THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

In a prison cell, Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is awaiting execution for murder and we see his story in flashback as he relates it to a priest. After the death of his father, young Victor inherits a fortune (as well as an expectation that he will eventually marry his cousin Elizabeth) and hires Paul Krempe as a tutor. Over the years, Paul becomes a scientific mentor to Victor, and aids him in his attempts to revive life in dead animals, eventually bringing a dead puppy back to life. But when Victor decides he wants to create life from scratch, Paul begins distancing himself from Victor's work. The middle part of the story will be familiar to horror fans: Victor robs graves, pieces together a being (Christopher Lee), kills a scientific genius and steals his brain, damages the brain, and finally animates his monster during an electrical storm. In the midst of all this, Elizabeth returns after years away, expecting to marry Victor, though for his part, Victor is not only fully consumed with his work, but also enjoying a fling on the side with his buxom maid Justine. Soon he loses control of the monster and Paul kills it, but Victor resurrects it and when Justine reports she is pregnant, threatening his plan to marry Elizabeth, he has the monster kill her. Things go downhill quickly.

Though not Hammer Studio's first foray into horror, the genre that would make the studio famous, this film is known for other firsts: the first reboot of the Universal horror films of the classic era; the first star teaming of Hammer stalwarts Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing; the first horror film directed by Terence Fisher who would go on to helm over a dozen other horror films, mostly for Hammer. It was also a hit that kickstarted both the reboots of Dracula, mummies and werewolves and the future direction of the studio. The future template for Hammer films is present: settings in villages of the past, gloomy houses, sexy strumpets, and some blood and gore, not nearly as much as would eventually become the norm in the 1970s, but much more than is found in the classic era films. Lee as the monster is more brutish and faster moving than Karloff was in the 1930s, and in order to avoid any legal problems with Universal, Hammer made the make-up very different, and it's quite effective (pictured at left). Cushing as Frankenstein is not sympathetic or even particularly interesting. Honestly, for as good as those two eventually got, there isn't much sign here that they would become horror superstars. Hazel Court as Elizabeth is fine, though her character is a bit of a cold fish. Paul Urquhart (Paul Krempe) is the only truly sympathetic character. I've always found it interesting that in the realm of pop culture, it's the Universal movies that have become the ur-texts for horror movies rather than the original works by Shelley (Frankenstein) and Stoker (Dracula). This movie follows the 1931 film rather than the novel. And it's this movie that provides the inspiration for the visuals of the scene of creation in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Certainly still watchable. [DVD]