Franchises: Hammer's Frankenstein Series. Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

I've mentioned before that the filmography in the back of the Monster Madness book I've had since I was eleven only listed The Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Frankenstein, meaning I had to learn about the other Hammer Frankenstein movies myself, in various different ways. In the case of Frankenstein Created Woman, I first became aware of its existence on the same day that I watched Curse on AMC for, possibly, the third time. That afternoon, my mother and I went to Winchester and, while browsing around in an OnCue (which will give you an idea of how long ago we're talking), I saw the clam-shell VHS, with the artwork featuring Peter Cushing and Susan Denberg's faces separated by a bolt of lightning streaking down the middle of the image, with her lying on a table at the bottom, and I also remember turning it around and seeing the image of Frankenstein carrying the woman in his arms. Not only did it leave an impression but I think that, along with seeing the first bit of The Revenge of Frankenstein one night, was my first indication that there were far more of these movies than that book originally had me believe. And like all of them following Curse, I didn't learn the ins and outs of their basic plots until I watched The History of Sci-Fi and Horror documentary. There, Butch Patrick commented that, if Cushing had made his Baron Frankenstein too sympathetic in The Evil of Frankenstein, he corrected it here, and also described how the story involved him infusing the body of a young woman with the soul of a vengeful man. Sounded interesting, far different from the other entries in the series, as well as other Frankenstein movies in general, but like so many other movies I was introduced to in that documentary, I wouldn't actually see it until many years, specifically in the summer of 2009, when I ordered it off of Ioffer, along with DVD-Rs of Dracula: Prince of Darkness and Scars of Dracula.

While The Evil of Frankenstein is almost unanimously considered to be the series' lowest point (which, you should know, is not a sentiment I share), opinion is more divided on Frankenstein Created Woman. Some, such as Leonard Maltin, feel it's absolute rubbish, while others think it's one of the best, chief among them Martin Scorsese, who's often said this is one of his absolute favorite movies. Granted, Scorsese also really likes Exorcist II: The Heretic (I don't see how someone could find anything good about that piece of dreck but, hey, to each his own), but still, it's noteworthy that someone as respected as him would give such accolades to a Hammer horror film. As for me, I do think it's one of the more interesting of the series, given the metaphysical aspects of Frankenstein's experiments and the idea of a young woman's body being inhabited by the soul of her deceased lover. But, I do have some issues with parts of the story and some of the characters, and this is also the first instance of a mean-spirited slant to Hammer's movies that would increase exponentially in later films such as Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and especially Taste the Blood of Dracula.

As a boy, Hans Werner witnessed the beheading of his father for murder, and has since been haunted by it, as well as for the notoriety of being his son. Now a young adult, Hans works as an assistant to Baron Frankenstein and Dr. Hertz in an experiment to contain the soul of a dead person and, at a later point, transfer it to another body. At the same time, Hans is in love with Christina Kleve, a sweet but sadly disfigured young woman who's the daughter of a local innkeeper. While buying a bottle of champagne in order to celebrate a successful trial in Frankenstein's work, Hans is present when three snobbish young dandies of wealthy families barge in and demand Christina's father serve them wine. Furthermore, they demand Christina herself bring it to them so that they can cruelly mock her for her deformities. Due to her twisted leg, she accidentally spills wine on one of them, Anton, who verbally abuses and shoves her as a result. Enraged, Hans demands he apologize, and when he refuses, he gets into a brutal fight with them, at one point grabbing a knife and slashing Anton across the forehead. After the police are summoned and break the fight up, Hans leaves and later sneaks over to Christina's home, where the two of them make love. However, the dandies, after being forced to go drink elsewhere, break back into the inn for more wine later that night, only to be caught by Kleve, whom they beat to death. When his body is discovered the next day, Hans, due to his notoriety, the violent behavior he displayed the night before, and his refusal to account for his whereabouts at the time of the murder, is sentenced to death. He's beheaded at the same guillotine as his father, and to compound things, Christina, who was away during the trial, returns just in time to see it. Completely distraught, she drowns herself in a river. Meanwhile, Frankenstein takes the opportunity to use Hans in his experiment, having Hertz coerce the jailer into bringing them his corpse, and he succeeds in containing his soul. And when Christina's body is brought to Hertz, Frankenstein decides to transfer Hans' soul into her. They also perform surgery on her body and manage to transform her into a truly beautiful and healthy young woman, and discover that Hans' spirit is active within her, along with her own soul. However, they both seek bloody revenge on those who destroyed their lives, and their crimes soon bring suspicion on Frankenstein and Hertz.

Having briefly returned to the Hammer Dracula series with Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Terence Fisher, after having followed that up with the non-Hammer film, Island of Terror (which starred Peter Cushing), finally returned to the first major franchise he initiated for the studio, after having not been involved with it for almost a decade. This is where I draw more parallels between Fisher and Ishiro Honda, as Honda, after being away from the Godzilla franchise for a little while, eventually returned to it after another director had contributed a couple of entries during his absence, just as Freddie Francis had made The Evil of Frankenstein during Fisher's furlough from the series and Hammer in general. And just as Evil had totally ignored Fisher's first two films in the series, Fisher and screenwriter Anthony Hinds ignore the events of Evil in Frankenstein Created Woman (though, it must be remembered that Hinds penned Evil as well). As a result, the film does, indeed, gel better with The Curse of Frankenstein and The Revenge of Frankenstein in terms of Baron Frankenstein's depiction, though whether or not it's in continuity with them is anyone's guess.

Butch Patrick was most definitely correct when he said that Peter Cushing made up for possibly making Baron Frankenstein too sympathetic in The Evil of Frankenstein, as here, he's much closer to the unscrupulous sociopath he was in Curse. He doesn't seem so at first, when he's reanimated by Dr. Hertz and Hans after having been frozen alive for one hour, having decided to use himself in his experiments, for once. Said experiments now revolve around the soul, which he believes remains in the body for some time after death and feels he can contain and transfer it into another body as a means of conquering death altogether. However, his truly arrogant and downright misanthropic nature begins to show through when Hans is put on trial for the murder of Kleve. Though he and Hertz are called as character witnesses for Hans, Frankenstein is impatient with the process, as he'd much rather get back to his work, acts antagonistic towards the chief of police when he interrogates him, at one point saying that the nature of his work is none of his business, and even asks the mayor, who presides over the court, if his testimony is really necessary. He very quickly gives a rundown of his feelings about Hans, praising him up and down, and saying that he considers it "extremely unlikely" that he would commit murder. However, his wording ends up backfiring, as he didn't say it was totally impossible, and it contributes to Hans being found guilty. Rather than feel regret over having unintentionally condemned Hans, Frankenstein sees it as a golden opportunity to put his theory into practice, and when Hertz is unsure about it, questioning whether or not it's moral, Frankenstein exclaims, "What does 'right' got to do with it?! That boy is doomed. By this time tomorrow, he'll be dead, guillotined, and the pieces buried!" He then instructs Hertz to have his body there no later than an hour after the execution, and even goes as far as to suggest he blackmail one of the jailers, using whatever dirt he may have on them. Then, he reveals his plan to eventually transfer Hans' soul into another body, saying they're easy to come by. And when Hertz asks him if he's going to ask Hans' permission, Frankenstein remarks, "What on Earth for?... He won't know anything about it until it's too late. Besides, he might refuse."

