Sunday, October 30, 2011

THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN - Don Banks - "Aaaaahhhhh!" (1964)

I can't think of anything better to present on this Black Sabbath All Saint's Night Eve, than a twisted tale of man and God like "The Evil Of Frankenstein"!!!

Peter Cushing IS Baron Frankenstein! What more do I need to say?

"The Evil Of Frankenstein" is directed by cinematographer turned director, and Dungeon fave, Freddie Francis! It makes all the difference in the world!

The music is by perennial 60's Hammer work horse Don Banks. If Don would have lived past the age of 56 years old, he would have shared a birthday with Reverend Tom Frost last Tuesday!

Bodies disappear in the night, and all that's left is a crucifix, where do they go??

The laboratory of Baron Frankenstein is a wonder to behold! Does anybody want a Blood Orange Julius?

But wait, there's something insanely inhuman going on here!

"The Evil OF Frankenstein" was written and produced by Anthony Hinds! Anthony was the son of the co-founder of Hammer Films, Will Hammer!

Can't get enough of these terrific lookin' lab scenes!

No matter what, success or failure, the main goal is too look good, and that's where "The Evil Of Frankenstein" succeeds!

Very strange transition shot!!

This is not the first time we've seen that mask on the wall in these pages!!

Madam, I beseech thee, No, I command thee, Pull my Finger!

Baron Frankenstein and his assistant Hans, as played by Sandor (Countess Dracula) Elès do a fine impersonation of The Green Hornet and Kato!

Pretty subtle, right?

"The Evil Of Frankenstein" is also quite a love story!

Eye Candy Castle of Evil!

Sometimes nothing goes right!!

This was the first time a non-Universal film was allowed to use the concept of the big square Jack P. Pierce created, and copyrighted brow of Frankenstein, so they took it to the next level, and made it even bigger and squarer. It was only made possible because this film was being distributed by Universal!

Baron Frankenstein enlisted the use of Peter(Gollum)Woodthorpe as Prof. Zoltán the Hypnotist to get Frankie's brain jumpstarted, which creates a problem! The monster ONLY listens to the Hypnotist!

Zoltán sends Frankie out to do some shopping and to take care of some dirty laundry for him!

Frank was thinking about trying out for the British Olympic team in the Javelin Throwing competition!

When I first saw this film as a kid, I didn't like it because of the monster's pasty putty makeup, but Kiwi Kingston strikes a pretty stunning portrait in this shot! Kiwi was only ever in one other film, and that was one year later in another Freddie Francis flick, "Hysteria."

And just for Douglas McEwan, here's a picture of boxer/wrestler Ernie Kingston in one of his wrasslin' poses! He got his nickname Kiwi because he was from New Zealand!

Sometimes green screen itself is inherently evil!

All the painted backgrounds are killer, right up to The End!

10 comments:

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

~ The time is 9:51 PM PST on Sunday, October 30th, 2011, and, our counter just displayed 666,666 ~

TABONGA! said...

Kiwi's a total blockhead!! Beautiful stills!

Unknown said...

It is really funny, because I am upload this film just into German. The good old Frankenstein's films! Peter Cushing was one of the biggest British actors gave! The sound is just typically a hammer! Just splendidly and even without film the music has a certain atmosphere! Great!

R. Claude said...

Stills are excellent. The best Hammer's movies are romantic and gothic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzsKtRgR8UI

Prof. Grewbeard said...

funniest, prettiest post this month! Happy Hallowe'en guys!

Blood Orange Julius!

Douglas McEwan said...

I've always felt this movie got a bad rap. Critics tend to dump on it as the bastard child of the Hammer series. Yes, it's the only movie in the Hammer/Peter Cushing series not directed by Terence Fisher, and it's somewhat derivitive of the Universal Frankensteins, and with its extended flashback sequence harking back to a pre-story not found in the earlier two films, it comes off as a sequel to a movie that was never made, but it is highly entertianing, never boring, and as this posting repeatedly points out, looks great. It was the first Hammer film I ever saw in a theater in its original release, and I retain a fondness for it.

I have never seen a picture of Kiwi Kingston out of this monster make-up, and would love it if you could find a photo of him sans monster make-up. I have no idea what he looks like.

TABONGA! said...

Douglas, one of the first movies Eegah!! and I saw together was HORROR OF DRACULA!

Douglas McEwan said...

Thanks for the Kiwi Kingston shot. Looks like he didn't require much make-up as the monster after all. Were he still around, Peter Jackson could have used him to play a cave troll without any make up or special effects at all.

I first saw Horror of Dracula in a 1964 rerelease in Santa Ana, CA, in a double bill with Curse of Frankensten. Drac was on first, and I loved it so much, I phoned home at intermission (I was 14) and asked my parents to pick me up 90 minutes later, as I HAD to see it a second time!

Eegah!! said...

Nice round of comments guys, Thanx, Merci, and Danke!!!

Grant said...

This was probably my first Frankenstein movie, my first Hammer one, and my first Cushing one, all three! So I'm very attached to it.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??