The Evil of Frankenstein

Infobox Film
name = The Evil of Frankenstein


caption =
director = Freddie Francis
producer = Anthony Hinds
writer = Anthony Hinds (as "John Elder")
starring = Peter Cushing
Sandor Eles
Peter Woodthorpe
Katy Wild
Duncan Lamont
Kiwi Kingston
music = Don Banks
cinematography = John Wilcox
editing =
distributor = Hammer Film Productions
released = May 8, 1963 (USA)
runtime = 84 min.
country = United Kingdom
language = English
preceded_by = "The Revenge of Frankenstein"
followed_by = "Frankenstein Created Woman"
amg_id = 1:16262
imdb_id = 0058073

"The Evil of Frankenstein" is a 1963 British horror film made by Hammer Studio. This film version of Shelley's tale was directed for Hammer by Freddie Francis. The film stars Peter Cushing as Frankenstein and New Zealand wrestler Kiwi Kingston as the Monster. The film's version of the Monster is noted for closely resembling Universal Pictures' famous "Frankenstein" series of the 1930s and '40s, including the flat-headed look of Jack Pierce's monster make-up originally designed for the legendary Boris Karloff as well as the distinctive laboratory sets.

Plot summary

Forced to leave town because of their experiments, Frankenstein and Hans return to Frankenstein's hometown of Karlstad and set up laboratory in the abandoned Frankenstein chateau. Frankenstein then finds his original creation frozen inside a glacier and restores it to life. Only it will not respond to his commands. And so he comes up with the idea of obtaining the services of Zoltan, a disreputable carnival hypnotist, to hypnotize the monster into obeying him. Zoltan is successful but has less than scientific interests at heart and, with the monster responding only to his commands, uses it to rob and take revenge upon the town authorities.

Reaction

While loved by some, others regard the film as a less-than-satisfactory entry in the horror studio's run of "Frankenstein" films (which began with "The Curse of Frankenstein" in 1957 and ended with "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" in 1974). Like the studio's later "The Horror of Frankenstein", "The Evil of Frankenstein" is considered by most fans to be a "one off" from the series proper, rather than part of the actual continuity, partly because of its stylistic differences from the other films, and partly because Frankenstein's thawed out 'original' monster and the circumstances of its creation bear no resemblance to the creature from "The Curse of Frankenstein". Also, the flashback origin events given in this film completely contradict the events and their conclusion in "Curse". However, Frankenstein's burnt and useless hands in the next entry in the series, "Frankenstein Created Woman", are likely to be a reference back to the climactic conflagration in this movie.

US TV version

When the film was shown on US network television in 1968, it had been altered. Some "intense" scenes were excised or shortened and new footage, shot by a different director, was added to pad the film's length. These scenes involved a reporter wringing his hands over having to catch a train and so missing an opportunity to do a story on Frankenstein, and the mute girl's father hoping that an operation will restore his girl's speech. These new scenes featured a cast not associated with the rest of the film and were filmed in the US. This was a common practice at the time and also occurred with "The Phantom of the Opera" (1962) and "The Kiss of the Vampire" (1963), whose re-edited version was retitled "Kiss of Evil".

Cast

* Peter Cushing (Baron Victor Frankenstein)
* Peter Woodthorpe (Zoltan)
* Duncan Lamont (Karlstaad Chief of Police)
* Sandor Eles (Hans)
* Katy Wild (Rena)
* Kiwi Kingston (the Creature)

External links

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