Sure enough, Hertz manages to have Hans' body delivered to his office, where Frankenstein's laboratory is housed, and they succeed in extracting and housing the soul in his apparatus. And then, he has a further stroke of "luck" when several villagers bring Christina Kleve's drowned body to Hertz's office in the hopes he can do something for her, deciding to transfer Hans' soul into her. To that end, he guides Hertz in performing a surgery in order to correct Christina's deformities (Frankenstein doesn't perform the surgery himself because, for an unexplained reason, his hands are burned, forcing him to wear black gloves at all times), and they then put her through physical therapy in order to ensure that she is cured. But, Frankenstein is completely dismissive and insensitive about her confusion over who she is, ignoring her asking for a mirror to look at herself, saying, "The scar has healed perfectly. You've nothing to worry about," and doesn't tell her how she came to be in their care. He also stops Hertz when he tries to take Christina outside, saying she's not to leave the house until he says she can, which comes fairly soon, as Frankenstein and Hertz take her out to the guillotine to see how she reacts. Her crying out, "Papa!", confirms for Frankenstein that Hans' soul is in her but isn't always active, encouraging him to run some more tests, despite the physical and emotional effect it has on her. Unbeknownst to either him or Hertz, Christina and Hans begin murdering the dandies who mocked her and really killed her father. This soon brings the wrath of the villagers upon Frankenstein when they learn that Hans has come back in some manner. At first, he dismisses what they tell him as a deluded fantasy, but when they threaten to burn him at the stake for witchcraft, he has them unearth Hans' grave to prove the body is still there. Though it is there (minus the head, which Christina has with her), Frankenstein now realizes that Hans' soul is out for revenge and attempts to rush out to stop him from killing the last of the dandies, only to be placed under house arrest. Unable to make the police chief understand what's going on, Frankenstein manages to escape the house and rushes to intercept Christina before she and Hans can complete their revenge. But, he's ultimately too late, and is also unable to stop Christina from killing herself once and for all by throwing herself into some rapids below, forcing him to walk away and lament what he's done, as well as inevitably face the music from the villagers.

The real protagonists of the film are actually Hans (Robert Morris) and Christina (Susan Denberg), both of whom are portrayed as pitiable outcasts in their small community: Hans because of his father's crimes and execution, as well as his being an assistant to Baron Frankenstein, and Christina because of her deformities (the makeup for which is simple but effective). For the most part, Hans comes off as a rather pleasant young man, although he's clearly haunted by having witnessed his father's execution when he was a boy, especially given how he says he has nothing but good memories about him, and is dogged by simply being his son, including by Christina's father, Kleve. Because of this, he's sympathetic towards Frankenstein, whom he knows the villagers spread rumors about behind his back, and tells Christina, "If it's a choice between him and they, I'll choose him every time." Christina is a more overtly sad soul, as her father keeps her virtually hidden from the public, having her work in the kitchen in the back of the inn (she later says that when she was a child, he didn't like to be seen with her), and she suffers mockery, humiliation, and revulsion due to her scarred face and twisted limbs, which cause her to walk with a limping gait. She's had numerous surgeries and doctor's appointments to try to repair her deformities but none have worked and she's all but given up, even though she would love nothing more than to be a "normal-looking" person. It comes to a head when, while Christina is working at the inn, three snobbish young men from wealthy families force her father to have her serve them and mock her when she does. Because of her deformed leg, she spills the wine on one of them, and when he harshly berates her for it, Hans' temper erupts. He demands Anton apologize, and when he not only refuses but mocks him for being the son of a murderer, Hans gets into a vicious brawl with all three of them. Despite being outnumbered, he manages to put up a good fight, and, at one point, gets a knife and slashes Anton across the forehead with it. He's so worked up that, when Kleve brings a couple of police officers to break up the brawl, Hans threatens them and flat-out tells Kleve, "I'll kill you for that!", when he forces him to drop the knife after the cops restrain him. After both of them are sent away, Hans and Christina meet up again at the latter's home and eventually make love, only for the three men who mocked her earlier to show up outside and "serenade" her with a cruel song, angering Hans and hurting Christina further.

The next day, Hans sees Christina off when she departs for Innsbad to see another doctor and walks back to the village, only to find a crowd gathered at the inn. He's immediately grabbed by the police, both because of the altercation the night before and because a coat he gave to Kleve as a form of payment was found there. Very stupidly, he refuses to admit where he was at the time of the murder, even during his trial, ensuring that he's found guilty and sentenced to death. (He's trying to save Christina from further embarrassment and scorn but, seriously, man, your life is on the line! How good do you think your death is going to be for her?) And then, in a horrible instance of the past repeating itself, Christina returns from Innsbad at the very moment of the execution and witnesses Hans' beheading as she disembarks from the coach. Distraught and unable to contemplate life without him, Christina runs to a bridge and throws herself into the river below, drowning herself. But they soon live again, as one, when Frankenstein manages to extract and contain Hans' soul from his body and then transfers it into Christina after she's fished out of the river and brought to Dr. Hertz. Frankenstein then helps Hertz perform a surgery that rids Christina of her deformities and transforms her into a stunningly beautiful, blonde woman. Initially, there's no sign of Hans' soul within her, and Christina herself now has no memory of who she is or how she came to be in their care, leaving her confused, scared, and virtually held prisoner by Frankenstein, who keeps her in the house while he performs his tests on her. But, when he takes her out to the guillotine, Hans' soul awakens and the two of them set out on getting revenge on those who ruined their lives, with Christina using her newfound good looks to seduce and lure them to their doom.

This is where one of my major problems with the film's concept lies. While it is satisfying to see those snobbish, cruel assholes get what they deserve, that's all that concerns Christina and Hans during the third act. There's none of the true love and tenderness that was there earlier, no definable moment where they realized that they're sharing one body, and in death, Hans seems to have gone from truly caring about Christina to now merely using her as a means to get revenge, as all he does is tell her who to kill and egg her on in the act, saying, "Kill him! Kill him, Christina!" And once they've murdered all three of them, Hans tells Christina, "You have done what you had to do, Christina. You may rest now, in peace," and appears to leave her. Then, when Frankenstein finds her after she's killed the last one, she again drowns herself in the river, but not before telling him when he offers to explain to her who she is, "I know who I am... and what I have to do," all but confirming that she now feels she has nothing else to live for and may suddenly feel guilt over the horrible things she's done.

Thorley Walters' performance as Dr. Hertz is a very uneven one. For much of the first half of the movie, he comes off as little more than a senile old fool, one who is completely unable to grasp what Frankenstein is attempting to do, despite working with him all the time, often forcing him to spell everything out, much to his annoyance. His most blatant moment of senility is when he's called as a witness for Hans during the trial and confirms that he gave the coat found at the crime scene to him... and then acts as though that he doesn't even know what Hans is being accused of! But then, starting with the moment when Frankenstein talks him into acquiring Hans' body following the execution, his dimwitted, doddering manner gives way to one much sharper and savvier. Frankenstein encourages him to use what knowledge he has of the villagers' dark secrets to persuade the jailer into bringing the body to him and Hertz does so in a very calculated, manipulative manner: he reminds the jailer of how he covered up for him when a young girl he was around suddenly became "fatter," and when he returned from another town, covered in "sores" that were supposedly the result of bad food poisoning. With that, Frankenstein gets Hans' body and succeeds in extracting and containing the soul. And then, when Christina's body is brought to Hertz's office after she drowns herself, Frankenstein not only decides to put Hans' soul inside her but guides Hertz in an operation that repairs her deformities. Hertz regards Christina in a much warmer and less clinical fashion than Frankenstein, allowing her to see herself in a mirror, at one point, attempting to take her outside, although Frankenstein puts a stop to it, and is also concerned about the effect Frankenstein's tests are having on her. While he doesn't tell her who she is, he does tell her of Frankenstein's role in fixing her deformities, regarding him as someone who possesses great knowledge. But, neither of them are able to stop Hans and Christina from embarking on their campaign of revenge, and while Hertz does try to convince the villagers that Frankenstein's claim about the resurrected Christina is true, it does nothing to stop him from being put under house arrest, forcing him to break out in order to stop her. Hertz's last act is to impede the police officers when they attempt to rush upstairs after Frankenstein when he goes to escape.

