Britain's Hammer Film Productions really made their mark with this adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, it was their first colour horror film and the one that single-handedly revived traditional British Gothic and firmly placed the "Hammer House of Horror" on the global gore map. Condemned to death for a series of murders, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) tries to convince his captors that the crimes were those of a strange half-human creature he created in a laboratory. Christopher Lee plays the monster, and looks hideous in make up created by Phil Leakey. Universal Studios fought hard to prevent Hammer from duplicating aspects of their classic 1931 film, and so he had to design a new look for the creature bearing no resemblance to the Boris Karloff original created by Jack Pierce. Made on a low budget the movie was a tremendous financial success and reportedly grossed more than 70 times its production cost during its original theatrical run. Featuring excellent photography by Jack Asher, and a ground-breaking portrayal of Baron Frankenstein by Peter Cushing who would go on to dominate the series in five more films, this might not be the most frightening of movies but it remains a sterling exempleof the best of everything that made Hammer so special.
Review of The Curse of Frankenstein
The Curse of Frankenstein
(1957)
British horror is revitalised in an adaptation of a classic
12 January 2020