Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kind Hearts and Cadavers, 22 Dec 2007
"Tomorrow we shall initiate a new series of experiments. Something harmless, like splitting the atom, perhaps?"
Dispensing with Peter Cushing's services and intended to revitalize the series with a younger generation of stars as the studio headed into the uncertain 70s, The Horror of Frankenstein instead found itself on the wrong half of a double-bill with the inferior Scars of Dracula and much detested by many Hammer purists for its tone. Which is a great shame, because this is one of Hammer's best and most delightful latter films as long as you're not expecting the traditional horror film of the title - there may be one of the highest body counts in a Hammer film, but it's not frightening. Instead, despite a wonderfully crude moment with a reanimated hand and the odd joke at the expense of Kate O'Mara's cleavage ("You've put on weight in a couple of places"), rather than pure camp or gothic chiller, this is an elegant comedy of murders with much dry wit. If anything, the influence here is more Kind Hearts and Coronets as the presence of Dennis Price as a grave robber who leaves all the digging to his devoted wife attests. Ralph Bates' young Frankenstein is a sociopath with good table manners but no great purpose: creating life from various assorted body parts isn't a quest to free man from the shadow of mortality, it's just something he wants to do, and if that means killing a tortoise, his father or his best friend then he'll do it without his heart skipping a beat. As the sleeve notes to Anchor Bay's Region 1 DVD note, it's easy to see him as a forerunner of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman.
Although he was uncomfortable in the role, Jimmy Sangster's direction is above average for the studio at this period (their once-top director Terence Fisher's drinking having led by this time to a significant drop in the quality of his work), and the film looks better than a lot of the later Hammers. Despite the traditional 19th Century setting, it's very much of its time, even offering digs at the British welfare state (which makes finding bodies so much harder these days, what with people living longer) and the permissive generation (Victor sees no reason to get married when he can have sex with the hired help whenever he wants and merely sees Veronica Carlson's smitten heroine as a potential housekeeper). It's also quite anarchic in its own way, breaking with the expectations of the Hammer formula. The forces of good are completely powerless, retribution is not handed out and evil goes unpunished at the movie's back-to-the-drawing-board end. Well, more or less...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
'Amateur Anatomy!? - It's Smut!!', 11 Dec 2008
Harshly disregarded by critics and fans alike, time has been kind to Jimmy Sangster's tar-black comedy re-jig of the original Hammer breakthrough Frankenstein film.
'Horror of Frankenstein' is as tasteless as it's abrupt, belligerent title growls - Sangster shamelessly ripping into his own original 50's script for inspiration, thinking nothing of twisting his own plot-lines to force out some grisly jollity.
Ralph Bates is excellent as the Baron, seemingly more interested in bedding his kitchen staff than creating life. There's a host of Hammer regulars; Jon Finch, Kate O'Mara, Veronica Carlson, Dennis Price and our old friend Vader himself - Dave Prowse as the creature - all visibly playing up as much as vigorous master Bates.
Sangster's writing is snappy, vulgar and fun. Bates' Frankenstein is an absolute stinker and the monster is a hulking great hooligan, much given to stupidity and cannibalism.
I think most of the resistance to this film was fuelled by the fact it was Cushing-less, but this level of irreverent parody wouldn't work with dear old Props Peter. The (numerous) bed-room sequences would've been a problem, as would the idea of him putting the college Dean's daughter in the club (Although that said, he did a fine job of wrestling with a naked prostitute, cutting off her head and packing it in a fridge in 'Corruption', so who knows!).
Versatile as Cushing was, I don't think this one was for him - playing a younger version of a character he played 14 years before, even in a comic context would be stretching credulity to breaking. (!)
'HoF' is murkily entertaining, and, if you possess a tangled mind like mine, bitingly funny - although the final joke hints at something we shouldn't be sniggering at under any circumstances - the rest is pretty good.
Far, far removed from classic Hammer, but worth a glimpse.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not one of Hammers best, 18 Mar 2007
This 1970 nth sequel from Hammer is a poor relation to their original classic with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Ralph Bates lacks the screen presence and charisma of Peter Cushing, and his portrayal of Victor Frankenstein is actually rather irratating.
There is nothing new in this film. In essence its the classic story re-told, but its all strangely flat for a Hammer film. The only reason it got two stars rather than one is because both Kate O'Mara and Veronica Carlson look gorgeous in the film and there are couple of lovely comedic moments which made me laugh out loud. Sadly though I think this is a reflection of the fact that Hammer really had nothing new to say with this film. Dave Prowse (the Green Cross Code Man) only appears in the last 1/3 of the film and is rather wasted, which is a shame because he made quite an imposing monster.
My advice buy only if its very cheap!
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