THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)
Tagline: No one who saw it lived to describe it!
(Horror, Sci-Fi, Stop, it’s Hammer Time) [PG]
Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it would have been an [PG]. This movie was part of a double feature with HORROR OF DRACULA.
I told you I was the last state but one: the brain. A brain of superior intellect, a lifetime of knowledge already behind it. Imagine that, Paul. My creature will be born with a lifetime of knowledge!
In this one, Dr. Victor Frankenstein is in prison and he is telling a priest how he got there. Starting when he inherited his family’s wealth after his mother’s death, he hired a tutor named Paul Krempe. Eventually, the two began experimenting with ways to overcome illness and even brought a dog back to life. After this friction develops between Paul and Victor, over reporting their medical findings or advancing them to the point of madness. Paul is repulsed by Victor's heretical methods and tries to warn Elizabeth who is set to marry Victor. What madness will prevail, and what horror lies ahead as two brilliant minds are surrounded by THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN?
First off, this movie is cited as being the movie that kind of revived old-school horror for years to come. Not only was it the first color “Frankenstein” movie, but it was also the first major movie that had the talents of both Peter Cushing (STAR WARS) and Christopher Lee (LORD OF THE RINGS). I get that the producers wanted a big name for the movie, but having Christopher Lee actually play the Frankenstein monster was pretty weird. He doesn’t even have a line in the movie. Moreover, the make-up job is so bad that it looks like grade school kids just threw a bunch of crap at some random dude and left the set. Apparently, it did actually have to be thrown together at the last minute because of some casting mold issues, but man oh man. Why for the love of all that is Hammer, did they give us this monstrosity. Clearly – you can tell the look of the Frankenstein monster in this just drove me nuts.
Acting wise I didn’t expect Robert Urquhart to pretty much upstage everyone on screen. Urquhart who plays Paul Krempe just knocks this thing out of the park with his performance. I guess he hated the final movie and actually stormed out of the film’s premiere. He has a really successful movie career, but never did another horror film and never worked for Hammer Films again. Hazel Court (DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS) shows up in this and ends up having quite a prominent role as Elizabeth. For me, this is the best film I have seen her in thus far. We also get a fair amount of Valerie Gaunt who plays Justine. She is decent in this but was only in 4 films. She also appeared in HORROR OF DRACULA and stopped acting in 1958 at age 26 after marrying a stockbroker. I really don’t have any complaints about the performances in this one at all, but I can’t stress enough how I felt that Robert Urquhart actually out-acted everyone on the set at least in this movie.
One thing I liked about this movie is that after the opening 10 minutes or so, it actually moves pretty quickly and there is a lot going on. We don’t really get many dull moments where were are looking at our phones completely checked out. What I didn’t like about it is that the monster's makeup is just so bad it’s almost comical. Just that bit alone kind of ruined this for me. Sometimes glaring stuff like that and a so-so score can’t be fixed by very good acting. I also felt this was actually missing a bit of the “creepy” factor I would have expected.
I have to give this one a 3 out of 7. It’s not as bad as the critics at the time thought, but it’s not as good as a lot of the hard-core Hammer Films fans think it is.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF HAMMER FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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