Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Space space space. It gets so boring after a while. Wouldn’t it be nice to back to how horror movies were in the Great Depression and 1940s?
Brief Backstory
For a time frame between 1950 and 1957, the majority of horror movies like When Worlds Collide and The Day the Earth Stood Still were sci-fi related. Hammer decided to “slam” their hammer down and change that.
Story
Baron Victor Frankenstein’s going to be executed by guillotine for murder, and he wants clemency by telling the story of how he ended up there from a simple question: If one could resurrect a deceased dog, could the same be done for a human?
Random Facts
Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee had roles in George Lucas’s high fantasy franchise Star Wars. Cushing was Governor Tarkin in A New Hope and Lee was Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Unlike a number of horror movies from the 1950s such as War of the Worlds (not counting the martian’s appearance) or Robot Monster, most of the movie’s run time involves building up to the monster’s appearance (much like a large number of horror movies given higher ratings) and less time for the monster itself. Older horror movies such as King Kong typically will not show the monster until much later in the movie, mostly after about 45 minutes to almost an hour into the movie. This is not a bad thing, as it allows for the audience to get acquainted with the characters, keep a decent pace, and increase tension throughout the movie. Newer monster movies often don’t really let the audience know the characters until later or even bombard the viewers with the monster on screen.
Solid sequels would follow Curse of Frankenstein, and there were other Hammer adaptations of horror movies that followed shortly after. I’ve yet to see the others yet.
Random Opinions
I mostly learned about this movie from James Rolfe, owner of Cinemassacre. He had some videos showcasing his DVDs and would talk a lot about the Hammer horror movies. Fantasy (i.e. Star Wars (high fantasy) and numerous Disney animated movies), action, western, and horror (mainly ones from the 30s and 40s) movies are probably my favorite genres (with western and horror being my favorite) when excluding animated features.
I view Victor Frankenstein himself as the main villain, not the monster. He tricks a guy into falling to his death and attempt to cover up almost everything he does. Lee as the monster is still scarier than Karloff in the 30s and 40s, but I feel that Victor himself was even scarier, which could be due to his much more limited screen time.
Pros
- This movie has aged well in contrast to some other horror movies of the 1950s.
- Rather than going with the stock Frankenstein monster look from the 1931 movie, Hammer Films decided to make this monster so much different.
- Storytelling is well rounded. It doesn’t hop straight to the monster and its’ rampage like in War of the Worlds.
Cons
- The movie is a little violent for the late 1950s, particularly when Paul shoots the monster.
- Christopher Lee has no lines. That’s kind of mean.
Rating: 8.5/10 – Great
Certainly no King Kong but a huge breath of fresh air for those in the 1950s who were sick of seeing alien invasion movies. Definitely a great starting place if you’re thinking of watching some Hammer horror. I alone plan to see more of these classics (likely on VHS, partially due to cost).
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