THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)

 

(Director: Terence Fisher. Screenwriter: Jimmy Sangster, his screenplay loosely based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel.)

 

Review

CURSE, a creative overhaul of the 1931 film FRANKENSTEIN, based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel), is bookended by scenes of Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1958) in prison. The nineteenth century scientist is about to be executed for murder. He, in a non-repentant tone, tells a priest (played by Alex Gallier), about his experiments that led him to inhabit this filthy dungeon.

Shown in extended flashback, Frankenstein’s backstory runs thusly: Frankenstein and a fellow scientist, Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) work to reanimate the dead. When Frankenstein’s ruthless, blasphemous intentions run afoul of Krempe’s sensibilities, he bows out of the experiments. Tangled in this mix of science, amity, hubris, and betrayal is his maid/lover Justine (Valerie Gaunt, HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958) as well as Victor’s benignly neglected wife, Elizabeth (Hazel Court), who’s blissfully unaware of the details of her husband’s illegal and unethical activities. Then, of course, there’s The Creature, a wild-card personality to reckon with—played with violent intensity by Christopher Lee, his version of the “monster” enraged, murderous, and distinctly disfigured, with no resemblance to makeup designer Jack P. Pierce’s copyrighted 1931 version, is truly a hideous beast.

Inevitably, The Creature escapes. Assault and murder follows, not only in Baron Frankenstein’s castle, but in the nearby village. It bears noting that much of the violence and (imagined) gore is of the offscreen variety, though its atmosphere is effectively harsh and effective, furthered by the excellence of its players, including Michael Mulcaster (Tattoo Harry in THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1958) as a Warder.

CURSE, Britain’s first color horror film (courtesy of Eastmancolor), is one of my favorite Frankenstein works—audiences loved it, though it was critically drubbed upon its initial release. Like many of Hammer Films’ better terror/monster flicks, it’s based on Jimmy Sangster’s tightly penned screenplay, edited by James Needs, directed by one of Hammer’s in-house directors Terence Fisher, and sports intense cinematography by Jack Asher, another Hammer regular.

More grim than scary, this standout Hammer Films adaptation is worth your time, a high mark in atmospheric horror, with a great cast and crew. Followed by THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958).

 

 Deeper film(ic) dive

CURSE is Cushing’s first film for Hammer Films, as well as the first of his six cinematic outings as Victor Frankenstein. It’s also one of twenty-four movies he made with his good friend Christopher Lee (their first movie together was HAMLET in 1948). Cushing made thirteen Hammer films with Terence Fisher at the helm.

THE CRIMSON CULT (1968)

 

(a.k.a. CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR. Director: Vernon Sewell. Screenwriters: Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, based on Jerry Sohl’s story, loosely extrapolated from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Dreams in the Witch House.”)

 

Review

Antiques dealer Robert Manning (Mark Eden) visits his family’s English ancestral home of Greymarsh when his brother, Peter (Denys Peek), disappears during a business trip. Peter’s last known location is Craxted Lodge.

Once Robert arrives, he is warmly greeted by Craxted’s owner (Morley), a descendant of Lavinia Morley (a green-skinned Barbara Steele) who was burned at the stake in 1652. Also in residence is Eve Morley (Virginia Wetherell, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1971), Morley’s niece, who becomes Robert’s romantic interest and fellow investigator. A cryptic local historian of the occult (Professor John Marsh) also visits Craxted; he is barely civil to Robert.

Robert’s questions get the run-around treatment, so he further investigates, at night having kaleidoscopic nightmares about a green- and red-lit room, and half-naked servants (men and women) who hold goats and writhe around Lavinia, sitting on her throne.

Eventually, all becomes clear with help from surprising quarters, ending in a visually fun (cheesy for some) end-shot.

CRIMSON, is a mostly bland, silly admixture of a straightlaced murder mystery and pseudo-psychedelic hippie-ish Lovecraftian nightmare, with its filler party scenes, a sex scene, and overlong, investigative-dream sequences. By the time Robert has figured out what happened to his brother and why, it’s a great, is this movie done yet? situation. CRIMSON’s behind-the-scenes crew made a good-looking movie, made darker with Peter Knight’s spare, effective music score.

Beyond the seething and sensual Barbara Steele (PIRANHA, 1978), a big part of what CRIMSON gets right is its top-billed leads: Christopher Lee (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, 1970) as the polite Morley, who is hiding something; Boris Karloff (BLACK SABBATH, 1963), in one of his final roles, as Professor John Marsh, whose brusque manners hide something as well; Michael Gough (DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS, 1965) as Elder, the Morleys’ troubled butler; and Rupert Davies (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, 1968) as “The Vicar.”

CRIMSON, with its not-quite-psychedelic trial scenes, solid behind-the-scenes work and worthwhile actors, is a “meh”movie, not terrible, not great─and worth seeing if you’re a completist fan of any of its leads, as long as you expect CRIMSON to be one of their lesser flicks.

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN (1970)

 

(Director: Gordon Hessler. Screenwriter: Christopher Wicking.)

Review

This American International Pictures [AIP] movie is based on a 1967 novel (THE DISORIENTATED MAN) by Peter Saxon, a pseudonym used by various authors between the late 1950s and the 1970s. According to Wikipedia, Stephen Frances wrote most of DISORIENTATED, with W. Howard Baker editing. The novel was later republished as SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, a title it shares with its resulting flick.

