‘Screen’s greatest screamfest!’
The Revenge of Frankenstein is a 1958 sci-fi horror film in which the Baron escapes the guillotine to continue his experiments.
Directed by Terence Fisher from a screenplay written by Jimmy Sangster with additional dialogue by Hurford Janes, the Hammer Films production stars Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Eunice Gayson and Michael Gwynn.
The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard Salzedo (Hammer House of Horror TV series ‘The Silent Scream’).
Plot [contains spoilers]:
In 1860, Baron Victor Frankenstein is sentenced to death by guillotine for the murders committed by the monster he created. He escapes execution by having a priest beheaded and buried in his place with the aid of a hunchback named Karl.
Three years later, Victor, now going by the alias Doctor Stein, has become a successful physician in Karlsbrück, catering to the wealthy while also attending to the poor in a paupers’ hospital. Hans Kleve, a junior member of the medical council, recognises Victor and, being an admirer, requests an apprenticeship with him.
Together with Karl, Victor and Hans continue with the Baron’s experiment: transplanting a living brain into a new body, one that is not a crude, cobbled-together creature. The deformed Karl is more than willing to volunteer his brain thereby gaining a healthy body, particularly after meeting Margaret Conrad, the lovely new assistant at the hospital.
The transplant succeeds, but when the excited Hans tells Karl that he will be a medical sensation, Karl panics and convinces Margaret to free him. Hans notes that the chimpanzee into which Victor had transplanted the brain of an orangutan ate its mate. He worries about Karl, but his concerns are brushed off by Victor. Karl flees from the hospital and hides in Victor’s laboratory, where he burns his preserved hunchback body. He is attacked by a drunken janitor, who takes him for a burglar, but manages to kill the man. Victor and Hans discover Karl is missing and begin searching for him.
The next morning, Margaret finds Karl in her aunt’s stable. While she goes to fetch Hans, Karl experiences difficulties with his arm and leg. When Hans and Margaret arrive, he is gone. At night, Karl ambushes and strangles Gerda, a local girl. The next night, he rushes into an evening reception. Having redeveloped his deformities, he begs Victor for help, using his real name of Frankenstein, before he collapses and dies.
Victor, disregarding Hans’ pleas that he should leave the country, appears before the medical council, where he denies being the infamous Frankenstein. The unsatisfied councilors open Victor’s supposed grave, only to discover the priest’s body, and conclude that the real Frankenstein is still alive.
At the hospital, the patients violently attack Victor in rage and Hans rushes his dying mentor to the lab. The police arrive to arrest Victor, but when Hans shows them Victor’s dead body, they leave. Hans then transplants Victor’s brain into a new body that Victor had prepared earlier, which he made to resemble him.
Sometime later in Harley Street, London, Hans assists Victor, now calling himself Doctor Franck, in welcoming some patients.
Critical reception:
Variety called The Revenge of Frankenstein “a high grade horror film” with “rich” production values and a script that was “well-plotted, peopled with interesting characters, aided by good performances.”
Motion Picture Daily noted, “a horror picture turned out with creative skill and imagination. The most notable contribution the Hammers have made to the genre is their stunning use of color for frightening effects”. Hammer Films “have demolished once and for all the theory that horror films should always be in black-and-white”.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: “A contrived plot and a notable lack of pace and imagination are responsible for the failure of this lavish and painstaking production to be convincing even on the level of a horror film. Peter Cushing’s stylish and diffident performance serves only to underline the farcical effects of a crude and pedestrian handling of the little legitimate horror left.”
Censorship:
British censors the BBFC demanded cuts to remove shots of a brain being tipped into a jar.
Cast and characters:
Peter Cushing … Doctor Victor Stein
Francis Matthews … Doctor Hans Kleve
Eunice Gayson … Margaret
Michael Gwynn … Karl
John Welsh … Bergman
Lionel Jeffries … Fritz
Oscar Quitak … Dwarf
Richard Wordsworth … Up Patient
Charles Lloyd Pack … President
John Stuart … Inspector
Arnold Diamond … Molke
Marjorie Gresley … Countess Barscynska
Anna Walmsley … Vera Barscynska
George Woodbridge … Janitor
Michael Ripper … Kurt
Ian Whittaker … Boy
Avril Leslie … Girl
Technical specs:
1 hour 30 minutes
Technicolor
Aspect Ratio: 1.66: 1
Audio: Mono (RCA Sound Recording)
Trailer:
Free to watch on YouTube [480p]:
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