For most cinema enthusiasts today, the name Peter Cushing conjures the steely, cold-blooded authority of Grand Moff Tarkin from Star Wars. Yet, long before he oversaw the Death Star, Cushing had already cemented his status as an icon of British horror, thanks primarily to his first starring role in the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein. This picture was the foundational stone for the long-running film series that catapulted the hitherto minor British studio Hammer Films onto the world stage, defining a genre for a generation.
The film, very loosely adapted from Mary Shelley's seminal 1818 novel by screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, opens with Baron Victor Frankenstein (Cushing), a mid 19th century Swiss aristocratic scientist, in a dank prison cell, awaiting execution. He summons a priest (Alex Gallier) to hear a tale he knows will be disbelieved: the story of his creation. Through extended flashbacks, we learn that after inheriting a vast estate at fifteen, the intellectually voracious Victor hired tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart). Their relationship evolved into a scientific partnership, achieving a breakthrough by reviving a dead puppy. Emboldened, Victor aims to create a superior artificial man, but Paul recoils, his concerns deepening with the arrival of Victor's cousin and fiancée, Elizabeth (Hazel Court). Undeterred, Victor proceeds alone, assembling a body from stolen parts. For the crucial brain, he murders ageing Professor Bernstein (Paul Hardtmuth) and stages his burial in the family crypt. During the final transplant, Paul's intervention damages the brain, and the resulting Creature (Christopher Lee)—a shambling, scarred figure—awakens, escapes, and kills a blind man before Paul shoots it. Though they bury it, Victor later exhumes and re-animates the body. The Baron then uses his creation as a tool for murder, disposing of the maid Justine (Valerie Gaunt), who is blackmailing him over a pregnancy. On his wedding night, the escaped Creature attacks Elizabeth; in the ensuing struggle, Victor accidentally shoots his bride and immolates the Creature with an oil lamp, watching it perish in a vat of acid. The epilogue confirms Victor has been sentenced to death for Justine's murder, his fantastical story dismissed as the rantings of a madman.
The Curse of Frankenstein emerged from a calculated gamble by Hammer Films. In the mid-1950s, the studio, known for low-budget crime thrillers, began pivoting towards science-fiction and horror. Their model was simple yet revolutionary: produce colourful, modern, and graphic versions of the classic horror tropes popularised by Universal Pictures, but on a fraction of the budget. The decision to film in colour was pivotal, making the violence more visceral and graphic than the black-and-white classics of the 1930s. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster understood he could not compete with the iconic status of James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff. His ingenious solution was to shift the monstrous heart of the narrative from the Creature to its creator. Sangster's Victor Frankenstein is no idealistic scientist tragically overreaching; he is a megalomaniacal, cold-blooded murderer and seducer, a figure of intellectual arrogance and chilling amorality.
This defining role fell to Peter Cushing, then primarily recognised for stage and television work, including a celebrated performance as Winston Smith in the 1954 adaptation of 1984. His portrayal is a masterclass in nuanced villainy, charting a descent from smug intellectual superiority to desperate, ruinous obsession. Cushing delivers the character's monstrous logic with a chilling, precise conviction that makes him compelling rather than cartoonish. The other crucial piece of casting was the Creature itself. Make-up artist Phil Leakey was tasked with creating a design as distinct from Karloff's iconic flat-headed likeness as possible. While successful in achieving a gruesome, freshly-stitched appearance, the Creature in this iteration is arguably less memorably characterised than its Universal predecessor. Christopher Lee, cast largely for his extraordinary height, gives a physically imposing but largely mute performance, his agency limited by the script's focus on the Baron.
Director Terence Fisher handles the plot with efficient, lean craftsmanship, containing the narrative within a tight 83 minutes. The emphasis rests on the bold Eastmancolor photography and what passed for exploitation content in the 1950s: severed hands, splashes of blood, and the period's permissible décolletage on its female leads. While much violence occurs off-screen, the suggestive gore and moral depravity were profoundly shocking for contemporary audiences. This shock value split critics and the public decisively, with former being hostile. Audiences flocked to it, making the film a staggering box office success that reportedly earned over seventy times its production cost.
This commercial triumph was a godsend for Hammer, teaching the studio that audiences were ready for horror treated with serious, yet unpretentious, gusto. It inaugurated the "Hammer Horror" brand, leading directly to a wave of Gothic revivals, most notably Dracula (1958), which made a star of Christopher Lee. Cushing would reprise the role of Baron Frankenstein in five sequels, and his legendary partnership with Lee would become a cornerstone of British genre cinema.
In final analysis, The Curse of Frankenstein is a landmark of calculated transgression. It revitalised a dormant genre not through mere imitation but through a shrewd, cynical reinterpretation that located evil in human ambition rather than in a tragic monster. While its creature may not be its most enduring image, the film's true legacy is Peter Cushing's definitive portrayal of Baron Frankenstein—a performance of such intelligent, ruthless conviction that it not only created a horror icon but fundamentally altered the trajectory of British cinema.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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