by Dan
Taylor
As a kid growing up in the
1970s, many Saturday afternoons were spent
frittered away in front of the tube digging
on the latest offerings from that groovy
ghoul Doctor Shock. His 'Creature Double
Feature' was a pivotal, damaging influence
on my young brain, just waiting to infect
me with its delightful blend of gallows
humor and D-grade schlock.
For whatever reason, my adolescent
psyche had some sort of Frankenstein flick
aversion. Not all Frankenstein flicks mind
you. I'd watched countless encounters with
the Universal variety of the blockheaded
monster through the years, especially its
meetings with Abbott and Costello.
But when I'd scan the weekly
listings and spot one of the entries from
the Hammer Films cycle of Frankenstein flicks,
I'd mentally begin making plans for those
couple hours. Why? Who knows? I loved the
Hammer cycle of Dracula flicks, eating up
every encounter between Christopher Lee
and Peter Cushing. Living for that moment
in HORROR OF DRACULA when Van Helsing throws
back the curtains, exposing the evil vampire
to the deadly rays of the sun.
Perhaps I projected my boredom
with the Universal cycle – a simmering
contempt surely bred out of familiarity
– that made me ask, "Why the hell
would I want to watch another Frankenstein
movie?"
With three decades of trash
viewing under my belt, I had successfully
avoided each and every one of the Hammer
Frankenstein flicks like an episode of 'The
Golden Girls.' Sure, I'd seen just about
every frickin piece of Z-Grade straight-to-video
trash that Full Moon Pictures could offer,
but I hadn't seen anything more than the
briefest clip of Peter Cushing as the bad
doctor.
During a recent vacationI
started reading Profoundly Disturbing,
the latest book from drive-in movie critic
Joe Bob Briggs. Though a touch more scholarly
than I was expecting from the man who brought
the world Rhett Beaver and the "blood,
beasts and breasts" drive-in rating
system, the chapter on CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
– the first flick in the cycle and
the movie that defined Hammer as a house
of horror – made me think I might be
missing something.
Thanks to the wonders of DVD
I was able to sit down recently and groove
on five of the seven flicks in the cycle:
CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957), REVENGE OF
FRANKENSTEIN (1958), FRANKENSTEIN CREATED
WOMAN (1967), FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969) and FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER
FROM HELL (1974). I passed on EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1964) due to its unavailability on DVD
(and the whisperings from some trusted sources
that it pandered to Universal) and HORROR
OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970) because it doesn't
star Cushing.
CURSE – directed by Terence
Fisher with a script by Jimmy Sangster –
lays the groundwork for the series and immediately
establishes it as something far, far different
than the Universal flicks. Rendered in flashback,
the flick tells how Baron Victor Frankenstein
(Cushing) studies – and eventually
surpasses – his mentor Paul Krempe
(Robert Urquhart). After reanimating a dog
Victor's itching to build a man and bring
him to life while Paul's not so sure this
is how they should be spending their time.
The arrival of a pre-arranged fiance (Hazel
Court) tosses a monkey wrench in Victor's
maid-banging activities and creates the
necessary tension between Victor and Paul
as well as a dull love triangle of sorts.
A body, hung as a warning
to others, proves too tempting for Victor
to refuse and pretty soon he's conspiring
to find the perfect brain for his new creature
(played with a gruesomely sympathetic air
by Christopher Lee). Let's just say this...
you don't want to be called "the greatest
brain in Europe" when Frankenstein's
around.
Though it has all the overdone
cliches of the genre – the brain gets
damaged during a fight, the reveal scene,
the blind guy who can't see the hideous
creature, the righteously pissed off monster
– CURSE is wicked good fun elevated
to new heights by Cushing's measured performance
as the obsessed baron. Sangster's script
gives him plenty of sinister lines and there's
none of that raving lunacy so common in
the Universal performances.
REVENGE – which reunites
Cushing, Sangster and Fisher – picks
up right where CURSE ends as the baron heads
to the guillotine for his crimes against
man and nature. But what's this? A nod,
a wink and the blade falls, but on whom?
Grave robbers disinter the baron, only to
discover a priest – WITH NO HEAD! Yep,
it's the old execution switcheroo, giving
Dr. "Stein" the chance to relocate
to Carlsbruck (a German town complete with
Cockney accents) where he promptly sets
up shop and becomes the most popular doc
in town, not to mention a perpetual thorn
in the side of the local medical community.
But what's he up to with all those amputations
in the clinic?
The young Dr. Hans Kleeve
(Francis Matthews) recognizes Frankenstein
and persuades him to let him "join
the practice" so to speak. Pretty soon
plans are put into motion to give Carl the
Hunchback a new body, a development that
highlights one of the things I like most
about these Hammer flicks. While Universal
kept finding new (sometimes dumber) ways
to bring back the same damn monster, Hammer's
cycle features a new creature matched up
with a hideous new concept from Frankenstein
for each flick.
