Universal Studios brought us so many classic horror films in the 30’s and 40’s, and my favourites were the Frankenstein films . The first trilogy of Frankenstein, Bride and Son is truly amazing and one of the finest trilogies in films . The movies afterwards were not as good but still excellent, and as time went on and tastes changed, and this meant monster movies changed as well in America. The B movies took center stage in the 1950’s and they lacked the same punch that the classic horror films did.
America ended up in a bit of a rut but others still worked on excellent horror. The British studio Hammer Films, produced some of the best horror movies from the 50’s to the 70’s and it all began with The Curse of Frankenstein. The film starred Peter Cushing as a very different Dr. Frankenstein than seen in the Universal film series, and it seems Hammer wanted to do everything they could to set their film apart. The monster was played by Christopher Lee and was referred to as the Creature for legal purposes, and Lee went on to become a major star with Hammer Films as Dracula. It is this performance though, that made him a standout and got him noticed.
What made this film stand out was the dark mood and manic tone set by the director Terence Fisher. He managed to create real tension and a sense of both familiarity and unfamiliarity at the same time. Cushing in turn, stood out as Dr. Frankenstein by portraying him as an outright villainous figure. Whereas Dr. Frankenstein in the Universal films dug up dead bodies and realized he was going to far, Cushing’s Frankenstein murders people to get the body parts he needs and shows no remorse for his action, even reveling in them. He even used the monster as a weapon to kill people he found inconvenient and thus became truly irredeemable, among other actions he would take later in the series.
Curse of Frankenstein was brilliant by making you realize the monster isn’t the creature made by Frankenstein, but instead the very human Dr. Frankenstein himself. This is a direction that sadly few have gone in since, and I would love to see more film makers follow Hammer’s path for their first two Frankenstein films before things went downhill. The ending of the second film just begged for a continuation, but sadly it was rebooted with the third entry. It is still a good series, but the first two were the best. I urge you all to check them out