I love this movie so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

With Universal now releasing Hammer films in the US, they allowed the studio to ape the classic makeup. Better that they hadn't as this is one of worst makeups in the series. A rather bland story doesn't help this effort. The jewel of the movie is, as in most, Peter Cushing as the obsessed Baron.

Hammer's third film in the Frankenstein series and the first film to deviate away from the previous story – here, the Baron's given a separate, different back-story in an extended flashback sequence, so this is best viewed as stand alone. This is also the Frankenstein film that was co-funded by Universal, who distributed this along with seven other Hammer flicks in America. Previously, Hammer hadn't been allowed to copy the old Boris Karloff make up job which was copyrighted by Universal, but here, they go for a full-blown imitation. Sadly, the usually reliable Roy Ashton just isn't up to the job of recreating Jack Pierce's classic work on Karloff, and as a result the monster here looks ludicrous, a grey man with a massive slab of plaster glued to his forehead. The monster was played by the hulking wrestler Kiwi Kingston – who really was a Kiwi – but Kingston doesn't have any opportunity to act as only his eyes are (briefly) visible beneath the shoddy make up.Other than this fundamental flaw, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN is a pretty decent movie. Freddie Francis directs with visual flair and gives us some classic moments – the body snatcher stalking through the woods at the movie's opening and the excellent 'creation' scene in the lab are just two of them. Peter Cushing returns as the Baron, playing it a bit differently this time: Frankenstein is a bitter, hounded man, prone to violent outbursts and someone who snaps at other people quite a lot. Cushing is still great, of course, and it's a pleasure to watch him act as always. He's ably supported by the sleazy Peter Woodthorpe as a hypnotist with his own agenda, and Katy Wild, whose mute assistant is quite appealing. There aren't really many distinguished actors in the cast, which is more composed of TV people. One exception is a young Sandor Eles, familiar from COUNTESS Dracula, but his role here as the assistant Hans is very limited and he gets absolutely no characterisation.The story plays along well and there's always something going on to enjoy. The sets are decent-looking and the bit where the monster stalks through the village, bumping off enemies, is vintage Hammer, and reminded me of their mummy films. Things culminate in a good climax, utterly old-fashioned of course. The only thing working against THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN – aside from the rubbish make up – is a sense of 'seen it all before' in terms of the action, and this is what makes it – along with FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN – one of the lesser entries in the series; there's none of the drama of THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN or the ruthlessness of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, for instance. Not bad, but not one of Hammer's classics.

British Hammer (Horror) Studios had already made two Frankenstein films, based on the classic Mary Shelley story, I unsure what I would make of this third entry, but I knew it was rated fairly negatively by critics. Basically Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is penniless, he has been forced to leave town following the discovery of his laboratory and his experiments, he returns to his hometown of Karlstaad, with his assistant Hans (Sandor Elès). Ten years prior to the events that led to his exile, Frankenstein recalls bringing a being to life, after the police discovered his heresy he was arrested and fined, the Creature (Kiwi Kingston) escaped into the mountains and fell into a crevice. The following day, Frankenstein and Hans go in disguise to a dinner party, but they are recognised, they hide out at the exhibit of hypnotist Zoltan (Peter Woodthorpe) the arrogant Zoltan is arrested, and allows Frankenstein and Hans to escape. After more encounters with the authorities, Frankenstein and Hans retreat to the mountains, where Frankenstein's original creations is eventually discovered, frozen in a glacier, it is thawed out and restored to life at the château, they use the services and abilities of Zoltan to reanimate the creature's mind. Zoltan however uses the monster, responding to his commands, for his own advantage, he uses the creature to rob and take revenge on the authorities, Frankenstein realises this, the monster is made to attack him, but the Baron scares it off, in turn it brutally kills Zoltan. The creature goes on a violent rampage, during which it rips apart the electrical components and causes a fire in the laboratory, after trying to subdue it Frankenstein tries to escape, the creature stumbles about in terror as the flames surround them. In the end, villagers see Hans and a Beggar Girl (Katy Wild) flee the château, there is an explosion and the tower is thrown over the edge of the cliff, the monster is killed, but the fate of Frankenstein is unknown. Also starring Duncan Lamont as Chief of Police, David Hutcheson as Burgomaster, Caron Gardner as Burgomaster's Wife, James Maxwell as Priest and Tony Arpino as Body Snatcher. Cushing is still relatively good as the crazy scientist, unfortunately he is in the middle of what is almost a rehash of what has been seen in the previous two films, the story of the monster frozen in ice, revived and controlled by a hypnotist is pretty silly, and the creature effects are terrible, it is just an uninteresting and mediocre horror film. Adequate!