Like the monkey transplant
that turned out horribly, Carl's brain transplant
ends up turning him into some kind of twisted
cannibal freak and all hell breaks loose.
Even without the internet it ain't long
before the good doctor's true identity is
revealed and Frankenstein needs to make
tracks, leading to one of the most inspired
– but confusing twists – in the series.
Really, ya gotta see it for yourself, though
the flick isn't as much fun as CURSE.
Skipping over the supposedly
leaden EVIL it's time to get to FRANKENSTEIN
CREATED WOMAN which opens with a cackling
fool headed to the guillotine. His son Hans
(not to be confused with Hans from REVENGE)
emerges from the bushes just in time to
see good ole Dad lose his head, which would
normally send any youngster as far away
as possible. Unless, of course, you're Hans
who has stayed on in the same noweheresville
town in the shadow of the head chopper that
offed pops.
Seems that Hans (Robert Morris)
and his bumbling employer (Thorley Walters)
have a Frankencicle they need to revive.
Yep, the good doctor has moved from brain
transplants to experiments with cryogenic
suspension and lifeforces, and is using
himself as a guinea pig. Successfully brought
back to life, Frankenstein orders Hans to
procure some champagne from the local pub
owner whose cute daughter Christina has
a nice body but a hideously scarred faced.
A run-in with some boozy chaps
eventually leads to the murder of Christina's
father and Hans being accused of the crime.
After a trial featuring lots of talk about
him being just like dear old dad (See? I
told you he should've relocated!) Hans gets
his head chopped off and Christina throws
herself off a cliff, providing just what
the good doctor needs to try and trap the
lifeforce. A blonde, beautiful, unscarred
Christina – complete with a dash of
Hans' soul and memories – is born,
which isn't good news for the aforementioned
boozy chaps or Christina. Bleak stuff indeed
with the good doctor's ill-advised attempt
at matchmaking blowing up royally.
With the botched lifeforce
experiment out of the way, it was time for
the good doctor to return to his old tricks
and the result is the superb FRANKENSTEIN
MUST BE DESTROYED (again directed by Fisher
with a dark, humorless script by Bert Batt).
A burglar is in the wrong place at the wrong
time when a machete-wielding maniac comes
home with his freshly-obtained head. Naturally,
the maniac turns out to be Dr. Frankenstein,
who needs to find new digs once now that
his lab has been exposed.
Taking up residence in the
boarding house run by Anna Spengler (the
luscious Veronica Carlson), Frankenstein
blackmails her and her foppish doctor boyfriend
(Simon Ward) into tossing out the other
residents and helping him set up shop. They
plant the brain of a colleague into another
body in order to gain the secrets held by
the institutionalized pal, but the creature
(brilliantly played by Freddie Jones) freaks
at the sight of another man's body around
his brain and attempts to reconcile with
a wife who rejects him. Swearing revenge
on Frankenstein, the creature ultimately
engages him in a sinister game of cat and
mouse in a burning house.
DESTROYED is the highlight
of the series and one of the best flicks
the horror genre has to offer. Cushing is
totally on top of his game as Frankenstein,
delivering a dark and sinister portrayal
complete with decapitations, fights, plenty
of slapping, a little rape, deviousness,
lying, assault and murder. By this point
in the series, Frankenstein IS the monster,
a clever way of addressing a horror icon
that often confuses viewers.
The good doctor's swan song
would be FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM
HELL, a Frankenstein-in-prison epic that
predates the similar BEYOND
RE-ANIMATOR by about 30 years. Thrown
in an asylum for practicing "sorcery,"
doctor Simon Helder (Shane Briant) discovers
that he's incarcerated with none other than
his idol, Dr. Frankenstein, now going by
the name of Dr. Carl Frank and wearing a
ridiculous wig.
Though officially an inmate,
Dr. Frank has full run of the asylum (thanks
to a sinister relationship with the creepy
asylum director) and access to the full
range of crazy patients needed for his experiments.
Helder discovers that Frankenstein and his
lovely, mute assistant Sarah (Madeline Smith)
have been working on a new creature complete
with the body of an ape-like maniac (David
Prowse who would later provide the body
for Darth Vader in the STAR WARS flicks),
the hands of a sculptor and the brain of
a violin playing mathemetician.
You'd think this would all
turn out well, but it doesn't. His hands
rendered useless by the fire at the end
of DESTROYED, Frankenstein presses Helder
into service, paving the way for several
gory (as gory as Hammer gets) operations
and plenty of graphic closeups as well as
veins held in teeth, gooey eyeballs and
more. Filmed in 1972 but not released until
1974 the flick again featured Fisher behind
the camera with a screenplay by Anthony
Hinds (son of Hammer's co-founder). Unfortunately,
the fine flick allows the good doctor to
go out with a whimper instead of a bang,
making this a fun and grisly low-budget
entry in the series, though not on the level
of the superb MUST BE DESTROYED.
Do yourself a favor and take
this series of discs for a spin. You'll
gain new appreciation for Cushing's work
and Hammer's place in the annals of horrordom.