As cold and cruel as Frankenstein is here, the most loathsome characters in the film are the three wealthy young men, Anton (Peter Blythe), Karl (Barry Warren), and Johann (Derek Fowlds). They're not only snobbish, they're just bullies. They quite frequent Kleve's inn but never pay their tab, often threaten to use their influence to have his license revoked if he does anything that displeases them, and, in an act of sheer cruelty, force Christina to serve them the wine just so they can mock her for her deformities. Anton, who's sort of the de facto leader, is the worst of all of them, as he cruelly insists that Christina serve them, mocks her as soon as they force her to come out of hiding, and when she comes close to spilling the wine when she serves it Johann, he warns, "Be careful, my dear. You don't want your father to lose his license, do you?" And then, when she, unavoidably, does spill wine on him, he has the audacity to get mad, call her a "silly bitch," accuse her of doing it on purpose, and shove her aside. He goes on to insult Hans for being the son of a murderer when he angrily demands he apologize to Christina, leading to a brutal fight where Hans manages to beat the stuffing out of them and slice Anton across the head with a knife. After Hans is restrained and disarmed, Anton intends to have him charged for assault but backs down when the one police officer tells him that it wouldn't fly, considering it was three against one. Regardless, the three of them are still served their wine, with Anton having his cut examined by both Frankenstein and Hertz when they show up, and, when they make it clear they have no intention of paying, Kleve makes them take their business elsewhere. On the way, they stop outside Christina's home, where Anton sings a cruel song about how she'll be a lonely virgin her whole life, and then break back into Kleve's inn to steal some more wine. Unfortunately, Kleve returns upon realizing he's forgotten his keys and catches them, prompting them to beat on him, only to realize too late that they've killed him. They quickly flee, and when Hans is charged for murder, they, of course, go along with the trial, using their brawl with him and the public knowledge of his temper as proof of his homicidal tendencies. That said, though, while Anton and Karl seem smugly satisfied by how Hans appears to be doomed, Johann looks a little more uncomfortable at the prospect, though not enough to say anything.

After Hans' execution, which they shamelessly attend, and Christina's death, the three men are not seen again until the third act, when they're once again frequenting the inn, now under new management. On the way there one night, Anton hears Hans' voice calling for him and he rushes to the inn in terror, though he denies that there's anything wrong to the other two and becomes agitated when pressed about it. After a long night of drinking and gambling, Karl and Johann decide to leave, but Anton is desperate to keep them there, only to angrily drive them away when they try to calm him down. Once alone, Anton is seduced and lured by Christina to her old house, where she murders him. Following that, Karl and Johann get into an argument when the latter fears Anton's murder may have been retribution for what they did and storms out of the inn. That's when Christina comes in and, again, seduces and murders Karl, who realizes that it's Hans who's behind it before he's killed, managing to, offscreen, write Hans' name on the floor in his own blood. Having seen this, Johann attempts to flee the area, only to find himself in the same coach as Christina, who lures him to a picnic lunch in the woods when the coach breaks down and stabs him to death, though not before revealing who she is.

While not as unlikable as some of the other characters, it's kind of hard to sympathize with Kleve (Alan MacNaughtan), given how much he considers his daughter to be an embarrassment and burden because of her deformities. It's especially disparaging when Christina mentions how he never took her anywhere when she was a child for fear of being seen with her, and though she considers it to be kindness, you get the feeling that he spends so much money on doctors not for her sake but to simply erase what he's ashamed of. The fact that he disapproves of Hans' interest in her simply because of who his father was is also a very crappy attitude for him to take, when he should be happy that there's at least one person who doesn't mock her but sees past her deformities for who she is, and not only genuinely cares for but also stands up for her. But, because of the young dandies' influences, it's understandable why Kleve bends the knee to them the way he does, as much as it does clearly pain him to see his daughter being mocked and bullied. Little does he know that those three will become his killers that very night, as they break back into his inn to steal more wine, only for him to run across them when he returns upon realizing he's forgotten his keys, leading to their beating him to death. Even worse, Hans' having paid for some champagne with the coat given to him by Dr. Hertz contributes to his being charged with the murder, and Christina is never even aware of her father's death, as she leaves for Innsbad early the next morning.

Hans' father (Duncan Lamont), who's beheaded in the film's opening, initially seems like a deranged man with absolutely no remorse for what he's done, as he's gotten very drunk before the execution and is making light of the situation, such as the priest being late and not reading the prayers loud enough. But, his demeanor changes when he sees young Hans standing nearby, and he hysterically yells for him to be taken away. After Hans appears to run off when the priest approaches him, he tells them to go ahead and get it over with, hoping to have it done before Hans comes back. But, right before the blade comes down on him, he hears Hans call for him and he's ultimately the last thing he sees. Hans later says he has nothing but good memories of his father, and given the nice tales he tells, he does seem to have treated his son well, despite having been a drunkard, a thief, and, ultimately, a murderer.

As far as other familiar Hammer faces go, we have Peter Madden, who'd played Bruno the landlord in The Kiss of the Vampire, as the chief of police, who arrests Hans for murder and also has a combative and antagonistic relationship with Frankenstein. During the trial, he questions both Hertz and Frankenstein, as well as Anton, though the mayor accuses him of putting words into his mouth in order to have Hans labeled a murderer and "rephrases" the question: he simply asks Anton to describe what kind of person Hans is and Anton, predictably, says, "A murderer." (In the screenplay, Anton was supposed to be the police chief's son but, in the finished film, there's no inkling of that.) At the end of the movie, after the first two murders, he puts Frankenstein under house arrest and, though he has a hard time believing his claims of the nature of the killer, intends to hunt down Christina, though he doesn't get the chance when Frankenstein escapes. And Philip Ray, who'd appeared as the priest at the beginning of Dracula: Prince of Darkness, has the small role here of the sympathetic mayor, who presides over Hans' trial. Not only does he admonish the police chief for his way of questioning Anton but he gives Hans one last chance to provide an alibi for himself during the time of the murder, a chance he doesn't take. Even at the last minute, he asks Hans if there's anyone who can help save him, but he simply says there isn't anyone and the mayor, clearly distraught at having to execute him, grimly says, "Very well," and goes through with it.

The notion that Frankenstein has discovered a means to isolate a dead person's soul is what makes this particular film stand out, as it's far more metaphysical than any other interpretation of the Frankenstein story (at least, those that I've seen), and it's a major reason why it has so many admirers, like Martin Scorsese. But, it's also something of a missed opportunity for me, as they don't do much with it other than the dime-a-dozen plot-point of one soul being transferred into another body and then seeking revenge. You should never expect Hammer to get too philosophical, nor should you think too hard about Frankenstein's exact methodology in extracting and containing a soul, the details of which are left vague anyway, but it still sucks that we don't get an insight into Hans' soul becoming conscientious of the fact that he's been resurrected in Christina's body. We do see the moment when his soul awakens within her, which is when Frankenstein shows her the guillotine and she cries out, "Papa!", but we never have a, "What happened? Where am I?" moment on Hans' part or, as I mentioned earlier, when exactly both he and Christina realize what's happened. Moreover, the film never gets into the concept of Christina's own soul, when she does remember who she is and what happened to her and Hans, or how they even deduced that Anton, Karl, and Johann were the ones who killed her father. The specifics of when Frankenstein mentioning that Hans' soul is not always active within Christina is never explored, nor is it explained why Hans' voice comes out of her mouth when she originally spoke his words in her own voice or where Hans' soul went after they had their revenge. And Christina committing suicide again at the end of the movie feels like an abrupt excuse to have a downbeat ending, given how quickly she went from willfully obeying Hans to appearing to feel remorse once he's no longer with her.

Arthur Grant's cinematography here is mostly conventional, but there are instances where he does create some very notable imagery. His shots of the guillotine that features prominently in the story, one of which opens the film, are often shot against a very grim-looking, dark sky, achieved with the filters used for day-for-night photography and with the guillotine itself often in silhouette, helping to contribute an uncomfortable, nightmarish feel. The two executions take place on similarly grim, overcast days, with the beheading of Hans' father at the beginning of the movie looking almost Expressionistic in some shots, with how the characters as well as the guillotine are sometimes shot almost in silhouette. Where the movie gets more colorful, though, are in many of the scenes in Frankenstein's laboratory, due to the equipment that gives off red and amber-colored lighting, and in the woods, which look very lovely and almost surreal in how bright the colors are, especially when you watch the movie in HD. And the murders of Anton and Karl are shot with plenty of darkness and shadows, with the most notable one being the latter, which features Mario Bava-like bright reds mixed in with the shadows when Christina grabs the meat cleaver she plans to use on him and when he sees her standing in the darkness but hears Hans' voice calling to him.

