As my summary indicates, no Frankenstein movie really has done justice to Mary Shelley's masterpiece novel. One of the biggest problems is that the movies all tend to spend too much time on how the creature is created (it was barely mentioned in the book). The other is that the fundamental moral question posed in the book is also often absent (the guilt of the doctor for creating and then abandoning his creation). Instead, films focus almost voyeuristically at the creature's actions. This movie isn't quite as bad in this regard, because the monster is not the mass-murdering creature he is in some versions and the doctor is truly a bad man! Peter Cushing plays a strange Dr. Frankenstein in that this time he is very willing to commit murders himself to further his work plus he is a selfish user (having impregnated and then killing his housekeeper). This is no kindly man wanting to help humanity--instead it's all about glory and a desire to play god.
The monster is the least traditional monster I've seen in a very long time. Instead of looking like Karloff, Christopher Lee looks like a combination of a person and a festering piece of blue cheese!! This isn't necessarily a bad thing--the monster was supposed to look pretty bad and her certainly does! However, this cheesy guy never really is allowed to do all that much damage to the populace--and spends most of the movie confined to Frankenstein's castle.
I think that the best part of the film is actually its conclusion. I don't want to spoil it, but thought it was great that it brought up a lot of questions as to what really occurred. This vagueness I really liked because I am sure that people will be debating this for some time and I love endings that are open to multiple interpretations. It's a very good, but not great version of the classic tale.
The monster is the least traditional monster I've seen in a very long time. Instead of looking like Karloff, Christopher Lee looks like a combination of a person and a festering piece of blue cheese!! This isn't necessarily a bad thing--the monster was supposed to look pretty bad and her certainly does! However, this cheesy guy never really is allowed to do all that much damage to the populace--and spends most of the movie confined to Frankenstein's castle.
I think that the best part of the film is actually its conclusion. I don't want to spoil it, but thought it was great that it brought up a lot of questions as to what really occurred. This vagueness I really liked because I am sure that people will be debating this for some time and I love endings that are open to multiple interpretations. It's a very good, but not great version of the classic tale.