In a small village Hans is in love with the disfigured Christina. Meanwhile nearby, Baron Frankenstein is conducting some blasphemous research. When Hans is wrongly accused of murdering Christina's father and guillotined, she commits suicide and the Baron has two fresh bodies with which to experiment
This isn't one of my favourite Hammer films, mostly because the revenge plot is pretty basic; obnoxious guys tease ugly woman, ugly woman kills herself, ugly woman gets reanimated and transformed into a beauty by mad scientist, now-beautiful woman uses her charms to exact bloodthirsty justice upon still-obnoxious guys. The most interesting idea is to what extent the creature is Christina or Hans, or both, but the film doesn't really explore this beyond a couple of throwaway lines. It's still a lot of fun though, with all the usual quality Hammer trappings (great period sets, rich colours, lots of creepy moments) and of course a stunning performance by Cushing, in his fourth outing as the dreadful evildoer. For me, Cushing is the definitive Frankenstein, by a long long chalk. He makes the man utterly cold and ruthless; he doesn't care about anybody or anything except his insane work, uses people to his own ends, has no scruples, is an intellectual snob and has no patience for anyone beneath him. Cushing uses every line and gesture to intimate this; an offhand flick through the Bible, endless put-downs of Walters and others, his use of gloves (he literally has no feelings), his constant piercing stare of dismissive superiority. He is Frankenstein. Compare him with say, the foppish performance by Kenneth Branagh in his 1994 production, and it's easy to see why Cushing was such a great actor and such an asset to Hammer films. Basic, but satisfying horror fare.
This isn't one of my favourite Hammer films, mostly because the revenge plot is pretty basic; obnoxious guys tease ugly woman, ugly woman kills herself, ugly woman gets reanimated and transformed into a beauty by mad scientist, now-beautiful woman uses her charms to exact bloodthirsty justice upon still-obnoxious guys. The most interesting idea is to what extent the creature is Christina or Hans, or both, but the film doesn't really explore this beyond a couple of throwaway lines. It's still a lot of fun though, with all the usual quality Hammer trappings (great period sets, rich colours, lots of creepy moments) and of course a stunning performance by Cushing, in his fourth outing as the dreadful evildoer. For me, Cushing is the definitive Frankenstein, by a long long chalk. He makes the man utterly cold and ruthless; he doesn't care about anybody or anything except his insane work, uses people to his own ends, has no scruples, is an intellectual snob and has no patience for anyone beneath him. Cushing uses every line and gesture to intimate this; an offhand flick through the Bible, endless put-downs of Walters and others, his use of gloves (he literally has no feelings), his constant piercing stare of dismissive superiority. He is Frankenstein. Compare him with say, the foppish performance by Kenneth Branagh in his 1994 production, and it's easy to see why Cushing was such a great actor and such an asset to Hammer films. Basic, but satisfying horror fare.