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Film: The Evil of Frankenstein
Year: 1964
Director: Freddie Francis
Writer: Anthony Hinds
Starring: Peter Cushing, Peter Woodthorpe and Duncan Lamont
Review:
This is a film that I believe I only saw right after college. It would be when I finished the Universal run of Frankenstein movies and started going through the Hammer takes. I decided to give it a rewatch as part of my Foray through the Fours to see where I sat with another watch.
Synopsis: upon returning to his home village to continue his experimental research, the destitute Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) revives his old creature, but a hypnotist wants the monster to control himself.
We start with a man who is dead, lying on a table by an open window. The body is pulled out and we hear screaming. It is done by a little girl, who I’m guessing is the little sister. The body is taken by Tony Arpino. It is then brought to Baron Frankenstein. His assistant is Hans (Sandor Elès), who pays the man. They remove the heart from the body to create a new creature. This is interrupted though by a priest, played by James Maxwell. He ruins their experiment and forces this duo to flee.
They are headed back to Karlstaad, a town where the baron originally did his experiments. We get a flashback to what happened and he is not welcome, for good reason. He goes to his castle to find that things are missing and it is in shambles. These two also meet a beggar girl, played by Katy Wild, who flees into the countryside.
The baron and Hans decided to go into town. There is a carnival there so they can wear masks and it isn’t an issue. The baron though cannot hold his outrage when he sees the burgomaster, played by David Hutcheson, and the chief of police, Duncan Lamont, with items taken from his chateau. He even goes as far to break into the burgomaster’s house, demanding that he turn himself in. This causes him to escape through a window. Hans and the doctor flee to the countryside where they find the beggar girl. She gives them refuge in a cave.
It is here that they make a discovery. The monster that the baron created is suspended in ice. It is played by Kiwi Kingston. They free it and take the creature back to the castle to revive it. Everything seemed to work, but the monster wouldn’t wake up. This causes the baron to seek the aid of Zoltan (Peter Woodthorpe), who is being ran out of town for not having a permit. Zoltan claims to be able to hypnotize anyone. He does succeed in reviving the creature, but the side effect is that it will only listen to him. This complicates everything even more.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the story. Where I want to start is with continuity. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen the two movies prior to this one and I don’t recall necessarily what happened. It doesn’t feel like this one violates continuity, which is a big thing for me. I like that this one gives a flashback to fill us in. I’m almost positive that Kingston didn’t play the creature in the earlier two movies, but I can overlook that. This might retcon things. It is just something that I can’t say with certainty.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the story. This one doesn’t do much, but I did at least like that it tries to give us a similar story with twists. It is interesting that the baron has set up a new experiment to create a new creature. That is ruined by this priest who has a point even though using religion doesn’t necessarily work for me. This causes the baron to return to his home to try and raise money since everything was spent on the last attempt. It also works to revive the creature that was already made. That felt like it was borrowed from Universal run. I did like that we got a good amount of the monster as well since these tend to have it come to life and then destroy it almost at once before ending. I did appreciate that.
I also like the idea of using Zoltan to wake the creature up. That is something that was different here. My only issue is that the monster’s eyes are open and its face is moving. That tells me it is awake and just ignoring the baron. This is a nitpick, but I also think a bit more care could be taken here for this work better. It doesn’t ruin anything and it also allows Dr. Frankenstein to not necessarily be the villain here. Woodthorpe is good as this crass and arrogant hypnotist. I like that he gets drunk, commands the creation to get revenge and then regrets it when he sobers up, realizing the repercussions. That raises tension and adds action. I also like that he can command the creature to do things due to his abilities of controlling the mind.
Since I’ve shifted over to the acting, let’s go over the rest of the cast. Cushing is great here. His demeanor works well for this character. It is interesting here that he isn’t the villain. That worked for me. I already said that Woodthorpe was good in his role. I like Lamont and Hutcheson as the police for this village who try to protect it. Elès is good as the assistant. Wild works as this beggar girl who is both deaf and mute. I feel bad that is bullied in town for no reason. I also thought that Kingston fit as the monster due to his imposing size. He moved well for what was needed to bring it to life. Other than that, the rest of the cast was fine for what was needed.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I thought that Freddie Francis and the director of photography did well with the cinematography. It looks good. They bring the period this is set to life with the setting and the costumes so I appreciate that. If I have an issue here it comes with the monster make-up. For whatever reason, they decide to make it look like Boris Karloff’s take where it has a square forehead. I’m guessing this has to do with placing the brain in originally, but it didn’t hold up in how it looks. I did like the grey flesh as it looks like this was made from dead tissue though. We don’t get much in the way of effects other than that. I thought that the soundtrack also fit what was needed.
In conclusion, this movie was solid in a rewatch. I don’t know if it does enough to fully stand out on its own. As a sequel though, I like what they do. We go back to a creation that the baron has already made and I like using this idea of a hypnotist being able to control it. This leads to bad decisions and ruin. I thought the acting was good. Best performance is Woodthorpe with Cushing right there. Kingston’s size makes him a good monster. This is also well made with bringing this period to life. My only issue is with the forehead of monster, but that doesn’t ruin this either. I’d recommend this if you like movies of this era or the Hammer run of Frankenstein.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10