...and Victor Frankenstein is shown not that sympathetic even as a small boy. The story is being told in flashback by Victor (Cushing) as he awaits the guillotine. Baron Victor's mother has just died, leaving him an orphan, and he looks to be in his young teens, yet he apparently doesn't have a guardian nor a tear for his dead mother. Instead his interest is in hiring a tutor, Paul (Robert Urquhart). Paul takes the job, and their experiments and work together show that Paul is probably neglecting the liberal arts part of Victor's education in favor of the sciences. Their ultimate work together - by now Victor is a grown man - is to bring a small animal back to life.Victor wants to go further, he wants to bring a dead human back to life, and not just a deceased human. He wants to build him from body parts. Paul at first assists Victor in this experiment, but his heart isn't in it. His heart really isn't in it when Victor's distant cousin Elizabeth (Hazel Court) comes to live there, since she and Victor are betrothed. It is an arranged marriage. You get the feeling Elizabeth feels she owes this to Victor for supporting herself and her mother all of their lives, but she is fond of Victor, what little she knows of him, and she does NOT know about the human in progress in the lab.Victor crosses the line you just knew he was going to cross when he invites a great professor to his house to dine and then pushes him off the balcony of an upper floor and makes it look like an accident so he can have his brain for the creature. Paul didn't see the murder, but he does figure it out. Paul damages the brain so it will be useless to Victor, and implores Elizabeth to leave the castle and not marry Victor. Both acts are in vain.Victor builds the creature with the damaged brain anyways, and brings a very angry brute to life. I'd be angry too if I were the creature, since he (Christopher Lee) looks like one of the Beatles, down to the 60's haircut and the Nehru jacket, except a recently deceased version. To further add to Victor's crimes, he is bedding a servant girl in the house, and would probably continue to do so post marriage to Elizabeth, but the servant girl winds up pregnant. Hmmm. What to do? He has an angry murderous creature and a blackmailing overly curious pregnant servant girl. Watch and find out.Now Paul knows the whole story, and knows it to be true. The authorities think that the murdered were the work of Victor. After all, how could a man make a man out of body parts and bring that man to life? Poppycock. A word from Paul and Victor is free. But Paul has grown a fondness for Elizabeth and knows the darkness of Victor's heart. What will he do? Watch and find out.If you want atmosphere go watch the original Universal horror films. If you want pretty good storytelling in a horror film, even if isn't close to the original story, done on a budget but done fairly well- and what isn't done well is funny to the point of being endearing- see the Hammer horror films. They do tend to satisfy.

The original Hammer Horror film, that is if you count the earlier QUATERMASS films as science fiction. And as you would expect, it's brilliant. This film contains Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee's first appearances in a horror film, they were to pair up again many times in the next two decades to star in lots of similar roles, usually as antagonists but occasionally allies. This is the first of the '50s Hammer Horror trilogy (remakes of the Universal classics from the '30s), Dracula came next and then THE MUMMY. Although Lee doesn't have much to do in this film, let's face it, it was the kickstarter for his career. Cushing never got away from his Frankenstein character either, he came back another five times playing the increasingly ruthless Baron, the first time a year later in THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Although slow and talky by today's standards, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN succeeds due to having excellent actors, and being filmed in vivid colour, which helps add to the then-gory experiments and makes the costumes and sets scrumptious.Peter Cushing portrays the Baron as cold, ruthless and heartless in his pursuit of science. His role is quite definitive and not many actors have achieved his standard. Instead of Colin Clive's nervous role in 1931's FRANKENSTEIN, his character is utterly dedicated to his work and will use any means to achieve his role. Robert Urquhart is annoyingly stubborn as the tutor who turns against him but the pair work up an interesting and hostile chemistry as the film progresses. Hazel Court (THE RAVEN) is suitably beautiful in her role and is more than just the love interest, she does indeed bring both depth and warmth to her role. Christopher Lee also acts well although he has no lines, he makes us feel for the Creature and pity him as well as fear him.Terence Fisher directs with typical Gothic flair while James Bernard's music is up to the usual dramatic standard. Hammer certainly weren't expecting the success this film gave them, instead they were more worried about distancing it as much as possible from Universal's feature, in fear of a lawsuit. Seen today, the film may have dated a little in the naïve values depicted by the characters, and sometimes the low budget and lack of sets is all too apparent. But THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN really redefined the genre, breathing life into a stale decade where the only monsters had been ones created by atomic explosions. The gore, while scarce, is still effective, especially the eyeballs, severed hands and wax head. It's a great film with a great atmosphere and featuring great actors. A winner on every level.

