When the young Victor Frankenstein is refused financial backing
from his father for his scientific experiments, he arranges
the man's death in a shooting 'accident'. Going away to university
in Vienna, he finds many of the lectured facts and theories
to be beneath him. When he gets the Dean's daughter pregnant
he decides to run away from his responsibilities back to his
castle, where he has had many crates of equipment delivered.
With his friend Wilhelm, Frankenstein kills a tortoise and
uses electricity from generators to revive it. This minor
success makes him more ambitious and he moves on to thoughts
of creating a person from recently deceased body parts. When
his colleague threatens to expose him to the authorities,
Frankenstein has his freshest body parts yet, and the work
begins in earnest...
The
Frankenstein in Horror of Frankenstein is charming,
humorous and respected (a sort of loveable rogue) - at least
before his friends and associates hear about his morbid and
immoral experiments.
The
characters are interesting; the grave robber and his wife
are particularly good, and the lovely young Kate O'Mara as
Alys the maid goes from docile and accommodating peasant to
jealous scheming bitch, but remains sexy throughout.
The
monster itself isn't that frightening, at least not in this
day and age. However, rather than the sympathetic creature
of the Boris Karloff depiction, here the monster walks straight
from the castle and hacks a person to pieces with a shovel,
before devouring a wild animal. So it is actions that make
the monster rather than its appearance.
This is one of the best Hammer films you're likely to see.
There are so many good ones, but this is one of a handful
which stand out for me. Not because it's scary or bloodthirsty,
only well-structured and fun.
The
script and the direction is tight, and the actors lend charisma
to their characters, ensuring that you enjoy watching them.
They all realise, I think, that the most cerebral part of
this movie is the monster's brain, but you get the distinct
impression they're thoroughly enjoying themselves.
As
you would expect, there are no extras aside from the theatrical
trailer, only a jolly fine film. Highly recommended.
Ty
Power
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