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This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell released by Shout! Factory in 2020.
TIMELINE FOR FRANKENSTEIN: This movie is the seventh and final 'Frankenstein' film for Hammer Productions. Not all of the films are continuous. Five of the seven movies are connected. This movie is a direct sequel of the fifth Hammer Horror Frankenstein film, 'Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969)'.
BLU-RAY: The picture is excellent. This film, like many of the 70's Hammer films was not successful and therefore the original elements didn't get much usage. The end result is an excellent print. The picture is sharp, very few imperfections and saturation and coloring looks just about right. The lighting was very good for this picture.
EXTRA'S:
-Audio Commentary with actress Madeline Smith, Actor David Prowse, and historian Jonathan Sothcott - I always prefer the commentaries that involve the people involved. In this case we have two of the actors/actresses in this commentary. Madeline Smith is quite personable in this commentary and dominates it. Sothcott answers questions the actors have about the people involved and what happened to them. Prowse talks about his career and obviously his costume and role in this movie.
-Audio Commentary with Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr - These two do the commenting on a lot of audio commentaries for horror films. Nasr tends to be the guy who gets his hands on the original script as well as previous drafts and comments on the differences between the scripts and the final outcome. I'm not sure if that is the case for this movie. I don't believe these two quite got the meaning of the title. The title says 'from' Hell not 'in' Hell. Quite a few times, they comment about people "going to Hell". Specifically, they focus on the Director and Dr. Frankenstein, who they say are going to Hell. They refer to the asylum as looking like Hell and being Hell. Maybe it's just me... but I think the reference to Hell is simply to describe how monstrous and/or evil the Monster is. The Monster is made from a monster of a man along with parts of other horrible people. Eventually that body from Hell takes over even it's own brain (that of a disturbed professor).
THE "I GIVE UP DEPARTMENT": I've commented in previous reviews that it gets tiring listening to these commentators never ending complaining about social justice in these older films. They don't seem to quite understand that many people are watching these old movies for the very reason (but far from the only reason) that social justice was not a 'thing'. Constantine Nasr often complains that women didn't get enough roles, more specifically 'strong' roles. He states that Angel (Sarah) is "used and abused" by Frankenstein. After watching this, I said to myself, "here is a rare example of a woman in a horror movie getting a strong role". Sarah is highly competent, very intelligent and even performs operations for Dr. Frankenstein solely on him telling her what to do. She fights off sexual advances and manages to perform all of her duties despite being handicapped by not be able to speak (or so we thought). All of this while being forced to live among lunatics in an asylum. She came across as about as strong of a female protagonist as you can have in that situation. Yet, Nasr acts as if she is this pathetic abused woman. Well, I strongly disagree. I guess he wants Superwoman or Captain Marvel. BTW, I think Nasr does a great job even if I sometimes disagree with him on which of the Hammer films are good and bad. This is the only real issue I have with his commentary.
-Documentary: "The Men Who Made Hammer: Roy Skeggs" - This documentary focuses on the man who was at Hammer the longest. Brian Klemensen narrates this 16 minute documentary on the career of Roy Skeggs.
-Theatrical Trailer
-Radio Spots
-Subtitles
*****LOTS OF SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT*****
PLOT/SUMMARY: Dr. Simon Helder is arrested and sentenced to 5 years in an asylum for the crime of sorcery. He gets caught illegally purchasing bodies and studying them. Once at the asylum, Dr. Frankenstein makes him his assistant. Frankenstein is pretending to be buried and is able to keep his secret because he knows the Asylum director's dark past.
Dr. Frankenstein plots to get body parts from some of the most dangerous inmates at the asylum. He has a beautiful and mute assistant named Sarah. The inmates call her 'Angel'. Dr. Helder is given the job of taking care of the medical needs of the patients. Dr. Frankenstein reveals that his hands were ruined in the fire at the end of 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'. Before Dr. Helder arrived at the asylum, he had been coaching Sarah to perform operations.
