The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - film review

Whilst in prison, awaiting his execution for murder, Baron Victor Frankenstein relates his tragic life story to a priest.  Inheriting his father’s estate, the young Victor began a series of experiments with his friend and mentor Paul Krempe, the aim being to artificially create life.   Having successfully revived a dead dog, Frankenstein begins to assemble human body parts to construct a human being which he hopes to bring to life in his laboratory.   The one missing ingredient is a brain of great intellect, so Frankenstein invites an eminent professor to his house so that he can steal his brain.  Unfortunately, the brain is damaged during the operation and instead of creating a rational human being Frankenstein gives life to a psychotic, homicidal monster...

A decade after Universal Pictures ended its run of Gothic horror films, which stretched back to the mid 1920s, a relatively unknown British company named Hammer decided to embark on its own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein novel.  The film’s success not only transformed the fortunes of Hammer overnight, earning it an international reputation, but also revived the Gothic horror genre on both sides of the Atlantic.  The Curse of Frankenstein marked the beginning of Hammer’s long and highly profitable association with the genre with which it will forever be associated.

The film is also significant in that it sees two stalwarts of British horror pitted against one another for the first time – Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.  Both actors were catapulted to stardom by this film, although this would be the only time Lee played the Frankenstein monster.  Whilst Cushing would become closely identified with the role of Dr Frankenstein, Lee would be better known for his portrayal of Dracula, beginning with Hammer’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, released the following year (with Cushing playing Van Helsing).  This was not the first time the actors had worked together – they had shared the credits on two previous films: Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) and John Huston’s Moulin Rouge (1952).

The executives at Hammer were wary of infringing Universal’s copyright and went to great lengths not to emulate that company’s 1931 production of Frankenstein, which director Terence Fisher claimed never to have seen before making this film.  One area of particular concern was the design of the monster’s face, which Universal had patented.  The monster in Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein is more recognisably human than the cadaverous creation made famous by Boris Karloff in the Universal films, although as the series progressed, Hammer’s Frankenstein monster would gradually begin to look more like Universal’s.

It is interesting to compare Universal’s and Hammer’s Frankenstein films.  The most striking difference is their design.  Hammer’s films were more realistically portrayed than Universal’s, lacking the heavy stylisation that was directly inspired by German expressionism, although they were just as atmospheric and frightening.  Whereas Universal’s films revolved around the monster, Hammer’s films focused on the scientist who created him, and it can be argued that it was Peter Cushing’s portrayal of Baron Frankenstein that made the series so popular.  In the six sequels to The Curse of Frankenstein, Cushing played the sinister scientist in all but one,  The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), an unsuccessful black comic remake of this film.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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