The Curse of Frankenstein

In 19th century Switzerland, Baron Victor Frankenstein is awaiting execution for the murder of his maid Justine. He tells the story of his life to a visiting priest.

At age 15, the death of Victor's mother leaves him in sole control of the Frankenstein estate. He agrees to continue to pay a monthly allowance to his impoverished aunt Sophia and his young cousin Elizabeth. Soon afterwards, he engages scientist Paul Krempe to tutor him. After two years of intense study, Victor and Paul begin collaborating on scientific experiments. One night, after a successful experiment in which they bring a dead puppy back to life, Victor suggests that they create a perfect human being from body parts. Paul assists Victor at first but eventually withdraws, unable to tolerate the continued scavenging of human remains, particularly after Victor's fiancée—his now grown-up cousin Elizabeth—comes to live with them.

Victor assembles his creation with a robber's corpse found on a gibbet and both hands and eyes purchased from charnelhouse-workers. For the brain, Victor seeks out an ageing and distinguished professor, so that the creature can have a sharp mind and the accumulation of a lifetime of knowledge. He invites the professor to his house in the guise of a friendly visit, but pushes him over the stair banister and kills him, making it look like an accident. After the professor is buried, Victor proceeds to the vault and removes his brain. Paul attempts to stop him, and the brain is damaged in the ensuing scuffle. Paul also tries to persuade Elizabeth to leave the house, as he has before, but she refuses.

With all of the parts assembled, Victor brings the creature to life. Unfortunately, the creature's damaged brain leaves it violent and psychotic, without the professor's intelligence. Victor locks up the creature, but it escapes and kills an old blind man that it encounters in the woods. After Paul shoots the creature in the eye, he and Victor bury it in the woods. However, after Paul leaves town, Victor digs up the creature and brings it back to life. Justine, with whom Victor has been having an affair, claims that she is pregnant by him and threatens to tell the authorities about his strange experiments if he refuses to marry her. He has her killed by the monster.

Paul returns to the house at Elizabeth's invitation the evening before she and Victor are to be married. Victor shows him the revived creature, and Paul threatens to report him to the authorities. The monster escapes up on to the roof where it threatens Elizabeth, but Victor arrives and throws an oil lamp at it, causing it to fall through the roof-light and into a vat of acid, destroying all evidence that it existed.

The priest does not believe Victor's story. When Paul visits him, Victor begs Paul to testify that it was the creature who killed Justine, but he refuses and denies all knowledge of the mad experiment. Paul joins Elizabeth, who is waiting outside, and tells her there is nothing they can do for Victor. After they leave, Victor is led away to the guillotine.

Producer Max Rosenberg originally approached Michael Carreras at Hammer Films with a deal to produce Frankenstein and the Monster (Rosenberg claims that he came up with the title) from a script by Milton Subotsky. Later, both men were cut out of their profit participation making only a $5000 fee for bringing the production to Hammer.[9] Rosenberg and Subotsky later established Amicus Films, Hammer's main rival in the production of horror films during the 1960s.

Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, who adapted Mary Shelley's novel for Hammer, never mentioned seeing Subotsky's script or being aware of Rosenberg's involvement. Sangster had worked as a production manager and said that he was keenly aware of production costs and kept the budget in mind when writing the script. Sangster said that his awareness of cost influenced him to not write scenes involving the villagers storming the castle that was typically seen in the Universal horror films "because we couldn't afford it". Sangster in an interview with film historian Jonathan Rigby indicated that he hadn't seen any of the Frankenstein films that Universal made. He just adapted the book "the way I saw it".[10]

Peter Cushing, who was then best known for his many high-profile roles in British television, had his first lead part in a movie with this film. Meanwhile, Christopher Lee's casting resulted largely from his height (6' 5"), though Hammer had earlier considered the even taller (6 '7") Bernard Bresslaw for the role. Universal fought hard to prevent Hammer from duplicating aspects of their 1931 film, and so it was down to make-up artist Phil Leakey to design a new look for the creature bearing no resemblance to the Boris Karloff original created by Jack Pierce. Production of The Curse of Frankenstein began, with an investment of £65,000, on 19 November 1956 at Bray Studios with a scene showing Baron Frankenstein cutting down a highwayman from a wayside gibbet.[11] The film opened at the London Pavilion on 2 May 1957 with an X certificate from the censors.

