Other Appearances
Pretorius appears in Kim Newman's crossover novel Dracula Cha Cha Cha, as a colleague of H. P. Lovecraft's Herbert West. He appears as one of the horror movie spoofs in Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter and also appears in Allan Rune Pettersson's novel Frankenstein's Aunt Returns.
In the Amicus horror film The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Geoffrey Bayldon, playing a mysterious antique shop owner, is made up and costumed to look like Ernest Thesiger as Pretorius.
In the 1973 NBC-TV miniseries Frankenstein: The True Story, James Mason portrays a Pretorius-like figure named Dr. Polidori (named for Lord Byron's real-life physician, John William Polidori, who was part of the 1816 gathering that produced Mary Shelley's novel & also the author of the story "The Vampyre"). Mason's Dr. Polidori enlists Victor to assist in creating The Bride "Prima" (Jane Seymour).
The appearance and manner of Dr Zalhus (played by Quentin Crisp in Franc Roddam's 1985 film The Bride) are clearly modeled on Thesiger's performance as Pretorius.
The 1986 film of H. P. Lovecraft's From Beyond adds a Dr Edward Pretorius at Miskatonic University (played by Ted Sorel) as a dark mentor for Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs). This Pretorius is an impotent sadist (with a room full of bondage gear) who is assimilated by the 'Beyond' and attempts to drag others into it, boasting that the pineal gland growth brought on by the resonator is like "an orgasm of the mind".
In the 1998 independent film Gods and Monsters, directed by Bill Condon, about the last days of the ailing Director James Whale, the character of Dr. Pretorius is played by Arthur Dignam in a flashback reminiscence of the filming of the scene. An earlier scene shows Brendan Fraser as Whale's gardener in a bar watching televised reruns of the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein featuring the climatic scene of Ernest Thesiger as Pretorius and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein unveiling Elsa Lanchester as the Bride.
In the 2007 Frankenstein TV movie that was made in England, the character of Professor Jane Pretorius is based on Septimus Pretorius and served as Victoria Frankenstein's boss.
The same naming gimmick is used in the Cartoon Network puppet production "Mary Shelley's Frankenhole" except that the "Dr. Polidori" puppet is clearly Thesiger's Pretorius in appearance, voice and mannerisms.
The main villain from The Mask: The Animated Series is named Dr. Pretorius after the character.
Read more about this topic: Doctor Septimus Pretorius
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