In the early 19th century, a priest arrives at a prison in the Swiss mountains late one night to speak with Baron Victor Frankenstein, who's been condemned to die on a charge of murder. Rather than seeking spiritual comfort, Frankenstein has asked to confess to the priest because he hopes that, if he, in turn, relates his story to the authorities, he will be saved from the guillotine. Reluctantly, the priest listens as Frankenstein tells him his life story, starting with how, after his mother died and he inherited the family fortune, he set out to become the man he'd always wanted to be. Advertising for a tutor, he received the services of Paul Krempe, who quickly became his friend and partner, as well as a teacher. Following many years of research, the two of them hit a major milestone when they managed to restore a dead puppy to life. However, Frankenstein was not yet ready to present their findings to the medical community, now intent upon going one step farther by creating life from the beginning and building a man-made human being. Despite Krempe's incredulous attitude towards the idea, the two of them set out to begin the experiment, first by retrieving the body of a hanged highwayman. As the work went on, Krempe became more and more opposed to what they were doing, though Frankenstein remained confident and determined to continue. Even the arrival of Elizabeth, Frankenstein's cousin and long-arranged fiancee, didn't deter him, and neither did Krempe's decision not to continue to assist him. Krempe soon realized that Frankenstein was so devoted to his work that he not only didn't see the horror of it all but also didn't care what he had to do to ensure its access, including murdering those who would interfere or whose body parts he needed. Eventually, Frankenstein's creation was successfully brought to life, only to instantly attack its creator and attempt to kill him, but even this didn't deter the baron, nor did its murder of several people when it managed to escape the lab. Following their finding it and Krempe killing it with a shotgun, Krempe decided to finally leave the house of Frankenstein... unaware that Frankenstein had dug the creature's body up, determined to continue his experiments.
Though he would usually be known for his more benevolent roles in the horror genre, particularly when he played the very heroic Dr. Van Helsing in Hammer's Dracula films, Peter Cushing's portrayal of Baron Victor Frankenstein in this and just about all of the other Hammer Frankenstein films is not sympathetic in the least. Despite his unquestionably brilliant intellect, Frankenstein is shown to be an immoral, narcissistic, and utterly despicable person, one who will absolutely stop at nothing to ensure that his lifelong dream comes to fruition. Even when he's a young man (Melvyn Hayes) who's just lost his mother, he's shown to be cold, dismissive, and not at all distraught, more eager to get his extended family out of his house once the wake following his mother's funeral has concluded than mourning her. Although he assures his Aunt Sophie he will continue to give her and young Elizabeth the allowance his mother always gave them, he has no interest in his aunt's small-talk or her saying that her daughter will make "someone" a good wife one day. Once they're gone, it's revealed that the young Victor is also quite shrewd, having advertised for a tutor for his "son" in order to receive the services of Paul Krempe and only revealing the truth of the matter to him once he arrives. Despite this, the two of them go from being teacher and pupil to friends and partners in their research, with Frankenstein becoming the driving force after having learned all that Krempe knows. Their research leads them to discover a manner to restore life to the dead, something Krempe sees great potential in, but Frankenstein is not satisfied with stopping at this, nor does he intend to share his discovery with the world. He becomes obsessed with creating his own human being, intending to make it as perfect as it can be, with the brain of a genius and the hands of a talented artist. Though the grisly and unethical nature of the work quickly prompts Krempe to end his involvement, it becomes clear that nothing will deter Frankenstein, not even the prospect of murder.
As if Frankenstein weren't already despicable enough, he's also shown to be very misogynistic, using the women around him as commodities for his own selfish needs. He couldn't care less about Elizabeth when she comes to live at his house, given their arranged marriage, and only intends to go through with it because it's what's expected. He even goes as far as to use Elizabeth as a way to ensure Krempe's compliance, once when he refuses to help him, threatening to expose her to, "The world of science and see how she likes it," and later when Krempe threatens to tell the authorities about the creature, saying that she'll be the first to suffer if he does. (It's implied a couple of times that he always intended to have Elizabeth "assist" him in his experiments at some point, telling her as much to placate her curiosity about his work.) It's also revealed that Frankenstein has been using his maid, Justine, to satisfy his sexual urges by having lustful trysts with her when no one's around. Though he's apparently promised to marry her, he's really just toying with her and getting amusement as well as satisfaction over her earnest belief in it. When Justine learns he intends to marry Elizabeth instead, she confronts him about, only for him to laugh at her anger before grabbing her wrists when she tries to hit him, growling, "You stupid little fool! Did you really think that I'd marry you?", and tossing her back, telling her to get back to work. Her claim that she's pregnant with his child doesn't mean anything to him, nor does her threat to tell Elizabeth, but when she threatens to tell the authorities of his experiments, he sits up and takes notice, discharging her. When she snoops around his lab for evidence later that night, he locks her in a room with the creature and seems to take great satisfaction when he hears him kill her. However, it's this crime that Frankenstein is ultimately condemned to die for. And by the end of the movie, when it's obvious the priest has not believed one word of his story, Frankenstein frantically implores Krempe to corroborate his story, going as far as to attack him when he says nothing. With that, his fate is sealed and he's taken to the guillotine.