Like Terence Fisher, Bernard Robinson returned to the series here after having been absent from The Evil of Frankenstein, though his only truly memorable set is Frankenstein's laboratory, housed on the second floor of Dr. Hertz's home and office. However, it's not as memorably grisly and uncomfortable as the labs in the first two films, nor is it as big, grand, and old-fashioned as the one in Evil; it's little more than a large attic room, filled with electrical equipment, most notably the device Frankenstein uses to draw out the soul from Hans' body, which is powered through hydroelectric means, involves a pair of satellite dish-like objects, is somehow connected to a tuning fork kept in a small case, and is later surrounded by several large panels, with rectangular, tinted windows allowing them to look through at the contained soul. The room also has a deep-freeze which Frankenstein himself is kept within when he tests his theory of soul containment on himself at the beginning of the movie, and another machine is used to extract some strange energy from rock kept behind a pair of large doors. The rest of the sets, though well-made, as always, are pretty mundane, like Hertz's office and living area on the ground floor of his building; the nice interior of the inn, with the quaint little kitchen in the back, which is separated by a curtain of multi-colored strings; Christina's tiny room at her home; the simple but stately courtroom; the dingy, slimy prison cell Hans is kept in while awaiting his execution; and the small, confined village streets on the Bray backlot. Speaking of which, there's a clear separation of the two halves of the village, with the guillotine being the midway point, as the section containing Dr. Hertz's building is reached off to the right of it, while the inn and the Kleve household is off to the left.

The most memorable settings in the film, aside from Frankenstein's laboratory, are actually shot on location, chief among the desolate spot in the countryside where the old guillotine sits. Shot in Frensham, Surrey, the same area that served as the moorlands in The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile, the guillotine is seen many times throughout the film, even when it's not in use, appearing to forever hang over the village and the characters as a grisly and macabre reminder of the past, looking quite chilling when shot in silhouette in low lighting. It comes off as particularly inescapable for Hans, who witnesses the death of his father there, is himself executed there after having seen Christina off to Innsbad at those very crossroads shortly before, and it's the spot where his soul is reawakened within her. It has a connection to Christina as well, as she witnesses Hans' execution just as he did his father's, and Johann is picked up by the coach transporting Christina at that spot near the end of the movie. The woodlands, which, of course, were shot at Black Park, are just as memorable an area due to how their picturesque, almost fairy tale-like, beauty is juxtaposed with some truly grisly and tragic moments, like Christina's initial suicide, her murdering Johann, and her second suicide afterward.

Hammer seems to have felt as though they had been losing their edge at this point, as Frankenstein Created Woman is one of their most bloodily violent films in a while, easily rivaling the moments of gruesomeness seen in Dracula: Prince of Darkness the previous year. Heads are lopped off, with lots of blood splattered on the guillotine's blade and the baskets they're caught in, people are sliced and gutted with very grisly aftermaths, and during the third act, Christine is often seen holding Hans' severed, though obviously very fake, head while conversing with his soul. Speaking of which, there's a moment where you see a close-up of the head where it's supposed to be attached to a little rung on top of her mirror, and rather than use the fake head, they instead matted in a still shot of Robert Morris' actual head, but it sticks out like a sore thumb. Seriously, it looks like there's a large, filmy strip of tape around it! The other instances of visual effects work in the film, which are animation effects of the light surging through the soul machine's dishes and the shot of the soul itself, which is represented as a floating orb, are simple but much more effective.

The film opens on an up-shot of the guillotine, putting it up against a grim-looking, dark sky, when the blade comes down. It then cuts to a prisoner, Hans' father, being led towards it by two guards, as he drunkenly laughs and sings to himself. He asks what they're waiting for, and when he's told the priest hasn't arrived yet, he mutters, "He won't do much good, not where I'm going," before laughing loudly again. The priest then rides up on a mule and approaches them, leading to this exchange between him and the prisoner: "You're late, father. You nearly missed the show." "I'm sorry. I didn't hear the cock crow." "Ha, think nothing of it, my dear sir." "Well, gentlemen, shall we, uh..." "At once, your honors, and I trust you'll accept my apologies for bringing you out on so raw a morning." The guards drag him up to the platform, as he continues laughing, while the priest quietly recites a prayer in Latin while following behind them. The prisoner turns and says, "Pardon me, your holiness, but if that's for my benefit, could you speak up a bit?", and the priest starts reading louder, to which he says, "That's better! Not that I could understand a word of it. You see, I... never was much of a scholar. I never had time for it." Reaching the top of the platform, the guards shove him towards the guillotine, which he knocks into, causing the blade to come down in front of him. He comments that it almost spoiled their day and laughs again. But, he stops laughing when he sees a young boy watching from the nearby bushes and realizes it's his son. Horrified, he yells hysterically for the priest to take him away, and the priest climbs down and approaches Hans, who runs off into the bushes. After that, the prisoner has lost his drunken levity about his fast approaching death and tells them to go ahead and get it over with. They quickly shove his head into the hole and prepare to bring the blade down, when Hans emerges from the bushes again and yells for his father. The prisoner turns and sees Hans, right before the blade is released and instantly decapitates him. Hans runs off and the blood-covered blade is hoisted back up, with the camera panning up past it to a shot of the sky, as the opening credits roll.

After they've finished, the camera pans back down to show the guillotine again, now old and rusted with the passage of time. Now a young man, Hans rushes up the hill and stops and looks at it, his father's words yelling at him to get away echoing in his memory. He then continues on his way, running down to one section of the nearby village and through the door of a small building. Upstairs, Dr. Hertz calls for him to come up and help him. There, Hertz is standing by the doors to a deep freeze, looking at a watch and counting quietly but breathlessly. He tells Hans to puts his gloves on and then asks him to grab him a bottle of booze on the counter. Once he gives it to him, Hertz desperately drinks straight from the bottle, and then gives the bottle back to Hans. He finishes counting until he hits sixty and tells Hans to open the door to the freezer. When he does, he removes a long, frost-covered box with a hook, sliding it out across the raised track in front of it. Hertz tells him that, this time, it's been in there for one full hour, and has to be told to put on gloves himself before touching the box. They open the lid to reveal the frozen body of Baron Frankenstein, with Hertz removing his gloved hands that are covering his face. Checking for a pulse, Hertz doesn't find one, and he and Hans open up the sides of the box, which is now clearly revealed to be a coffin. Hertz tells Hans to close the doors to the deep freeze and then listens to Frankenstein's heart. Not hearing anything, he says the room isn't warm enough and so, Hans stokes up a nearby stove, while Hertz attaches electrical wires from a grating hanging from the ceiling to Frankenstein's wrists. He then tells Hans to man an electrical switch and orders him to throw it. At first, it doesn't do anything, and he tells Hans to throw it many times in rapid succession. Finally, when he puts his ear to Frankenstein's chest, he hears a heartbeat and tells Hans to grab the smelling salts. He wafts the bottle back and forth in front of his nose and he slowly but surely rouses, eventually telling him, "Take that foul-smelling stuff away, please." Sitting up and getting to his feet, he walks over to the stove to warm himself, talking about how, for one hour, he was technically dead, but his soul remained within him and wonders if he could possibly trap it within him forever. All Hertz cares about is that Frankenstein is alive and well, and says they must have a party to celebrate. Frankenstein tells Hans to run down to the inn and get some champagne, but neither he nor Hertz have any money to give him. Frankenstein then tells Hans to tell the landlord he'll pay later, and before he leaves, Hertz gives Hans his overcoat. Frankenstein continues to wonder why and how his soul remained contained within his body.

Hans then rushes to the other side of town and enters the inn, which he finds is apparently deserted. Taking his coat off, he walks into the kitchen in the back, where he sees Christina working. Greeting her, she's happy to see him, but doesn't think her father will feel the same way. Hans tells her he's there on business but, when he mentions Baron Frankenstein's involvement, she says she wishes he didn't have to work for him. Hans defends Frankenstein and says he'd take him over the gossiping, judgmental villagers any day. That's when Christina's father, Kleve, comes back and, as predicted, he's not happy about Hans hanging around his daughter. He nearly throws him out when he says he's there to buy some champagne for Hertz, especially when he tells him that Frankenstein will pay him later. Hans then decides to pay himself, offering Hertz's nice overcoat. Kleve begrudgingly accepts his offer and gives him one bottle. On his way out, he tells Hans to stay away from Christina, adding, "I don't want your type hanging around her." Before Hans can respond, three upper-class young dandies, Anton, Karl, and Johann, come barging in. They immediately prove themselves to be quite snobbish, with Anton asking for the best wine, or, at least, the best such a place can provide, and when Kleve recommends the white wine, as it's his personal favorite, they decide to take the red instead. They also threaten to cause him to lose his license if it's not to their liking and they all sit down as he pours some glasses, with Hans hanging around to watch for his own amusement.

