The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

Plot

Victor Frankenstein is angry when his father forbids him from going to study at college to continue his anatomical experiments. So kills his father and makes it look like accident, thus leaving Victor with the family fortune and title of Baron. He uses this wealth to finance his college studies but leaves when he gets the dean's daughter pregnant. Returning home, he sets up a laboratory and starts a series of experiments aimed at bringing the dead back to life with the intention of creating a human being from stolen body parts. Unfortunately, his creature doesn't behave the way he intended it to.

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Unfairly labelled as the worst of the Hammer Frankenstein series, The Horror of Frankenstein is a decent attempt at breathing new life into a franchise which was admittedly the same main story over and over again with slight tweaks to the secondary characters and endings. By the time 1970 rolled around, Hammer had regurgitated their successful franchises so much that there was nothing new to see. Directors, writers and actors alike, they were old and tiresome and not the draws they once were a decade earlier. In an attempt to reboot their Frankenstein series with a younger actor taking over from Peter Cushing to attract a then-modern audience, Hammer turned to one of their shining lights, Ralph Bates. Hammer had been grooming him as the next Cushing or Christopher Lee and this was one of his first starring roles. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster was brought back to rewrite his script from The Curse of Frankenstein and given the director's chair as well.

Unfortunately, and presumably the source of the negative reaction it gets from fans, The Horror of Frankenstein seems to play out as a thinly-veiled parody of the previous films. There is an underlying tone of comedy throughout, plenty of black humour and lots of nods and digs at the previous films. It will be lost on non-Hammer fans but those who appreciate the excellent dry comic lines from Ralph Bates will be in store for a treat on occasion. And it's Bates who is the star of the show. He is good as Frankenstein. Actually he's better than good, he's excellent. He's arrogant, cold, ruthless and rude - just like Cushing. But this Frankenstein is a different kettle of fish entirely. Cushing's Frankenstein was a single-minded scientist who refused to let anyone get in the way of his 'vital' work no matter what. Bates' Frankenstein comes off more of a complete psycho who enjoys killing his enemies, getting kicks out of knowing that he has this powerful monster ready to do his bidding. Bates never really managed to get himself into that top spot at Hammer because for all of his talent, he just couldn't find the screen presence to succeed in horror. He lacked gravitas (the kids today call it aura) to really draw audiences towards him.

Many fans blame him for this film's problems but Bates is faultless throughout, it's the script which lets him down. Whereas previous iterations of the character always allowed audiences to feel some degree of sympathy, Bates' version has been written to be so unlikeable that its impossible to root for him. The film focuses too much on his sexual conquests and when the next time Frankenstein is going to get his leg over, let alone the construction of a monster from various body parts. It's a Gothic horror version of American Pie at times. When the script finally realizes that it needs to cover the traditional bases of a Frankenstein film, it does kick into gear somewhat. Even then, the film rushes through the Frankenstein tropes once the monster appears. He just breaks free, kills some random people (and the token little girl) with no purpose or meaning other than he is an evil monster. There's no personality or internal conflict with this monster - he's just a brute who kills.

It was harsh on Peter Cushing, the veteran who had been at the forefront of this series since day one (and who would return for a finale Frankenstein film after this one was a critical and commercial failure) but understandable that the studio did want to try and mix things up. Aside from Bates, there is a great supporting role from Dennis Price as a gravedigger. Hammer's trademark of heaving bosoms is at least amply filled here with Kate O'Mara and Veronica Carlson providing the tools to complete such a task. Whilst they provide massive amounts of eye candy, both O'Mara and Carlson were two of Hammer's better leading ladies and so can hold their own when they have to something else outside of their chests, particularly Mara who has decent chemistry with Bates. David Prowse, forever to be known as one of the two men who brought Darth Vader to life, is the monster this time around and he literally looks just like a normal man with a fake prosthetic cranium attached (albeit it a slight bigger than normal man since Prowse himself was a huge bodybuilder!). The monster is introduced around the hour mark - when the film itself is ninety minutes, you realise just how late the script leaves it to get to, you know, the actual Frankenstein stuff.

This was the first Hammer film produced solely with British finance and the absence of US investment really tells in the way the film looks and feels. Hammer was known for it's lavish Technicolour and Gothic excesses, usually capably handled by a stalwart director like Terence Fisher and production designer Bernard Robinson to make sure that every penny was seen up on the screen. Here, the production design looks bland and drab, clearly the result of some penny pinching. The gore has been also toned down, so much so that this is less gory than The Curse of Frankenstein was back in 1957.

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Final Verdict

The Horror of Frankenstein is nowhere near the worst of the series and should be commended for at least trying to do something to freshen things up. Bates' excellent performance as well as plenty of black humour make this a unique, if somewhat flawed, addition to the Hammer Frankenstein series. It would have been better if Bates had been given a serious script to try and work with but sadly he, and the rest of the cast, were given a raw deal in trying to fill some seriously big shoes.

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The Horror of Frankenstein Director(s): Jimmy Sangster Writer(s): Jeremy Burnham (screenplay), Jimmy Sangster (screenplay), Mary Shelley (based on the characters created by) Actor(s): Ralph Bates, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson, Dennis Price, Jon Finch, Bernard Archard, Graham James Duration: 95 mins