When Frankenstein finds he can't work the apparatus necessary to bring his creation to life by himself, he goes back to Krempe and asks him for help. Naturally, Krempe will do no such thing, instead happy that he won't succeed, but when Frankenstein threatens to expose Elizabeth to his work if he doesn't help him, he reluctantly relents. However, they discover that a random act of nature has animated the creature, who nearly kills Frankenstein before Krempe rushes in and saves him. Despite how dangerous the creature is, Krempe is stunned when Frankenstein expresses no desire to destroy him and is himself blamed for his actions because he caused the brain to be damaged. The next morning, the creature manages to escape the lab and Krempe and Frankenstein attempt to track him down in the nearby woods. When they do come upon him, Krempe fires a gun, hitting the creature through the right eye, killing him. Though Krempe is convinced he did what was necessary, Frankenstein is angry at him and says he'll never forgive him. With that, Krempe leaves, as he feels there's no need for him to stay. Some time later, though, as Frankenstein and Elizabeth's wedding draws near, Elizabeth reveals that she has invited Krempe. Instead of being angry, Frankenstein says that he hopes his old friend does come, as he has something he'd like him to see. The eve of the wedding, Krempe arrives after all of the other guests have gone and heads on up to Frankenstein's lab, where he learns the baron has dug up and reanimated the creature. He's also shown that Frankenstein has some sway over him, as he obeys him when he orders him to get to his feet and then sit down, though Krempe mocks how primitive and savage this supposed "supreme being" is. But, when Frankenstein all but tells him that he has no intention of stopping his experiments and will cure his creature no matter what, Krempe starts to the village to tell the authorities and have them destroy him. Frankenstein attempts to stop him, threatening to make Elizabeth suffer if he says anything, but is distracted when he sees that the creature has escaped again. Following Frankenstein's arrest and conviction, Krempe visits him at the prison before he is to be executed. Frankenstein expects him to exonerate him but Krempe says nothing, even when Frankenstein attacks him, trying to make him talk, and leaves him to his fate, taking Elizabeth home.
Since the design of Karloff's monster was copyrighted to Universal, Hammer had to create their own unique creature for this film and, while Christopher Lee's look isn't as iconic, it's certainly much more startling in how utterly hideous it is. In their commentary on the British Blu-Ray release of the film, historians Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby note how the monster looks like the aftermath of a really bad car accident and it's true, with his grossly pale skin, numerous scars (especially about the neck, which has big flaps of loose skin), ugly teeth, and two different eyes, one a dark brown and the other a blue color that looks as if it's blind with cataracts. Having been created from the parts of various people, the monster has the body and suit of the hanged highwayman, the hands of a famed sculptor, and the mind of a brilliant professor, though they're rendered useless given the damage the brain suffered before Frankenstein sewed it in. When you first see him after he's been brought to life, he's completely swathed in bandages, a look that's actually more memorable than the highwayman's dark suit and can be seen as something of a prelude to when Lee played Kharis in Hammer's 1959 version of The Mummy. And during the latter part of the film, after Frankenstein has attempted to curb his homicidal tendencies through brain surgery, the monster is now missing much of the hair on his head, with a large, ugly scar in its place, and his right eye is now completely black, due to Krempe having shot him there.
Few other characters in the story are all that significant, though two noteworthy ones are the blind man (Fred Johnson) and his young grandson (Claude Kingston) whom the creature encounters in the woods after he first escapes from Frankenstein. Out for a walk, the boy leaves his grandfather behind at a clearing while he goes down to the lakeside to pick some mushrooms. While by himself, the man hears the creature prowling about in the brush and initially thinks it's his grandson. When it becomes clear that it isn't, the man, frightened, asks the creature who he is, unintentionally gesturing at him in a manner he finds threatening. Quickly growing aggravated, the creature breaks his walking stick and advances on him when he tries to run and falls to the ground, killing him. The boy hears his grandfather scream and rushes back to the spot. While we don't see what happened between the two of them, we later get a glimpse of his discarded satchel and stick, indicating that he suffered the same fate as his grandfather. And finally, you have the priest (Alex Gallier) who listens to Frankenstein's confession during the bookends of the story, even though he tells him upfront that he doesn't have as much influence over the authorities as the desperate baron believes. Like everyone else, he doesn't believe a word of Frankenstein's story, writing him off as completely insane, and his opinion is all but confirmed when Krempe does nothing to back his story up.
