The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – A Movie A Day 2021 #8
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – A Movie A Day 2021 #8
So yesterday I wrote about being a big fan of spaghetti westerns despite feeling like I hadn’t seen nearly enough of them. Well, I have a similar story for you today. I love Hammer’s classic horror films, and I’m even named after Christopher Lee in large part because of my parents’ love for Hammer horror as well, but there are a good amount of movies from Hammer’s golden age of horror that I haven’t seen. The ones I have seen I’ve watched numerous times, but I’ve never really made a strong effort to watch the entire filmography. That might very well change this year with my A Movie A Day challenge, and it starts with today’s movie: The Curse of Frankenstein.
The Curse of Frankenstein stars Peter Cushing as the iconic mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. The story starts with Victor haggard and in jail, and the main portion of the film is told in a flashback as the possibly insane scientist recounts the story of how he ended up imprisoned. I enjoy the framing device, because it lends itself to the possibility of an unreliable narrator as plot unfolds. We see a young Victor as he becomes the head of his rather wealthy household after the passing of both of his parents, and we follow him as he becomes research partners with his former tutor, Paul Krempe. Victor and Paul make a scientific breakthrough when they discover how to bring a dead puppy back to life, but their strong friendship begins to fracture when Victor decides the logical next step is to bring a human back from the dead. Not only that, but Victor is determined to make a perfect human specimen by gathering the best body parts and organs he can find. You can probably see where this is headed, so I won’t spoil any of the main plot.
The Curse of Frankenstein is naturally a familiar story to anyone who has read the book or seen Universal’s classic take on the source material, but Hammer’s version is different enough to stand completely on its own. As I understand it, Hammer originally wanted to do a more faithful remake of Universal’s film, but Universal threated to sue if Hammer’s movie was too close to theirs. That forced rewrites and changes to the creature’s makeup, and in the end I think it was for the better. I thoroughly enjoyed The Curse of Frankenstein, and I like it a lot more than Hammer’s version of Dracula which came out the following year. From what I remember, Dracula is a lot closer to Universal’s film, but in some ways it feels like an inferior adaptation. My thoughts on that might change once I watch it again (which I plan to do), but from what I remember, Christopher Lee as Dracula was the best part of the whole movie. The story seemed to be a truncated version of Universal’s movie with a finale that was not very satisfying. I didn’t feel the same way at all about The Curse of Dracula though, and I imagine the forced rewrites made a huge difference.
Speaking of Christopher Lee, he plays the creature in The Curse of Frankenstein. Lee’s creature is very different from Boris Karloff’s monster, so to compare the two would do a disservice to both. Lee, despite not having any lines, still manages to convey a strong sense of danger and tragedy. The scenes when the creature escapes are quite tense, and a lot of that has to do with Christopher Lee’s menacing presence. The makeup for the creature might not be great, but the acting done through the makeup makes all the difference. The focus of the movie is almost always squarely on Victor Frankenstein, but Christopher Lee’s presence as the creature perfectly enhances Victor’s character arc.
The Curse of Frankenstein is largely considered the start of Hammer’s iconic run of horror films that helped bring horror back to mainstream audiences. From what I’ve read, many people consider it to not be one of the strongest entries in that lineage compared to the movies that would follow it, but I thought it was great. It felt like it had more drama than horror, especially in the first half, but the classic-feeling horror definitely ramped up as the movie went on. The final few scenes are great, and watching Peter Cushing’s Frankenstein walk further and further down a dark path until it’s too late to turn back was fantastic. I think The Curse of Frankenstein should be on every horror fans required-viewing list.