Dr. Helder hears loud moans and howls from time to time and goes searching for Dr. Frankenstein's hidden laboratory. He finds it and learns about Frankenstein's latest creation as well. His latest Monster is a super strong inmate who had a Neolithic appearance. After a master artisan, who was an inmate, dies, Frankenstein has his hands attached to the Monster. Frankenstein teaches Helder to give the Monster new eyes. Next, they need a new brain. Frankenstein, leaves a note in the room of an inmate who is a brilliant professor. After reading the note, the Professor kills himself. Frankenstein now has his brain and has Helder transplant it. The Monster revives but becomes very depressed upon seeing his new body. Frankenstein comes up with a plan to mate the Monster with Sarah. Helder is not happy about this and threatens to go to the director. Unfortunately, he finds out that the director had previously raped Sarah, who is his daughter. Before anything can happen, the Monster begins to go crazy and goes on a rampage. Back in the lab, the Monster attacks Frankenstein, but Frankenstein survives. He then murders the director as revenge for raping Sarah. Two of the orderlies shoot the Monster and badly injure it. The inmates then all tear into the dying monster. Frankenstein tells Dr. Handler and Sarah that they will continue their research.
THE END???:
Famously, of course, this would not be the end for the actors playing Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. They would pick up where they left off just a few years later for the mega blockbuster 'Star Wars (1977)'. Peter Cushing would be the Commander of the Death Star, Grand Moff Tarkin, and David Prowse would be a different sort of mutilated monster... Darth Vader.
PRODUCTION: 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' was filmed in 1972-3 but released in 1974 by Paramount in the U.S. It was part of a double bill with 'Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter'.
-This would be Terence Fischer's last film that he directed.
-David Prowse played the monster twice for Hammer Productions, the only actor to do that. His other appearance would be in 'Horror of Frankenstein (1970)'
-Patrick Troughton (Dr. Who), plays a small part as the body snatcher. Troughton was also in Hammer's 'Scars of Dracula (1970)'. He played in a role in Hammer's 'Phantom of the Opera (1962)' as well.
-Peter Cushing actually does his own stunt when he leaps on a table in his lab and jumps on the Monster. He insisted and it came out looking good.
ABOUT SHANE BRIANT (Dr. Simon Helder): Shane Briant, at one time, was considered as a replacement for Peter Cushing at at Hammer Films. Peter Cushing was looking very frail after his wife had died and nobody was quite sure if he could continue acting (Cushing continued for many years). Briant got a role in Roger Corman's 'Richthofen and Brown (1971)' as a German pilot. From there he received a contract for four films from Hammer
Productions. The four films are...
-Straight on till Morning (1972)
-Demons of the Mind (1972)
-Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)
-Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)
Briant has had parts in many television and stage productions. After 1980 he acted mostly in Australia and New Zealand. He is still acting as of the time of this review.
DARTH VADER GETS MAULED AGAIN: Well actually, that's not really the case. David Prowse, who was in the Darth Vader costume, played the Monster in 'Horror of Frankenstein' as well as this movie. He has been mutilated before. But in this movie, his character really does get mauled jumping from a window onto spikes. In his previous stint as the Monster, he was simply stitched together from body parts.
IF YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO SEE MORE OF MADELINE SMITH...:
... Like me, you were obviously a bit disappointed. Even though this movie was filmed during the time period in which Hammer almost always showed off the bodies of their Hammer girls, Madeline Smith stays fully clothed throughout. However, you can see her in all her glory in other films. Most notably, for me, was 'The Vampire Lovers (1970)'. She appeared nude in several films in her career that mostly ended in 1977. She has acted sporadically since then. Smith would become a Bond girl in 1973's 'Live and Let Die'.
THAT MONSTER SUIT: The Monster suit looks awful. There is no getting around that. They did a terrible job with this. I know that they were looking for a 'Neolithic' look but they should have done a lot better, either letting David Prowse show off his body or finding someone else who had more of a caveman look. This really shouldn't have been that hard. You never get the impression that you are looking at a human (humanoid or whatever). The eyes looked terrible. I was obvious he had a mask on. I think they made a mistake leaving hair on the Monster's head as well. I kept getting the impression that the Monster was wearing some sort of skull cap rather than that being his actual skull cap. Prowse states that the costume was easy to slip in and out of and required only 20 minutes to get into full costume. His make-up in 'Horror of Frankenstein' took 2 1/2 hours each day.
THE FINALE: This would be the final time that Terence Fischer would direct a movie. It was the final time Anthony Hinds wrote a script for them. It was the final Frankenstein film for Hammer and the sixth and final time Peter Cushing would play Dr. Frankenstein.
COMMENTS/THOUGHTS:
ANGEL EYES: Madeline Smith plays an extremely sympathetic Sarah (Angel). I think she does a tremendous job of acting with just her facial expressions, especially her eyes.
