Curse of Frankenstein deux

"I'm doing nothing wrong...just robbing a few graves." Good grief, this is black as pitch. "Victor, where is this brain to come from?" "I'll get it." He says this with a disturbing assurance, such depraved scientific mania. The "greatest brain in all of Europe" invited to Frankenstein's castle; oh, we know why he was invited... He lands on his head when Baron Frankenstein gives a "little nudge" off the stairs through a loose railing. How nice of him to pay for the old scientist's funeral, giving him a mausoleum, too. He can't wait to rob the man's casket. This isn't your Colin Clive's Frankenstein.

You ever heard the phrase, "You are married to your work?" On the very night of the dinner prior to the wedding between Frankenstein and Ms. Elizabeth, the scientist insists he must go into the laboratory for a little while. Meanwhile his former tutor, Paul, sort of an accomplice (a bit blind, then reluctant, and ultimately dead against all of the experimentation), tries to tell Elizabeth to flee before danger from the "monster from the bits and parts of man". She refuses not understanding why he wants her to leave.



I always felt Curse of Frankenstein was more of a set-up, a starting point for the Hammer series as a whole. It kind of covers a lot of the basics we associate with Frankenstein, with some added components further illustrating his evil (the mocking of his maid and mistress who thought he would marry her; his murder of an old wise scientist merely for his brain; continuing to work on the monster even as danger increases and the brain is rendered worthless; the limits for which he'd go to attain the perfect parts for his own creation). I like many of the other Frankenstein films a little better, but never tire of this one. This is probably the fourth time I've watched it in the last three years. I was planning on actually watching this later in the month, but it was on Turner Classics and I couldn't pass up another viewing. The Mummy is on now, so I think I'll relax myself and just lay back and enjoy it.