I think it's safe to say that, along with Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films, Hammer's movies became the image of Gothic horror in popular culture, even more so than Universal. While the Universal movies definitely made these stories and characters the icons that they are, Hammer's approach in making them period pieces set throughout Europe has since become what most people think of when they try to imagine the stories of Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and such in the time periods they were originally written. From the costumes and architecture, right down to the very atmosphere they manage to evoke, they are very much the last word when it comes to this genre. For my money, those scenes of Frankenstein's creature wandering around in the somewhat windy woods, encountering the blind man and his grandson, before being found by Frankenstein and Krempe, all under a gray, overcast sky and, given the visible breath, apparently set either in fall or winter, really drive it all home. Those are the exact images that come to mind when I try to imagine this story in its purest, most Gothic form.
Christopher Lee always said that, for him, production designer Bernard Robinson, who worked with the studio up until his death in 1970, was the true star of Hammer films and it's not hard to see why he felt that way. Despite that he was working with fairly small budgets and very little space at Bray Studios, which only had four stages and yet, would be Hammer's home until the mid-60's, Robinson managed to create sets that made the movies look much bigger and more elegant than they actually were, often reusing the same stages and rooms for different scenes in a single film, redressing them to make them look completely different. In the case of The Curse of Frankenstein, Robinson managed to make the interiors of Frankenstein's house come off as that of a very well-to-do family, with a nice, big main hall with a staircase just beyond the front door, a lovely-looking living room off that, and some fairly fancy bedrooms upstairs. However, Frankenstein's laboratory up in the attic is a more sinister-looking room, feeling much more primitive and unkempt than the rest of the house, and filled with all sorts of bubbling beakers, a wheel-like apparatus used for conducting electrical energy, and a water tank that can drain down below the table it's placed. Later, when he's building his creature, he constructs a similar tank large enough to house his body. The storage room, which later becomes the space where he keeps the creature, feels more like a cramped dungeon, similar to the wet, dank prison cell that Frankenstein finds himself in after he's been sentenced to death. Seeing how the creature is forced to live in little more than a small corner of the room, with some straw on the floor and a chain to keep him from escaping, helps to make him feel especially pitiable during the third act. There's also a grisly touch in how that room contains the large vat of acid that would later serve as the creature's demise when he falls through the skylight at the end, as well as being where Frankenstein keeps some mice he uses in his experiments. In addition to those unsettling locations, you have the interior of Frankenstein's family crypt, which you see when he removes Prof. Bernstein's brain, and the least little bit of the inside of the charnel house, where he buys some eyes for his creature. There's also some nice location work, such as Black Park for the scenes in the woods, and the eerie Oakley Court, which served as the exterior of Frankenstein's house and would be used by Hammer in many other films, as well as some matte work to put mountains in the background and to create the very Gothic exterior of the Frankenstein family crypt.
Speaking of the movie's look, while it's well known for being one of the first, if not the first, Gothic horror films shot in color, the color is actually of a rather subdued palette, unlike the much more vibrant ones that Hammer would become known for, especially those photographed by Jack Asher, who first worked with the studio here. The colors don't really pop that much, save for the vibrant reds of the liquid in some of the beakers and the evening robe Krempe wears in one scene, and the greens of some of Frankenstein and Krempe's clothes, which helps add to the very grim tone. And while black-and-white is certainly a much better way to go in order to create mood with lots of shadows and areas of darkness, Asher manages to accomplish that task very well in color, most notably in the scenes in the crypts and in the sequence where Justine snoops around Frankenstein's laboratory late one night.
The tone is what really sticks with me about The Curse of Frankenstein: it is virtually unrelenting in its darkness and has a real sense of creeping horror about it. It starts right from the beginning, as you're hit with James Bernard's sinister, building score and see this prologue over a background of swirling, red mist: "More than a hundred years ago, in a mountain village in Switzerland, lived a man whose strange experiments with the dead have since become legend. The legend is still told with horror the world over. It is the legend of..." That leads into the title and the opening credits, with Bernard's music exploding to a really creepy symphony that hits home the terrifying legacy that Frankenstein's experiments have left on history. Following the opening scene with Frankenstein in the prison and his beginning his confession to the priest, the tone becomes less grim for a little bit, as we see how the young baron first met Paul Krempe and how they became friends as well as teacher and pupil, but, once Frankenstein proclaims his desire to create a man-made human being, the creepiness comes back in spades and is maintained throughout pretty much the rest of the film. As it goes on, the uncanny horror of Frankenstein's experiment becomes more and more obvious and it's also unsettling to think that this going on in the upstairs area of a house that's filled with people. Plus, we also see just how unscrupulous, single-minded, obsessive, and immoral he's become in ensuring it succeeds. When he threatens Elizabeth in order to get Krempe help him, telling him, "There is nothing, do you hear me, nothing more important to me than the success of this experiment!", you know it's no idle threat at all. The scenes with the young Victor hinted at him being very cold and detached, even at that age, but it's still horrifying to see how much of a sociopath he's become at that point. And finally, by the end of the story, four people are dead and Frankenstein, now having almost totally lost his mind, is beyond help and is faced with the guillotine.