OTHER COMMENTS:
-I think that the casting for this movie was very good. I liked all of the parts. Even though John Stratton (Director Adolf Klauss) played his role a little too 'over-the-top', he still fit the part well.
-Peter Cushing's wig looks awful. He acknowledged that himself.
-I think that Shane Briant's performance as Dr. Simon Helder is reminiscent of Ralph Bates' performance of Dr. Frankenstein in 'Horror of Frankenstein'. It wouldn't surprise me if he modeled his acting on that role.
-I thought it was not a great idea to have the Monster mate with Angel. I understand the symbolic reason, I just think it was a forced idea. Logically, he could have mated the Monster with any of the more 'disturbed' women.
CONCLUSIONS: I think this is a pretty good movie. It has a mixed reputation. Some like it, some don't. The only issue I have with the actual production of the movie is the poor Monster costume.
The release is very good. My only real complaint is that there isn't any sort of documentary or 'Making of' feature on this film in the extra's. There is a documentary but it doesn't focus on this movie. If you are a fan of Horror films then you are most likely going to purchase this release regardless of anyone's opinion. If you are new to these films, then I'd say start at the beginning (just look below).
As I write this, I realized that today, October 27, is the anniversary of the day this movie wrapped in 1972. So Happy Birthday to Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell'!
SOULLESS: The commentators as well as others who have written reviews about this movie have stated that Frankenstein by this time had no soul. They say he had become bereft of morality. Supposedly he had gone too far and even though Hammer had intended to make more Frankenstein movies, there was no place left to go because Frankenstein no longer had a soul. He started out intending to help mankind but at the end he was making monsters. What a pessimistic point of view. I disagree with all of this. There were plenty of places a little imagination could have led Dr. Frankenstein. I also believe that people that think this way are they type of people who hold back progress. Sure Frankenstein might not have had much morality but the same can be said for many scientist's throughout the ages. If this is the way you think, then you agree with all of the religions that have held back progress through the centuries. I doubt there are very many people who would take back all the unethical things that science did through the ages to get to where we are now in the fields of medicine, surgery, healthcare, etc. No matter, a person's morality, science marches on...
RECOMMENDATIONS:
IF YOU LIKE THIS THEN TRY...:
THE SEVEN FRANKENSTEIN FILMS THAT HAMMER PRODUCED:
- The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - The hugely successful original - Heavy focus is on Dr. Frankenstein
- The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) - Direct sequel to 'The Curse of Frankenstein'
- The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) - Not a sequel. Exist in a different universe than other movies
- Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) - Not at all like 'Bride of Frankenstein', goes in different direction, originally planned as the sequel to 'Revenge of Frankenstein'
- Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969) - Frankenstein is more of a bad guy than usual. Controversial for rape seen that was wanted by nobody accept studio head James Carreras.
- Horror of Frankenstein (1970) - Ralph Bates takes over as the Doctor, lots of black humor, like 'Evil of Frankenstein', exists in it's own universe
- Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) - Peter Cushing returns for the finale. Follows up on
'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed'. Ending leaves no doubt that sequels were intended.
Do a google search of Terence Fischer and just pick any horror movie from the late 50's up until this movie and you are bound to pick a good one. Fischer also made some good science fiction films and drama's. Among the very best are...
-Dracula (Horror of Dracula) (1958)
-The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
-Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
-The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Some personal favorites of mine that Fischer filmed are...
-The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1961) - This movie has a terrible reputation but I think it's great.
-The Gorgon (1964) - Not much fanfare for this one but I think it's real good.
-Island of Terror (1966) - The story is much better then the special effects.
-The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) - Very low budget, not really a good film, I just personally like this.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR FRANKENSTEIN?: This is the end of the line for Hammer's Frankenstein. It is the 7th and final film. Of course, there have been dozens of other Frankenstein films to be released since then by other companies.
RATINGS:
Plot: 7/10 or 4 stars - It's entertaining, as always, that is the point.
Picture: 9/10 or 5 stars - Picture is excellent
SFX: 5/10 - Everything looks decent but the Monster costume, I can't get over that.
Extra's: 7/10 or 3 1/2 stars - You get two commentaries and a miscellaneous documentary.
Overall: 8/10 or 4 stars which I'm rounding up to 5 stars because I'm becoming more generous in my old age.
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