The Curse of Frankenstein

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The Curse of Frankenstein

original film poster
Directed by Terence Fisher
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Max Rosenberg
Written by Jimmy Sangster
Starring Peter Cushing
Christopher Lee
Hazel Court
Robert Urquhart
Music by James Bernard
Cinematography Jack Asher
Editing by James Needs
Distributed by Hammer Film Productions
Release date(s) May 2, 1957
Running time 83 min.
Country UK
Language English
Budget $500,000 (estimated)
Followed by The Revenge of Frankenstein
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Curse of Frankenstein is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions. It was Hammer's first colour film, and the first of their Frankenstein series. Its worldwide success lead to several sequels, and the studio's new versions of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959). The film was directed by Terence Fisher and starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Lee and Cushing would both go on to enjoy long film careers, usually as the protagonists in other films of the same genre.

Contents

[edit] Production

Universal fought hard to prevent Hammer from duplicating aspects of their 1931 film, and so it was down to make-up artist Phil Leakey to design a new-look creature bearing no resemblance to the Boris Karloff original created by Jack Pierce. Production of The Curse of Frankenstein began, with an investment of £65,000, on 19 November 1956 at Bray Studios with a scene showing Baron Frankenstein cutting down a highwayman from a wayside gibbet.[1]

[edit] Significance

The Curse of Frankstein is important for a number of reasons. The film began Hammer's tradition of horror film-making. It also marked the beginning of a Gothic horror revival in the cinema on both sides of the Atlantic, paralleling the rise to fame of Universal's Dracula and Frankenstein series in the 1930s. The level of gore and violence was pioneering, and much condemned at the time — although this film, and Fisher/Hammer's subsequent Gothic horrors, can be seen as the forebear of the modern horror film.

Hammer's version of Frankenstein differed from Universal's in several important ways:

  • the films were in colour, not black-and-white,
  • the focus was on the Baron rather than the creature,
  • the Baron was assisted by young men eager for greater knowledge rather than hunchbacks (like Fritz in Frankenstein (1931) or Nina in House of Dracula).
Christopher Lee as The Creature
Christopher Lee as The Creature

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In this version of the famous Mary Shelley tale, Baron Victor Frankenstein succeeds to his father's estate at a young age and is mentored by Paul Krempe (Urquart). As Victor grows up, the two become great friends, and they eventually collaborate on the Baron's scientific experiments. One night they successfully bring a dead dog back to life. Victor suggests that now they have to create life from scratch but Krempe withdraws. Victor does eventually succed in bringing a body he made to life but it is both violent and dumb.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Credits

[edit] Additional crew

[edit] Quotes

"In some ways I see Frankenstein as rather like Dr Robert Knox, the anatomist, not as villain, but as someone trying to make people understand that this envelope that we live in for three score years and ten is not important... [He] had to close his one good eye to the way Burke and Hare supplied him with cadavers so that he could show how the human body ticks for the good of all mankind... I have always based my playing of Frankenstein on Robert Knox, though with variations based on the demands of the script and differing degrees of ruthlessness because no one will ever leave him alone to work." — Peter Cushing.[2]

[edit] Sequels

[edit] Trivia

  • The script was novelized by John Burke as part of his The Hammer Horror Omnibus paperback in 1966.


There is an intriguing ambiguity to this film. The fact that the entire story regarding the monster is told by the Baron in a flashback can be interpreted as either an hallucination or a bizarre attempt to avoid the guillotine. Paul's (Robert Urquart) line at the end to Elizabeth, "There's nothing more we can do for him," could be taken to mean that they believe him to be hopelessly insane and raving.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Rigby, Jonathan, (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-01-3. 
  2. ^ *Haining, Peter, (1994). Peter Cushing's Monster Movies. Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-5455-6. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Hammer Frankenstein films

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) • The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) • The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) • Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) • Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) • The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) • Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

Cinema of the United Kingdom

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