Review: The Evil of Frankenstein

Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and assistant Hans (Sandor Eles) return to Karlstad to move back into the former’s now decrepit old abode and laboratory. He also seeks out, finds, and thaws his ‘creature’ which has been frozen in ice. He revives the creature (played by Kiwi Kingston) but finds that it no longer obeys his commands. What to do? Well there’s this shonky carny hypnotist in town named Zoltan (played by a bland Peter Woodthorpe), and it gives Frankenstein an idea. Katy Wild is a mute beggar girl, Duncan Lamont plays the chief of police.

 

Director Freddie Francis (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”, “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, “Tales From the Crypt”, “The Creeping Flesh”) and screenwriter Anthony Hinds (“Dracula Has Risen From the Grave”, “Taste the Blood of Dracula”, “Scars of Dracula”) really drop the ball in this 1964 Hammer horror sequel. After the terrific previous entry “The Revenge of Frankenstein”, we’re given something lame and clunky despite the best efforts of Peter Cushing in the lead. He’s terrific, the film is cluttered nonsense.

 

For a film under 90 minutes, too much time is wasted on side characters of little interest. Did we really need a film where the ‘creature’ gets hypnotised? Sure it’s a new wrinkle, but it’s so juvenile and stupid. I will say there’s one really nasty brutal death scene I liked. The creature just repeatedly bashes a poor bloke’s head against a wall, which is quite nasty for the time. A lot more of that might’ve made this more fun, instead we get a lot of stupid side characters whose antics seem more at home in a lame “Carry On” comedy. A couple of the moments are amusing, but why is the film trying to be funny in the first place? The creature makeup is a touch better than in say “Curse of Frankenstein”, where the makeup looked like a green pavlova smashed into poor Christopher Lee’s face. Here it looks more prosthetic-based, though the dimpled chin is a touch too silly for me and the overall design is poor. I can see what they were aiming for but the result looks like a stone golem-type thing or a poor man’s Boris Karloff/Jack Pierce creature design. The supporting cast isn’t especially hot, with Sandor Eles a bit out of his depth, and James Maxwell pretty poor as the local vicar. Aside from lead actor Cushing the highlights here are excellent cinematography by John Wilcox (Hammer’s “The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires”) and the terrific music score by Australian-born Don Banks (“Captain Clegg”, “Rasputin: The Mad Monk”). The set design is typically exemplary from Hammer too, though there’s also one very bad special effect where a plastic sheet tries to convince as ice. Did they run out of money by that point in shooting?

 

Well-mounted crap, pretty much. It looks and sounds great, but it’s wasted on a dumb story. Even a committed turn by Peter Cushing can’t bring this one to much life. A real letdown.

 

Rating: C-

 

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