In many of his horror films, Terence Fisher would inject at least a couple of moments of humor to offset the terror, but this film is 99% humorless. The only genuine bit of levity is a moment during a reception at the house of Frankenstein on the eve of the wedding, where the burgomaster is practicing his speech and downing glass after glass of the punch, when his wife chides him and makes him leave, but it feels a bit out of place. Fortunately, it's very brief and isn't lingered on too much, so you're not likely to be too put off by it. There are also a couple of other story flaws that don't become obvious until after you see the movie many times and really think about it. For instance, the whole purpose of Frankenstein telling the priest his story is to save his life and convince the authorities that he didn't kill Justine, whose murder he's charged for, but rather that his creature did... but, in telling his story, he practically confesses that he did murder Prof. Bernstein in order to get his brain! I didn't think about that until they pointed it out on the audio commentary but then, I realized how right they were. Also, it runs into that issue that often comes up with stories told from one character's recollection, which is that you see things they couldn't possibly know about, like how the creature came alive when Frankenstein was out of the lab, the scene between the creature and the blind man, his escape from the lab late in the movie, etc. And finally, since the entire story is told from Frankenstein's POV, there's a good possibility that he's an unreliable narrator and what we've been told are the delusions of a raving lunatic. Granted, it's very unlikely that even crossed the mind of screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, and the sequel to this film all but proves that wasn't the case, but in the context of this first film, you could look at it that way if you choose to.
Though they had to avoid copying the original Universal films as much as possible, the filmmakers obviously had such reverence for them that they couldn't help but put in a few nods, such as Bride of Frankenstein in regards to the blind man. In the scene where Frankenstein and Krempe restore the dead puppy to life, Frankenstein utters the immortal lines of, "It's alive," which likely came from Peter Cushing himself, given how much admiration he had for the older movie. The scene where they cut the highwayman's body down from the noose is similar to a moment near the beginning of Frankenstein, where Frankenstein and Fritz do the same with a body hanging near the graveyard (though, in that case, they couldn't use it because of the broken neck,which rendered the brain useless). While not as overtly linked, there is a correlation between a bolt of lightning and the birth of the monster, and there are some similarities between the reveal of the monster's face. Just like in the 1931 film, where Boris Karloff's face is kept hidden for a few seconds more when he's first seen walking around, the same goes for Christopher Lee's, as you see him bandaged up before he rips the one off his face. And as James Whale did, Terence Fisher instantly put the monster's face right up to the screen as it's revealed, doing so in a sudden, kinetic pan rather than a series of quick, jarring cuts.
It's very well documented that The Curse of Frankenstein caused an outrage among British film critics due to how grisly it often gets and, even today, there are parts of it that can make you go "ugh." Most of the really explicit stuff happens just off-screen, like when Frankenstein removes the highwayman's head and plops it in the vat of acid or when he removes Prof. Bernstein's brain, only for the jar containing it to get damaged during his and Krempe's struggle, but the sheer thought of it can still make your skin crawl. And what you do see, like the glimpse of the highwayman's badly pecked head, his headless, bandaged body floating in the large tank of water, the shot of Frankenstein unwrapping a pair of severed hands, and a look at the eyes he gets from the charnel house, which he drops into a jar, are just brief enough to be effective and get across the feeling of really crude science going on. If you get the 2013 British Blu-Ray, you'll be able to see a close-up of one of those eyes when Frankenstein is examining it, a shot that was cut from the American release and has not yet been seen on any home video releases over here (however, another deleted shot of the head dissolving in the acid has never been found). The creature himself is put through an awful lot of abuse during his brief screentime. In addition to the hideous nature of his design, which hints at the gruesome ways in which Frankenstein constructed him, you have him getting shot through his right eye, being dug up, resurrected, and having his brain worked on, getting set on fire, and falling through the skylight and into the acid, which leaves no trace of him at all.
