Review: The Curse of Frankenstein

After inheriting his father’s estate, Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) begins experiments on reviving the dead. Despite the protestations of long-time mentor Paul (Robert Urquhart), Victor plans on taking this to the level of reviving a dead human being. This involves the body of a hanged condemned man, as well as finding appropriate body parts like the brain of a mathematician, which he goes to extreme measures to procure. Blackmailing Paul (now essentially his former pupil’s assistant) to help him, Frankenstein manages to indeed create and ‘give life’ to a man-made creature. Played by Christopher Lee, however, this creature proves to be more trouble than Victor bargained. Hazel Court plays Victor’s cousin Elizabeth.

 

Hammer Studio’s first ‘classic horror’ flick and the first “Frankenstein” movie to be filmed in colour, this 1957 Terence Fisher (“Horror of Dracula”, “The Mummy”, “Island of Terror”) version of the Mary Shelley tale, also brought us the first star teaming of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Unfortunately, while I’m a Hammer fan (and a fan of Christopher Lee in particular), I don’t think this one has held up as well over the years as other Hammer films. Whilst I much prefer “Horror of Dracula” over the Lugosi/Universal film, I think the first two Karloff/Universal films in the “Frankenstein” series are vastly superior to this Hammer version. In fact, I’d even argue that Hammer’s later “Horror of Frankenstein” with Ralph Bates is a better film than this one.

 

There’s no doubt that this film has a great look and good work by Peter Cushing, but it’s otherwise a bit dull (very slow going early on, too), and certainly does Christopher Lee few favours. Lee manages to on at least one occasion inject a rather pathetic quality to the ‘Monster’, but for the most part the role has been written by Jimmy Sangster (“Horror of Dracula”, “The Mummy”, “Lust for a Vampire”) as a single-minded figure of pure menace. The subtlety and pathos of the two James Whale “Frankenstein” films for Universal is almost entirely absent here. True to Hammer form, Lee’s encounter with the old blind man is a purely sinister, horrific one. It’s not bad or anything, in fact I found the approach pretty much fits in with Hammer Studios, as both monster and creator are seen as far more villainous/monstrous in this film. It’s just that I prefer the more subtle, textured approach of the 1930s “Frankenstein” films, and even that was mostly due to Boris Karloff’s innately genteel quality he tried his best to imbue the character with.

 

I bet literary purist Lee was a total grumblefuck on the set of this film, as it’s definitely not faithful to the text. What also probably didn’t please him was the appalling makeup job he’s been given by Phil Leakey (“Horror of Dracula”). It’s light green, pasty and crude, making Lee look like he’s either had a run-in with a peppermint green Pavlova, or the worst spa treatment employee of all-time. Otherwise the film, typical for Hammer, looks far more expensive than it likely was. Crude makeup or not, they still knew how to make a damn good-looking film and DOP Jack Asher (“Horror of Dracula”, “The Mummy”) definitely earns his keep here.

 

As I said, Cushing is terrific here and the right choice for the part, even if this film’s version of Frankenstein as a bit of a pants man is perhaps a slight stretch for Cushing. He gets the obsessed and ruthless scientist part down pat, though and he probably relished getting to play such a cold-blooded role. Unfortunately, the pissweak supporting cast completely let him down. Robert Urquhart gives a particularly unlikeable, tediously pompous performance, and there’s no way he’s older than his supposed ‘pupil’ Cushing (Cushing was almost a decade older, in fact). Since he’s essentially the hero, it’s a bit of a problem. A horribly rushed finale is due to the first half of the film being so damn slow that the second half has to truly go bonkers. The strange ending will be the final straw for Shelley purists, but at least that I found rather interesting.

 

Tedium in the first half really is the biggest issue here for me. It’s an OK film, but Hammer seemed to have a better handle on Bram Stoker than they did Mary Shelley. A landmark horror film in some ways, this one doesn’t hold up so well after all these years, it’s dull in stretches and the makeup is hideous in the worst way possible. Good work by a perfectly cast Cushing helps, but co-star Lee isn’t afforded as much opportunity to impress. Some will like the rather nasty streak the film has, I personally prefer a more subtle and layered approach to the two main characters seen in the James Whale pictures.

 

Rating: C+