Hammer and Universal told the same stories but they told them in vastly different ways. 'Evil of Frankenstein' marks the one time the two companies collaborated on a classic property. 'Evil of Frankenstein' has a lot of love for what Universal did. It is full of fun visual cues that fans of both companies are bound to get a smile from. The entertainment a horror fan gets from 'Evil of Frankenstein' unfortunately ends there. The Hammer Horror series was always weak on developing stories and it may be the most noticeable in 'Evil of Frankenstein'. This film has a definite problem, it tries so hard to be in the spirit of Universal that it forgets what made the Hammer films great. Peter Cushing is the soul of British horror and this narrative throws him completely to the side. Hammer and Universal's Frankenstein films were very different. Frankly I think Hammer's concept for a series is much more interesting than Universal's was. Old Boris Karloff was 100% on the money when he predicted that Frankenstein films would reduce the monster to being nothing more than a prop devoid of soul laying on a lab table. By the end of the series it required no acting talent to play the creature anymore. Hammer went in a different direction and followed the creator and not the creature. It's a clever idea and as the series progressed it allowed for a character that descended into deeper madness as he performed bizarre experiments. It also didn't hurt that the creator was the great Peter Cushing. Cushing is in a class of his own. Every line he reads has so much gravitas and cunning. He gives absolutely enthralling and electric performances even as he is forced to deliver the same expository horror lines over and over again. Cushing creates a character through the nuances when the scripts offer nothing in terms of character development.Cushing's Frankenstein is the draw. This film thinks the monster and the laboratory are. Are they enough to sustain a picture? No not really. This is the best looking Hammer film in terms of what they are able to do with sets and size but that hardly impresses me. 'Curse of Frankenstein' shows all of it's extremely low budget and yet it is very entertaining because Cushing transcends everything in his performance. So while it is nice to see there be more visually cool things for the people to play with I feel that there is no substance. A large part of the problems with the film is that the monster is so damned boring and awkward looking. Jack Pierce's designs are imitated somewhat but the make-up designer has no concept of subtlety. The monster looks as though he is completely covered in hardened paper mache. What nonsense. Kiwi Kingston is no Karloff. He mumbles around. The one thing Hammer failed to understand is that this role requires an actor with some talent to play. Kingston's monster is the only monster in the series to be the star of the film over Cushing. Unfortunately he is the worst monster Cushing ever stitched together.There is one interesting Universal homage that actually kind of works. Peter Woodthrope plays Zoltan, a sleazy hypnotist, who makes the monster his slave and instrument of revenge. This is when the film started to interest me. It is a brilliant homage to Ygor and 'Son of Frankenstein'. The problem is is that Woodthrope and the script in general play it too safe and do not do anything new with this idea. This is a pretty tame film as Hammer standards are concerned. I would wish that Zoltan was more of a sexual pervert and had a deeper blood lust. This is a character that could have been brought to life perfectly if the film were made only a few years later when Hammer were less shy about pushing the envelope with violence and nudity. Good idea and okay performance from Woodthrope but in the end this subplot is wasted potential. I don't imagine it could have been truly gripping with Kingston as the monster.Any enjoyment one gets from this film will come from seeing the homages to Universal. They entertain. I on the other hand wanted more Peter Cushing and a monster that was not a giant block.