The movie's first significant scene comes when Frankenstein and Krempe, after years of research and work, finally hit a milestone when they come up with the apparatus in the laboratory that sends electrical impulses through the room and into a small tank of water. In almost a single sustained shot, broken up by only a few cutaways here and there, we see them set their plan into motion, with Krempe working the wheel-like machine that conducts the electrical current, while Frankenstein looks over the tank with the puppy, all while red liquid, which is likely blood, bubbles in the nearby beakers. After a few moments of looking at his stopwatch, Frankenstein motions for Krempe to kill the energy. They then drain the water from the tank and take it apart. After pulling Krempe's hand away when he goes to touch the puppy, Frankenstein pours some water on it and uses a device to listen closely for any sounds within its body. As the camera pushes in on his face, it becomes clear from his expression that he's hearing something, and when he pulls away, the puppy's body begins to twitch. Frankenstein tells Krempe, "Paul, it's alive," and picks the now fully-resurrected puppy up, handing him to Krempe as the two of them break into celebration, with Frankenstein exclaiming, "Paul, we've done it!" In the very next scene, as Krempe plays with the puppy, he also notes how profound an effect this discovery could have on major surgery. Frankenstein, however, is in his own world while he's talking, eventually telling Krempe that, rather than divulging their discovery, they must now go to the next step: having restored the dead to life, they must now create life from the beginning. Though Krempe is unsure about Frankenstein's plans to build an artificial human being, he does decide to go along with him. Frankenstein then tells him about a recently hanged highwayman at Ingolstadt whose body has been left hanging as a warning to others, adding, "It'll hang there until it rots... or until it's stolen."
Riding out to Ingolstadt one cold night with a horse carrying a large cart, they position the cart beneath the hanging body and Frankenstein removes a ladder they brought and puts it up against the gibbet. Climbing up, Frankenstein cuts the rope the body is hanging from with a knife, sending it tumbling down into the cart, startling the horse. As Krempe tries to calm the horse down, Frankenstein smiles in a sinister manner as he continues to sit up there. Once they've got the body back to the house and examine iy, Krempe notes that the head and face have been practically eaten away by the birds. Frankenstein, in turn, takes a scalpel and prepares to remove the head, telling Krempe that he has no use for it. As he slices through the neck, Krempe walks away in revulsion and looks at his obsessed, single-minded friend with concern. Once he has the head off, Frankenstein absentmindedly wipes the blood on the side of his shirt before gathering the head up in a bundle and taking it into the next room. While Krempe continues standing in the lab, aghast at the whole thing, Frankenstein casually unfolds the head and drops it in the large vat of acid back there. He rejoins Krempe in the lab and has him assist in removing the clothes from the body. In the next scene, the headless body, now wrapped in bandages, is floating in a large tank similar to the smaller one that housed the puppy before. Walking up to the tank, Frankenstein raises one of the body's hands and comments, "Just look at those hands. Big, clod-hopping things, no wonder he was a robber. With hands like those, he couldn't have been anything else..." Though Krempe says they shouldn't continue with the experiment, given the danger should anything go wrong, Frankenstein isn't listening at all, making plans to go somewhere and to return the next evening. He doesn't say where, just that he's going away, and tells Krempe, "Better not touch our friend here while I'm gone. Let him rest in peace... while he can."
When Frankenstein does return the next evening, he finds that his cousin and fiancee, Elizabeth, has arrived to live there. Frankenstein goes through the motions, saying that he was sorry to hear about the death of her mother and kisses her hand and cheek but, before she can get a word in, tells her that Justine will show her to her room before running up the stairs, telling Krempe to follow him. Running up to the lab, Frankenstein has Krempe lock the door as he removes a parcel from his satchel and unwraps it to reveal a pair of severed hands. Despite the disgusting nature of the sight, he describes them as beautiful, as they're the hands of Bardello, a famed sculptor, and tells Krempe that he acquired them in Leipzig, where Bardello had died the previous week. He also adds that it just took some bribery. Krempe tells Frankenstein that, due to Elizabeth, they can't continue the experiment at the house, saying she wouldn't be able to handle it if she found out. Frankenstein, however, sees no harm and Krempe then realizes how blinded he is and doesn't realize the horror of it all. He then adds that he's decided he can't go on with it and hopes he can talk Frankenstein himself out of it. Frankenstein tells him that he'll never succeed in that, adding that he'll never get Elizabeth to leave before sending him out of the lab, telling him to let Elizabeth know he won't be down for dinner.
Some time later, Frankenstein heads out in order to buy some "materials" for his experiment, carrying the satchel he had before. He goes to a charnel house, where the person on duty, who has a constant, raspy cough, gives him a pair of eyeballs, which he places in a small jar he removes from the satchel before paying the man. With that, Frankenstein returns to his laboratory and examines one of the eyes (an actual sheep's eye, by the way) with a magnifying glass, when Krempe comes up, as he's asked him to. He decides to show him the progress of his work, removing the sheet that covers the tank housing the body, only from Krempe to recoil in horror and tell Frankenstein how hideous it is. Though Frankenstein is unconcerned, Krempe again begs him to stop his experiment, saying this will result in nothing but evil. Frankenstein assures him that, once he acquires the brain of a genius which he plans to put within his creature's skull, the features of the face will conform to its nature. Krempe asks him where this brain will come from and Frankenstein simply tells him that he'll get it. Sure enough, the next scene involves Prof. Bernstein, whom Frankenstein has invited to stay the night at his house. After a talk between them, and Frankenstein introducing Krempe to him, the baron escorts Bernstein up the stairs to his room. He tells him that, before he heads to bed, he wishes to show him a painting purchased by his father that depicts one of the earliest operations. Putting on his glasses, Bernstein goes in close on the painting, when Frankenstein advises him to step back a bit to see it better. When he does, Frankenstein suddenly yells, "Look out, professor! Look out!", before grabbing and shoving him, causing him to fall through the staircase's railing and to the floor below, killing him instantly. As he remains up there on the landing, Frankenstein looks down at Bernstein's body and smiles evilly.
