Bred From A Dozen Corpses

After two excellent and highly successful films (and a six year break), Hammer decided to completely reboot their Frankenstein franchise but, strangely, ‘The Evil Of Frankenstein’ doesn’t go back to the beginning. Instead, it takes place ten years after the Baron (Peter Cushing, of course) created his original monster, with the back story eventually established via a lengthy and slightly unconvincing flashback. It doesn’t really work, but the film is not without merit, just all over the place and hard to love.

The story revolves around Frankenstein returning to his hometown as ‘it’s been ten years – no-one will remember me’. Of course not, Baron, the creation of a living creature from spare parts which then goes on the rampage is a fairly commonplace event in the life of a small village. When he gets back to his castle he finds that the greedy powers that be have snaffled all his stuff - apart from his beloved monster, which is stuck in a glacier in suspended animation.

Being frozen for a decade has affected the creature’s brain, however, so Frankenstein has to employ the services of an odious sideshow mesmerist, Professor Zoltan, to get the creature to do anything, but the nasty Zoltan takes the opportunity to use the reanimated man-beast to settle a few scores (with the same men who Frankenstein has a grudge against) and it all kicks off. There’s violence, chaos, murder, fire, and an explosion that destroys a castle. You know, the sort of thing that absolutely no-one will remember in ten years’ time…

Oddly structured, ‘Evil’ has its moments, but is definitely a lesser effort, being neither one thing nor another. On the plus side, Cushing is great, and we get a proper monster, played by wrestler Kiwi Kingston who sports the familiar and iconic square headed look of the classic universal films (Universal Studios were now in partnership with Hammer, so granted them the copyright). On the negative side, it’s slow and slightly confusing, and the characterisation of the Baron is skewed to fit with ultimately irrelevant plotlines (the proper Frankenstein lives only for his work and is prepared to accept any privation to continue with it – here, he’s upset because some bloke is wearing his old jewellery).

Oh well. I enjoyed it though, flaws and all - but then there is something slightly wrong with me.

The Evil Of Frankenstein

Monsterpiece

'The Revenge Of Frankenstein' is a direct sequel to 'The Curse Of Frankenstein', the mega successful macabre masterpiece that changed the direction of the Hammer studio forever. 'Revenge...' starts with Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) about to be guillotined for the various crimes he has commited in the name of science. Needless to say, Frankenstein escapes the chop in quite shockingly ruthless way, before moving to another city and setting up under the inspired pseudonym of Doctor Stein.

Herein lies the marvellous ambiguity of Hammer's Frankenstein character: he is a good physician and has set up a hospital where the poor can be treated free of charge, which is marvellous - but every now and again he will perform an unnecessary amputation or organ removal in order to continue with his pet project: the creation of a healthy body, cobbled together from spare parts, into which he will transplant the brain of his (quite willing) crippled and hunchbacked henchman, Karl. Which, again, is sort of nice when you think about it, or sort of horrible when you think about it bit longer.

The operation goes well, and Karl is given a fully functional body. Easy peasy, really, as (Franken)Stein has already transplanted the brain of an orangutan into the body of a chimp. Hybrid ape Otto is perfectly healthy, except that he now has a voracious appetite for meat, prompting this fantastically deadpan exchange between 'Stein' and his medical assistant, Dr. Kleve (Francis Matthews) --

Kleve: Did Otto eat flesh before you operated?

Stein: No, I discovered it soon after the operation. He ate his wife.

Kleve: Ate another monkey?

Stein: What else would he be married to? 

Kleve: You mean he turned into a cannibal?

Stein: Yes. I didn't attempt to correct it. He's perfectly happy and in good health.

Of course, this couldn't happen again, especially not to a human subject, well, not unless the patient received a bang on the head or something silly like that.

After having received a bang on the head, Karl becomes a hungry homicidal maniac and, to add insult to brain injury, his new body turns against him, becoming twisted and deformed. In the end, Frankenstein's true identity comes out and he is beaten to death by his own patients, who aren't exactly happy about having unknowingly donated bits of themselves to Stein's science project. That said, Frankenstein is a hard man to put down, so I expect he'll turn up again in another city under another name, Dr. Frank, or something cunning and unexpected like that. 

'The Revenge Of Frankenstein' is superb: shocking, unexpected, compelling, ridiculous, and all conducted at top speed. This is Hammer at its best, and Hammer at its best is absolutely brilliant.

The Revenge Of Frankenstein

F*** Me, It's Freddie!

