Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Leofwine_draca Hammer's third film in the Frankenstein series and the first film to deviate away from the previous story – here, the Baron's given a separate, different back-story in an extended flashback sequence, so this is best viewed as stand alone. This is also the Frankenstein film that was co-funded by Universal, who distributed this along with seven other Hammer flicks in America. Previously, Hammer hadn't been allowed to copy the old Boris Karloff make up job which was copyrighted by Universal, but here, they go for a full-blown imitation. Sadly, the usually reliable Roy Ashton just isn't up to the job of recreating Jack Pierce's classic work on Karloff, and as a result the monster here looks ludicrous, a grey man with a massive slab of plaster glued to his forehead. The monster was played by the hulking wrestler Kiwi Kingston – who really was a Kiwi – but Kingston doesn't have any opportunity to act as only his eyes are (briefly) visible beneath the shoddy make up.Other than this fundamental flaw, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN is a pretty decent movie. Freddie Francis directs with visual flair and gives us some classic moments – the body snatcher stalking through the woods at the movie's opening and the excellent 'creation' scene in the lab are just two of them. Peter Cushing returns as the Baron, playing it a bit differently this time: Frankenstein is a bitter, hounded man, prone to violent outbursts and someone who snaps at other people quite a lot. Cushing is still great, of course, and it's a pleasure to watch him act as always. He's ably supported by the sleazy Peter Woodthorpe as a hypnotist with his own agenda, and Katy Wild, whose mute assistant is quite appealing. There aren't really many distinguished actors in the cast, which is more composed of TV people. One exception is a young Sandor Eles, familiar from COUNTESS Dracula, but his role here as the assistant Hans is very limited and he gets absolutely no characterisation.The story plays along well and there's always something going on to enjoy. The sets are decent-looking and the bit where the monster stalks through the village, bumping off enemies, is vintage Hammer, and reminded me of their mummy films. Things culminate in a good climax, utterly old-fashioned of course. The only thing working against THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN – aside from the rubbish make up – is a sense of 'seen it all before' in terms of the action, and this is what makes it – along with FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN – one of the lesser entries in the series; there's none of the drama of THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN or the ruthlessness of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, for instance. Not bad, but not one of Hammer's classics.

Rainey Dawn This film like but not as well as parts 1, 2, and 5 of the Cushing Frankenstein series. It is a good film I just liked it a little less - it's the story of this film I liked a little less than the others. This film is a continuation of the story of Dr. Frankenstein, it pick up were part 2 left off.Everyone was good in this film -- but it was Peter Cushing that really carried this one all the way through more so than anything thing else.I definitely recommend this film to others that have enjoyed other Hammer Horror films and/or Peter Cushing's movies. It's worth it.7.5/10

