Frankenstein's monster

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Frankenstein's monster
Original title The Evil of Frankenstein
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 1964
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Freddie Francis
script Anthony Hinds
(as John Elder)
production Anthony Hinds
music Don Banks
camera John Wilcox
cut James Needs
occupation

Frankenstein's monster (Original title: The Evil of Frankenstein ) is a horror film by the British film production company Hammer from 1964 . The title role of Baron Frankenstein was played by Peter Cushing and directed by Freddie Francis . The film is the only part of Hammers Frankenstein series for which the look of Boris Karloff's creature has been adopted and which was not directed by Terence Fisher . Hammer boss Anthony Hinds wrote the screenplay for the film under the pseudonym "John Elder".

action

Ten years ago, Baron Victor Frankenstein had assembled a creature from body parts and brought it to life with the help of electricity.
After the creature broke out and caused fear and terror among the population, it was driven into the mountains, where it fell into a crevice. After the monster was apparently killed, its creator was driven out of its homeland, Karlsstadt, for his crimes against God and nature.

But now Frankenstein, after having had another clash with the church, decides to return home with his faithful assistant Hans. Since he does not have the financial means to set up a new laboratory, he intends to sell the valuables that he had to leave behind at his castle when he fled. Frankenstein has chosen a very favorable time for his return to Karlsstadt. Carnival is being celebrated in the city and the baron's familiar face would not be noticed in the hustle and bustle. In the castle, Frankenstein has to discover that all his belongings have either been stolen or destroyed. Hungry and disappointed, Frankenstein and Hans go to the local inn. There the baron notices that the mayor is wearing his family's signet ring and makes a scene. Later that evening he breaks into the mayor's apartment and discovers a large part of his own possessions there: his precious paintings, the precious carpets and even his cloakroom and bed. Beside himself with anger, he swears revenge on the greedy mayor and can only barely evade his arrest.

With Hans he retreats to a cave in the mountains, where, frozen in a block of ice, he encounters his creature, believed to be dead. Together they free the creature from the ice and make it to Schloss Frankenstein, where the baron tries unsuccessfully to reanimate the creature again. Only in collaboration with the fair hypnotist Professor Zoltán does Frankenstein's monster come to life again. However, the devious showman has plans of his own and uses his hypnotic influence on the creature to his advantage. He sends the creature out to murder the greedy mayor who recently stole all of his income as a punishment for lack of a showman's license. Zoltán also orders him to steal and loot.

The news that the monster is once again spreading like wildfire in Karlsstadt. The men in the village quickly gathered to form a wild mob that set off for Frankenstein Castle armed with pitchforks and torches. At this time, Baron Frankenstein also discovered that the fairground artist was misusing his creation for his own purposes and a scuffle ensued. Suddenly Zoltán loses control of the monster and it kills him. After that, the laboratory begins to rage, causing a fire to break out. Baron Frankenstein tries to get outside, but the fire spreads too quickly and finally reaches the chemical store.

The moment the residents of Karlsstadt arrive at the palace, the wing in which the laboratory is located is blown up. Only Hans and Rena, a deaf and dumb begging girl they picked up in the mountains, can escape at the last second.

Reviews

  • Cinema : "Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) wants to create an artificial human being. One day he succeeds in the experiment. However, he did not expect the consequences: his monster becomes self-employed. - Eerily beautiful hammer horror that has long since become a classic. "
  • Lexicon of the horror film: "The film is - certainly also because of the convincing performance of Peter Cushing - as the best of the English Frankenstein series".
  • Lexicon of international films : “Trivial horror film in continuation of the hammer production 'Frankenstein's Rache'; Routine series food without staging highlights, but at least with a convincing acting performance by Peter Cushing. "

Sequels

Frankenstein's horror (1970) is the only Frankenstein film by Hammer in which Peter Cushing does not appear and Ralph Bates plays Victor Frankensteininstead. The film is also seen less as a sequel, but more as a remake of Frankenstein's Curse (1957) and is therefore actually outside the Frankenstein series.

In the last sequel, Frankenstein's Hell Monster (1974), Cushing can again be seen in the role of Baron Victor Frankenstein.

World premieres

  • USA: May 8, 1964
  • Great Britain: May 31, 1964
  • Germany: January 8, 1965

DVD release

  • Frankenstein's monster / February 22, 2008 / Koch Media DVD

Others

  • For Frankenstein's monster , Hammer was able to fall back on Universal's concepts from the Frankenstein Laboratory and Frankenstein Makeup (created by make-up artist Jack Pierce ) for the first time, as Universal had acquired the distribution rights for the US market.
  • In Frankenstein's monster, Peter Cushing did his stunts almost entirely himself, as in almost all hammer films. During the filming of the grand finale, in which Baron Frankenstein swinging on a chain through the blazing laboratory, he pulled himself out because of the enormous heat who developed on the set turned out to be third-degree burns.
  • When the film first ran on television in 1968, some scenes that were too brutal were shortened or cut out. In order to increase the airtime for television to two hours, film material shot afterwards was added by another director.
  • Frankenstein's monster is rather controversial among fans of the Hammer Frankenstein series, as the film contains plot elements from both the Hammer series and the Frankenstein series by Universal, which many consider to be incompatible.

literature

  • Karin Kaltenbrunner: Mad Medicine. To represent the scientist in the Frankenstein cycle of Hammer Film Productions (1957–1974) . LIT Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-50562-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Ronald M. Hahn & Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Horror Films, Bastei-Lübbe, 1985
  2. ↑ Frankenstein's monster. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ World premieres according to IMDb