#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY:
Hammer films first step into their Frankenstein franchise was The Curse
of Frankenstein in 1957. This was quickly followed, after it's huge
commercial success by The Revenge of Frankenstein the following year. As
with Curse, it's success is no small part because of Cushing's stellar
return and performance, as the Baron who cheated death. But for me,
there has always been more than one act of cheating in this particular
return. . . .
FRANCIS MATTHEWS is terrific and
believable as the good doctor's assistant, Hans. Eunice Gayson as
Margret, struggles but does well with what she has been given by
scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster, who had an annoying habit of giving his
female characters a one dimensional, very shallow filed to plough, when
it came to any of his written women. And the supporting cast were top
too. I love Michael Gwynn's work, but not in this one. This is not
because he was weak, like with Gayson's lot. No, Gwynn was working with a
very weak concept...a man who turns Cannibal! Sangster went on record as
saying, he did struggle with coming up with an angle, a 'thing' ..part
of what that latest Frankenstein abomination did, that was above murder
and creating chaos. This creation should repulse and make audiences
shriek with terror once again. He thought long and hard, and eventually
came up with, cannibalism. Well, I don't buy it. I never have, never
will.
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THE WHOLE PREMISE that supports the reason why poor ol Karl has the
human munchies, in the framework of this Gothic horror, sticks out as
desperate, ill conceived, heavy handed and over the top. I would have
been quite happy with another round of, just murder, unhappy monster and
leave it at that. The Hammer Frankenstein's were most entertaining when
they focused on 'The Baron'.. how bad, how manipulative, cruel and
relentless HE could be. It's interesting that the most popular and
financially successful films of the series, Curse and Destroyed, had
Baron Frankenstein at the center of the story. On the whole, I think the
Frankenstein audience went to see Peter Cushing, and were quite
informed about how they liked their Gothic horror menu served
up...intelligent, imaginative and with some class and taste. To me, if
you throw cannibalism into the recipe, it's just too rich, one spice too
many. Cannibalism...In other words, just doesn't taste that good... 😉 What do you think? Agree? disagree? - Marcus
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