The time: the 1800s. The place: rural England. A boy named Hans witnesses the execution by guillotine of his father for murder. Some twenty years later, Hans is a young man working with Baron Frankenstein and the disgraced alcoholic Dr. Hertz on experiments to revive the dead. We see Hans and Hertz pulling Frankenstein out of a freezing cold trunk where his dead body had been for an hour. Frankenstein returns to life none the worse for the wear. He is most excited by what this says about metaphysical death and the persistence of the soul, and wants to carry out more experiments. Now (hang on) he wants to perfect his invention that can create an impenetrable force field so he can capture the soul of a recently dead person and transfer it into another body, and that person's soul would remain alive in that body. Got it? Meanwhile, at a local inn, Hans has a thing for Christina, the disfigured and crippled daughter of Kleve, the innkeeper. One night, a trio of obnoxious dandies come to the inn for drinks and spend their time insulting Christina. Hans, upset that Kleve doesn't do more to get rid of them, fights them for Christina's honor, leaving one, Johann, with a knife wound across his head. That night, while Hans and Christina sleep together, the three dandies return to the inn to vandalize the place. Kleve catches them and they end up killing him. The next day, the police, knowing that Hans was upset with Kleve, arrest him for murder, saying, "Like father, like son." He won't disgrace Christina by using her as his alibi so, in short order, he is guillotined, she kills herself, and both bodies wind up at the Frankenstein place. His soul is captured, her body is brought back to life, and after extensive surgery to make her look beautiful, Hans's soul is put in Christina's body. Since she has Hans' memories, she soon goes on a rampage to kill the dandy hooligans who started all this trouble.
As Hammer horror films of the era go, this one is maybe a notch above average, mostly due to the weird body/soul storyline. For most of the movie, Peter Cushing plays the baron as more metaphysically curious than deranged, though how the capture and transfer of souls is accomplished is left unclear. He's not so much evil as an egotistical ass. There is no staggering monster, but a young and voluptuous woman who is the creation (I guess) of Frankenstein. The title would seem to promise a Bride of Frankenstein plotline, but the resurrected Christina is not stitched together from parts, but one whole body. It should be called Frankenstein Resurrected Woman, I suppose. Maybe because Cushing doesn't get to go into blood and thunder mode until the end, he seems a little restrained. Better are Robert Morris as Hans, Susan Denberg as Christina, who does a nice job of switching personalities from mousy to sexy after she is "created," and Thorley Walters as Hertz. Derek Fowlds is successful at making Johann, the main dandy, thoroughly hateful. I found this more interesting than truly compelling, but worth watching for Hammer fans. Pictured are Denberg and Morris. [Blu-ray]
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