#5 The Revenge of Frankenstein

I had seen and known The Curse of Frankenstein from TV boroadcasts, Creature Features etc. while the follow-up 'Revenge' had been far more hit and miss on TV. It eluded me for years. Even more recently it surprisingly has been left off of the Hammer DVD mini sets for some reason. Only able to catch partial airings for years I finally was able to catch this one in its entirety and it was everything I hoped it would be - starting off right where Curse had left off, with Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein escaping the guillotine and making off to the Hammer set for Horror of Dracula (filmed back to back) at Bray.

The ole Doc is once again up to no good as he's been running a pauper's hospital by day and tending to the swapping out of chimpanzee brains by night. 

Dr. Frankenstein has his own "Karl" in this film and just like Ygor and "friend" Daniel from the Universal films he covets going under the knife to attain a new body. That plan never works out.

Karl gets his operation and awakes a real fine stitched-up-dandy. He's hipper than Tony from Saturday Night Fever for a minute - but like Michael Sarrazin from Frankenstein: The True Story he devolves into something that resembles a meth fiend after a 4 day tweaker.

Meanwhile a character simply called "Up Patient" (must be some British hooey) played by the late great Richard Wordsworth (The beggar from Curse of The Werewolf) is just busy stealing the show with some great bits about how a few fine years worth of dirt and general un-bathed livin' keeps a man healthy, happy and upright. That and being a professional snoop - which is never a good thing around ol Dr. Frankenstein.

Things go south, people start dying - the usual Frankenstein antics, then the people go after the Doc..

The ending of this film is another great twist in the Hammer Frankenstein series.

You just can't keep the good doc down…