The real trouble starts when Kleve goes to serve the wine, only for Anton to insist that Christina serve it. Kleve lies and says that Christina, who's overheard him and is hiding in a corner in the kitchen, isn't there. Anton, however, isn't fooled and sends Karl in the back to fetch her. It doesn't take Karl long to find her, as there's nowhere to hide back there, and when he does, he motions for her to go out, glaring at her with a look that obviously says, "Do it or else." Reluctantly, Christina hobbles outside and Anton immediately starts making sarcastic comments about how she's, "As pretty as a picture today," with Johann adding, "Enchanting," and Karl, "Isn't she?" Christina begs them not to tease her but they all deny doing so, and Anton, again, says that she is to serve them. She attempts to do so, first shakily serving Johann, who doesn't make things easier by draping his leg across the way to another table; Hans tries to step in but Kleve keeps him back. Johann mentions how she almost spilled the wine and Anton warns her that if she does, her father will lose his license. She then limps over to Anton, while Johann comments, "See how gracefully she walks," and when she goes to place a glass on his table, her shaky, twisted arm causes her to drop it on him. He immediately shoots to his feet and yells at her, accusing her of doing it on purpose, and shoving her away. Enraged, Hans demands Anton apologize but Anton calls him a peasant and says, "I do not care to talk to the spawn of murderers!" With that, Hans rushes at him and punches him in the face, knocking him to the floor. He gets on him and chokes him, but Karl and Johann pull him off. Anton goes to cane him but Hans turns and slams Johann into a table, flings Karl into another, and then dodges another swing from Anton, punching him in the face, landing him in a chair, and decking him again. While Kleve goes to fetch the police, Johann grabs and restrains Hans from behind and Anton kicks him away, with him and Karl ganging up on him. Hans, however, throws Johann off him, knocking a pair of curtains off the window behind them, shoves Anton away, and charges and shoves Karl onto a table, which he turns over with him. Johann grabs a chair and swings it at Hans, only to smash it against the wall and he and Hans grapple. Anton smacks Hans across the back with the cane several times but Hans knocks him away, only for the three of them to trap him against the wall and gang up on him. Hans grabs a shaker of salt from a table and flings it in their faces, managing to escape their grasp. He rushes to the bar and grabs a knife. Brandishing it, he eggs them to keep on attacking and Anton charges at him, only to get sliced across the forehead.

Kleve comes back in with two police officers, and Hans tells them to stay back, even when Kleve approaches and tells him to give him the knife, intending to see that these assholes get what they deserve. The officers come up behind Hans and restrain him, while Kleve grabs his wrist and forces him to drop the knife. Angrier than ever, Hans threatens to kill Kleve for that, but the one cop warns him that he'll end up like his father if he does. Kleve, in the end, decides not to press charges, but when Anton demands Hans be charged with assault, he's told that it wouldn't look too good since it was three against one and he backs down. The cops drag Hans outside, and Kleve tells Christina to go on home, telling her that it's not her fault. That's when he notices that Hans left behind the bottle of champagne, when Frankenstein and Hertz come through the door. He figures it's his champagne and he then sees what's happened, as well as how badly Anton is cut on his forehead. He says that Hertz would be more than happy to render first aid... for five crowns, payable in advance. He and Hertz then proceed to sit down for some dinner.

In her bedroom, Christina forlornly sits and looks at herself in the mirror, at the ugly scar that covers much of the left side of her face. There's a tapping at her window and when she opens it, Hans slips in. He laments having lost his temper, saying that he's likely to suffer the same fate as his father if he's not careful, and they both discuss childhood memories of their fathers. Christina's aren't as happy as Hans', as she tells him about how her father was always embarrassed to be seen with her, and that he spends every penny he gets on doctors to try to fix her deformities, adding that she's going to see another in Innsbad the next day. She then says that she longs to simply look normal rather than beautiful, prompting Hans to tell her that she doesn't have to hide her face from him and then admit that he loves her. She proves the feeling is mutual when she turns out the lantern in her room and the two of them kiss. Back at the inn, Frankenstein and Hertz have finished their meal and Frankenstein tells Hertz they must rush back to the lab, as they have more work to do that night, much to Hertz's dismay. Frankenstein heads on out, leaving Hertz to settle the bill, though advising him to keep the change. Once they've both left, Anton tells Kleve that both he and his friends are "temporarily embarrassed financially," but Kleve refuses to wait until the next day for them to pay, telling them he was given the same story the previous week. Anton says that they'll then take their business elsewhere, which Kleve says he would prefer, as, "It would cost me less." The three of them get up to leave, with Anton dickishly putting his cigarette out in a plate Kleve is holding, and head out the door. Later, Hans and Christina are lying in bed after having made love, when outside, the three dandies come upon her home. Having not had their fill of bullying her, Anton yells, "Christina, throw open thy window so I may gaze upon thy 'beauty!'", and the three of them laugh cruelly. Having awakened, Hans sits up in bed, angered, but Christina tells him not to do anything, saying they'll go away. That's when Anton proceeds to sing a mean-spirited song about her: "Sweet Christina, fair of face; blessed with beauty, filled with grace; lonely on your virgin bed; you'll stay a virgin till your dead. In your dreams, a handsome lad; comes creeping towards your virgin bed; hide your face, don't let him see; one look at it and he will flee. Sweet Christina, don't you cry; it won't be long, before you die; then from the heavens, a star will fall; for the ugliest angel of them all." The others then join him in singing that last part together, unaware of how Hans' rage has been building and building this whole time. Christina tells him to forget about them and continue loving her. Once they're satisfied, the three of them head off to continue their drinking elsewhere.

Back in the lab, Frankenstein and Hertz are at work, conducting an experiment that centers around a small glass sitting on a table between the two dish-like mechanisms that serve as part of his apparatus. Per his instructions, Hertz opens a large pair of doors to reveal a large rock behind them. Frankenstein begins cranking a lever that slowly moves a strange machine with three rods sticking out of its front towards the rock. The rods stick into three corresponding holes in the rock, which then begins to emit an amber-colored glow and hum, as an energy within it is drawn up through the rods. Frankenstein explains what's happening, leading to this exchange between him and Hertz: "It's magic!" "Everything we don't understand is magic... until we understand it." " To me, it's magic. All of this." "Until we understand it and master it." The pair of electrodes atop the machine spark and Frankenstein tries to correct it by twisting a dial on them. He's unable to do so hard enough because of his burned hands and has Hertz do it. Back in town, Kleve locks up the inn for the night and leaves, unaware that Anton and has friends are watching from nearby, waiting for him to do so. Heading up to the door, they find that he left it unlocked and slip inside to help themselves to all the wine in the place. Unbeknownst to them, just as he reaches the front door to his home, Kleve realizes he's forgotten his keys and heads back to the inn. Anton and his friends guzzle down as much wine as they can and also drunkenly fool around, when they hear Kleve's approaching footsteps and see his shadow outside the window. They quickly run and hide, with Anton and Karl hiding behind sections of the wall on either side of the room, while Johann ducks behind the bar. Kleve walks in, heads over to some aprons hanging on the wall in the corner, and pulls out a set of keys from one of them, as well as grabs the overcoat Hans gave to him. He heads out, and it looks like they've gotten away with it, when Johann accidentally bumps an empty bottle at his feet, which rolls out from behind the bar. Hearing and seeing this, Kleve knows there's someone else in the room and tells them to come on out. Caught red-handed, the three of them rush out of the shadows and attack Kleve, pummeling him to the floor with their walking canes. After only a few seconds of such vicious beating, Karl yells at the other two to stop and crouches down to look closer at Kleve, who's stopped moving. Realizing that he's dead, they all panic and flee the scene.

