The Curse of Frankenstein made the name Hammer synonymous with horror,
and the franchise it spawned seems to chart the life of the studio;
its sudden success, its glorious heyday, its struggle to keep pace with popular culture...
'The penalties for drug traffiking are the harshest in Europe'
and its sad decline
'Now perhaps they'll accept what I'm trying to achieve.'
Even more so than Dracula, the Frankenstein films tell the story of Hammer.
And yet, by the time the series began, the company was already over 30 years old.
'Perhaps you had better start from the beginning'
In the early 30s, future film producer William Hinds was one half of a comedy duo,
named after their home of Hammersmith.
Hinds was so well known by the stage name Will Hammer, that in 1935,
when he added film production to an eclectic portfolio that included music publishing and selling bicycles,
he called the company Hammer Productions.
A year later entrepreneur Enrique Carreras joined the company,
and the Hinds and Carreras families would run the studio for the next 45 years.
There was always a smattering of interesting cult films amongst the program of quota quickies and
B movies that Hammer and its parent company Exclusive released over the first 25 years of its history -
Bela Lugosi starred in their first feature length film
'One of you will kill the other.'
- but nothing to indicate the direction they would eventually take.
By 1954 the studio, which had never been affluent, had reached a crisis point,
loaning out their facilities at Bray studios to other companies while they struggled to finance projects.
As the whole film industry fought to compete with the growing popularity of television,
Hammer adopted a make or break strategy...
they would remake BBC TV serial The Quatermass Experiment as an X certificate film.
'Three men went into outerspace, only one of them came back...'
'Came back a strange distorted creature.'
Other companies feared the newly minted X -
cinemas in the Rank chain would not even show X-rated films -
but under the management of Enrique's wheeler dealer son, James, Hammer embraced it,
even highlighting it by lopping the E off of experiment
clearly telling audiences that here was something television could not show.
The Quatermass gamble paid off so well that by the time Quatermass 2 went into production the following year,
Hammer was crossing 10 films off its production schedule to make way for X-rated horror.
Their next gamble would secure the studio's future, along with its place in film history.
'Where did it all begin?'
The idea of a new adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein
was brought to by American writer/producers Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg.
Hammer liked the idea but not the script, hastily easing the out the US pair,
who retaliated by forming rival company Amicus.
Hammer brought in Jimmy Sangster to write a new script,
even though he only had one screenwriting credit to his name, the previous year's X the Unknown.
To direct they chose a more experienced man in Terence Fisher,
who had been a Hammer regular for the last five years.
The film would reinvigorate the 52 year old's career.
Their Frankenstein would be far removed from the Universal classic -
in fact Fisher would not watch the original, saying.
'If one is going to make this film, I think one has got to start from a personal concept and what you yourself think'.
Which was good as Universal had already threatened legal action
if the new film contained any elements from theirs, meaning that, among other things, flat heads were out
'Paul, it's alive'.
Most importantly, this film would be in colour,
a rarity for horror, giving audiences their first look at Kensington gore.
But for all its novelty, it is unlikely that The Curse of Frankenstein
would have reached the heights it did without the casting of two soon-to-be horror icons.
For a time, with eyes on the US market, Hammer favoured an American star for the lead role,
'A visitor for you Baron Frankenstein.'
but TV star Peter Cushing saw its potential, campaigned hard and won it.
'We've done it!'
Coincidentally, in his first film role Cushing had been directed by original Frankenstein director James Whale,
his casting now would forever change the face of Horror.
'We've only just started. Just opened the door'
Hammer director Freddie Francis would later say
'The luckiest thing that ever happened to Hammer was Peter Cushing'
'I've created a being'
His association with the studio would forever make Cushing a 'horror actor'
but he embraced this label with typical good nature.
His unknown co-star by contrast would struggle against typecasting for the rest of his long career.
George Lucas: 'We changed Yoda on you.'
'I make no commet, I din't think you would do this to me George, I really didn't.'
In 1957, Christopher Lee was a B movie also-ran,
repeatedly told by casting directors he was too tall and too foreign looking.