The Curse of Frankenstein was a monster smash at the UK box office. A low budget, colourful and Gothic re-telling of the Frankenstein story. Less baroque that the later Kenneth Branagh version of the 1990s this was the film that began the reputation of Hammer horror films.Christopher Lee plays the revived monster a world away from the flat headed and flat footed Boris Karloff whose makeup was trademarked to Universal Pictures.The real monster is Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein, an obsessive scientist, unethical and a cold blooded murderer. He performs medical experiments with his friend Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) to reanimate tissue. Whereas Krempe has doubts, Frankenstein has none.In fact the viewer has little sympathy for any of the main characters. Krempe damages the brain that Frankenstein has procured, the result is a homicidal monster. Krempe can never get away from his former pupil and you know he is attracted to his fiancée.The film is more melodramatic than horror but its very flawed. Their are good production values, it is colourful. The scene where the old professor takes a plunge is well photographed but the constant argument between Krempe and Frankenstein gets irritating.

The original 1931 Boris Karloff/James Whale version of Frankenstein, and sequel Bride of Frankenstein, are outstanding, but with the invention of colour British Hammer (Horror) Studios cashed in on having red blood in this remake of the classic Mary Shelley story, directed by Terence Fisher (Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles). Basically Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is awaiting execution for his crime of murder, he tells his story to a Priest (Alex Gallier). He starts from when he was a young man, Young Victor (Melvyn Hayes) inherited the Frankenstein estate following the death of his parents, he has had sole control as Baron since the age of five, this surprises Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart), who the boy has hired to become his tutor, particularly in the field of science. Two years pass and Victor has learned all that Krempe can teach him, they collaborate on scientific experiments, and are one night successful in an experiment to bring a dead dog back to life, Victor suggests that they could bring a human to life, creating a human being from scratch. Krempe assists at first, but he withdraws following the scavenging of human remains to put this new body together, the body parts of this creature are assembled from a hanged robber's corpse, with hands and eyes purchased from charnel house workers, but for the brain Victor wants one with a lifetime of knowledge. With difficulty in finding a brain by practical methods Victor invites ageing and distinguished Professor Bernstein (Paul Hardtmuth) to the house, and in a moment of madness he pushes him from a staircase, it appears like an accident to others, after the burial Victor goes to the vault and back to his laboratory, but Krempe finds out what he did, there is a scuffle and the brain is damaged. With all parts assembled, including the damaged brain, Victor proceeds to bring his creature to life, but the monster (Sir Christopher Lee) does not have the professor's intelligence and tries to attack him, Victors locks up the violent and psychotic monster. But the monster manages to escape, and wanders into the woods, where it kills an old blind man, Grandpa (Fred Johnson) to a Little Boy (Claude Kingston), Victor and Krempe hunt it down, Krempe shoots it and they bury the body in the woods. While Krempe leaves town, Victor digs up the body and revives the monster, he uses it to murder his housemaid Justine (Valerie Gaunt), whom he had been having an affair with, she was threatening to tell the authorities about his strange experiments. The monster manages to escape again and threatens Victor's fiancée Elizabeth (Hazel Court), but Victor catches up to it on the roof, burning it with a lantern and causing it to fall into a bath of acid, completely dissolving its body, leaving no proof that it ever existed. Victor is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of Justine, Krempe is at the prison and comes to visit him, Victor begs him to testify, as the only other person that knows the truth, but knowing he is insane Krempe refuses, meaning that Frankenstein is led away to be executed by guillotine, it is uncertain whether his story is true or the ravings of an homicidal lunatic. Also starring Noel Hood as Aunt Sophia, Marjorie Hume as Mother and Sally Walsh as Young Elizabeth. Cushing is great as the demented doctor who believes he is creating a scientific breakthrough, he returned in five sequels, and Lee is menacing as the silent and deadly monster, the design and script are very well done, and being the first colour film from the studio it delivers on the gruesome scenes, it is a great horror film. Very good!