"The Curse of Frankenstein" was the one that put Hammer Films on the horror map back in 1957. Since Universal's Frankenstein 'look' had been copyrighted, Hammer went back to Mary Shelley's source material to create a new one, probably closer to Shelley's vision as it turns out. Other liberties are taken with the original story - no nasty digging around a graveyard to get a body, but simply cut one down from the gallows. The idea of Baron Victor (Peter Cushing) cutting off the head was probably more gruesome than actually seeing it done since it forces you to picture how that might have gone.
The thing I can't get used to with all the Hammer films I've seen so far is the vibrant use of color. Krempe's (Robert Urquhart) red robe, the Baron's bright green coat, all those lab chemicals in an array of improbable hues. It's one of the hallmarks that makes Hammer, Hammer. I guess it depends what era you were born in and when you started watching horror flicks; I must be conditioned to glorious black and white so all that color seems like sensory overload.
As for the story, it holds up pretty well, even if it takes almost fifty minutes for the Monster to make his first appearance. Krempe's disgust with this 'criminal lunatic' leads him to shoot the monster in the face!, which was probably the most shocking thing for me in the whole picture. Christopher Lee of course is superb as the Monster, but you don't get a sense of the angst the creature suffered the way he did in the 1931 Universal version. And for me, it's tough to warm up to the Hammer Frankenstein after you've seen Karloff in the original.
The thing I can't get used to with all the Hammer films I've seen so far is the vibrant use of color. Krempe's (Robert Urquhart) red robe, the Baron's bright green coat, all those lab chemicals in an array of improbable hues. It's one of the hallmarks that makes Hammer, Hammer. I guess it depends what era you were born in and when you started watching horror flicks; I must be conditioned to glorious black and white so all that color seems like sensory overload.
As for the story, it holds up pretty well, even if it takes almost fifty minutes for the Monster to make his first appearance. Krempe's disgust with this 'criminal lunatic' leads him to shoot the monster in the face!, which was probably the most shocking thing for me in the whole picture. Christopher Lee of course is superb as the Monster, but you don't get a sense of the angst the creature suffered the way he did in the 1931 Universal version. And for me, it's tough to warm up to the Hammer Frankenstein after you've seen Karloff in the original.