Evil of Frankenstein

I think you have discovered what all the others are searching for. I think you have found the true secret of life.

Evil of Frankenstein has often been considered—especially by Hammer Frankenstein fans—as the black sheep of the Frankenstein franchise, not a standard of quality as typical by most of the films that featured the Baron and his obsession with creating life, proving his cynics and disbelievers wrong.

However, I think it may be the most interesting because of just how different it really is when compared with the other Frankenstein films. No other Hammer Frankenstein film really ever featured a likable scientist Baron, one just yearning for others to let him alone to complete his experiments absent intrusion and derision. The Monster of this film is perhaps the most similar in appearance and sympathy in regards to the Universal Studios Frankenstein Monster, its cranium very alike the Glenn Strange dome we see in House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula, and the first Frankenstein film with Karloff. This monster is only violent when commanded to do so, and actually Baron Frankenstein isn’t the asshole you see in Curse of Frankenstein or abhorrently evil as in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, but desiring only to see his creation successfully evolve past a giant misfit with mental malfunctions. This movie’s creature and creator’s back-story doesn’t quite technically mesh well with the Frankenstein films prior to it, and so much time is spent on discrediting the likes of Zoltán, Karlsdaat’s Burgomaster, and Chief of Police as corrupt, morally bankrupt, and drunk with the need (or desire) for power (and greedy), that even if Baron was presented as crooked/criminal, he’s a saint in comparison to the others.

Included are a loyal assistant, Hans, and a deaf and dumb mute with a wild mane of red hair (costumed in scraggly beggarly rags) who work in concert with Baron to help along the Monster once he’s found encased in ice (found in a cave during the aftermath of a thunderstorm they found shelter from), brought back to semi-like in the Karlsdaat Frankenstein castle (still standing, but in disarray since Baron was banned from the village by the local authorities, his possessed taken by the Burgomaster including his signet ring!), and tended to, their work disrupted and interfered by Zoltán.

Perhaps this should have been called The Evil of Professor Zoltán since he’s more of a hissable villain than scientist Baron Frankenstein. Zoltán is a traveling hypnotist who works carnivals in villages and such, needed by Frankenstein to stimulate the dormant brain of his creation. Zoltán forces Frankenstein into a corner: a partnership in the use of the Monster since he has it under a hypnotic spell. I think we all knew this relationship would dissolve in quick order because two agendas are at work here with Zoltán wanting to use the Monster to satiate his material wants and corrupt desires while Frankenstein wants to experiment with and study its basic behaviors and watch it learn/grow. Frankenstein is more of a father wanting to train a child while Zoltán sees this as a tool to get him everything his lustful heart covets. In wanting those who kicked him out of the village punished, Zoltán sends out the Monster, only to find that he has done more than just pummel the Burgomaster and Chief of Police, blood on its hands. This is what drives the typical downfall where the villagers/police are after Frankenstein and the Monster, as the conclusion usually has both meeting grim ends.

Peter Woodthorpe gives his hypnotist a smarmy, scheming quality, certainly a wretch, especially when he mistreats Katy Wild’s mute girl. Sandor Elès is the standard issue vanilla pupil, dedicated to learning from his mentor all his secrets, but with a conscience, while he wants to witness and participate in a scientific breakthrough, Hans must sometimes control the Baron when the scientist loses his cool or calls attention to them, such responses a detriment to what they wish to accomplish. And Cushing, imbuing his Frankenstein with a bit more humanity and care for others that is not usual in other films of the franchise. He actually is cognizant of the danger to Hans or the beggar mute girl, even trying to warn the police about the Monster’s possible danger to the locals if they don’t take precautions. Again, I think because of all of this, Evil of Frankenstein might remain a curio for Hammer fans and newcomers to the Frankenstein franchise because it kind of separates itself from the pack due to such differences. That and this was directed by Freddie Francis, and it is this fact that often has the critics agreeing that because he was handed the reins instead of the renowned Terence Fisher this go-around is the reason it fails to meet the standards so recognized in the franchise.

There’s an early scene where Frankenstein begins to extract a heart from the recently attained corpse of a young man, plucked off the family’s table by a lowly graverobber, when asked about doing such a deed, he mentions how the dead man won’t “be needing it anymore”. That is Frankenstein for you: even in a less despicable form, he’s undeterred by the heinous nature of how the corpses find themselves on his operating table.