Frankenstein Created Woman

Frankenstein Created Woman is a 1967 British Hammer horror film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein and Susan Denberg as his new creation. It is the fourth film in Hammer's Frankenstein series.

Where Hammer's previous Frankenstein films were concerned with the physical aspects of the Baron's work, the interest here is in the metaphysical dimensions of life, such as the question of the soul, and its relationship to the body.

Plot
A man is taken from a cart and taunts the police and the priest escorting him to the guillotine, where he is to be executed for murder. The man spots his son, Hans, in a nearby copse and begs that he should not see him die. Despite the priest's attempts to shoo him away, Hans watches as his father is positioned under the blade. He yells, "Papa!" Then the blade falls, and Hans flees.

Years later, Hans Werner (Robert Morris) is working as an assistant to Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing). The Baron, with the help of Dr Hertz (Thorley Walters), is in the process of discovering a way of trapping the soul of a recently deceased person. Frankenstein believes he can transfer that soul into another recently deceased body to restore it to life.

Hans is also the lover of Christina (Susan Denberg), daughter of innkeeper Kleve. Christina's entire left side is disfigured and partly paralysed. Young dandies Anton (Peter Blythe), Johann (Derek Fowlds) and Karl (Barry Warren) frequent Kleve's inn yet refuse to pay. Johann threatens to have his father revoke Kleve's license if he complains. The three insist that they be served by Christina and mock her for her deformities. The taunting angers Hans, who fights the three of them and cuts Anton's face with a knife.

Eventually Kleve throws the dandies out. They return in the night to steal wine from his inn, and when Kleve catches them they beat him to death. Hans, the son of a murderer known for his short temper, is convicted. Despite the Baron and Hertz's defences against the accusations, Hans is executed by the guillotine. Seeing this as an opportunity, Frankenstein gets hold of Hans' fresh corpse and traps his soul.

Distraught over Hans's death, Christina drowns herself. The peasants bring her body to Dr Hertz to see if he can do anything. Frankenstein and Hertz transfer Hans' soul into her body. Over months of complex and intensive treatment, they cure her physical deformities. The result is a physically healthy woman with no memory. Frankenstein insists on telling her nothing but her name and keeping her in Hertz's house. Despite coming to her senses regarding her identity, Christine is taken over by the spirit of the vengeful Hans.

She kills Anton and Karl driven mostly by the ghostly insistence of Hans. Frankenstein and Hertz become rather suspicious of her behaviour surrounding the killings and take her to where Hans was executed. However, they believe she subconsciously retains her memories of her father's death rather than of Hans. By the time Frankenstein realises the truth, he finds her already murdering Johann. Upon holding the severed head of Hans, the ghostly voice tells Christina she has avenged his death. Despite the Baron's pleas, the horrified Christina knows she now has no one and nothing left to live for, and so drowns herself again. A rueful Frankenstein walks silently away...

Cast

 * Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein
 * Susan Denberg as Christina
 * Thorley Walters as Doctor Hertz
 * Robert Morris as Hans
 * Peter Blythe as Anton
 * Derek Fowlds as Johann
 * Duncan Lamont as The Prisoner (Hans' Father)
 * Barry Warren as Karl
 * Alan MacNaughtan as Kleve
 * Peter Madden as Chief of Police
 * Philip Ray as Mayor
 * Ivan Beavis as Landlord
 * Colin Jeavons as Priest
 * Bartlett Mullins as Bystander
 * Alec Mango as Spokesman

Production
Frankenstein Created Woman was originally mooted as a follow-up to The Revenge of Frankenstein during its production in 1958, at a time when Roger Vadim's Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman) was successful (in fact, the film's original working title was And Then Frankenstein Created Woman). The film finally went into production at Bray Studios on 4 July 1966. It was Hammer's penultimate production there.

Critical reaction
Variety wrote that the film has "the excellent technical aspects which have come to be expected of the Hammer Film people," but that the script "often seems overly influenced by other and better-written screen efforts." The Monthly Film Bulletin expressed disappointment that the film did not focus on Frankenstein's work, but that the script was rather "more concerned with the gory murder spree which follows in the wake of Christina's restoration," concluding that "the poverty of the script is little compensation for the loss of the old tradition." Leonard Maltin is blunt: "everything goes wrong, including script." Halliwell's Film and Video Guide describes this film as a crude and gory farrago" while the Time Out Film Guide says it is "full of cloying Keatsian imagery which somehow transcends the more idiotic aspects of the plot."

Some commentators on Frankenstein Created Woman have been more positive. Martin Scorsese picked the movie as part of a 1987 National Film Theatre season of his favourite films, saying "If I single this one out it's because here they actually isolate the soul... The implied metaphysics are close to something sublime." The film currently holds 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Blu-ray release
Frankenstein Created Woman was released in October 2013 in the U.K. and on 28 January in the U.S.A. Each disc featured a restored version of the film, the episodes of "World of Hammer" episodes included on the DVD released by Anchor Bay over a decade before. Among the highlights is an audio commentary with actors Robert Morris and Derek Fowlds, moderated by Hammer expert Jonathan Rigby.