THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958)

 

 (Director: Terence Fisher. Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster, whose script was augmented by dialogue by “Huford Janes” [Sangster’s pen name] and an uncredited George Baxt.)

Review

REVENGE immediately picks up where THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) left off, with Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) being led to Swiss gallows. The camera cuts away from showing his death as the offscreen sound of physical body blows are heard.

Three years later, 1860. Frankenstein, going by the name Victor Stein, is a highly successful medical practitioner in Carlsbrück, running a clinic for the surly impoverished as well treating wealthy clients. The local medical board, jealous of the baron scientist’s popularity and independence, seek to pull them into their organization. He refuses, citing their snubbing him when he originally arrived in Carlsbrück. They, in a huff, leave. However, one of the junior members of the board, Dr. Hans Kleve (Francis Matthews, DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS, 1966) recognizes Stein for who he really is and blackmails the doctor into letting Kleve work with him—Kleve admires Stein’s past and current work and wants to be part of it. He doesn’t bear Frankenstein any ill will.

The medical clinic is not Frankenstein and Kleve’s only endeavor. Karl (Michael Gwynn, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, 1960), the hunchbacked jail attendant who helped Frankenstein escape the gallows, is to be the beneficiary of the Baron and Kleve’s outlier efforts: Karl’s brain is to be transplanted into a well-preserved, handsome male body. The experiment goes well, and Karl, besotted with pretty nurse Margaret Conrad (Eunice Gayson, DR. NO, 1962), is pleased as are the two scientists—in this new body, Karl might have a chance with her! However, his plans to bury his hunchbacked past are threatened when the scientists want to make a big scientific splash by revealing the experiment, Karl and his old body, to their more reputable peers around the world. Karl doesn’t like this, and coupled with Margaret and Kleve’s obvious mutual attraction, Karl goes violently mad even as his limbs begin to wither.

Not only that, superstitious distrust among the villagers (including the ungrateful poor whom he treats without charge) dogs Frankenstein and Kleve, while the local medical board tries to push their own agenda on the two doctors. Throw in a shady and drunken Janitor (George Woodbridge, HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958) in Frankenstein’s employ, and the ingredients for the notorious scientist’s ruination are in place.

Cushing’s Frankenstein is not the callous murderer he was in CURSE. He’s relatively charming and more generous, though he’s still willing to rob graves and, if pushed, kill anyone who threatens him and his experiments. In a lesser story, such a character change might not work but here it does.

Other REVENGE talent, on and off screen, includes:

Michael Mulcaster (uncredited as Tattoo Harry– Mulcaster also played Frankenstein’s warder in THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1957).

Jack Asher (cinematographer, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1957, and HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958). 

Alfred Cox (editor, QUATERMASS 2, 1957).

Bernard Robinson (production designer, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, 1957).

Phillip Leakey (makeup, HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958).

REVENGE, which confidently builds on its predecessor, is one of the best entries in Hammer’s seven-film FRANKENSTEIN series. Its streamlined script is effectively twisty and tight, with no wasted shots, solid visual representation, good-to-great acting, and a standout ending that’s memorable in any FRANKENSTEIN film, Hammer-produced or otherwise. Followed by THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964).