Horror Through the Decades Presents: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Good evening and welcome to Horror Through the Decades. In this edition we will be discussing the legendary Hammer Films production, The Curse of Frankenstein.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for those of you who wish to see the film before reading this article.

Hammer Films was a legendary British production company founded in 1934. It was most well-known for a tremendous collection of brilliant gothic horror films that re-introduced universally known horror monsters (think: Dracula, The Mummy, and of course Frankenstein) in color for the first time. The Curse of Frankenstein was the first official “Hammer Horror” film.

Peter Cushing (Star Wars: A New Hope, Dr. Who and the Daleks, etc., etc.) was a relatively famous actor, even portraying Mr. Darcy in a 1952 BBC Miniseries of Pride and Prejudice before his initial turn in a Hammer film. He has played several larger than life characters: Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes, Grand Moff Tarkin, Van Helsing–he was truly a legend. His role as Baron Victor Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein  started his trajectory to fame and eternal life in the hearts of sci-fi and horror fans around the world.

Another legendary actor has a small but very important role in The Curse of Frankenstein, because who is Victor Frankenstein without his monster? The man behind the monster, or in this case–creature is the one and only Christopher Lee. His career in genre cinema started with this film, but he went on from there to star as Dracula in the Hammer films, Lord Summerisle in (the original) The  Wicker Man, Doctor Catheter in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and of course, Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, among many, many other wonderful roles.

Cushing and Lee became known as the faces of Hammer Horror, and worked together in many of these films. However, they are not the only two actors in this film who are praise-worthy. Robert Urquhart, a prolific television actor, plays Victor Frankenstein’s tutor-turned-colleague. He has an equal amount of screen time in this film, and his role as Paul Krempe is the moral compass of this story.

The plot in screenwriter Jimmy Sangster and director Terrence Fischer’s (who both wrote and directed several other Hammer films) version of this classic tale begins after the death of young Victor Frankenstein’s mother. Being the sole heir to the title of Baron and the entire valuation of the Frankenstein estate, he chooses his own tutor (Urquhart) who teaches him to become a scientist. The lessons are shown through montage, as young Frankenstein (Melvyn Hayes; Quartermass II) becomes older Frankenstein (Cushing).

The montage ends with Krempe and Frankenstein bringing a dead puppy back to life. Krempe is excited with the advances in surgery that could be made with this discovery but of course Baron Frankenstein has other ideas. Hellbent on creating a man from the ground up, Frankenstein begins on a gruesome journey to collect the parts from which the whole will be made. Krempe makes his displeasure known throughout this process and the Baron only becomes extremely more radical in his methods to acquire materials for his experiments.

In the midst of this, the Baron becomes engaged to his cousin, Elizabeth (Hazel Court; The Masque of the Red Death, Alfred Hitchcock Presents), which one must remember was a totally normal thing to do back in the olden days. While maintaining an innocent relationship with Elizabeth, Frankenstein is carrying on an illicit affair with his maid, Justine (Valerie Gaunt; Horror of Dracula).

Chistopher Lee as “The Creature”, Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein, and Robert Urquhart as Paul Krempe (Photo: Warner Bros)

Tensions mount between Paul and Victor as the Baron continues down the road to madness in his quest to play God. Paul becomes frantic as he realizes that there’s not much that he can do to stop the too-far-gone Baron Frankenstein from going through with his experiment. Then, it happens, “the creature” comes to life, through a stroke of luck and a strike of lightning.

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The Hammer version of “the creature” or ,classically, Frankenstein’s monster is violent and in another league of terrifying than Boris Karloff’s interpretation. With one glassy eye, bloody scars, and a look of homicidal rage, you can understand why the creature probably shouldn’t have been made. There’s the rather unfortunate death of Justine, who is pregnant with the Baron’s child, that occurs at the hands of the creature. The creature almost kills Victor’s precious Elizabeth, but then Baron Frankenstein must destroy his creation to save the love of his life.

However, Frankenstein ends up in jail. At the end of the movie, Paul and Elizabeth go to visit him. Victor has been telling a priest the story of what lead to his imprisonment. When Paul walks in, Victor pleads with him to tell the priest and the people of the jail that it was not he who killed Justine, but the creature. Paul says nothing, the priest and he both leave Victor’s cell and Paul leaves with Elizabeth. The plot device of leading us to believe that there’s some possibility that Baron Frankenstein is actually mad and created this whole fantasy in his head is a very interesting approach to the Mary Shelley story.

The Creature (Christopher Lee) is on the loose! (Photo: Warner Bros)

This film also has one of the best final shots of any movie, horror or otherwise. As Victor panics about his oncoming punishment by death, we see a silhouette of a guillotine through the prison bars, and the credits roll. The Curse of Frankenstein is the first and definitely one of the best Hammer Horror films. I implore you to watch this film if you haven’t, especially if you liked Penny Dreadful  or Crimson Peak because you can see where this style of visual storytelling originated.

Horror Through the Decades will return next week with the penultimate review of horror films from the 50’s. Please comment what your favorite horror film from the 50’s is, and I just might review it. Only two more chances til we travel forward into the psychedelic landscape of the 60’s.