FMIF as Professor Richter, or rather Doctor Brandt in Professor Richter's body in the excellent  'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'.

Back To Screeching Life

'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!' was the fifth in Hammer’s Frankenstein cycle and, from its sensational title down, is one of the goriest and most glorious of all the sequels. Full of incident, packed with severed heads and brain operations, the film whizzes along brilliantly, and even gets by without having an obvious monster. The closest we get to a shambling, reanimated corpse is the ever amazing Freddie Jones, who gives a great performance under difficult circumstances – he’s playing a man trapped in another man’s body, a tortured being who has been saved from death but wishes they hadn’t bothered.

Cushing is brilliant, too, more of a ruthless and driven bastard than ever. In a scene added at the producers insistence, the Baron uncharacteristically deviates from his passion for anatomical DIY to rape Veronica Karlsen, an unseemly piece of action that doesn’t do anything for the film apart from giving it a flash of nipple for the distributors. Cushing, ever the gentleman, was decidedly not impressed.

Fast moving, shocking, exciting and, ultimately, very poignant, ‘Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed!’ is a fantastic use of eighty minutes, the embodiment of just how good Hammer films can be when they’re firing on all cylinders.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

The Art of Universal #1

It's not all British film and TV around here, you know, although it is mainly. I recently took advantage of a period of bad health to re-watch a load of Universal Horror films from the 1930s and 40s and it was like rediscovering an old flame, but without the resulting clandestine meetings and eventual marital break up.

I like everything about the Universal films, from their clunky plots to their increasing predilection for cramming every monster they can think of into a plot and hoping for the best. What I like best, however, is the craft that goes into these exploitation classics, where virtually every frame of every reel of every film is a visual treat, a mini masterpiece of framing: industrial Hollywood at its artistic best.

These frames are from 'The Ghost Of Frankenstein' (1942). Lon Chaney, Jr. plays the monster for the first time, Bela Lugosi returns as Ygor, and the super supercillious Lionel Atwill plays the villain, Dr. Theodore Bohmer.

This new occasional series will give me the excuse I need to post loads of snapshots from some of the most entertaining films ever made.  

The Ultimate in Evil

'Frankenstein Created Woman' is a rather confused film, not least because he doesn't create a woman at all, simply transfers the soul of a murderer into the corpse of the murderer's disfigured girlfriend (the 'simply' in that sentence is fairly ironic). That said, it's a good film, with lots of interesting angles on the formula and a philosophical and metaphysical feel that is not generally a big Hammer characteristic.

Peter Cushing plays the Baron once again as a polite but utterly ruthless monomaniac with dear old Thorley Walters in able support.

The woman Frankenstein doesn't create is played by Susan Denberg, who was dubbed because of her strong German accent. Despite some high profile relationships (including Sammy Davis Jr, Sidney Poitier, Jim Brown, Roman Polanski and Charles Bronson), Susan never really secured much work and, by the late sixties, had gone off the rails in spectacular fashion, taking LSD every day, compulsively stripping in public and beating up her Mother. She's still believed to be alive, but was last heard of residing in a Viennese mental institution. I wish I hadn't researched that, really.

Frankenstein Created Woman

Monster Shock

After ten years of incredible success, things began to slow down for Hammer in the late sixties. By 1970, the studio realised it would have to tweak its formula to suit the changing times and to try and win back its dwindling audience.

'Scars Of Dracula' didn't reinvent the original Hammer 'Dracula' so much as simply revisit it with a noticeably younger cast, a lot more blood and bosoms and some interesting and slightly daft variations on the original mythos. It's pretty entertaining, although Dennis Waterman is a rather uncomfortable juvenile lead, especially as he struggles to maintain a posh accent.

Despite the added teeth, torture and tits, the film was not a success, and, ever more desperate, Hammer decided to update the Count completely with the next film in the series, the incredible, terrible 'Dracula AD 1972'. 

'The Horror Of Frankenstein' was basically a remake / piss take of 'Curse of Frankenstein', the film that first put Hammer on the horror map back in 1957. Tongue firmly in cheek, the film has the temerity to ignore the previous five films and start from scratch, replacing the resolutely middle aged Peter Cushing with big haired Ralph Bates, a young Frankenstein who likes a shag and a joke as well as messing about with brains in pickle jars.

A fun film rather than a good one, Cushing was back for the last in the series 'Frankenstein & The Monster From Hell', a last ditch attempt to combine the best of the old with the new, but this was to prove the end of the line for the long running franchise. 

The Horror of Frankenstein