Following Bernstein's funeral and his interment into the Frankenstein family crypt, Frankenstein himself goes to the crypt one night, opens the coffin, and removes Bernstein's brain. Placing it in a large jar and wrapping it up in a black cloth, he's startled when someone else enters the tomb, only to breathe a sigh of relief when it turns out to be Krempe. He accuses Frankenstein of murdering Bernstein and taking his brain, though this doesn't deter the baron from what he's doing. Krempe decides to stop him from using Bernstein's brain in his experiment and tries to take it. The two of them fight over it, when Frankenstein smashes it against the wall in the struggle. Enraged, he yells for Krempe to get out and he does, as he examines the damaged piece of tissue. While Krempe goes to Elizabeth and again tries to get her to leave the house, Frankenstein, back in his lab, removes pieces of broken glass from Bernstein's brain. Despite this possible setback, he decides to go ahead with his experiment. He puts the brain inside the body's head and, as a storm rumbles outside, attempts to bring his creature to life using the same apparatus he and Krempe used to reanimate the dead puppy. He tries as best as he can, rushing from one side of the lab to the other in an attempt to make it all work in tandem, but he's unable to do so, as the apparatus was intended to be worked by two people at once. Defeated, he shuts the electrical machine off and drains the water out of the tank containing the body, before storming out the door. He goes to Krempe's bedroom, asking for his assistance, and when he, predictably, refuses, Frankenstein tells him, "You're going to help me, Paul, whatever you say."
Back in the lab, as the water drains out of the tank, a stray bolt of lightning hits the roof of the house and starts the electrical machine turning by itself. The camera pans over to the tank, where the wrapped body's chest starts to rise and fall. Back down in Krempe's bedroom, he still refuses to help Frankenstein, even when he promises to destroy the creature once he's proved his theories are correct. That's when Frankenstein uses his trump card, threatening to get Elizabeth involved, and Krempe, seeing that there are no lengths his friend won't go to, reluctantly agrees to help him. Frankenstein heads back up to the laboratory, when he hears the sound of smashing glass coming from within. Rushing to the door and unlocking it, he throws it open to see his newly-born creation standing there, still wrapped in bandages. As he watches in both shock and amazement, the creature removes the wrap around his head, revealing his hideous face. The minute he sees Frankenstein, he glares at him with a look of pure hatred, before grabbing him with a snarl, wheeling him around, clutching his neck with both hands, and lifting his body up effortlessly, as Frankenstein gasps and struggles to free himself. On his own way up to the lab, Krempe hears Frankenstein's wheezing and rushes in to see what's happening. He charges the creature from behind, trying to free Frankenstein from his grip, but he's tossed aside effortlessly. Krempe then grabs a wooden stool and smashes it over the creature's back. He releases Frankenstein and turns around to look at Krempe, before collapsing to the floor. Krempe helps Frankenstein, who struggles to regain his breath, and despite his nearly getting strangled, can only say, "I did it, Paul." In the next scene, they've managed to strap the still unconscious creature to a table. Krempe insists he must be destroyed but Frankenstein won't hear of it, blinded by the fact that his experiment has succeeded and blaming Krempe for the creature's actions since he damaged the brain. Now, he's more focused on repairing the brain than anything else, frustrating Krempe to where he storms out of the room. However, come the next morning, it's revealed that the lab has been ransacked, the creature's bandages have been discarded, and the window is open. He's escaped. Frankenstein rushes to Krempe and tells him what's happened. Krempe offers to get some help from the village but Frankenstein says that he'll send word for them and that they must find the creature before he gets too far.
