Forget the atmospheric scenarios of the 1930's, '40's era films, the dark humor of James Whale as in the "Bride of Frankenstein" and forget the iconic image first created by Universal's Master make-up man Jack Pierce and brilliant interpretation of Karloff. This English version has none of the above. A shame considering the talents involved in this particular production: Peter Cushing as a non-sympathetic Baron (Dr.) Frankenstein as opposed to Colin Clive's and Christopher Lee as the "creature" as he's billed in this version as opposed to Karloff's billing as "The Monster - ?" in the 1931 version. The English version of the 50's, 60's and 70's depends more on gruesome visuals of dissections and a certain amount of sexual implications than on creepy castle towers, fog enshrouded graveyards and just that bit of black comedy so often found in the Universal versions, especially in "The Bride..." of 1935. This is not to say that this is not a worthwhile effort but do not expect too much. By comparison it fails against the much more recognizable Karloff-Chaney-Lugosi-Strange monster characterizations. A good time waster but I wish that Hammer Studios had not been in such a hurry to capitalize on the Frankenstein name and spent a little more time/money on a better screenplay. It's a coin toss as to whether or not to see this one.
Review of The Curse of Frankenstein