In the lab, Frankenstein loads a revolver and fires it at the glass sitting underneath the dishes, which are directing their stored energy towards it. The bullet careens off it and hits a section of the wall behind Hertz, but the glass itself is unharmed. Frankenstein describes it as, "A shield of indestructible matter... A frame of force so strong that nothing can enter it, and nothing can escape." When Hertz asks what it's for, Frankenstein answers, "To give life after death, my friend, that's what it's for. Life after death. We have conquered death." Meanwhile, Kleve's battered body is discovered at the inn, while back at their lab, Frankenstein and Hertz come downstairs after working all night. Frankenstein tries to lay out what he's accomplished as clearly to Hertz as he can, and finds that he has to break every... single... part of it down. He elaborates, "One dies because the body dies, not the soul. Death is a physical thing, not spiritual. The body deteriorates, or is broken in some way, or just decays, but, the soul remains alive. Now, if I can transfer the soul to my apparatus, repair the damaged body, and then return the soul... I have conquered death. Is it not so?" As he talks, he starts to doze off from exhaustion, and when Hertz decides what he says must be correct if he says so, Frankenstein has fallen asleep completely.

Hans helps Christina into the coach to take her to Innsbad at the crossroads near the guillotine, the two of them sharing a sweet kiss before he motions for the driver to go on. They wave at each other as the coach heads on down the road and Hans then runs to town, only to be surprised when he sees a crowd has gathered around the inn and are looking through the windows. Curious, he walks up and asks what happened. Everyone, all at the same time, turns around and stares accusingly at him, which confuses him. A policeman emerges from the inn and pulls Hans inside, shoving him in front of the chief of police. He has another officer show Hans the overcoat and tells him there are witnesses who saw him wearing it the night before. Still confused, Hans confirms it is his, and when the police chief asks him where he was the previous night, Hans refuses to say he was anywhere other than at the inn. Seeing this as proof of guilt, the police chief orders for Hans to be taken away and charged for murder, an accusation that completely shocks him.

Hans is then seen on trial, with the police chief saying that he intends to prove that he's committed the same crime his father did. He then calls his first witness, one of the officers, who tells how Hans yelled, "I'll kill you for this!", at Kleve, and after that, puts Dr. Hertz on the stand, asking him to identify the overcoat. Hertz confirms that it's his and that he gave it to Hans, only to come off as completely senile and out of touch when he doesn't understand that Hans is being accused of murder. Next, the chief questions Frankenstein, who's impatient with the process, saying he's a busy man and asks the mayor, who's acting as judge, if it's really necessary. Begrudgingly, he tells the police chief that he's a doctor of medicine, law, and physics, with Karl, who's sitting nearby with Anton and Johann, adding, "And of witchcraft." Frankenstein remarks, "To the best of my knowledge, doctorates are not awarded for witchcraft, but if ever they are, no doubt I shall qualify for one." He tries to hurry things along, saying he'd like to get back to his work, and when the chief asks him the nature of his work, he says it's none of his business. He then declares, "May I state, quite simply, that I have known the accused for several months and that I have always found him to be trustworthy, diligent, keen-witted, if not overly intelligent, conscientious, abstemious, and holy reliable. I know that he has been accused of murder. As a psychologist, I can only say that I consider it extremely unlikely that he could commit such a crime." The police chief protests at Frankenstein declaring that he can tell a murderer by looking at him, and that's when the mayor turns his own words against him, noting that he said it was "extremely unlikely" but not "impossible," which Frankenstein is forced to admit to. Things begin to look bleak for Hans, especially when the chief questions Anton, who confirms Hans' violent temper and says that he does think it possible for him to commit murder. Finally, the mayor, again, asks Hans to confirm his whereabouts at the time of the murder but he remains silent, giving him no alternative but to assume that he was there. He hands it over to the jury, who come back with a guilty verdict, and the mayor decrees that Hans will be guillotined at dawn the next day.

When they arrive back at his office, Frankenstein and Hertz are discussing how they now have an opportunity to go ahead with the full extent of their research, but Hertz is not thrilled with the prospect of using Hans' body after he's executed, wondering if it's right. Frankenstein manages to verbally beat him into agreeing and tells him to see to it that Hans' body is delivered there no longer than an hour after he's beheaded, further telling him to persuade one of the jailers into helping him by using whatever dirty laundry he may have on them. Frankenstein elaborates that, once he's extracted Hans' soul, he plans on eventually transferring it into another body, adding, "Bodies are easy to come by. Souls are not. See you don't let me down." When Hertz asks if he should get Hans' permission first, Frankenstein comments that if he does, he may refuse. Later, as Hans sits in his jail cell, awaiting his execution, and with his only company being a small rat, which he feeds some of his food to, the jailer outside is visited by Hertz. Thinking he's come for a payment, he tells him they don't pay him very well, but Hertz, instead, tells him of how he wants Hans' body for an hour after the execution. The jailer, figuring that it has something to do with Frankenstein and his experiments, refuses to get involved. That's when Hertz pulls out his trump card, reminding the jailer of some serious troubles he got himself into that Hertz managed to cover up before anyone, particularly his wife, found out. Though he laughs about it at first, the jailer then wonders why Hertz is bringing all this up and he simply replies, "I want that body."

Come the next morning, Hans is transported to the guillotine in an open cart and is pulled out and led to the platform, with a crowd gathered around; Anton, Karl, and Johann are shown to be among the spectators. At that very moment, the coach that took Christina to Innsbad is returning. The other woman in the coach with her sees that an execution is taking place and she excitedly tells the driver to go faster or they'll miss it. She then says that the prisoner appears to be a young man, and this gets Christina's attention. She looks out the window herself and, as the coach gets closer, she sees that it's Hans. Up on the platform, the mayor asks Hans if there's anyone who may help him but Hans grimly says there's no one and the mayor reluctantly tells them to proceed. As Hans is moved over to the block, he hears Christina calling for him and sees the coach. Distraught at her seeing this, he starts to struggle with the guards, as they force him down and close the block around his head. Christina disembarks from the coach and rushes to the platform, right as the mayor gives the signal. The blade comes down and Christina stops dead, before letting out an anguished scream and running off, while Hans' severed head is removed from the basket that caught it and placed in a burlap sack. Christina runs through the woods, reaching a stone bridge crossing a river, and, completely distraught, throws herself into the water. Meanwhile, Hans' body is delivered to Hertz's office, the jailer telling him they'll pick the body up again come nightfall. Hertz then quickly shoos them out the door, and once they've gone, he calls for Frankenstein, who comes down and helps him carry the coffin up to the lab. At that moment, Christina's body is fished out of the river and brought to the shore.

In the lab, Frankenstein and Hertz, having placed Hans' body on a table, get everything ready and activate the machine, which starts to hum and vibrate. Frankenstein points both of the dishes towards the body and the machine continues to hum, until a tuning fork in a nearby case that is attached to the machine vibrates so intensely that the glass shatters. Frankenstein switches out some cords hanging from the ceiling that are attached to the dishes' stands and walks over to a panel on the wall and throws a switch. Despite some sparks, the machine activates and begins to work, with the dishes glowing a bright red color that then turns to amber and finally a blinding white, which is quickly absorbed back into the dishes. Frankenstein wipes some sweat from his brow, knowing that he's succeeded. While those who recovered Christina's body carry her out of the woods, Frankenstein and Hertz look at Hans' extracted and contained soul through some special panels they've erected around the machine. They bring the coffin containing the body back downstairs, when there's a knock at the door. Hertz asks who it is and the man outside merely asks to see him. He and Frankenstein first hide the coffin by the side of the staircase and Hertz then answers the door. They tell him of how Christina drowned herself and ask if there's anything he can do for her. Removing the covering from her face and touching it, Hertz says he can't perform a miracle, but Frankenstein, seeing another perfect opportunity, speaks up, saying, "Dr. Hertz and I will do what we can." Hertz tells them to bring the body in and the groups sets her down, propping her head up on a small chair, and then leave. Though Hertz reiterates that he can't do anything, Frankenstein disagrees, declaring, "Our young friend will live again, sooner than we thought!" Hertz, realizing that he intends to transfer Hans' soul into Christina's body, can't see the benefit, given her deformities, but Frankenstein is sure that the source of it is something that Hertz can easily fix through surgery, with his guidance. He assures him, "In six months' time, she'll be as good as new, Hertz. Better."