In the woods, a young boy and his blind grandfather are out for a stroll, when the boy leads him to a spot where he can sit down and rest, while he goes on ahead to the lakeside to pick some mushrooms. The grandfather is only there for a few seconds, smoking his pipe, when he hears some rustling in the brush. Thinking it's his grandson, he becomes confused when he seems to be wandering about aimlessly and calls him to his spot. The creature emerges from the bushes and stops and looks at the blind man curiously, as he asks him to help him find his walking stick. He notes how quiet he is but, when he hears the creature approaching, he realizes that this isn't his grandson. Frightened, he gets to his feet and reaches for the creature, asking him who he is and what he wants. The creature recoils a bit at this unwanted touching, as the man says he has nothing for him. He picks up his walking stick and gestures at the creature with it. The creature grabs the stick, pulls it out of his hand, and breaks it in two, the sound of which causes the blind man to stumble away in a panic, calling for help. He falls to the ground, as the now aggravated creature advances on him and reaches down at him, causing him to scream in terror. By the lakeside, the boy hears his grandfather scream and rushes back to the spot, never to be seen again as he wanders back through the bushes. Later, Frankenstein and Krempe come by and find evidence that the creature had been there. When asked where he told the villagers to meet up with them, Frankenstein says the south shore of the lake and the two of them press on, neither of them noticing the body's discarded satchel on the ground. They don't get much farther before they spot the creature nearby. Krempe raises his rifle but Frankenstein puts the barrel down, yelling, "No, Paul!" Hearing this, the creature sees and starts advancing towards them. When he gets too close for comfort, Krempe points and shoots, hitting him in his right eye. The creature grasps his eye, as blood runs through his fingers, and staggers before collapsing to the ground (the wind suddenly picks up around him before he falls, which I've always thought was a nice touch). Frankenstein rushes to him and inspects him, finding that he is dead. That's when he reveals that he never did send for the villagers. Come nightfall, the two of them have buried the creature, though Frankenstein is now furious with Krempe, telling him that he'll never forgive him for this.
Some time later, Krempe comes up to Frankenstein's laboratory to tell him he's leaving, as feels that Elizabeth is no longer in danger now since the creature is dead. Frankenstein simply comments that he can leave with a clear conscience and Krempe departs. Once he's gone, Frankenstein heads into the storage room in the back, where the creature's body is hanging from the ceiling. Putting on his gloves, he looks up at the body and says, "I'll give you life again." After that, following Justine's threatening to tell Elizabeth and the authorities about Frankenstein's work if he doesn't marry her, he tells her the authorities would need proof and that he wants her out by the next morning. Justine threatens to get proof and, that night, sets about to make good on her promise. She heads upstairs and creeps around the corner towards the laboratory door. Seeing the light underneath the door go out, she hides, as Frankenstein emerges, closes the door, and heads downstairs. Justine, seeing the coast is clear, sneaks into the lab, closing the door behind her, and wanders about, looking for proof. Finding nothing, she goes into the storeroom and looks up at the experimental mice Frankenstein keeps in there up on a shelf. She hears something behind her and turns to see the newly-revived creature looking at her. Horrified, she runs for the door, only for Frankenstein to close it and lock her in. Trapped, Justine can only watch as the creature advances on her, screaming just as he's about to reach. Hearing her scream, which is immediately squelched, Frankenstein can only make an expression of relief. A week later, while he and Elizabeth are having breakfast (apparently, his line, "Pass the marmalade, will you, Elizabeth," is an infamous bit of black humor, as it's the first thing he says right after the dissolve), she mentions Justine's disappearance and Frankenstein tells her that she probably eloped with someone. While discussing their wedding invitations, Elizabeth mentions that she invited Krempe. Instead of being angry, Frankenstein tells her he hopes Krempe does come, as, "There's something I'd like him to see."
The night before the wedding, after a reception at the house, Elizabeth is disappointed when, rather than spending the evening with her, Frankenstein opts to go up to his lab. He mentions that it's a shame Krempe didn't come on his way up. But, no sooner has he gone when Krempe does, indeed, show up and meets with Elizabeth, who tells him that Frankenstein has something he wants him to see. On Elizabeth's urging, Krempe heads up to the lab, where Frankenstein is preparing a meal. Hearing a knock on the door, he's delighted when he hears that it's Krempe and allows him in. Inquiring what it is he wants to show him, Frankenstein escorts him to the storage room, saying he's started on "brain surgery." There, Krempe is shocked to see the reanimated creature, and is about to leave in disgust, when Frankenstein shows him something else. He snaps his fingers, telling the creature to get to his feet. He has to say it a second time, and it takes some effort, but the creature does manage to get up. Frankenstein then tells him to walk towards him and, again, it takes a couple of orders, but the creature does walk as far as the chain holding him to the wall will allow. Finally, he's told to sit down and clumsily falls to the floor. Disgusted, Krempe says, "Is this your creature of superior intellect? Your perfect, physical being, this animal?! Ask it a question of advanced physics. It's got a brain with a lifetime of knowledge behind it. It should find it simple!" Frankenstein turns to Krempe and tells him, "Shall I tell you something, Paul? There you see the result of your handiwork as much as mine, I gave him life, I put a brain in his head, but I chose a good brain, a brilliant one. It was you who damaged it, you who put a bullet in the wretched thing. This is your fault, Paul! Do you understand that? Your fault... But you won't win, Paul. And shall I tell you why you won't win? Because I shall carry on, if I can't cure it by brain surgery then I'll get another brain, and another, and another!" Having had enough, Krempe storms out of the lab, with Frankenstein chasing after him, asking what he's going to do. Krempe grabs him by his collar and says, "For your sake and to protect Elizabeth, I've so far kept silent. But now, I shall go to the authorities and have them destroy that creature, and see that you pay for these atrocities!" Frankenstein tries to stop him but Krempe flings back against a pillar, badly hurting his chest. He rushes out of the lab and out of the house, with Frankenstein right behind, all while a confused Elizabeth watches, before heading upstairs.
