EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)
Directed by Freddie Francis
Starring Peter Cushing and Sandor Elès
Six years after the great "Revenge of Frankenstein" and around the time that Beatlemania was sweeping U.S. shores, Hammer cranked out this clunker, which doesn`t even follow the events in the previous films.
Frankenstein still has an assistant named "Hans", presumably the same assistant he picked up in the previous film (this time played by a different actor, Sandor Eles). But for some reason, all the events from "Curse of Frankenstein" are forgotten, replaced with new flashbacks that show Frankenstein building a totally different monster than the one played by Chris Lee in the first film. It has a square head, like the original Universal Frankenstein. Apparently, Hammer actually wanted to make it look like Boris Karloff's Frankenstein because, as it turns out, this film was distributed by Universal. Originally, they couldn't emulate the look when they produced the Warner Bros.-distributed "Curse of Frankenstein." As it turns out, the first monster looks better than what turns up here.
To add insult to injury, Victor Frankenstein comes across as kinder and gentler in this film. (He is, however, more than a little pissed off that the town leaders of his former village ripped off everything from the estate he abandoned.) A mute girl also hooks up with him and his assistant, and not surprisingly fails to liven things up. Flick's got something of a nice Hammer atmosphere, but a painfully slow story and a major lack of continuity with the other films in the series make this the worst in the entire series.
Terence Fisher thankfully returned to the director`s chair for the next film, which was one of (if not the) best in the series: "Frankenstein Created Woman".