#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: HUMAN MUNCHIES AT HAMMER

#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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BLOOPER: TECHIE IN THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN!

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY.. OOPS! Here's something that rarely ever happened in a Cushing Frankenstein film... a blooper and one that MADE IT into the final edit! Something tells me that 20th Century studio crew technician, really shouldn't have been in Veronica Carlson's Edwardian house?? 😉 See if YOU can SPOT HIM . . .

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#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: ON SET WITH CUSHING CARLSON AND COMPANY VIDEO

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: Short behind the scenes television feature about Hammer Films 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' (1969) Directed by Terence Fisher featuring production scenes at Elstree film studios, England. Short interviews featuring Peter Cushing, Hammer Films CEO Sir James Carreras. Feature was made as part of the television programme, 'Made In Britain'.

JUDGING BY THE TIME-CODE, some of this is unedited and is B ROLE footage. Even rarer! Despite it's unpredictable sound drops and vision wobbles, for many I am sure there is much to see here for the first time. Cushing, Carlson and Fisher rehearsing, a version of George Prava's make up not see on screen, Bert Batt prepping one of the many great scenes from the film. I make no apologies for the sound or picture quality...it is what it is...and we are somewhat lucky that this unique peep into the world of Hammer and Cushing on set, still survives.

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: This black and white 10x8 publicity still above is really quite rare. It came to light just last year, when it was probably, for whatever reason, released from the cobwebs and darkness of the Warner Brothers Archives. It's rare that any new material appears from Peter's early films..unless a press agency or the release of a film on dvd or blu ray, requests some new visuals.

THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS probably my personal favourite of all the promo material from Revenge of Frankenstein, studio photographer John Jay must have had his muse on his shoulder that day, because press pics are usually just shots popped off during shooting or posed publicity...this one, maybe because of it's composition and that 'look' on the condemned Baron's face, makes it quite unique... what do you think?

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: Here is a great on set photograph from #FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN , Peter Cushing and actor Peter Madden as the Chief of Police. Madden appeared with Cushing in several other productions, ' Dr terror's House of Horrors' in 1965,  the BBC 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' part of the Sherlock Holmes series with Cushing in 1968, and another Hammer Frankenstein film, 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' in 1974. Here playing the Chief of Police, he locks horns with Cushing's Franeknstein, and this court room scene, is one of the highlights of the film, with some typical stinging Baron dialogue.  

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#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: CONCEPT ART MONSTER FROM HELL AND GOLDEN VAMPIRES

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY : An unused rough (sketch) for Hammer films’ Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell' cinema poster by Vic Fair, 1973. The final British poster cinema poster was painted and designed artist by Bill Wiggins (below).

HERE ARE A FEW WORDS from VIC FAIR himself, about his time working for Hammer films.  Fair designed two iconic cinema posters for the company, Vampire Circus and  Countess Dracula.

Did you enjoy working on posters for Hammer?
'Yeah, I really did.  Other artists and designers often frowned upon horror poster work but I really enjoyed it, especially since I was almost always given complete freedom to come up with my own ideas. Hammer were good at giving us the initial brief and then trusting us to come up with our own take on it. I remember I actually went too far with a few of the concepts and the studio would often request for them to be toned down quite a bit so they’d get past the Advertising Standards Committee'.

Can you recall working on the quad for Countess Dracula?
'Yes, I might have got a bit carried away with the two-faced thing but I think it worked quite well overall. I was lucky with that one in a way as it was one of the others where they just printed my first rough. I guess they must have liked the style of my sketch'.

ABOVE: The original concept rough (sketch) for Hammer films’ Vampire Circus by Vic Fair, 1972. You’ll notice that the rough is surrounded by pencil annotations and one to the bottom left simply reads ‘More tit’, indicating that the client, or someone in the agency, suggested they could get away with showing more of the lady on the bottom left.

 

'I enjoyed working on the quad I designed for Vampire Circus. I’d wanted to design something that might have been used to advertise an actual circus. The animals on there were pretty much copied directly from a children’s book, as I really didn’t have that much time to work on it. I thought they looked quite amusing, since they’re not exactly anatomically correct portraits of tigers and lions! I also had fun sneaking in the hidden male members, which was really just meant as a bit of a tease towards certain people behind the scenes. I can’t believe I got away with it really.'

 

ABOVE: A concept rough (sketch) for the British poster for Hammer’s The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires by Vic Fair, 1974. The final quad was illustrated by the Italian artist Arnaldo Putzu. This rough has yellowed with age somewhat but the concept is very clear.

 

FRANKENSTEIN FRIDAY CONNECTION : GIF FEATURES AND VINTAGE LOBBY CARDS

Action Cushing: Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) swinging into action from Hammer's THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)…. Peter loved doing his own stunts, but he did get scorched while filming this scene…. #FrankensteinFriday

MORE on THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN and it's female co stars KATY WILDE and CARON GARDNER HERE  and VERONICA CARLSON in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED : HERE 

GALLERY AND FEATURE ON  'THE EVIL OF FRANEKNSTEIN ' HERE

FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: A poor ol smouldering Freddie Jones gets gets the 'flaming sheaf of papers' in the face treatment from Peter Cushing's, nastier than usual Baron Frankenstein in Hammer films, knock out 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED' (1969) Tis a pity they spend the whole film trying to retrieve these sacred notes, only for the Baron to set fire to them...and then drop and forget them... in the climax of the film!

MORE ON FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED HERE

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