To Hammer these traits were desirable
and, like Cushing, Lee determined to grab the opportunity with both hands and make the role his own.
In Phil Leakey's mangled make up,
his uncertain, marionette movements created a monster completely different from Boris Karloff's,
described by Fisher as 'a wandering forlorn minstrel of monstrosity'.
But while the monster was different, it was his creator who would undergo the largest transformation,
and who would give the franchise a focus that Universal could only have dreamed of.
'If you step back a little you'll see it better'
'Lookout professor look out!'
Other versions might have hinted that it was the scientist not the creature who was the real monster,
Hammer took that suggestion and made it explicit.
'You stupid little fool. Did you really think I'd marry you?'
Cushing's Baron is a cold, callous bastard. Who cares for nothing but his work
'There is nothing - do you hear me - nothing more important to me than the success of this experiment'
After the monster is shot dead by Robert Urquhart's Krempe,
'You shoot well'
Frankenstein digs it up, fixes it, and brings it back to life
'I'll give you life again'
It almost sounds like a threat.
Here the two performers come together; Cushing's clinical baron and Lee's tortured monster
'sit down.'
It was like nothing cinema audiences had ever seen before.
Cushing put in meticulous prep work, rewriting his dialogue
and coaching Melvyn Hayes who played the young Victor in how to walk and move
'I understand perfectly, I shall do the same'.
Working in his laboratory, there's never any question that he knows exactly what he is doing
and what every piece of apparatus is for. Even a hand wiped on his lapel feels like a character decision.
Terence Fisher's relaxed directorial style,
slowly building to his moments...
stepping back and letting the action play out within the frame
gave his lead actor the space to perform.
'What matters is I'm creating a being that can live and breath'
it also gives the film an almost voyeuristic feel -
the horror is seldom shoved in our faces, we are merely observers...
'SCREAM'
'pass the marmalade would you'
This would become the template for Hammer horror.
Together with production designer Bernard Robinson, cameraman Jack Asher and composer James Bernard,
Fisher created a studio aesthetic that would hold for the next few decades.
The Curse of Frankenstein was released in May 1957 to critical disgust,
the Daily Telegraph's critic calling it 'among the half dozen most repulsive films I have encountered'.
The public felt differently.
The film broke domestic records in its opening weekend then broke its own record the weekend after,
and performed exceptionally in the US too, reportedly grossing around 70 times its corner-cutting budget.
Will Hammer died a few months later, living just long enough to see his film investment come spectacularly good.
The studio he had founded now seized its moment.
'I am Dracula, and I welcome you to my house.'
Dracula was released the following year,
confirming Cushing and Lee as the stars on which the studio was built.
The two men had become close friends and both took their roles very seriously.
X-rated horror might have been the big draw,
but The Curse of Frankenstein had shown that a horror film could still be a character story.
'What harm am I doing?'
In that too it set the pattern for the future.
'Because I shall carry on. If I can't cure it by brain surgery then I shall get another brain. And another. And another'
The inevitable sequel to The Curse of Frankenstein was initially announced as Blood of Frankenstein
and would emerge 3 months after Dracula re-titled The Revenge of Frankenstein.
'They will never be rid of me'
The sequel reunited Cushing, Sangster and Fisher with the production trio of Michael Carreras (son of James),
Anthony Hinds (son of Will Hammer) and Anthony Nelson Keys,
who between them would shepherd the series.
'This is only the beginning of our work together'
The Revenge of Frankenstein is a direct sequel, picking up where The Curse left off
with the Baron's execution
but showing him rescued and executing the priest who listened to his story in the last film!
'It's priest without a head.'
Michael Ripper plays the grave robber in the first of his many Hammer Horror appearances
'I am Baron Frankenstein'
Learning the lesson of Universal's franchise, Hammer chose to follow the creator rather than the creature,
giving their series far greater potential range.
More than that, Sangster's story treads quite different ground to its predecessor,
to the degree that this is a Frankenstein film with no monster, as such.
