Frankenstein Monster I/Hammer Horror

The Frankenstein Monster, or the Creature, is a fictional reanimate featured in the Hammer Horror film series. It is based on the Frankenstein Monster as first envisioned by English author Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film version of the monster was played by Christopher Lee and appeared in the 1957 movie The Curse of Frankenstein.

Biography
This nameless creature was the handiwork of an ambitious and fiery scientist named Victor Frankenstein who lived in Switzerland in the 19th century. The creature was assembled using the body of a criminal who had been hanged at the gallows and hands and eyes that Victor purchased at a charnel house. The only thing Victor required now was a serviceable brain. Frankenstein wanted his creation to be of superior mind as well as body, so he selected the brain of a man named Professor Bernstein. Only one thing stood in Victor's way, Bernstein was still alive.

Frankenstein invited the aging professor to his home and coaxed him with drink and various complements. He then pushed him from the top of a staircase, and Bernstein tumbled to his death. Now the only thing to do was to acquire the brain. This brought Victor into conflict with his former assistant Paul Krempe. The two struggled with one another, and in so doing, Bernstein's brain was damaged. Frustrated, but undeterred, Victor continued with his experiment and placed the damaged brain into the assembled body. Afterward, he used chemical and electrical processes to bring the monster to life. Whatever intelligence the Bernstein brain may have given the creature was gone. Instead, Frankenstein's creation was violent and murderous. Victor locked the monster away, but it eventually escaped, and lumbered off wherein it killed an elderly blind man that it encountered in the forest. Victor and Krempe caught up with the monster and Paul shot it in the head with a shotgun, killing it. Victor and he buried the creature together, and Paul believed that this was the end of the madness Paul Krempe left the village, and Victor Frankenstein unearthed his creation's remains. Bringing it back to his castle, he revived it. Victor Frankenstein's maid, Justine, came to him with the claim that she was pregnant with his child and demanded that Victor should marry her. If he refused, she threatened to tell the authorities about his strange experiments. To quash the Justine problem, Victor sent his monster to murder her.

Victor was slated to marry his cousin Elizabeth, and despite the falling out with Paul Krempe, and invitation was sent out to attend the nuptials.

Victor showed Paul the revived creature, but Paul was disgusted, threatening to report Victor to the authorities. The two began fighting with one another, and during the fracas, the monster escaped out onto the roof of the castle where it threatened Elizabeth. Victor threw an oil lantern at it, setting it aflame and the creature fell through a skylight into a bath of acid. Its body dissolved completely, leaving no proof that it had ever existed. Victor was subsequently imprisoned for Justine's murder.

Notes & Trivia

 * This version of the character is based on the original Frankenstein Monster, who was created by English author Mary Shelley, and first appeared in the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.


 * Playing the monster is the first horror film work for actor Christopher Lee. It is the first of fifteen films that Lee will do for Hammer Film Productions, but his only work in a Frankenstein film.


 * Previous actors who have portrayed the Frankenstein Monster include Boris Karloff, who played the creature in Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein. Actor Lon Chaney, Jr. played the monster in Ghost of Frankenstein. He would go on to play a different version of the creature in the "Frankenstein" episode of the sci-fi anthology series Tales of Tomorrow. Bela Lugosi played him in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, and Glenn Strange played the creature in House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.