The success of Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula prompted the English producing team of Baker and Berman to hire Jimmy Sangster to write this entertaining knock off, which despite the title has more to do with the former than the latter. It feels very Frankenstein-y, with doctor Vincent Ball - falsely imprisoned for a crime - being rescued from prison by mad doctor Donald Wolfit who puts Ball to use doing mad experiments.
Wolfit looks like a vampire, is very interested in blood and was actually brought back from the dead - but isn't actually a vampire. He has a decent enough presence - he's no Cushing or Lee but can munch on scenery with the best of them. Ball is a handsome hero, whose Australian accent can be ascertained in most scenes. Barbara Shelley has a disappointingly small role as Ball's love who goes looking for him - she mostly appears in the last third. The best performance is from Victor Maddern as a hunchback assistants (these were always turning up in Sangster screenplays).
There is colour, decent production design, a fair bit of blood and body parts. Sometimes the handling could have been more vigorous, particularly at the end - the final fight and escape in the dungeon feels way too stagey. But I enjoyed it a lot and it deserves to be better known.
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