avalanche: The season changes, and the northern ice begins to break apart. The Creature's body, still entombed in the remainder of the iceberg, begins to float south into warmer waters. As the ice melts, one of his hands is exposed. Absorbing the rays of the sun, the hand responds, flower-like, and slowly begins to open.