Director Terence Fisher’s swansong (and Hammer’s sixth and final Frankenstein film) finds the Baron (Peter Cushing) as Carl Victor, the resident doctor in the famous insane asylum known as ‘Bedlam’ (where he himself was initially housed as an inmate), with young apprentice Dr Helder (Shane Briant), a busty mute known to the inmates as “Angel” (Madeline Smith) and plenty of asylum “residents” to wreak the usual mayhem with.
Frankenstein selects as his subject the body of an inmate who recently attempted suicide. The man is Neolithic in appearance, easily driven to violence and shows particular interest in dicing up people with broken glass. Victor is soon sewing on the hands of a sculptor and making arrangements¡ to acquire the brain of the melancholy (though not insane) Professor Durendel (Charles Llyod Pack).
In the final scenes, the monster (played by Dave ‘Darth Vader’ Prowse) – who looks like a mangy Wookie – runs amok in the madhouse before the inmates turn on the monster and rip it to shreds, literally disembowelling the beast.
Although the film suffered a critical pasting, it’s more fun retrospectively.
Cushing (literally) sinks his teeth into the role, and there’s a colourful supporting cast, even if the philosophical musings have dated better than the makeup.
Baron Frankenstein (Dr Carl Victor)
Peter Cushing
Dr Simon Helder
Shane Briant
Sarah (“Angel”)
Madeline Smith
Monster
David Prowse
Asylum Director
John Stratton
Transvest
Michael Ward
Wild One
Elsie Wagstaff
Police Sergeant
Norman Mitchell
Judge
Clifford Mollison
Bodysnatcher
Patrick Troughton
Ernst
Philip Voss
Hans
Christopher Cunningham
Professor Durendel
Charles Lloyd Pack
Old Hag
Lucy Griffiths
Tarmut
Bernard Lee
Muller
Sydney Bromley
Brassy Girl
Andrea Lawrence
Landlord
Jerold Wells
Gerda
Sheila D’Union
Twitch
Mischa De La Motte
Smiler
Norman Atkyns
Letch
Victor Woolf
Mouse
Winifred Sabine
Chatter
Janet Hargreaves
Coach Driver
Peter Madden
Director
Terence Fisher