Assuming the new identity of Doctor Stein
'The most popular doctor in Carlsbruck by all accounts'
Frankenstein uses patients at a poor hospital as raw material
'You'll have to have it off'
'what off'
'this arm'
'That's the arm of the pickpocket.'
to build a man
'But this time he is perfect'
Into this body he places the brain of his paralysed assistant.
'Dr Stein is welcome to my brain as long as he rids me of... this'
Of course things do inevitably turn bad
When Karl's still healing brain is damaged
This new story allows for fresh subject matter while still following and further developing the character of Cushing's baron.
'Frankenstein - help me'
Even more than in Curse, Revenge plays with the morality of Frankenstein's experiments -
he's hurting people
'Cruel he is'
but also helping - albeit for his own ends.
Particularly impressive is the ending, when the patients turn on Frankenstein.
But rather than getting his just desserts,
the doctor's skilled assistant Hans puts his brain into a new body
which the doctor has prepared for this emergency
and Frankenstein sets up again in London.
The beauty of this ending is that it means that, in all the years of experiments,
the only unqualified success Frankenstein has, is when he is the subject.
'How nice to see you'
That ending did not just allow for a sequel, it invited one,
but Hammer suddenly had a lot of new options.
Universal, recognising the way the wind was blowing,
turned over all remake rights to their horror back catalogue to the British studio,
and in the next five years Hammer put their spin on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Mummy, The Werewolf,
the Phantom of the Opera and even The Old Dark House.
'SCREAM'
It was 1964 before The Evil of Frankenstein arrived, and 'sequel' may not be the right word.
'Who could have done this evil thing?'
Frankenstein is no longer in London, no longer working as a doctor
and no longer has the tattoo left from his body switch
He still has an assistant called Hans
'Why do you stay with me Hans?'
but he apparently has no memory of their previous experiment.
'I never told you Hans, I succeeded once'
More curiously, when Frankenstein recalls his 1st experiment,
the film does not flashback to The Curse of Frankenstein but to a completely different attempt.
That blue thing by the way is a Mercury arc rectifier -
a favourite set decoration for mad scientists labs although it actually has a very practical function
converting AC to DC
'What happened then?'
This dismissal of narrative continuity set the pattern for future films -
'be quiet woman.'
the only constant is Cushing's cold, driven Frankenstein in a series of largely unrelated adventures.
'You know the rest - one failure after another and always hounded by these disbelievers'
A sort of horror James Bond.
'Why can't they leave me alone?'
Fisher was unavailable this time and directorial duties went to cinematographer Freddie Francis,
best known for his stunning black and white photography in films like The Innocents,
and he sets his stamp on affairs immediately with this arresting body snatch.
Script credit meanwhile went to John Elder, a pseudonym for producer Anthony Hinds.
Another change was the creature, this time definitely a monster, played by New Zealand wrestler Kiwi Kingston.
The deal with Universal meant that flat heads were back in,
and this is the most Karloffian of all Hammer's creatures.
The plot too, involving a sideshow hypnotist named Zoltan, played by a flamboyant Peter Woodthorpe,
'That's not human it's a monster'
is reminiscent of Universal's House of Frankenstein, right down to the monster being discovered frozen in ice.
In fact the film features many familiar Universal tropes;
the grand, gothic lab,
the monster carrying the girl,
the castle blowing up at the end
and a slow lumbering monster being used as a murder weapon.
'There are people in the village I want punished'
As he takes advantage of the creature, Zoltan sidelines Frankenstein
'Did you not hear me, stand up.'
'Do as he says'
Not only that, but the baron's behaviour is uncharacteristically stupid.
'That ring the burgomaster's wearing - it's mine!'
With even Cushing's character somehow altered,
this doesn't feel like Hammer and is considered one of the weakest of the series.
'They always destroy everything!'
It under-performed in the UK, but fared far better with US audiences. 'They
beat him after all. '
And the dollar was increasingly important to Hammer.
