I Just Saw

Somewhat dismissed as a weak entry in the Hammer canon of horror and monster movies, including by AllMovie as the worst of the studio’s Frankenstein strand, The Evil of Frankenstein, the 1964 continuation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, actually isn’t bad at all, really. It stars Peter Cushing as Dr Frankenstein, this time assisted by medical student Hans (Sandor Elès) and an unnamed deaf-mute beggar girl (Katy Wild) as he returns to his abandoned castle to continue his experiments in resurrecting dead flesh, having been evicted from the local community when his last monster escaped and was shot by the townsfolk. Finding the Creature (New Zealand wrestler Kiwi Kingston) preserved in an icy crevasse, the doctor enlists assistance from a sleazy funfair hypnotist, Zoltan (Peter Woodthorpe), to reactivate its brain. Mayhem, naturally, ensues.

The early conception of Frankenstein’s monster in the movies was as a shambling mute, distinct from the eloquent and even gentlemanly creature from Shelley’s original novel. This was probably due to the need for simpler characterisation once upon a time, plus it no doubt helped that you don’t need to hire another actor to deliver a fully rounded performance against the one you’re already paying to play Victor Frankenstein, but can just get a wrestler friend to stumble about behind wrappings and prosthetics.

Directed by veteran cinematographer turned genre filmmaker Freddie Francis, The Evil of Frankenstein starts very well, with an excellent prologue where Victor and Hans operate like Burke and Hare-esque body snatchers in the basement of a townhouse when a priest shows up to stop their little game. Afterwards, the pair return to the doctor’s familial estate out of desperation and find it sacked of the furniture and valuables that Baron Victor was hoping to sell to fund his research.

There’s a genuine atmosphere and good horror feeling here, as Victor surveys the waste of his castle and laments the ignorance of a populace that chased him away and tried to kill his creation. I was even reminded a little of the 1996 documentary The Celluloid Closet, and James Whale, director of the early Frankenstein movies, in how you could if so inclined see a queer subtext regarding Victor and Hans’ relationship, Victor convicted of crimes against God, the two of them forced to wear masks at a carnival, chased from their homes, etcetera. (Whale, a gay man, has been speculated to have added queer allegory to his Frankenstein films, discussed in The Celluloid Closet.)

Unfortunately, once the hypnotist gets his hooks into the plot, the film starts to sag and become preposterous, such as when Zoltan hypnotises the Creature into stealing gold from the Bavarian village overlooked by Victor’s castle. As if the monster would know what gold is. The narrative grows sillier from there, with plot points including neither Hans nor Frankenstein seeming to notice the Creature leaving their castle each night to do Zoltan’s bidding (because for some reason they leave him to have full run of the baron’s “secret” laboratory).

It’s a shame since there was a real chance for deeper exploration here. Victor Frankenstein has always been a complicated protagonist, of course, but here he comes across not as evil so much as profoundly blinkered and narcissistic. The “evil” of Frankenstein is his hubris. It’s hard to hold the townspeople in absolute contempt when he exploited his baronetage to rifle their graves and then brought bloody chaos to them.

Cushing as per usual gives more than what the script deserves and is just a delight to watch. Few actors now, or even then, have such strong presences. Woodthorpe is good even if his character should have been a brief plot device and nothing more. The Evil of Frankenstein isn’t a bad film and certainly isn’t the worst to star an iconic monster, though there is more promise than substance in the finished product.

Rating: 3/4