In the next scene, Christina's face is shown, concealed within a cast held together by a couple of small laces and lying on a bright red pillow that really stands out with the white of the cast. Frankenstein tells Hertz to remove the laces and, with a pair of scissors, he snips them. Frankenstein then pries open the cast, revealing Christina's bandaged face, which now has blonde hair sticking out the top. Taking the cast out from under the head and putting it aside, the two of them remove the bandages, ending on a section covering Christina's eyes. When they remove it, there's a blurry shot from Christina's POV that gradually clears, revealing Frankenstein and Hertz's proud, smiling faces. Christina, her face no longer scarred but now perfect and beautiful, looks around the room curiously, while Frankenstein compliments Hertz on his handiwork, though Hertz says it was his brain that ensured the operation was a success. Examining the face and finding that it's healed nicely, Frankenstein then decides to see if Christina can walk, but Hertz suggests they wait on that, as she's still suffering from shock. He decides to wait until the next day, and heads out of the room, when Christina speaks: "Please, who am I?" The next scene shows Frankenstein and Hertz testing to see how well Christina can walk, and they find that she's recovering wonderfully, as she's able to walk on her tiptoes without feeling any pain. But, when she asks Frankenstein to allow her to see herself in a mirror, he doesn't understand why that should be important and assures her that her scars have healed and has her lie back down in her bed. When she does, he examines her feet and legs, while she asks when he's going to tell her of her past and how she came to be there. Frankenstein merely answers, "Your name is Christina, and you're a very healthy, young girl. That's all you need to know for the time being." He leaves the room, telling Christina to rest, but when he's gone, Hertz slips in and gives her a mirror. Looking at her reflection, she seems more troubled than anything else and, grabbing Hertz by the shoulder, she again asks, "Who am I?" Hertz, like Frankenstein, tells her that she's a very lovely girl.

Some time later, Hertz has Christina all dressed up, complete with a nice sun bonnet, intending to take her outside, when Frankenstein walks in. He immediately negates the idea, saying that Christina is not to leave the house until he says so. He also tells her to start sleeping downstairs, as he needs the upstairs for his work. Later, as he and Christina are putting away her clothes, Hertz, despite the fact that Frankenstein told him not to, tells her how she was originally deformed and twisted, but that Frankenstein guided him in surgery that helped cure her. He adds that Frankenstein is a "wonderful man," with incredible knowledge. At that moment, Frankenstein calls for Hertz from upstairs and he promptly heads up there to him, while Christina closes the lid on her trunk, and looks forlornly at her initials written on it, still not knowing who she is. Upstairs, Hertz speaks with Frankenstein about a test they're planning to conduct, one which could be potentially dangerous, but Frankenstein says they must be prepared to take risks, adding, "This test will be interesting and possibly informative. That's enough reason for me to carry it out." He then instructs him to tell Christina to get ready. They proceed to take her out to the guillotine, blindfolded. The carriage stops and Frankenstein tells her that he's going to show her something and that he wants her to express whatever thoughts come into her head. He then rips the blindfold off and Christina opens her eyes and spots the guillotine's razor sharp blade. As she looks at it, she quietly mutters something, and when Frankenstein asks her to repeat it, she shouts, "Papa!", and then immediately faints. That night, back at the lab, Frankenstein is ecstatic that he managed to awaken Hans' soul and prepares to perform some more tests, much to Hertz's chagrin, given the shock it caused Christina. Downstairs, she tosses and turns in her bed, before bolting up in terror. She then gets out of bed and begins to change out of her nightgown.

In town, Anton is on his way to the inn, when he stops by the former Kleve household and looks up at the window that used to be Christina's bedroom. He then begins to walk on, when he hears a male voice calling for him. Stopping and looking around, but not seeing anyone, he takes another step forward, when he hears it again. He becomes terrified when he recognizes it as Hans' voice and quickly rushes to the inn, nearly knocking over an older woman coming the other way. Bursting through the inn's door, he joins Karl and Johann at a table on the other side of the room and promptly grabs and guzzles down a glass of wine that was Karl's. Seeing that something's wrong, Karl asks him what the deal is but Anton insists that it's nothing, getting angry when he says he's acting as if he's seen a ghost, yelling, "I tell you, it was nothing!" He then asks them to deal him into a card game they're playing and also asks the landlord for some more wine. Later, after hours of gambling and drinking, Karl is ready to call it a night but Anton wants him and Johann to stay for another round, continuing to insist there's nothing wrong and getting worked up to the point where he grabs Karl by his collar and yells in his face. Johann tells Anton to calm himself down but he tells them to go on and leave, as he's going to stay for another drink. Irked at his behavior, they leave him, as the landlord brings him another wine. Desperate not to be alone, he tries to show the landlord a card trick but he isn't having it, as he merely puts down his glass of wine and goes back to his duties. Anton angrily yells, "What's the matter with everybody?!", and slams the cards down on the table, when he looks down on the floor and sees the ace of spades staring up at him. Frightened at the bad luck this portends, he accidentally knocks his glass of wine over, spilling it on the table. With that, the landlord decides it's time he went home and throws him out, despite his protests and threats of reporting him to his father.

Drunk and frustrated, he's about to stagger home, when he spots Christina, now unrecognizable to him due to her newfound loveliness and blonde hair, standing beneath a streetlight nearby. Enraptured, he asks who she is, to which she sultrily answers, "Does it matter?" He then asks what she's doing there and she asks, "Is that important?" He figures it isn't and walks up to her, able to see her loveliness more clearly. He remarks on it and they flirt, with him commenting that she's probably been with lots of men, while she counters by saying he's probably been with lots of women, to which he says, "Of course!", as he nibbles at her hand. She asks him to come with her, specifically to the empty house around the corner, a prospect that chills Anton to the bone and makes him reluctant. Unable to come up with an alternative, and with it looking as if Christina is about to walk off without him, Anton hastily agrees. The two of them then enter the house and head up to Christina's old bedroom. Anton comments that he used to know the girl who lived there, describing her as ugly and twisted, and mocks the way in which she used to walk, all while laughing. He then asks Christina to prove that she's real and she walks into another part of the room that's separated by some drapes, saying she's going to change. Eagerly anticipating what's to come, Anton takes off his coat, commenting that he's beginning to think that she's a mirage (he's so drunk, he initially pronounces it as "mere-age"), and lays down on the bed. He then finds he's too drunk to untie his shoes and asks her to help him take them off. He gets no response and sits up, perplexed that he doesn't even hear her moving around in that other part of the room. Thinking it's a game, he gets to his feet and, in a sing-song voice, asks, "Where are you hiding?" When he still doesn't get an answer, he angrily growls, "If you've been tricking me...", but stops when he, again, hears Hans' voice calling to him. Hans' voice then yells, "Kill him, Christina! Kill! Kill! Kill!", and Anton rips back the drapery and whatever he sees causes a look of pure terror to spread across his face. The film then quickly cuts to the guillotine blade coming down and then being hoisted back up, now covered with blood. The next morning, Christina serves Hertz breakfast, when Frankenstein asks for his assistance up in the lab and asks Christina to put his breakfast on a tray.