While Frankenstein manages to stop Krempe outside, Elizabeth heads up to the lab door, which Frankenstein left unlocked in his haste. In the storeroom, the creature realizes the chain is what is preventing him from going any further than he can and rips it loose from the wooden pillar it's bolted to. Elizabeth wanders around the lab, when she hears something in the storeroom, and grabs a nearby oil lantern before heading in there. In the room, she finds no sign of the creature, but is obviously leery of what she is seeing, specifically the vat of acid. Little does she know that the creature, who's made his way up to the roof, is watching her through the skylight. He knocks a piece of glass down through the skylight but quickly ducks out of sight before Elizabeth can see him. Outside, Frankenstein and Krempe get into a fight when the former threatens Elizabeth if Krempe tells the authorities, when Krempe sees the creature wandering around on the roof. He runs to the village to get help, while Frankenstein rushes back in the house, as Elizabeth makes her way up to the roof. She sets her lantern down on the roof's edge, when she hears movement nearby and goes to investigate. Frankenstein gets back to the lab and, still wincing from his and Krempe's fight earlier, grabs a gun he has hidden in there before heading up to the roof himself. Once there, he sees Elizabeth, who turns around when the creature appears behind her. Frankenstein points his gun and shoots, only to hit her in the shoulder, causing her to faint into the creature's arms. Frankenstein fires another shot, this time managing to hit the creature, who advances on him. He moves back, throwing the gun at him, but then finds himself cornered. Frightened, Frankenstein grabs the lantern and throws it at him. His clothes catch fire and he staggers about before crashing through the skylight, landing in the vat of acid.
The movie goes back to the prison in the present time, where it is now morning, as it has taken Frankenstein all night to make his confession. The priest, not surprisingly, doesn't believe him, and Frankenstein is frustrated, when the jailer tells him that Krempe is there to see him. Frankenstein is elated, sure that Krempe will exonerate him, and says that he'll see him, exclaiming that he'll tell them all that his story is true. The jailer goes to fetch Krempe, who's waiting in a room with Elizabeth. He goes to see Frankenstein alone, and when he's allowed in the cell, Frankenstein desperately begs him to confirm the existence of the creature, but Krempe says nothing, instead saying Frankenstein was the one who murdered Justine. Having heard this, the priest walks out of the room, now convinced the baron is insane. Horrified and desperate, Frankenstein attacks Krempe, attempting to strangle him, and has to be restrained by the jailer and a couple of guards. Frankenstein continues yelling that Krempe must save him but Krempe, seeing he's beyond help, walks out of the prison, leaving him to his fate, as he screams for him. Krempe rejoins Elizabeth, grimly telling her, "There's nothing we can do for him now." The two of them leave, while Frankenstein is led to the guillotine, looking out a window and seeing it come down before the guards take him outside. The movie ends on the rising blade of the guillotine in silhouette.
James Bernard's score is as essential to creating the tone of the movie as Terence Fisher's direction, Bernard Robinson's production design, and the performances of the actors. Bernard hits you right from the movie's very opening, with a creeping, building score that turns into a truly memorable, nightmarish symphony, which, as was his trademark, speaks the movie's very title numerous times. This memorable theme becomes a leitmotif that's carried on throughout the film, sometimes heard more softly and eerie, and other times sounding just as overt as it does in the opening credits. The movie ends on a variation of this theme, this time with more of a finality to it, as Frankenstein is led to the guillotine and we see the blade rising behind the ending credits. Bernard does come up with some more light-hearted pieces of music, such as a pleasant-sounding theme for when Frankenstein begins telling the priest his story and when he's leading Prof. Bernstein up the stairs, as well as a theme for the puppy's resurrection that starts off kind of ominous, as Frankenstein listens for signs of life, but becomes sweet and innocent. But, for the most part, he chooses to play up the movie's macabre and freakish nature, really hitting you with it when Frankenstein first sees that his creature is alive and when it's revealed the creature has escaped the next day, and coming up with a theme that starts off as merely atmospheric and then suddenly, begins to build and build before going into a crescendo. He uses this latter piece twice: first when Justine sneaks the around the lab, only to get locked in with the creature, and second when Elizabeth does the same, leading into Frankenstein being forced to destroy his creation. All in all, it's far from a subtle score (as we'll see as we go on, subtly wasn't in Bernard's vocabulary), but it fits the movie very well and makes it all the more effective.
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