In SCREAM, a vampire-like killer runs wild in London. While the police try to track the blood-obsessed murderer down, an offbeat scientist gets caught between them.

The film is a non-gory, fragmented science fiction-conspiracy-thriller work starring three top horror stars. Vincent Price (THE RAVEN, 1963), played Dr. Browning, an experimental scientist and head of a lab compound trying to create a humanoid master race who wear SS-like uniforms. Peter Cushing (MADHOUSE, 1974) cameoed as Major Benedek, an officer in an unnamed eastern European intelligence service. Christopher Lee (HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF, 1985) played Fremont, a high-ranking officer in an unnamed British intelligence agency. Price and Lee share a scene near the end of the film. 

Meanwhile, a serial killer with vampiric tendencies targets young women in London clubs, tragedies that, in choppy fashion, draw attention to Browning’s medical-military compound.

If viewed as an oddball, triple-segment and solid conspiracy thriller with horror actors and a horror title, SCREAM may prove to be a fun cinematic outing for you. If watched as a traditional horror film─it has touches of horror, e.g., Browning’s under-the-floor acid vat beneath his operating theater─it might not be choice entertainment for you.

Deep(er) filmic dive

SCREAM’s “Michael Gothard versus police chase” [IMDb] scene was partly shot on the Alpine Circuit at Milbrook test track—also used in TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972, “Wish You Were Here” segment).

HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985)

 

(a.k.a. HOWLING II: IT’S NOT OVER YET; a.k.a. HOWLING II: STIRBA—WEREWOLF BITCH. Director: Philippe Mora. Screenplay by Robert Sarno and Gary Brandner, said to be loosely based on Brandner’s 1978 novel, THE HOWLING II, but if it is, it’s only in spirit.)

Storyline

Ben White, brother of Karen White from the first HOWLING, goes after werewolves who wanted to claim his sister’s resurrected body, with help from his girlfriend and a werewolf expert.

Review

Los Angeles, California.  HOWLING II begins at Karen White’s funeral, attended by her brother (Ben) and his girlfriend (Jenny Templeton). The details of Karen’s on-camera death at the end of THE HOWLING (1981) are not known by Ben and Jenny (the tapes of her death disappeared). All Ben and Jenny know is that her death was a suicide.

Also at the funeral is Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee), a stranger who tells Ben and Jenny about the circumstances surrounding Karen’s death─and that she’s not dead, since the M.E. took the fatal silver bullet from her body. At the next full moon, Stefan says, Karen will rise from her grave as a lycanthrope. Jenny isn’t sure what to think until Stefan shows them the tape of Karen’s transformation and death. Jenny believes Stefan. Ben still thinks Stefan is full of it. Later, they go to Karen’s coffin and by the end of the night, Ben is a believer too.

Stefan tells them he’s going to the Balkans to wipe out the remainder of the werewolf pack─a few of whom were seen at Karen’s funeral. They want to take her to Stirba, a lycanthropic enchantress and Stefan’s mortal enemy. Ben and Jenny go with Stefan─Ben wants revenge for his sister; Jenny wants to help resolve the situation.

Stefan, Jenny and Ben arrive in the Balkans. (In addition to LA, the film was shot in Czechoslovakia, specifically Central Bohemia and Borrandov Studios in Prague.) Werewolves stalk them, occasionally attack them.

The film meanders while Stefan and Stirba-hating villagers locate her castle near town. While this happens, Stirba─an old crone─breathes in a young sacrifice’s yellow soul-vapor during a satanic ritual. Stirba de-ages into a big-breasted, sexy woman (Sybil Danning), who dons metal-adorned leather and wraparound sunglasses (Danning had conjunctivitis) and prances around when she’s not ripping off her clothes and writhing in orgiastic, R-rated passion with Mariana (Marsha A. Hunt, DRACULA A.D. 1972) and Vlad (Judd Omen, C.H.U.D. II: BUD THE CHUD, 1989), her hunky second-in-command.

Jenny is kidnapped by Stirba’s minions and held as a future sacrifice. Stefan, Ben, and Stefan’s villager friends battle Stirba and her worshippers. Will Ben rescue Jenny? Will Stefan and the others defeat Stirba and her pack?

HOWLING II is not a good film but it has a lot of humor and occasional Hammer flick drama in it, along with a few worthwhile actors (this does not include the wooden role-fillers who played Jenny and Ben). Despite his evident disappointment with the project, Christopher Lee is professional and fun, elevating the film to a barely watchable level. Sybil Danning (THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES, 1972) is good as the villainess with a mysterious link to Stefan, and for those who can’t get enough of her breasts, one of her few nude shots is repeated seventeen times during the end-credits─a producer’s doing, something that pissed Danning off when she saw it. Tired of taking off her clothes on camera, she had been reluctant to do topless shots, but she’d relented. Then to see them used in that manner. . .

HOWLING II also has decent (if cheesy) practical FX, especially when one considers what the filmmakers had to work with. The blood is bright red, shots are clever, and some of the lycanthropes are ape-like─according to IMDb, that’s because the filmmakers were accidentally sent ape suits from a PLANET OF THE APES project, so Mora and company made do with what they had.

HOWLING II might appeal to fans of low budget, playful Eighties films and Lee/Danning completists. It’s far from the worst entry in this seven-film franchise, but for most people, it probably wouldn’t be worthwhile fare.