A formative entry in my journey into the art of reading film, ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ was one of the first films I was ever asked to dissect as part of the film studies I undertook in school many MANY years ago. The brief was to write a compare and contrast on this film and the original ‘Universal’ entry. While I personally think the Universal ‘Frankenstein’ just about has the edge in terms of a personal preference between the two. It cant be denied that Hammers attempt at reimagining the terrifying tale of grave robbing scientists on a mission to create life is distinct, bold and striking for the time.

The film takes a few creative liberties in the telling the tale. We open with Victor Frankenstein in jail awaiting execution for his (at this point unknown) crimes. a priest visits him, and he proceeds to tell the tale of how him and his tutor began studying the science of ressurection and after perfecting it on animals, they decided to try their hand at a fully fleshed human…With terrifying results.

And what I love about this film is that it kind of strikes a nice balance of being gory enough to feel more mature and adult than some attempts at telling this story, while also NOT being SO gory that it feels like a torture porn flick (something quite a few modern entries fall a foul of)

The script here is acidic, scathing and angry for most of the runtime, as the Victor Frankenstein we’re introduced to here is quite a departure from his ‘Universal’ counterpart. While the former was a largely civil scientist, slowly driven insane by his ambitions. Victor as seen here is a cold and sociopathic sould almost right from the off, ensnaring and manipulating the people around him to get what he wants and equally as cold and uncaring right up until the end. His only shred of mortality exposed when either his head, or his experiment are on the line.

Its an ultra pacy 1 hour and 23 minutes, which feels perfect quite honestly, long enough to have a sense of grandness about it, but not so long as to drag things out. By the time of the end credits I felt like i’d had a good feed from this film, but could happily take more if offered.

The act structuring is a masterclass in setting up expectations and suspense, with a clean 3 act structure that effortlessly glides through proceedings with a freshness that far surpasses the year it was produced. The characters are all nicely developed, rich with deeper complexities and subtext which make them ripe for symbolic interpretaitons and ideological discussion.

It opens strong, maintains the bleak, but colourful tone across the whole runtime and ends strong. While I do feel the creature here has a bit less humanity present than in some interpretations of the work, It is nice to see they do give him some loose human elements as I feel without them, this could have been a bit autonimous. It also helps that Christopher Lee is a fantastic physical actor and helps bring a level of humanity to the character that…while maybe not as strong as Karloff, has subtleties and amazement of its own.

The direction is rock solid, with a clear creative vision from Terrance Fisher, given this was a first foray into unknown terratory, its amazing how much of the style and form of this era of the Hammer Horror movement would be pre-established seemingly from the very first picture. its an astounding work thats aged like a fine wine in my opinion with decent experimental choices on hand, and the decision to actually take a chance on a heavier gore usage (at the time a great taboo for british cinema) was clearly a wise choice made and established ‘Hammer Blood’ as being both the fakest, and most defining colour to come out of this studio.

The cine too is impressive, we have a clear vision being communicated from Terrance being delivered with great relish here, shots are well composed with a boldness behind the lens helping steer innovation and creative experimentation, scenes are wonderfully structured with a healthy use of cutaways and B-roll to help the sequences breath and a strong willed editor on hand who’s helped bring the film to life with a final cut that, to me? is pretty much perfect. It gives the audience everything they need, plus a few additional nice flourishes, and it gets out while the things still hot on the press. While this film from a direction and cine standpoint may not hold up to the more ‘expressionistic’ take of the Universal entry. Its own foray into the gothic macarbre and victoriana architecture and stylings helped pretty much shape the face of British horror for the better part of 20 years. (See: Twins of Evil, The Witchfinder general, Blood on Satans Claw, The Wicker Man etc…)

Performances are top of the class! Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein is an absolute delight to have on screen, with a cold, calculating take on the character, his range from affable (to your face) gentleman to sociopathic deranged murder is a broad church and he absolutely nails ever scene with relish and vigor. Christopher Lee equally shines as the ‘creation’ Is he as solid as Karloff? I personally dont think so. But then, when Universals Frankenstein design and performance is SO iconic, what else can you do but challenge the status quo? and I feel Lee here more than meets that mark, playing the creature as a much more damaged and aggressive being than Karloffs take. Lee, silent throughout, manages to give the creature so much more of a deeper broken humanity without the sanitization and grounding that the Universal entry introduced. He owns the role fully and has a stiff physicality that I feel is still unrivalled.

That not to underplay the rest of the cast, who all equally excel in their respective roles, honestly; there isnt a bad one amongst them, they all shine to a more than decent standard and its just a delight to see actors working with their craft to such a remarkable degree.

Thats not to mention the scoring! Which is a wonderfully ominous orchestral arrangement, acting as the bow that ties all the elements of this film together into one delightful end package.

I have a lot of love for ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ it’s the film that launched a studio I care very dearly for, and in terms of setting up an impression, I dont think they could have done better. With a razor sharp darkly impressive script, a clear and explorative set of direction and cinematography to hand, astounding performances and great music. I adore this film, and highly recommend you check it out at your next convenience!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-curse-of-frankenstein/