The next evening, Karl and Johann are at the inn again, when Johann decides to leave. Karl, however, prefers to stay, saying he wouldn't be able to sleep after Anton's murder, and drinks some wine. Johann sits back down, as Karl empties the bottle into his glass. They discuss who might have killed Anton, and when Johann wonders if it might have been retribution for what they did, Karl becomes hostile and tells him to shut up. With that, Johann storms out the door. Now alone, Karl goes to get a half-full bottle of wine from another table, when Christina walks in. His attention instantly grabbed, Christina then feigns having missed the coach to Innsbad and when Karl tells her there won't be another until morning, she acts all sad. He says he'll keep her company until then and then offers her some wine. He guides her to a table and goes to fetch the landlord, only to find that he's not there. He decides to serve Christina himself and pours some wine into her glass. However, she purposefully moves the glass just a bit to where he drips some on her skirt, as he was staring at her while pouring. Karl quickly gasps and apologizes, cleaning her skirt, when he stops, looks up at her, and starts kissing her passionately. She goes along with it, but then stands up and says she must wash her dress before the wine stains it. She heads into the back, telling him to have another drink in the meantime. While he does, she grabs a meat cleaver off the chopping block back there. He follows after her and sees her standing in the shadows, only to be taken aback when he hears Hans' voice calling to him. Hans then orders, "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him, Christina!", and Christina stomps towards Karl, brandishing the cleave. Frightened, Karl stumbles back into the inn, but falls over a chair behind him, ending up in the floor. Christina then comes at him and brings the cleaver down on him, which is where the film, in a clever bit of shock editing, cuts suddenly to a hatchet coming down on a block of wood. Christina is now chopping wood for Hertz's stove, but Hertz himself shows up and takes the hatchet to do it himself, saying, "A nice young lady like yourself shouldn't be chopping wood." The film then cuts back to the inn, where Karl's butchered body has been found, with the name, HANS, written in blood on the floor beside him. Johann comes rushing in and stops in his tracks when he sees the body, as well as the name. Terrified, muttering that Hans has come back, he rushes back out the door. The other onlookers feel the same way, that someone has brought Hans back from the dead.

Sitting at his desk, working, Frankenstein hears some pounding on the door down below, but ignores it... until a large rock comes smashing through the window behind him. Enraged, he storms to the window and yells at the mob below to get away. They say they want to talk to him but he says he's busy. But, when Hertz shows up and says they've threatened to burn the house down, Frankenstein sees he has no choice but to do as they say. The villagers tell Frankenstein of how Karl had managed to write his killer's name in his own blood, but he writes it off as a paranoid fantasy of theirs and that they're trying to accuse him of witchcraft. He refuses to take them seriously and is about to head back upstairs, when they threaten to deal with him in the manner that one does with witches, i.e. burn him at the stake. Frankenstein then offers to dig up Hans' body in order to satisfy their fears, but when they proceed to do so at the churchyard, they find that the grave has been tampered with before, with the coffin's screws being lose. The one man removes the lid and finds that the body is there, but the head is missing. A cut shows that Christina has the body in her room and, speaking with Hans, is next told to kill Johann, who is then shown hurriedly packing his suitcase, knowing that he is likely the next to die. Meanwhile, Frankenstein and Hertz make it back to the house, but find that Christina is gone. Knowing that Hans' soul is seeking revenge, the two of them are about to rush out to look for Christina, but when Frankenstein opens the door, he finds the police chief standing there with a small group of officers and some villagers backing him up.

At the crossroads near the guillotine, Johann manages to flag down the coach, gives the driver his luggage, and climbs inside. He thinks he's safe, when he hears a woman ask, "Are you traveling far, sir?", and looks to see Christina sitting across from him. Meanwhile, Frankenstein, who's been placed under house arrest, tries to convince the police chief of what's going on. Hertz attempts to back him up and Frankenstein goes on to say that they beheaded the wrong man, making them realize that Anton, Karl, and Johann killed Kleve. One of them also mentions that they saw Johann heading to catch the coach for Innsbad. The police chief then demands that Frankenstein explain everything from the beginning. On the coach, Christina pulls out a bottle of wine from a wicker basket she has with her and pours Johann a glass. Johann tells her that he thinks they've met before and Christina says they have, adding that the wine may help him to remember. Back at Hertz's house, the police chief still doesn't believe Frankenstein's story, but when Hertz, again, backs him up, the chief then says that they will find and kill Christina. Frankenstein comments, "In the name of 'justice,' I suppose," and suddenly bolts upstairs. Hertz exclaims, "I'll get him," and trots upstairs, but actually blocks the policemen from running up there after him. Running into the lab and locking the door, Frankenstein climbs out the window, walks along the edge of the building's roof, jumps to the roof of the building next to it, and climbs on down.

Back in the coach, Johann is still trying to guess Christina's identity, but she teases him further, saying she'll tell him later... much later; at the same time, Frankenstein manages to commandeer a carriage and drives out into the countryside. Johann then starts kissing Christina, asking her to at least tell him her name, when the coach suddenly stops on a road in the middle of the woods. Disembarking, he asks the coachman what's happened and he says one of his horses has thrown a shoe. Christina says that the two of them can walk to Innsbad, as she knows where they are, and adds that they can picnic on the way. They get their stuff and are about to walk away, when Christina goes back to fetch her hatbox. While Johann's back is turned, Christina slips the coachman some money when he hands her hatbox to her. She then leads Johann on across a trail through the woods, while, at this point, Frankenstein reaches the guillotine and drives on past it. After some walking, Christina mentions that it's a very warm day and they decide to rest a little bit in a clear spot along the path. Johann removes his jacket and places it on the ground for Christina, who sits her hat and hatbox down. They sit on Johann's jacket and Christina asks him to pass her the picnic basket. Frankenstein then manages to find the coach and yells at him just as he's about to take off again. By this point, Johann is laying his head in Christina's lap, and she offers him some more wine, but gives him another kiss first. Once she's kissed him, she removes a knife from the picnic basket. As Frankenstein frantically searches the woods for them, Christina finally reveals who she is to Johann. When he hears the name "Christina Kleve," Johann's eyes snap open in shock and he turns and looks to see her drawing back the knife. Before he knows what him, she brings it down on him and stabs him repeatedly. Frankenstein hears Johann's pained screams and rushes to the spot, where he sees Christina holding Hans' severed head in her hands (they showed this clip in The History of Sci-Fi and Horror, but because it was done so out of context, I thought Christina had severed Johann's head). Hans' voice speaks through Christina, telling her that she can rest now that her task is accomplished. Frankenstein calls to Christina, who spots him and runs off into the woods. Seeing that he was too late to save Johann, Frankenstein chases after her through the woods, until she comes to a ledge overlooking a river. Frankenstein catches up to her and tells her to stop. He then says that she's not the one who killed those men and offers to tell her who she really is, but Christina says that she already knows that, as well as what she must do. She asks him to forgive her and then jumps off the ledge and into the rapids below. Frankenstein runs to the ledge and watches as Christina disappears beneath the rapids. Completely defeated, he can do nothing but silently make his way back through the woods.

Like Terence Fisher and Bernard Robinson, James Bernard also returned to the Hammer Frankenstein series, composing his first score for it since The Curse of Frankenstein. He really took the dark, tragic tone of the movie to heart and reflected it in his music, which has a main title theme that opens with loud, doom-laden horns and then transitions into a tragic string piece that's underscored by more horns, before going back to the theme's opening sound. That somber string piece is soon revealed to be Christina's leitmotif, which is based off of that cruel serenade of Anton's, making it all the more poignant in context, and which you hear in several different versions through the film, such as soft and sad in her introductory scenes, cheerful and happy when Hans sees her off to Innsbad and when she's unveiled following the surgery to cure her of her deformities, frantic and stressed in scenes where she's distraught, and with the original tragic version being replayed over the ending credits after she's committed suicide again. Those doom-filled horns are heard again a few throughout the film as well, most notably when Baron Frankenstein is first seen when he's revealed to be in the frozen coffin. Other such sounds are often used in the film to create a feeling of hopelessness and impending death, with how Hans' trial is underscored by a drum lowly but clearly pounding in the background, and when Hans is found guilty and sentenced to death, those drums really hammer it in. And the murder and terror scenes are scored mainly through screechy, unsettling string bits, which get a bit too overt at points but, by this time, such a thing is not surprising from Bernard and so, you kind of get used to it.

Frankenstein Created Woman is definitely the most unique film in the series, as well as one of the most unusual takes on Frankenstein in general, but it's also something of a mixed bag. On the plus side, the performances are great all-around, there are some particularly memorable uses of real locations as well as Bernard Robinson's sets, the cinematography and the movie's look has some very noteworthy moments, there's plenty of blood to satisfy gorehounds, and James Bernard's music score is, for the most part, on point once again. But, the film's ambitious and unique subject matter isn't explored as much as it could have been, nor is the concept of two lovers sharing one body after their mutual deaths, and the mean-spirited and cruel nature of the story and portrayals of a number of the characters could really turn some viewers off. It is a movie I would recommend, as it has enough merits, but I would also caution you not to expect it to be this shining gem that some prominent people feel it is.