#3 - Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

(dir. Terence Fisher)

From the title, I was expecting this to be a Hammer update of The Bride of Frankenstein, but instead it is an entirely original story.  I think this is the fourth Frankenstein film starring Peter Cushing... I've watched them completely out of order, but it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference - every film is basically a variation of "Frankenstein tries to beat death, accidentally makes a killer monster instead".  Not that there's anything wrong with that!  I really like that the Hammer films go in a different direction from the Universal films, focusing on Frankenstein himself instead of on his monster.  In this one, he doesn't even reanimate anyone - instead, he captures the soul of a recently dead man and places it in another body, and instead of an abomination he gets a beautiful young woman bent on revenge.

Peter Cushing is by far my favorite film Frankenstein (sorry, Colin Clive), and his performance is easily the best part of the film.  He is cold, calculating, and kind of a smartass.  A significant amount of his dialogue involves mocking the stupidity of those less intelligent than himself - that is to say, everyone.  In this film, he focuses his studies on preserving the soul after death, and the metaphysical aspect is a nice touch, even if it isn't particularly deep.

This isn't the best of the Hammer-produced Frankenstein films, but I enjoyed it a lot, and I really like that it went in a slightly different direction than many of the others.  Definitely recommended to Hammer fans, although a newcomer to their stuff would be better off starting at the beginning with 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein.  Also, I love the poster - basically nothing advertised there actually happens in the film.