After the death of his Mother, a young Victor (Peter Cushing) is left the sole heir of the Frankenstein fortune. When agreeing to continue monthly payments to his Aunt, she offers him the hand of her daughter, Elizabeth. Victor writes to Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) in his Father’s name, asking him to tutor him. When Paul arrives and finds that Victor had approached him, he agrees to stay regardless.
After many years, Paul and Victor begin working on scientific experiments. They successfully revive a dead dog, giving Victor the idea of building a complete human from dead parts. Paul begins to regret his assistance, and when Elizabeth, now a grown woman, arrives to live at the house, he warns her to leave. When Victor reminds Paul that he needs a human brain, Paul starts to worry about where the brain will come from…
First of all, I would say the Frankenstein series is my favourite out of the Hammer movies. They’re consistent. Peter Cushing plays Victor in all of them with the same conviction and personality. I would also like to say that this version of Victor is probably one of the best. It shows him as a murderous and determined Doctor. In the Universal Frankenstein, he is portrayed as a Doctor driven mad by his creation. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, he is motivated by the death of his Mother. After creating the monster, he immediately regrets it. It’s also interesting to note that Kenneth Branagh’s Victor never kills anyone. The brain comes from a brilliant Doctor who has been murdered already. The Peter Cushing Victor murders a scientist to get the brain, as well as having the Creature kill his maid who is blackmailing him. The Cushing Frankenstein has no problem crossing that line to accomplish his goals, whereas Branagh’s Frankenstein gives up and goes home after the failure of his experiment.
The way it ended, this could have succeeded as a stand alone film. It left you with the impression that Victor had imagined the whole ordeal in an effort to cover up his murder. Of course the sequels remove any mystery by having Victor continue his work for another five movies. Like I said, it’s consistent.
I think one of my favourite scenes from the movie is the Creature’s reveal. You expect him to either look stitched together or like Boris Karloff’s monster, but instead he looks like he’s rotten and still dead. It’s a great and well known moment.
Speaking of the Creature, he is played by horror legend, Christopher Lee. It’s a great performance where he doesn’t speak but portrays it through his movement. Almost like his later Dracula performances where he refused to speak any dialogue. It’s funny to think that Lee played the Creature and Dracula in the Hammer reboots, when Bela Lugosi, who also played Dracula was originally offered the role of the Creature in the Universal movie but turned it down, only to play the Creature in one of the later sequels. I think these are the only two actors to portray both characters?
This is my favourite adaptation of Frankenstein, so I recommend giving the whole series a try.
Linsey Loves Horror 