Picking up right where THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) left off, things
kick off with a bang as a priest is beheaded by guillotine and buried,
his body being interred in place of the escaped Baron Frankenstein
(Peter Cushing), who fucks off out of town and reestablishes himself as
Dr. Stein in the village of Carlsbruck. Three years later, "Stein" is
making a good living by attending to rich clients and becoming publicly
lauded for his work in caring for the poor, providing them with medical
treatment (while secretly also using them as fodder for fresh body parts
to be used in his signature diabolical experiments) that incurs the
jealousy of the town's previously-established medical council. (They
object to Stein's free clinic approach and how his apparently altruistic
efforts make them look like the pack of greedy, uncaring turds that
they are.) A young member of the council, Dr. Hans Kleve (Francis
Matthews), recognizes that Stein is in actuality the infamous Baron
Frankenstein and blackmails the Baron into accepting him as his pupil.
In an interesting twist, Kleve is not out to screw the Baron over.
Instead, he is a genuine fan of the Baron's highly questionable surgical
methods, and he seeks to emulate his idol. The Baron agrees to Kleve's
terms and in no time the blackmail aspect is completely forgotten as the
pair prove to be a match made in mad science heaven, as Frankenstein
reveals his latest project to Kleve: a man pieced together from bits and
bobs of patients that will serve to house the brain of Karl (Oscar
Quitak), a deformed fellow who is only too eager to aid the Baron in his
efforts since it will yield him a body that is not his enemy.
"If I only had a brain..."
Armed with the lessons learned from his first attempt at building a man
from sundry pieces — a creature that was a hideous monstrosity — the
Baron's latest model actually shows considerable promise, and the
transplant goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, the Baron must still
contend with the jealous machinations of the medical council as one of
their numbers sends his comely daughter, Margaret (Eunice Gayson, who
four years later would gain screen immortality as Sylvia Trench, the
very first Bond girl, in DR. NO), to serve as an unwanted nurse
(presumably so she can report back to her father, but she's actually
quite true blue).
Eunice Gayson as the sweet Margaret, four years before she became the very first Bond girl.
The convalescing Karl must be kept strapped to his bed until he is
deemed fit for release by the Baron, but the well-intentioned Margaret,
hearing of the clinic's secret patient allegedly being mistreated,
loosens the restraints, allowing Karl, who dreads being the focus of
attention by the medical community when the Baron publicly unveils his
medical miracle, to free himself and flee. As this is a Hammer
Frankenstein movie, you just know there was no fucking way that the
Baron's schemes would result in his desired scientific/medical success
and recognition, and that it was all inevitably destined to crash and
burn in some form of comeuppance resulting from Frankenstein's coldly
relentless playing at the work of God. Things do go dreadfully wrong,
though not nearly as badly as some of the other entries in Hammer's
Frankenstein cycle, and since this was only the second installment in a
six-film cycle, the Baron does manage to elude those who would see him
dead and buried in unhallowed ground...
As the Hammer Frankensteins go, this one's pretty good, though it's not
as medically creepy as some of the subsequent entries, nor is the Baron
as sociopathically ruthless in his experimentation as he would later be
depicted. The true monster in this series is of course the Baron
himself, and in this chapter he's almost likable, which considerably
detracts from the character's appeal as handled by Peter Cushing,
Nonetheless, this is a must for Frankenstein fanatics, Hammer
completists, and fans of British people playing people of
presumably-Teutonic extraction.
Poster for the original theatrical release.
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