
HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN
Director/Producer - Jimmy Sangster, Screenplay - Sangster & Jeremy Burnham,
Photography - Moray Grant, Music - Malcolm Williamson, Makeup - Tom Smith,
Art Direction - Scott MacGregor. Production Company - Hammer/EMI.
1970.
Cast: Ralph Bates (Victor Frankenstein), Dave Prowse (The Monster),
Kate O’Mara (Alys), Veronica Carlson (Elizabeth Heiss), Graham James
(Wilhelm Kastner), Dennis Price (Grave Robber), Bernard Archer (Professor
Heiss), Jon Finch (Lieutenant Henry Becker)
On the sudden death of his father, young Victor Frankenstein inherits
his title, his castle and his comely housemaid, Alys. Victor decides to
leave college and return home, where he can carry out scientific
experiments of which his teachers would never approve.
With him goes his close friend, Wilhem. En route, they save a neighboring
professor and his daughter, Elizabeth from the clutches of some highwaymen.
The professor invites them both to dinner, much to the delight of
Elizabeth, who has been in love with Victor since they were at school
together.
The next day, Victor tries the first of his experiments , on a pet
tortoise. He kills the tortoise and, more by luck than judgement, brings
it back to life. Flushed with success, he determines to progress to bigger
things, and construct a human being. To do this, he must obtain some
corpses...
For this purpose, he hires a grave-robber who with his wife, brings to
the castle a grisly load. Having set up a comprehensive laboratory,
Victor is now fully equipped to carry out his monstrous experiments.
The horror of it all upsets his friend, Wilhem, who announces that unless
Victor stops his work forth-with, he will expose him. Without a qualm,
Victor kills him and disposes of the body in an acid tank.
The grave-robber has been so efficient that Victor soon has all the
human bits and pieces with which to make his monster. All, that is,
except a brain. And what better brain could he use than that of the
professor? He invites the unfortunate man (and his daughter) to dinner,
and drugs his brandy. It is a touching funeral, and the grave-robber
knows exactly what to do....The death of her father leaves Elizabeth
in a parlous state, and she asks Victor to let her work for him. Much
against the wishes of Alys (who sees her position as woman of the
house - threatened), Victor agrees.
Meanwhile, the grave-robber returns with the brain, but clumsily drops
it. Furious, Victor hits him on the head and heaves him into the acid
vat. He then turns to his important work - bringing to life his home-made
being. With the aid of a timely electric storm, he produces enough power
to jolt the hideous monster into life. Thinking that the storm has ruined
his experiment, Victor is unaware of his success, and the monster, not
recognizing its creator, knocks him out and escapes to the woods, where
it kills an unfortunate workman.
Victor eventually recaptures it, and locks it in a cellar in the castle.
When the grave-robber’s wife comes looking for her husband, and
threatening to report his activities to the police, Victor releases the
monster which kills the woman as she leaves the castle. Likewise, when
Alys becomes greedy, and demands money for keeping quiet about all she
knows, Victor takes her to the cellar to visit the monster....
But the disappearances and deaths around the castle soon arouse suspicion,
and the police arrive. One of the people whom the monster has attacked is
a little girl, and it is she who unwittingly causes Victor to watch his
handy work go down the drain via the acid vat......!






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