It’s hard to imagine now, but in 1957 The Human Centipede didn’t exist and there hadn’t been 7 Saws and 3 Hostels. In fact, the most gruesome thing cinema-punters had were Universal’s Dracula and Frankenstein cycles, films that were slowly closing in on their 30th anniversaries.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, came Hammer with The Curse of Frankenstein; a reworking of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel in which a brilliant scientist, Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), becomes obsessed with creating human life. This perverse life goal soon brings him into conflict with friend and mentor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart), his mistress Justine (Valerie Gaunt) and wife-to-be Elizabeth (Hazel Court).
Under the careful direction of Terence Fisher, The Curse of Frankenstein provided the small studio with their first international hit and set up many elements that were to be the bread and butter of British horror for the next 15 years; colour, violence, barely-restrained sexuality and the pairing of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
In the case of this Blu-ray, it’s the last one that’s most important. Even if the first third betrays signs of the studio finding its horror feet – stagey plot talk compounded by a lack of action – it immediately recovers once Lee hits the screen. His puppet-like body language as The Creature, helped by Phil Leaky’s tremendous and necessarily unique make-up, turns the monster into something verging on sympathetic.
Subsequently, and appropriately, all the evil is to be found within the Baron himself and, despite the excellence of Lee, this really is Peter Cushing’s film. Ever the perfectionist, he opts for total sincerity in the face of all the blood, guts and fantasy with extraordinary effects. Looking back now, Cushing’s Frankenstein is almost James Bond-like – cold, calculating and womanising right up to the fiery conclusion. “Mutilating?” he scoffs, “I’ve removed his brain, mutilating has nothing to do with it”.
There have been grumbles about the Blu-ray conversion that do seem, in a way, justified. The picture quality is not quite up there with other recent Hammer re-releases such as The Plague of Zombies but, having said that, this disc is still a big step-up from the previous DVD version.
Best of the extras bunch is a new ‘Making Of’ documentary that quickly turns into story-time with Melvyn Hayes and an informative commentary with long-time Hammer affectionados Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby.
Joshua has awarded The Curse of Frankenstein four Torches of Truth.
