The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Dr. Victor von Frankenstein, along with his former tutor and current assistant Paul, discover the secret to regenerating dead tissue. While this discovery is enough to satisfy Paul, Victor wants to take it one step further: create the perfect human being with the hands of an artist, the body of Hercules, and the mind of a genius. Paul reluctantly aids in Victor's increasingly dangerous schemes to this end, but when Victor turns to cold-blooded murder to get his "parts" and when Elizabeth, Victor's fiance, moves in placing herself in apparent danger, Paul begins to turn against his former pupil. Unfortunately, in one confrontation between Victor and Paul, the brain is damanged, adding to the flaws of a creature that is already not living up to Victor's exact expectations. Of course, the creature inevitably goes on a rampage, and with a gun Paul puts an end to the creature's misery. Disgusted with Victor's growing insanity, Paul leaves, assured that Victor's days of "meddling in God's domain" are over. However, Victor, believing that the creature's brain could be repaired and that the rest of the creature's body will naturally follow, has taken the creature's corpse up to his laboratory...

As you could probably tell from the plot summary, the first in Hammer's many Frankenstein movies doesn't go out of its way to follow Shelley's novel. Part of this was certainly due to budget restrictions. There's no place in this version for Arctic pursuits or ship voyages, and it's clear the plot's been carefully structured to limit the action to the Frankenstein castle and a few basic outdoor locations. However, I like to also think that this was an attempt to try to do something different with the Frankenstein story, something perhaps more suited for film than simply another to-the-word adaptation of the novel.

The biggest, and for the most part most welcome, difference between Hammer's Frankenstein and the novel is in the doctor himself. The novel has Frankenstein as a tragic figure who can't be blamed for his actions anymore than Icarus in Greek myth can. Here, though, the good doctor is a real bastard, to put it mildly. To provide for the creature's brain, he murders an elderly professor he invited to his home (and, even more chillingly, justifies it as casually as one would justify putting an animal to sleep), he threatens to harm his own fiance Elizabeth should Paul (who happens to have developed an infatuation with her) betray him, and he mockingly and arrogantly taunts his maid who, seduced by false promises of marriage, ends up getting pregnant by him. When the maid threatens to blackmail Victor, he locks her up in the laboratory with the homicidal creature. This alone is a far cry from the sexually meek and Oedipally frustrated Dr. Frankenstein presented in Shelley's narration and most of the film versions. Of course, since this Dr. Frankenstein is played brilliantly by Peter Cushing, he manages to perform all these evil acts while still remaining somewhat sympathetic and even oddly heroic. Hubris has never looked so good until Cushing's Frankenstein.

As for the monster, although it is played by Christopher Lee, it does take a back seat. As with most film versions of Frankenstein, the intelligent, anguished entity depicted in the novel is replaced with a mindless monstrosity. While Christopher Lee certainly looks the part and does all the proper motions, I think it would have been interesting to see a conflict between Cushing's Frankenstein and an equally intelligent creation, but then again this causes the spotlight to stay on Cushing, where it may belong.

Aided by a solid cast including horror film longstay Hazel Court, this is an excellent film for devotees of Hammer Studios, fans of Peter Cushing, and horror film lovers in general. While some might take issue that it's not a "faithful" adaptation of the Frankenstein novel, I wouldn't say that's a bad thing at all. Strongly recommended, as is much of the following series.