| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
|
| Story: |
N/A |
|
|
| Acting: |
N/A |
|
|
| Direction: |
N/A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
N/A |
|
|
Here come old flat top
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Mar 14, 2004
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
A filthy rich -- but, obsessive -- orphan scientist (Peter Cushing) convinces his tutor and mentor (Robert Urquhart) to assist him in his "mad" drive to create artificial life in this famous, British retelling of the familiar Mary Shelley novel. Christopher Lee, who would make his mark as a sexy, leading man DRACULA the following year, plays a particularly gruesome Frankenstein's monster.
Director Fisher and the now legendary Hammer Films had a tall order to fill in making this movie: to make us forget that Boris Karloff ever lived. Karloff's familiar portrayal of a stumbling monster with a flat head, forehead scar and electrodes, was already a quarter century old when this picture was made in 1957, and Hammer Films set out to reinvent the inventor, and his monster, for more sophisticated "modern" audiences.
In many respects, they succeeded, creating what was then the most graphic, goriest picture of its time -- and, the most commercially successful British picture, for many years. It was also in full, garish color. The monster, played by a young Lee, with his differently colored eyes, half-shaven head, and a bleeding wound at one point, appears grotesque even by today's standards. Moreover, this FRANKENSTEIN is capable of something the 1930s movies are too remote and mechanically inept to attain: edge-of-your-seat suspense (in small doses). Particularly, in two scenes, which mirror each other, unsuspecting characters wander into Dr. Frankenstein lab, where his murderous creature lurks in the recesses of darkness. Of course, in both instances, it's a vulnerable female. These scenes have more in common with teenage slasher movies of today, than with the 30s horror classics they were remakes of.
Hammer broke certain sexual bounds, portraying a voluptuous sensuality to flesh out the promiscuity of stories like "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" -- only to be bound by other chains, namely, a sort of juvenile chauvinism. Somehow, lost in the bawdy hubris, is the fact that this story was penned by a woman. This Frankenstein is a depraved frat boy: he marries his own cousin, he cheats on her with his maid, though his soul mate appears to be his male mentor. There are also many knowing allusions to the Karloff "Frankenstein" of the 1930s, including an opening scene with bells tolling in the background, an encounter between the monster and a young child at a lake, and a tragic meeting with a blind old man (the thirties movies had all these images). Unfortunately, these scenes most serve to remind us that, despite their technical deficiencies, the 30s movies were just a little bit better.
(Carlos Colorado) |
My Public Profile 
