The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

No matter how dull the series can get, the posters are some of the greatest of the period

Director: Terence Fisher
Writer: Jimmy Sangster
Cinematographer: Jack Asher

by Susan Bartley

This is one of seven sequels to the Hammer Frankenstein series. Unlike The Mummy (1959) this is another film that falls into tedium as I was waiting for the action to pick up. Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) has moved to a new town, sets up a successful practice that has begun to take business away from the other doctors, and he’s developing another monster. There’s a great set which has extravagant lab pieces; we see how eyeballs are controlled by placing them into an aquarium and running an electrical current; Dr. Frankenstein finds a loyal apprentice and the monster comes alive and begins killing. It’s just not all that interesting. I was waiting for more screams and chills and cool sets, but was instead forced to have to listen to people talk, and talk and talk and talk. An especially boring and extensive scene involves the medical committee revoking Dr. Frankenstein's license to practice medicine. The citizens eventually awake to his psychotic tendencies, the monster is killed, Frankenstein survives and of course Dr. Frankenstein maintains his fervor in creating another one.
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I’m still excited to check out the other five of the series where a few of the latter are supposed to be some of the best, though I’m pretty sure the next three are rated even lower than Revenge of Frankenstein which makes me anxious to have to sit through all of those in order to get to the good stuff. It’s another movie where the poster is better than the film and if I could get a collage of all eight Hammer Frankenstein posters it might motivate me to plough through the remainder of the series as I’d have to justify hanging them on my wall.

BELOW: RoF trailer that makes the movie look far better than it is

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