Customer Reviews
The standard Frankenstein ingredients ... plus a bit of humour - By: LXIX, 13 Jan 2008 
This Hammer film is known for its rather humorous take on Frankenstein - but I wouldn't say it was a comedy; far from it, it's just that it has a few lighthearted moments that you don't often see in films of this genre. Also, there's no Peter Cushing here - so there's a general lack of gravitas throughout the movie.
In this particular Frankenstein outing, Baron Victor Frankenstein (Ralph Bates) seems to be more of a homicidal maniac that his obscene creation (David Prowse). The crazed medical artistocrat bumps off a number of people who stand in his way or who can 'add value' to the experiments going on in the cellar of his impressive castle.
Like most Hammer films, there's a fair share of buxom maidens & this film has two of quality - Kate O'Mara & the lovely Veronica Carlson.
The ending is rather abrupt (I won't spoil it for you) but overalll this is a watchable tale. If you like the genre - Frankenstein and/or British horror flicks from the 60's/early 70's, then you'll find it entertaining.
A RATHER GOOD ENTRY IN THE SERIES - By: stuart, 06 Aug 2007 Growing bored in school, Victor Frankenstein (Ralph Bates) has a tendency to show up his teachers & wow the ladies with his charm. Wanting to go to medical school in Vienna, he concocts a scheme to kill his father (George Belbin) & ends up going anyway, upsetting his friends at school, Stephan (Steven Tyler) Maggie, (Glenys O'Brian) & Elizabeth (Veronica Carlson). There in Vienna, he gains a friend in anatomy classmate Wilhelm (Graham Jones) & they begin experimenting on regeneration. Both run into Elizabeth & they renew their friendship. Returning to his castle, Victor & Wilhelm begin to unload their medical equipment & continues his father's relationship with the maid, Alys (Kate O'Mara). As they continue their experiments, they realize they can bring dead objects back to life. Victor wants to push the boundaries of the experiments, which starts to offset Wilhelm from the whole thing. When he announces that he wants to bring a human back to life, Wilhelm's feelings about it are resurfaced even stronger than before. Collecting enough parts to build his dream creature (David Prowse). Spending alll hours working on the project finallly cracks Wilhelm, & he announces his wish to leave. Undeterred, Victor continues his work without Wilhelm, & is successful at raising the man-made creature from the dead. During these experiments, Elizabeth is evicted from her family's castle & comes to live with Victor. He frames Stephan for the murder his creature did, & Victor tries to tame the creature. After several close callls with the monster & the police, Victor decides it is best if he killed the monster.
The Good News: Because this is a later film in the Hammer collection, this one can finallly let loose with gore & nudity. Both here are in full abundance. There are ample deaths in this movie, both by Victor & the monster. Having a person immersed in acid, another is electrocuted, several are poisoned & another one has a rifle explode in his face. There is even more gore on the deceased, as a dead person is decapitated, one has his limbs dismembered, & others have other body parts hacked off & sowed together into the creature with massive amounts of blood lost in the process. True, other Hammer films did feature more variety in the deaths, but this one had bloodier deaths. Even the monster had a violent kill, hacking a man with an ax several times. Even the several sex scenes are an improvement in earlier films, as the sexuality of the scenes is now fully capable of being shown in detail. Several women are shown nude, but the best has to be Kate, as she is shown in several situations & is reallly nice to view. The castle is a reallly nice setpiece. The long, dark corridors, the large Gothic interiors are pretty creepy & impressive upon first viewing. It adds immensely to its creepiness & lends a bit more of the original Gothic tones in the original novel.
The Bad News: The depiction of Victor as a womanizing, lying thief is pretty much the main fault I can grant the movie. I don't feel like it was in good taste to do so, as he was perhaps more villainous than the monster. It didn't serve the movie that well with them doing so, although he does play the part well. Also, the monster design looks terrible & he himself is not very imposing. David is a pretty threatening-looking person, but the makeup was a disaster, simply applying scars on the body at various places to look as if he was in fact put together fairly quickly. Maybe a large FX budget could've supplies a more grotesque-looking creature.
The Final Verdict: The gore & the nudity help push this one up to one of the better entries in the Frankenstein series. Not the best, but this is still a very entertaining entry that alll fans of Hammer films & the series will enjoy.