MARIO GAUCI The third entry in Hammer Films' 7-movie Frankenstein cycle was the first (of two) to be helmed by a director other than their resident go-to-guy Terenece Fisher; in fact, it was passed on to Oscar-winning cinematographer-turned-director Freddie Francis – himself a Hammer veteran in their psychological thrillers vein via PARANOIAC (1963) and NIGHTMARE (1964) – after Fisher bowed out due to an automobile accident. As it turned out, both non-Fisher entries – the other being prime Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster's offbeat directorial debut THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970) – did not go down well at all with fans of the celebrated British studio! Although I recall a couple of matinée screenings on Italian TV in the past. I eventually caught up with THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN in late 2005 while on a 3-month sojourn in Hollywood via Universal's 4-Disc 8-movie DVD collection "The Hammer Horror Series"; incidentally, that set also included two movies which, like the one under review, was padded out with extra footage for TV syndication – namely Fisher's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1962) and Don Sharp's KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1963; retitled KISS OF EVIL) – which I will be checking out later on during this month as part of my ongoing Halloween marathon.Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing reprises his signature role of Baron Victor Frankenstein but, although there is a reference here to his past crimes, the flashback in question is not imported footage from the original entry THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) but one shot expressly for this film and featuring the actor playing The Creature here, namely professional wrestler Kiwi Kingston (at one point, shown munching ravenously on a flock of sheep and even suffering from debilitating migraine attacks)! Indeed, oddly enough, this entry discounts completely its predecessor – THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) – just as the above-mentioned Sangster film did the rest of the series!! As the film begins, Cushing is fleeing the village he has relocated to after the events of CURSE because of further grave-robbing antics and, with his new assistant Sandor Eles, returns secretively to his family mansion in Karlstaad with the intention of selling off its precious possessions in order to fund his future experiments in electrical reanimation of dead tissue. As it happens, Frankenstein's hometown is being visited by a circus troupe and, after falling foul of burgomaster David Hutcheson and Chief of Police Duncan Lamont, a masked Cushing and Eles find themselves "volunteering" for the act of hypnotist Peter Woodthorpe; taking refuge inside a cave along with deaf-mute Katy Wild (which was rendered thus by her meeting with The Creature during the aforementioned flashback), Cushing fortuitously stumbles on Kingston's body perfectly preserved in a glacier. Needless to say, the irrepressible scientist contrives to transport the body to his now-dilapidated mansion and engages Woodthorpe's services to reanimate it when the proverbial thunderstorm fails to do the trick. Unfortunately for him, the latter turns out to be the real villain of the piece – assaulting the deaf-mute girl and keeping her against her will in the dungeons, tormenting the chained monster and, worse still, ordering it to dispose of the local authority figures who had earlier humiliated him by stopping his public performance to apprehend Cushing and Eles! The film was a potentially momentous co-production with Universal Studios which, 30 years previously, had made its own classic versions of the tale with Boris Karloff; this allowed Hammer to utilize for the first time a variation on the iconic Jack Pierce make-up design for the Frankenstein monster which, despite the ubiquitous Roy Ashton's involvement, lends the resultant square-headed creature a decidedly ludicrous appearance. Similarly the screenplay penned by John Elder (a pseudonym for Hammer stalwart Anthony Hinds) is a subpar hodge-podge of old Universal themes: from drunken, embittered villagers bemoaning their kin's unkind fate at the hands of The Creature to pompous figures of authority harassing the titular aristocrat to vengeful travelling charlatans taking advantage of the latter's wandering creation.Unfortunately, despite good intentions all round, the full-blooded Hammer magic fails to strike here; perhaps this was the main reason why the film was eventually trimmed in spots but also had an additional 13 minutes interpolated into the narrative for its U.S. TV screenings. Even so, these extra scenes – notably featuring Hollywood character actor Steven Geray as a sympathetic doctor – add very little of substance or entertainment value that make one wonder who was actually responsible for them! Indeed, this "Extended TV version" is apparently so rare that I could only come across a hazy and wobbly copy culled from Australian TV!!

GusF The film takes place in a separate continuity from the first two films in the series, given that it depicts the creation of Frankenstein's first monster in an entirely different way than in "The Curse of Frankenstein". Peter Cushing delivers a great performance as per usual but Baron Frankenstein is a far less compelling and far more upright character in this film. He's characterised as a fairly decent man, albeit a misguided extremist. While the Frankenstein in the first film allowed Justine to be killed by the Creature without a second thought, this Frankenstein appears to be disgusted when he learns that Zoltan has had this version of the Creature kill the Burgomaster. Consequently, the title The Evil of Frankenstein seems like a complete misnomer. A review online said that a more apt title would have "The Contributory Negligence of Frankenstein" and it's hard to disagree with that! The villain of the piece is really George Woodthorpe as Zoltan. He and Cushing are the only actors who stood out for me, I'm afraid, but the others were all adequate to good.For legal reasons, Hammer was precluded from emulating the Universal Frankenstein's Monster design in the first two films but a distribution deal with Universal allowed them to do so in this film. However, I wish that it hadn't as, in spite of the fact that this film was made 33 years after the first Boris Karloff film, the make-up was for worse. Casting Kiwi Kingston, a wrestler as opposed to an actor, in the role was a mistake. His "performance" can't really compare with Christopher Lee's in the first film, who was similarly silent but used facial expressions to convey a great deal, or Michael Gwynn's more verbose performance in "The Revenge of Frankenstein". There are hints of a relationship between the Creature and the similarly mute beggar girl which could have been explored more fully, which makes it rather disappointing that it wasn't.