You know how there are certain movies where you hear about
how great they are so you kind of accept it and figure “I’ll get around to it
eventually.” And when you finally do see it, you go “Wow that was really
great.” As if everybody hadn’t been telling you this for the past couple of
years.
Yeah Curse Of Frankenstein is one of those. It’s really
great. I know I’m only like sixty years behind the curve on this one. Seriously
though, despite it’s status as a genre classic I was more than a little bit unprepared for this one. I
mean as much as I love The Hammer Dracula films, I think that Curse Of
Frankenstein is superior to all of them (with the exception of Brides Of
Dracula which is my favorite Hammer movie period. Though I suppose there can
some debate on whether or not that is a Dracula movie), pretty much across the
board.
The story like the Universal one is a pretty loose
adaptation of the story. Baron Frankenstein gets bored, decides to create life,
marries his cousin resurrects ghoul. What makes it special is Cushing’s
approach.
Peter Cushing plays Victor Frankenstein as a magnificent
bastard. I know that, you know that but it’s another thing to see it. There’s a
selfishness to Frankenstein, a veneer of aristocratic entitlement that he
brings to every action he performs, whether it’s boffing the help in the back
passage or trespassing in God’s domain (I read an interesting interview with
Christopher Lee the other day where he said that it was this entitlement that
he really thought he brought to Dracula, as opposed to sexuality. That goes
double for Frankenstein.) Cushing plays it to a hilt. You buy every aspect of
his character, his ruthlessness, his curiosity, this is a man who was born
feeling like he deserves everything.
I must admit after watching Tales From The Crypt and Curse Of
Frankenstein back to back I have a new found appreciation for Cushing. The man
had range.
He’s helped by the character Paul, who goes from
Frankenstein’s tutor, to partner, to enemy. There usually is a character to
spar with Frankenstein and appeal to his conscience in these films, but he’s
also usually dead by the second reel. The elevation of Paul makes a big
difference, not to mention the fact that he really manages to create a sense of
intimacy with Cushing. He’s the only one who really knows who he is and can see
what he’s doing in every scene. There’s one great moment where he walks into a
room, and immediately shoots Frankenstein a look that says “I can’t believe it,
you’re about to murder this fucking old guy aren’t you.” It’s not easy getting
that sort of communication to seem authentic.
Of course, Cushing is only the half of it. Christopher Lee
plays the creature in a performance that manages to feel completely different
from The famous Karloff take on the character, yet completely valid. No easy
feat especially considering the relatively small amount of screentime he has.
His take on The Monster is less cognizant then Karloff’s. Even further from the
eloquent creature of Shelley’s novel. There’s no soul behind the monster’s
eyes. He’s all reaction to outside stimuli. In what is perhaps the film’s best
scene (seriously it deserves to be up there with the “flower girl” sequence in
terms of importance to the mythos) the monster murders an old blind man, and
somehow manages to look as confused during the entire ordeal as his poor victim.
Terrence Fischer directs the film with his usual flair. Making
the most out of an obvious limited budget (I’d be shocked if the movie has more
than five sets). The film moves at
clip and Fischer makes the intimacy work for him. Though he certainly
doesn’t skimp when it comes time to bring the horror on.
But at the center of it all is Cushing darkly driven by his monstrous
ambitions. Not merely unremorseful, but unaware that anybody would even
consider remorse possible.
5 comments:
On one level, I feel that Paul is the biggest villain in the piece. He was supposed to be a mentor to Frankenstein, yet he does next to nothing to stop him. And he steals Frankenstein's girlfriend, to top it off.
Same as in Horror of Dracula, some moments are just pure bliss to watch. There is this one moment where the monster is walking around the woods, and the leaves are rustling as he falls to the ground, awesome visual, but then again, it's Terrence Fisher at the helm.
@ Steve: I think that's a pretty big stretch. It's pretty obvious that Victor cares for no one but himself and least of all Elizabeth. And he tries to stop him several times before finally washing his hands of the whole thing.
@ FC: That's an awesome moment. The blood stained mushrooms...
I always called the Christopher Lee version of the Monster "Icky Frankenstein"!
I just watched the whole movie for the first time and while I was impressed with Cushing, I just wasn't that crazy about the movie. I don't know what it is... I can't really get into Hammer horror. Is it the awful sets? The soap opera aspect? Or the fact that there isn't enough screen time for the monsters?
I have only seen a handful of Hammer movies, but I gotta go with Curse of the Werewolf as the best one.
this is a real horror from nature.
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