HORROR
OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970)Director: Jimmy Sangster
Anchor Bay Entertainment
HORROR
OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970)In the early 1970s, Hammer planned to inaugurate a new Frankenstein series casting a youthful Ralph Bates in place of the veteran Peter Cushing who had already fulfilled five outings as the Baron. Having penned Hammer's earliest gothic excesses, Jimmy Sangster was approached to write a new Frankenstein saga. He agreed, but on the condition that he was to also produce and direct it. The result is a semi remake of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN which Sangster intended as a comedy, giving moviegoers what is easily Hammer's most criticized effort.
Already making a great impression in a smaller role in TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, Bates here stars as the young Victor Frankenstein. Refusing him the privilege to go to a university, Victor kills his father--making it look like an accident--and procures his title of Baron. After getting the headmaster's daughter pregnant, Victor returns to his castle with a school chum (Graham Jones) to perform advanced experiments. Victor shoots a highway thief, protecting his beautiful former school mate Elizabeth (Veronica Carlson) and her father from being robbed. When nobody is looking, Victor decapitates the head and brings it back to the lab.
In his castle abode, Victor gets satisfaction from the luscious housekeeper (Kate O'Mara). Kate's curtsey in the film introduced me to cleavage at a very young age, but that's another story. Anyway, Victor first experiments on animals (re-animating a tortoise), and then decides to move on to bigger and better things (people). He literally builds a monster by the numbers, receiving an ample amount of fresh corpses by a crafty graverobber (Dennis Price) who makes his pregnant wife (Joan Rice) do all the digging. The result of the Baron's work is a bald, square-headed hulk played by Darth Vader himself, David Prowse.
HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN is the least of Hammer's Frankensteins, and only works as a minor offshoot to a classic series that Peter Cushing made his own. Bates' showcase turn as the Baron can be fun as he plays him as a spoiled conniver who always gets his way just by opening his mouth, and later becoming increasingly psychopathic, killing anybody that looks at him the wrong way. Carlson and O'Mara are so easy on the eyes that they actually draw your attention away from what's going on. The graverobbing husband and wife team of Rice and Price (hey, that rhymes) is a nice touch, and cult favorite Jon Finch (FRENZY) has a small role as police lieutenant.
Not so impressive is the monster, looking like a poor man's Karloff creature, with a flat head full of staples, and lipstick etched on his body to indicate scars. Prowse plays the monster as an awkward killing machine with no personality (it would take Terence Fisher's FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL for the actor to inject any real empathy into the monster role). Sangster attempted comedy (some of it quite sophomoric), but the film only achieves some dry black humor, mainly at the hands of Bates and his slick delivery. Next to Terence Fisher's previous masterpiece, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, this looks like a stagy amateur hour, and again, only works as minor curiosity piece.
Like Anchor Bay's DVD of HORROR's original co-feature, SCARS OF DRACULA, this disc looks superb on every level, and is a far cry from the dark, undistinguished print released by Thorn EMI on video and Image Entertainment on laser. Letterboxed at 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, the color, detail and sound are all exceptional, giving the somewhat cheap-looking film an appearance that it never enjoyed in the past, and it may even change your opinion of it (it definitely makes for a more satisfying viewing experience).
There is a commentary by Jimmy Sangster, interviewed by Hammer historian Marcus Hearn. Sangster doesn't seem to remember much about the film (other than the fact that he had a grand time making it), so his talk concentrates on his entire career with Hammer and other film work, and it's definitely an interesting listen. There is a also a video-taped interview with Veronica Carlson who discusses this film and her other two Hammer roles (in DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED) and as always, seems delighted to have worked for the company and people like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Freddie Francis, Terence Fisher, Ralph Bates and Jimmy Sangster.
There is also a "Veronica
Carlson Photo Album" (featuring some rare and candid photos of the actress),
a "Gallery Of Fine Art by Veronica Carlson, " theatrical trailers,
a poster and still gallery, and talent bios on Sangster and the late Bates.
Travis Crawford writes the liner notes that are included in the 4-page insert
booklet. (George R. Reis)