Jackson Booth-Millard
The first Frankenstein film from British Hammer (Horror) Studios was very good, the second film was alright, and the third was terrible, this fourth film has been described as the best by fans of the series, directed by Terence Fisher (Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Mummy). Basically Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) has been reanimated and awoken from a frozen state, he confirms with his colleague Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) he has proved with this experiment that the soul does not leave the body instantly after death. Frankenstein believes he can transfer the soul from a recently deceased body into another recently deceased body and restore it to life. Frankenstein's lab assistant Hans Werner (Robert Morris) is the lover of Christina (Susan Denberg), daughter of innkeeper Kleve Herr (Alan MacNaughtan), Christina's entire left side is disfigured and partly paralysed, she is constantly taunted by young dandies Anton (Peter Blythe), Johann (Derek Fowlds) and Karl (Barry Warren). Hans becomes angered by the three mocking Christina for her deformities, he fights with them and cuts Anton's face with a knife, Kleve later throws the the three men out for refusal to pay, they return to steal alcohol, and Kleve catching them is beaten to death by them. Hans, the son of a murderer notorious for his short temper, is convicted, despite Frankenstein and Hertz's defence against him, Hans is found guilty and sentenced to death by guillotine, the three are delighted, Frankenstein sees this as an opportunity to get hold of Hans' fresh corpse. Christina is devastated following Hans' execution, and feels guilty not defending him in court, she commits suicide and drowns jumping into a river from a bridge, her body is brought by peasants to Hertz, he and Frankenstein carry out the experiment, transferring Hans' soul into Christina's body, and following months of treatment they also cure her deformities. The result of the experiment is a physically healthy female with no memory, she keeps asking who she is, Frankenstein insists she is told nothing but her name and keeping her in the house, but she does eventually regain her memory of who she is, Christine is taken over by the vengeful spirit of Hans. Christina, driven mostly by the spiritual intentions Hans, kills Anton, Karl and Johann, Frankenstein and Hertz become suspicious of her behaviour and the killings, they believe she subconsciously has memories of her father's death, but it is too late when they realise it is Hans' soul controlling her. Christina goes to the where Hans was executed, upon holding Hans' severed head, his ghostly voice tells Christina to avenge his death, she is chased by Frankenstein who is willing to tell her the truth about her identity, but Christina has no one left to live for, and jumps from edge of a waterfall, Frankenstein is saddened and silently walks away. Also starring Duncan Lamont as The Prisoner, Peter Madden as Chief of Police, Philip Ray as Mayor, Ivan Beavis as Landlord and Colin Jeavons as Priest. Cushing remains dependable as the maddened scientist, the twist with this story is taking the mind of a wrongfully killed man and putting it in another reconstructed body, so it isn't quite the usual body put together to make a monster, it is a little slow in places, but there are gory moments and intrigue to keep you going, all in all it is an interesting horror film. Worth watching!
GusF
This film is marginally better than its lacklustre predecessor "The Evil of Frankenstein" but still not great. It's a bit of an odd one. It's more of a Hammer thriller than a Hammer horror film, really. Thorley Walters is very good as Professor Hertz and Peter Blythe, Barry Warren and Derek Fowlds are all suitably vile and obnoxious as Anton, Karl and Johann but, as the de facto leading man for the first half of the film, Robert Morris falls far short. It's hard to gauge Susan Denberg's performance as Christina since she was dubbed but I wasn't too impressed with Nikki Van der Zyl's emotionless voice over performance. The rest of the supporting cast was solid. Duncan Lamont, the only actor besides Peter Cushing to appear in both this and the previous film, was far more impressive in his brief scene as Han's father than as the Chief of Police in "The Evil of Frankenstein".It's a little unclear where this film takes place in the series' chronology, though the fact that Frankenstein's hands are badly injured would suggest that he burnt them in the fire at the end of "The Evil of Frankenstein". The fact that Frankenstein, while somewhat darker than in that film, is nowhere near as villainous as in "The Curse of Frankenstein" and "The Revenge of Frankenstein" would tend to suggest that it takes place in the series' second continuity rather than in its first. In contrast to those two films, Frankenstein is essentially the hero, albeit not a terribly sympathetic one, and comes across as a poor man's version of Van Helsing rather than as the utterly vile yet extremely compelling original version of Frankenstein. Overall, the plot was rather silly and not in a good way. I liked the metaphysical aspects of the film but they deserved a better treatment than the script provided them with.