Character actor Patrick Troughton originally had a brief role as a mortuary attendant, but his scenes were cut from the finished movie.

The Curse of Frankenstein premiered in London on 2 May 1957 at Warner Theatre in Leicester Square.[12] It received a general release in the United Kingdom on 20 May 1957 where it was distributed by Warner Brothers and supported by the film Woman of Rome.[12] The film was reissued in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s where it was distributed by Rank/Universal International where it was a double feature with The Mummy.[12] The film was released in the United States on 20 July 1957 where it was distributed by Warner Bros and released with the film X the Unknown.[12] It was reissued in the United States on 16 December 1964, when it was released with Dracula (1958).[12]

The film was remastered in the open matte aspect ratio of 1.37:1 for its 2013 release on Blu-ray. The restored film includes the magnified eyeball shot, missing from the U.S print, but not the head in the acid bath scene, which remains lost.[13]

The film received a restored release from Warner Archive on December 15, 2020 in a deluxe edition that included the three different aspect ratios it was exhibited in as well as special features including a commentary by Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr. It also included the following special features: The Resurrection Men: Hammer, Frankenstein and the Rebirth of the Horror Film; Hideous Progeny: The Curse of Frankenstein and the English Gothic Tradition Torrents of Light: The Art of Jack Asher Diabolus in Musica: James Bernard and the Sound of Hammer Horror Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)[14]

When it was first released, The Curse of Frankenstein outraged many reviewers. Dilys Powell of The Sunday Times wrote that such productions left her unable to "defend the cinema against the charge that it debases", while the Tribune opined that the film was "Depressing and degrading for anyone who loves the cinema".

In the United Kingdom, the Monthly Film Bulletin declared that the Frankenstein story was "sacrificed by an ill-made script, poor direction and performance, and above all, a preoccupation with disgusting-not horrific-charnelry"[1] The review did praise some elements of the film, noting "excellent art direction and colour" and the film score.[1]

Reactions were mixed in the United States. Film Bulletin deemed the film a "rattling good horror show... the Frankenstein monster has been ghoulishly and somewhat gleefully resurrected by our English cousins."[18] Harrison's Reports called it "well produced but extremely gruesome", adding, "The photography is very fine, and so is the acting."[19] Bosley Crowther in The New York Times dismissed it as a "routine horror picture" and oddly enough opined that "everything that happens, has happened the same way in previous films."[20] Variety noted, "Peter Cushing gets every inch of drama from the leading role, making almost believable the ambitious urge and diabolical accomplishment. Direction and camera work are of a high order."[21]

Later directors such as Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton have paid tribute to it as an influence on their work.[7] Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 80%, based on 20 reviews, with a rating average of 7.2/10.[22]

Unlike the Universal Frankenstein series of the 1930s and 1940s, in which the character of the Monster was the recurring figure while the doctors frequently changed, it is Baron Frankenstein that is the connective character throughout the Hammer series, while the monsters change.[23] Peter Cushing played the Baron in each film except for The Horror of Frankenstein, which was a remake of the original The Curse of Frankenstein done with a more comedic touch, and featuring a young cast headed by Ralph Bates and Veronica Carlson.[24]

• The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
• The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
• Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
• Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
• The Horror of Frankenstein (1970, without Peter Cushing)
• Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

A novelization of the film was written by John Burke as part of his book The Hammer Horror Film Omnibus (1966).

The film was adapted as fumetti by Warren Publishing in 1966 (along with Horror of Dracula).

It was also adapted into a 20-page comic strip published in two parts in the magazine The House of Hammer (vol. 1) #2-3 (December 1976-January 1977), published by General Book Distribution. It was drawn by Alberto Cuyas from a script by Donne Avenell (based on the John Burke novelization). The cover of issue #2 featured a painting by Brian Lewis of the Baron being attacked by his creation.[25]

• List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster
• Frankenstein in popular culture

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• The Curse of Frankenstein at IMDb
• The Curse of Frankenstein at AllMovie
• The Curse of Frankenstein at the BFI's Screenonline
• The Curse of Frankenstein at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Curse of Frankenstein at BritMovie (archived)
• The Curse of Frankenstein at Virtual History