Hammer’s third Frankenstein was done as a co-production with Universal, allowing them to use a variation of the classic Frankenstein monster make up. This gets straight into it, with a scene of Peter Cushing and his assistant Hans doing an experiment; they are turfed out, so Cushing decides to go to his old home to find some family treasures.
Hans is here played by a different actor – indeed, he seems to be a different actor, not a doctor, not across Frankenstein’s history; Cushing brings him up to speed about it… leading to a flashback that is different from the previous two films. Indeed, it’s more like the Universal films – the lab looks like its straight out of the 30s movies, there’s a scene where the monster is discovered in ice (led by a deaf mute girl who is like a pretty version of Ygor), the finale involves a mob of townspeople storming the castle.
It’s still enjoyable – the production values are strong as ever, director Freddie Francis was always good with visuals, Cushing is imposing and dynamic (he really goes to town on the action man in this one). The monster make up isn’t much – they should have just copied the old Universal stuff straight out (NB a Kiwi wrestler plays this part).
I liked the hypnotist (Peter Woodthorp) and it was a great idea to have Frankenstein use him to activate the monster’s brain. They could have done something more with Frankenstein’s assistant and the deaf mute girl (wouldn’t she be keen on revenge or couldn’t Frankenstein/assistant/ monster fall for her? They hint at this but don’t really use it).
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