🎃- Revenge of Frankenstein (4/5)

 If someone was critical of the Hammer Frankenstein series, in regards to the character portrayed by Cushing, I could definitely agree because I think the great actor sort of fashioned The Baron depending on the tone and trajectory of the story in each film. For instance, "The Revenge of Frankenstein" (1958) didn't feature the exact same Frankenstein we followed in the previous "Curse". He wasn't entirely evil, though his behavior certainly felt close to The Baron in terms of his obsession to create man "from the ground up", this go-around having volunteers to be active participants in the process. The assistant, Dr. Kleve, badly wanting to work alongside such a brilliant mind with a wealth of knowledge and intellect he could learn from and glean such information from. In fact, by the end, Dr. Kleve is able to move the brain of Victor (a battered and dying body thanks to a number of disgruntled Skid Row patients wanting their own revenge against him for using them to supplement his "work") into another body...a body The Baron built with a face identical to his. Karl, first a handicapped laborer who tended to Frankenstein's animals used for his experiments with a paralyzed right side, eventually (albeit tragically brief) a success of The Baron, does have his intelligent brain transferred over to Michael Gwynn's statuesque, long frame. It would appear Frankenstein, with help from Dr. Kleve, had successfully completed his experiments and created a man with a fully functioning brain that was able to move both sides of the body. The Baron does have that very same ego, reveals explosive anger when Karl breaks from his room by slapping and yelling at Dr. Kleve, refuses to leave when it would appear his disguise as Dr. Stein had been removed when a collapsing Karl (damage to his brain by a brute janitor looking to punch somebody for kicks had caused Karl to revert back to what he once was, the eye and arm paralyzing, not to mention, this uncontrollable rage resulting in murder), and has no problem taking from the Skid Row population for whatever parts he needs. While technically Victor's body dies, at least this Hammer film allows the brain to go into another body and The Baron emerge to once again practice...and inevitably build another body from the ground up. I often wonder what happened to Dr. Kleve as the next film has abandoned him (and the practice shown by Victor to be working). Granted "The Evil of Frankenstein" does a lot of tinkering with the character and continuity of the franchise. At least in this film, Victor acknowledges a cause for why his previous built man turned into a monster, even as certain details (the mention of Paul Krempke and Elizabeth are left out) weren't elaborated. You do see the returning priest who never took him seriously, leading Victor Frankenstein to the gallows with a prayer...not realizing he should have been praying for himself. Much like other Frankenstein films, other characters involved cause problems for The Baron, including a young woman "hired" to carry around a basket with items the patients might need (more like she was forced on Frankenstein by a minister father or else endure his meddling) and a janitor (who spends more time being nosy than sweeping, even a troublemaker who stirs up folks in order to cause his bosses unneeded trouble).

I was able to find this on streaming sites, Crackle and Plex. We really are living at a time where there are so many options and so much content available and located somewhere. Win-win