The British film industry was in a catastrophic state,
but Hammer's success enabled them to secure a series of production deals with US companies -
notably Eliot Hyman's Seven Arts - giving them access to US funding and major studio distribution.
More importantly, it gave them the confidence to push on with more thematically ambitious films.
In 1987, Martin Scorsese selected Frankenstein Created Woman for a season of his favourite films
at the National Film Theatre, saying,
'If I single this one out, it's because they actually isolate the soul...
the implied metaphysics is close to something sublime'.
No Frankenstein had gone this far before.
'Could it be trapped within me? Could I trap it myself?'
Mary Shelley's original novel had been subtitled 'The modern Prometheus'
but this Frankenstein is stealing more than fire from the gods.
'Life after Death. We have conquered death'
With a title inspired by Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman, a production deal with Twentieth Century Fox,
and with Fisher back in the director's chair, Hammer's 4th Frankenstein is a fantastic oddity
'Everything we don't understand is magic until we understand it'
a horror-themed morality tale that moves far beyond its exploitation title,
and proved that Hammer's series was not submitting to the law of diminishing returns that generally governs franchises.
'I am constantly surprised by your lack of faith in my work'
Once again Frankenstein has an assistant called Hans but he is a very different character.
'I have always found him trust worthy, diligent, keen witted... if not over intelligent and wholly reliable.'
We have to assume this is less about continuity
and more a lack of imagination when it comes to German names.
Thorley Walters plays the Baron's primary assistant and provides some old duffer comic relief
'There you are then'
'I am? Where am I?'
but the stand-out addition is Susan Denberg's Christina,
the most complex and interesting female character in the entire series.
The shy Christina, mocked for her disfigurement
'See how gracefully she walks'
commits suicide
following the execution of her lover for a murder he did not commit.
She is then brought back to life by Frankenstein
with a repaired face and the soul of her guillotined sweetheart, Hans.
'Please, who am I?'
The Christina-Hans hybrid now embarks on a revenge fuelled killing spree, targeting the guilty men.
'Kill him Christina'
The fact that Christina's beauty is used to lure the men to their deaths makes this a double vengeance
'Who are you?'
'Does it matter?'
But despite the violence...
this is a sad and touching story of a pair of innocent twisted into murderers by circumstance.
'What am I to do now?'
'You will Kill Johann, kill him.'
Cushing's Frankenstein is now honed to a sharp edge
'To the best of my knowledge doctorates are not awarded for witchcraft,
but if they ever are then no doubt I shall qualify for one'.
A scene of him giving evidence in court, thumbing through the Bible on which he has just sworn,
is the sort of character note it's tempting to ascribe to Cushing himself.
The character remains callous
'Can't you get it into your head, this is our chance!'
even seeing Hans' execution as an opportunity to test his theories
'Oughtn't you to ask his permission?'
'What on earth for?'
but by the end, even he seems affected by Christina's fate
'Let me tell you who you really are'
Perhaps even finding a soul of his own.
'Christina!'
To be critically honest, some elements of the plot don't hold up to close examination
'His soul is in her body'
'Yes. But not all the time'
but Frankenstein Created Woman still feels like a high for the franchise,
further developing Cushing's character by pushing him into situations
where he must see the consequences of his obsession, in a film where the horror is matched by the tragedy.
This was Hammer in its pomp.
While the rest of British industry struggled, they were able to release a successful film about life,
death, religion, and the metaphysics of the soul under the guise of X-rated horror.
'For one hour my body died and yet my soul remained'
This is the era which produced The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile, The Nanny,
Quatermass and the Pit, and One Million Years BC - Hammer's most successful film.
Frankenstein Created Woman proved that Hammer had moved beyond merely remaking old American horrors.
But on the horizon were new American horrors, which might prove a challenge too far, even for Frankenstein.
Thanks for watching, and special thanks to our Patreon supports for making this possible.
In part 2 we'll look at the final three films of the franchise, that chart the sudden decline of Hammer from its highest point to its lowest ebb.
Please join us for that, or better yet subscribe to our channel.
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