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Frankenstein
and the
Monster from Hell
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7
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
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Hiding
behind one of the worst titles to ever grace a Hammer horror
movie is one of the best of the company's long running series
following the grisly adventures of Baron Victor Frankenstein.
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
was Hammer's seventh, but only Terence Fisher's fifth, in the
series and it is a fitting high note to both Hammer as a studio
and Fisher as their signature director. Fisher was always a
solid director with a great eye for setting shots and an ability
to get the most out of sometimes underwritten scripts. With
this film he showed his considerable strengths one last time
in a dark, grisly tale that could have pointed toward a revitalization
of the gothic horror genre. By casting a young, handsome man
to accept the mantle of Dr. Frankenstein and allowing the always
wonderful Peter Cushing to return to his greatest horror role,
it should have worked perfectly. Alas this was not to be. Hammer
was suffering from financial problems and by 1976 was closed
as a viable production house. There would be no more Frankensteins
from the studio that reinvented the horror film — in living
color — less than 20 years before.
Dr. Simon Helder (Shane Briant) is an eager young man following
in the footsteps of the legendary Baron Frankenstein. In a small
apartment he is using Frankenstein's published works (?) as
a guide for
his experiments and is slowly constructing a creature out of
parts taken from various cadavers. His procurer is a local graverobbing
drunk (Patrick Troughton) who — when he's finally nabbed by
the constables — is more than happy to inform on his employer
in hopes of a shorter jail term. Simon is promptly arrested
for "sorcery" and sentenced to 5 years in the nearby asylum
for the criminally insane. It's exactly this institution where
the notorious monster maker himself was incarcerated years before.
Upon his arrival Simon appeals to the warden for information
about Dr. Frankenstein. Momentarily unaware that Dr. Helder
is an inmate rather than a visiting physician, the warden explains
that the man died some years before and is buried on the grounds.
Placed in the hands of the asylum's keepers Simon is brutally
welcomed with a high pressure water hose until the resident
doctor appears and disperses the watching patients. The medical
man attends to Simon's wounds and explains that he is (as suspected)
Victor Frankenstein, now going by the name of Dr. Carl Victor.
He has the warden under his thumb for various unsavory reasons
and runs the asylum with a free hand. The older man is in need
of an assistant and makes the young fellow an offer of the relative
freedom of the institution if he will help with the general
care of the inmates. Simon agrees and soon enough has also joined
his mentor in a new attempt to create a more perfect creature
(played by David Prowse) from pieces of dead bodies.
Following the template set out by the earlier
films in the series, Frankenstein and
the Monster from Hell gives us a villainous mad scientist
and a sympathetic monster but also throws in the younger protégé
as a wild card. Carefully the script shows us Frankenstein's
cold-hearted nature barely covered by a veneer of humanity.
Even his kind attentions to his mute female assistant Sarah
(Madeline Smith) are shown to be matter of necessity. He has
cultivated her as a nurse because of his inability to perform
delicate surgery with his injured hands. Several times the film
makes the point that Frankenstein is a rather uncultured man
unable to appreciate music, mathematics, or even love itself.
If fact, it's these finer aspects of humanity that the good
doctor tramples completely in his blind quest to play God. He
can only see these finer capabilities as indicators of good
components for his work. He covets an inmate's brilliant, talented
mind and pushes him into suicide to gain it for his experiments.
He is focused so completely on his goal that he's become not
just misguided or evil, but inhuman. He consistently destroys
anything in his grasp to further his experiments but has no
understanding or concern for what he leaves in his bloody wake.
Frankenstein's life work has destroyed untold numbers of lives
and by the end of this movie it's quite apparent that he will
never comprehend the cruelty of his actions. He is irredeemable.
The only bright spot for the future is seen in Helder's revulsion
at his mentor's eventual decision to mate Sarah with his failed
monster. At this point her nickname of Angel evokes the idea
of saintly purity soiled by human malice and could be called
the perfect metaphor for this movie series — the beauty of the
creation of a new life corrupted by horror of science used without
compassion. It's only in Helder's break with Frankenstein over
Sarah that we see the possible end to the years of horror carried
out by the older man. If there had been another film in the
series with Helder as the main character it would have been
interesting to see if this element of humanity was kept. But
I suspect such niceties would have been tossed out for more
of the same. Still, this film did a good job of injecting some
new ideas into the old Hammer formula.
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| Paramount's
new DVD of Frankenstein and the Monster
from Hell is both welcome and a little disappointing. It's
welcome because the film looks and sounds great but disappointing
because there was hope that the slightly longer version of the
film, sometimes seen in overseas releases, would finally be issued
in America. This longer cut of the film has been infamous in Hammer
fan circles for decades. It's legendary for containing more gore
— and if some of the photographs I've seen are any indicator,
it certainly does. While I would have preferred the longer edition
for this release I'm still very happy with the DVD. After all,
it does present the movie in its U.S. release form which is all
I really expected anyway. The 1.85:1 letterboxed image is clear
and as bright as the dark palette of the cinematography will probably
allow. The framing looks perfect and the mono soundtrack is solid
throughout. The one and only extra on the disc is a nice commentary
track featuring Madeline Smith, David Prowse and Hammer historian
Jonathan Sothcott, which does have a few silent moments where
the trio obviously gets caught up in watching the movie. Also,
Ms. Smith occasionally goes off on odd tangents about her hair
or someone's spouse that might try a viewer's patience, but overall
the stories related in the track are well worth a listen. Both
actors have words of high praise for Cushing and Briant, making
their absence keenly felt. This is a very good DVD and I certainly
hope that Paramount continues to mine their vaults for more classic
horror in the future.
12/15/03 |
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