George Taylor While most of the novel is tossed aside, this, the first of the Hammers is the best. The Baron is clearly the true monster here, doing anything to see to the creation of his being. Murder, grave robbing. Offending his friends, anything. Peter Cushing is brilliant as the cold hearted man of science. The first teaming of he and Christopher Lee, who is mute is the best one.

calvinnme ...and Victor Frankenstein is shown not that sympathetic even as a small boy. The story is being told in flashback by Victor (Cushing) as he awaits the guillotine. Baron Victor's mother has just died, leaving him an orphan, and he looks to be in his young teens, yet he apparently doesn't have a guardian nor a tear for his dead mother. Instead his interest is in hiring a tutor, Paul (Robert Urquhart). Paul takes the job, and their experiments and work together show that Paul is probably neglecting the liberal arts part of Victor's education in favor of the sciences. Their ultimate work together - by now Victor is a grown man - is to bring a small animal back to life.Victor wants to go further, he wants to bring a dead human back to life, and not just a deceased human. He wants to build him from body parts. Paul at first assists Victor in this experiment, but his heart isn't in it. His heart really isn't in it when Victor's distant cousin Elizabeth (Hazel Court) comes to live there, since she and Victor are betrothed. It is an arranged marriage. You get the feeling Elizabeth feels she owes this to Victor for supporting herself and her mother all of their lives, but she is fond of Victor, what little she knows of him, and she does NOT know about the human in progress in the lab.Victor crosses the line you just knew he was going to cross when he invites a great professor to his house to dine and then pushes him off the balcony of an upper floor and makes it look like an accident so he can have his brain for the creature. Paul didn't see the murder, but he does figure it out. Paul damages the brain so it will be useless to Victor, and implores Elizabeth to leave the castle and not marry Victor. Both acts are in vain.Victor builds the creature with the damaged brain anyways, and brings a very angry brute to life. I'd be angry too if I were the creature, since he (Christopher Lee) looks like one of the Beatles, down to the 60's haircut and the Nehru jacket, except a recently deceased version. To further add to Victor's crimes, he is bedding a servant girl in the house, and would probably continue to do so post marriage to Elizabeth, but the servant girl winds up pregnant. Hmmm. What to do? He has an angry murderous creature and a blackmailing overly curious pregnant servant girl. Watch and find out.Now Paul knows the whole story, and knows it to be true. The authorities think that the murdered were the work of Victor. After all, how could a man make a man out of body parts and bring that man to life? Poppycock. A word from Paul and Victor is free. But Paul has grown a fondness for Elizabeth and knows the darkness of Victor's heart. What will he do? Watch and find out.If you want atmosphere go watch the original Universal horror films. If you want pretty good storytelling in a horror film, even if isn't close to the original story, done on a budget but done fairly well- and what isn't done well is funny to the point of being endearing- see the Hammer horror films. They do tend to satisfy.

Scott LeBrun Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is moping inside a jail cell, awaiting execution by guillotine for his crimes. Desperate for somebody to believe his story, he calls in a priest (Alex Gallier) and relates his sad tale. He'd been determined to realize his dream of contriving a man made being, and succeeded to some degree, bringing a scar faced brute (Sir Christopher Lee) to deadly life. But his associate / tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) had developed a severe case of scruples, deciding that absolutely nothing good could come of their activities.This was the film that really made the fortunes for Britains' famed Hammer Studios. They truly gave the Gothic horror a fresh coat of colorful paint in the 1950s, and set a standard in period detail and set decoration that they would maintain for over the next decade and a half. Even after period horror was no longer in vogue, they gamely continued in their pursuits. They played up the sex appeal of the material with their attractively costumed, lovely female cast members, and also upped the level of on screen violence.Hammer makeup expert Phil Leakey gave the towering Lee an appropriately gruesome face to behold, no matter if it's not iconic as Jack Pierces' work was in the Universal horrors of the 30s and 40s. Director Terence Fisher does a commendable job that would help see him become a favorite in house filmmaker for Hammer. And that laboratory equipment is quite fun to look at; there are some potent images here for fans to enjoy.Cushing is, as always, wonderful, and he makes a character that otherwise would come off as a coldly stubborn, dangerous fool a definite degree of likability. Lee does a fine job, equally menacing and somewhat sympathetic. Beautiful Hazel Court is our appealing leading lady, and Urquhart is excellent as the moral centre to Mary W. Shelley's classic tale. Valerie Gaunt, Paul Hardtmuth, and Melvyn Hayes are among those in an engaging supporting cast.Although not as thickly atmospheric as it might have been in black & white, "The Curse of Frankenstein" does entertain in a straightforward, quickly paced manner.Seven out of 10.

Pumpkin_Man I wanted to watch the TCM Christopher Lee Hammer horror marathon they were having in honor of Christopher Lee recently passing away. I've always been curious about these films, and figured it would be the best time to watch them. I was very surprised at how much I really liked this adaptation of the Frankenstein story. I've only seen the films with Boris Karloff as the monster, but Christopher Lee was just as good and his makeup was amazing for its time. I really enjoyed the story of how Victor Frankenstein went from smart scientist to crazy madman. In his childhood, his parents passed away and sent for a tutor named Dr. Paul Krempe to teach him everything he knows about science. Years later as an adult, he learns how to bring a dog back to life, so he wants to take it to the next level and create a perfect human being from body parts. At first, Paul is intrigued and onboard, but as the experiment gets deadlier, Paul wants out. Victor keeps grave-robbing and stealing eyes, hands and a brain to create his creature. Once the monster comes alive, Victor realizes he can't control it. If you love classic old school horror, you'll love THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN!!!