The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

Please don't spend money on this.

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It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The third of the Hammer Frankenstein films , it revolves around with the mad doctor Baron Frankenstein : Peter Cushing who along with his helper: Sandor Eles arrive at his family castle near the small town Karlstaad , where once again undergo the fantastic experiments in the creation of life. Fortuitously finding his monster from time ago preserved in ice and thawing him out .But the Baron requires the services of a mean illusionist called Zoltan : Peter Woodthorpe who subsequently sends the creature to rob gold to the townspeople. Meanwhile , the chief of police : Duncan Lamont investigates the weird deeds .Decent Frankenstein entry has thrills , fights , action , terror and chills .Preceded by The revenge of Frankenstein and followed by Frankenstein created woman. At the end happens the ordinary as well as violent confrontation between Baron Frankenstein and the townspeople with the unexpected consequences . Enjoyable interpretations all around .Exceptional , as usual, the great Peter Cushing as the famous Baron who finds once again the ugly monster and he brings it back to life .Peter Woodthorpe plays magnificently the vengeful and greedy mesmerist Zoltan who seeks vendetta and punishment against the chief of police and the burgomaster using secretly the hunk monster .Duncan Lamont plays a chief of police with whom Zoltan seeks vengeance and he finds out the strange events . While Sandor Eles plays the Frankenstein's eager assistant, Eles also acted in another successful Hammer film : Countess Dracula. Finally, Kathy Wild plays a beautiful mute beggar. The picture displays a colorful cinematography by John Wilcox and an evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by Don Banks . The motion picture was professionally directed by Freddie Francis who usually worked with Peter Cushing . He was a good director and a prestigious cameraman . Freddie made a lot of terror films (many of them starred by Cushing) such as : The creeping flesh, Craze , The skull, Witness madness, The ghoul, Son of Dracula , Legend of the Werewolf, Trog, Dracula has risen from the grave , Torture garden, Hysteria, Doctor Terror , Nightmare , The brain, They came from beyond space, Doctor and the devils , 1972 Tales from the crypt ,1996 Crypt tales . Freddy was also an important cameraman with notorious titles as The straight story , Rainbow , Princess Caraboo, Fear Cape, Glory , Brenda Starr, The man in the moon, Her alibi , Suspense, Elephant man , Night must fall and Room at the top.

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!

Freddie Francis directed this third entry in the series, that sees Peter Cushing return as Dr. Frankenstein, who is now broke, but still has his assistant Hans(now played by Sandor Eles) The baron returns to his family castle in Germany to discover his original creature(played by Kiwi Kingston) frozen in ice, so defrosts him, but finds the creature in a catatonic state, so remembering a village hypnotist, a Dr. Zoltan(played by Peter Woodthorpe) enlists him to mentally stimulate the creature, which he does, but unfortunately decides to use it to avenge himself by murdering his enemies in the village, and steal their wealth, which leads to an explosive climax... Not as good as the first two, since the script is vague and unoriginal, but this film is still entertaining, and Cushing as good as ever. Should have tied in more neatly with its predecessors, though the idea of Frankenstein having a second creature at the same time, but a different location, as the first film is intriguing.