Described as "a liberal adaptation of Mrs. Shelley's famous story", the plot description in the Edison Kinetogram was:
Production
Dawley, working for the Edison Company, shot the film in three to four days at the Edison Studios in the Bronx, New York City. The production was deliberately designed to de-emphasize the horrific aspects of the story and focus on the story's mystical and psychological elements: The film was reported in the Edison Kinetogram as having a length of 975 feet, giving it a runtime of approximately sixteen minutes at silent film rates, or closer to eleven minutes at modern rates.
Frankenstein was among the earlier silent films to have an associated cue sheet, providing suggested musical accompaniment. From the cue sheet: The pieces include "You'll Remember Me" from the 1843 opera The Bohemian Girl, the 1852 "Melody in F", "dramatic music" from the 1821 opera Der Freischütz, the 1835 song "Annie Laurie", and the Bridal Chorus from the 1850 opera Lohengrin.
For many years, it was believed a lost film. In 1963, a plot description and stills were discovered published from the March 15, 1910 issue of the film catalog, The Edison Kinetogram. For many years, these images were the only widely available visual record of the Charles Ogle version of the monster. In the early 1950s, a print of this film was purchased by a Wisconsin film collector, Alois F. Dettlaff, from his mother-in-law, who also collected films. He did not realize its rarity until many years later. Its existence was first revealed in the mid-1970s. Although somewhat deteriorated, the film was in viewable condition, complete with titles and tints as seen in 1910. Dettlaff had a 35 mm preservation copy made in the late 1970s. He also issued a DVD release of 1,000 copies. BearManor Media released the public domain film in a restored edition on March 18, 2010 alongside the novel, Edison's Frankenstein, which was written by Frederick C. Wiebel, Jr. In 2016, the film society of the University of Geneva undertook their own restoration of the film, with image restoration by Julien Dumoulin and an original soundtrack by Nicolas Hafner, performed on a Wurlitzer theatre organ located at College Claparède. The restored version of the film was shown on 10 October 2016. On November 15, 2018, in recognition of Mary Shelly's bicentennial, the Library of Congress announced via a blog post that they had completed a full restoration of the short film, having purchased the Dettlaff collection in 2014. The restoration was made available to the general public for streaming and downloading via their YouTube channel and online National Screening Room, as well as in the blog post announcing the restoration's completion.
