Peter Cushing and The Curse of Frankenstein
Hammer Studios' First Venture into Horror is Well Worth Another Look
Nov 14, 2008
Prior to 1957, the studio had released several dramas and was doing respectably, but the success of The Quatermass Experiment, a space alien thriller, in 1955 led the studio to look into horror properties for its future films. The Curse of Frankenstein was released in 1957 to great acclaim and made international stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The success of Curse began a nearly twenty-year boom for Hammer Studios, in which they produced some of the finest horror films of their time.
The Curse of Frankenstein is absolutely one of their best. The story, a loose retelling of the original, features a neat wrap-around device in which Peter Cushing, as Baron Frankenstein, pleads for his life while waiting to be executed for murder. We all know what happens when the Baron decides to make life from death, and make a man from spare parts. Curse takes those familiar story elements and makes a fresh, chilling, and smart film from them. What sets Curse apart from other versions of the classic story is the incredible performance of Peter Cushing.
Cushing so unendurably and terrifying handsome in this movie, smoldering with a passionate craziness in his zeal to play God. As he continued to make films for Hammer and other studios throughout the 60s and 70s, Cushing would most often play a noble crusader for good; brilliant, methodical, honorable. Here, though, he’s an evil anti-hero whose intensity sweeps the viewer right into his perverse crusade.
Equally compelling is the creature in the film. Here we have Christopher Lee, later to be Hammer’s premier Dracula, pathetic and horrifying as the twisted creation of the Baron Frankenstein. He is mute, save for a few groans, but his face, even layered under make-up and appliances, is so exquisitely expressive. He is frightening, yes, but his very existence is disturbing at the most basic levels of your soul. Boris Karloff’s classic portrayal of the monster brought a deep pathos and even a bit of humanity to the creature. Lee takes that pathos further and turns his portrayal into a piteous lament.
The Curse of Frankenstein combines these faultless film performances with the precise direction of Terence Fisher. Committed to his own vision of Mary Shelley's story, Fisher manages to marry the most familiar elements with bolder, more creative touches, from the design of Lee's makeup, which sees the monster with a full head of dark hair and a pale mottled face and an unassuming, bolt-less neck to the reshaping of Baron Frankenstein into a dangerously charismatic sociopath. Excellent writing from key Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster, and the peerless production values and attention to detail characteristic of Hammer make Curse an incredibly tight and vibrant production, even fifty-one years later.
