Considering the handful of Frankenstein movies I've seen including the original Karloff version (see my 'Havin' Fun With Frankenstein' list), the 'monster' in this one isn't particularly scary. In fact he's not really scary at all in terms of traditional horror films, but a rather normal looking guy you wouldn't know was put together from body parts assembled by Dr. Victor Stein (Peter Cushing) unless the good doctor said so. Except for that nasty gash across the top of his forehead of course, but if it didn't bother Miss Conrad (Eunice Gayson), then no big thing I guess.
The hook for the picture so to speak, would be in the way the 'new' Karl (Michael Gwynn) reacts to the brain transplant from his original deformed body. Since his brain was conditioned to function with a crippled arm and leg, the 'new' Karl slowly degenerates into a deformed state, further incapacitated by the idea of becoming a medical marvel to be studied endlessly once Dr. Stein's experiment is revealed as a success. As a cripple, the former Karl (Oscar Quitak billed as 'the dwarf') couldn't stand others staring at him with his affliction. Dr. Stein inadvertently predicted this would happen when he explained how the brain would try to function normally, even in a different environment. Unfortunately, functioning normally actually turned out to be an unintended consequence of his procedure.
Perhaps creepier than the 'monster' here was the degenerate working the medical ward who took pride in being like an animal and not washing. He skeeved me out describing how a layer of dirt functioned to keep one warm. Then there was the subject of Otto the chimp going cannibal following his own brain transplant and eating his monkey wife! When I heard that I thought to myself that maybe that would have been the better horror flick. You know, I kept my eye on Otto the entire time he was jumping around in his cage, and wondered why he just didn't escape by squeezing between the bars.
The hook for the picture so to speak, would be in the way the 'new' Karl (Michael Gwynn) reacts to the brain transplant from his original deformed body. Since his brain was conditioned to function with a crippled arm and leg, the 'new' Karl slowly degenerates into a deformed state, further incapacitated by the idea of becoming a medical marvel to be studied endlessly once Dr. Stein's experiment is revealed as a success. As a cripple, the former Karl (Oscar Quitak billed as 'the dwarf') couldn't stand others staring at him with his affliction. Dr. Stein inadvertently predicted this would happen when he explained how the brain would try to function normally, even in a different environment. Unfortunately, functioning normally actually turned out to be an unintended consequence of his procedure.
Perhaps creepier than the 'monster' here was the degenerate working the medical ward who took pride in being like an animal and not washing. He skeeved me out describing how a layer of dirt functioned to keep one warm. Then there was the subject of Otto the chimp going cannibal following his own brain transplant and eating his monkey wife! When I heard that I thought to myself that maybe that would have been the better horror flick. You know, I kept my eye on Otto the entire time he was jumping around in his cage, and wondered why he just didn't escape by squeezing between the bars.