Intrigue

Baron Frankenstein works with a mental patient to reanimate the dead.

The last of the Hammer Frankenstein films, this one deals with Baron Victor Frankenstein hiding out in an insane asylum so that he may continue his experiments in reanimating the dead along with fellow inmate Dr. Simon Helder, who has been institutionalized for conducting such experiments.—Humberto Amador

A body snatcher is caught by a police sergeant and he gives up the name and address of his client, Dr. Simon Helder. The doctor is arrested, accused of sorcery, and sent to a psychiatric institution. There he meets Dr. Carl Victor, a.k.a. Baron Victor Frankenstein, who is presumed dead, but actually is alive and secretly continuing his experiments in reanimating the dead. Dr. Helder hero-worships Frankenstein and has studied his work; he becomes his assistant together with the mute girl Sarah. One day, Dr. Helder discovers Frankenstein's secret laboratory and accidentally releases a monster in the institution, causing panic among the inmates and staff.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

One of Hammer Films most recognizable stars was Peter Cushing. The range of Cushing's role are celebrated with sample clips from many of his best-known films. He portrays the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing in Horror of Dracula (1958) and again, two years later, in The Brides of Dracula (1960). He became kindly, English botanist Dr. Rollason in The Abominable Snowman (1957) as he and a gruff American scientist, played by Forrest Tucker, mounted an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti. Sherlock Holmes was his role for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), helping when a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate. As Holly in a 1965 remake of H. Rider Haggard's She, he and two companions stumble upon a lost city in East Africa, run by a beautiful queen (Ursula Andress) whose love holds the promise of immortality. Cushing became archaeologist John Banning in the 1959 version of The Mummy, where a team of British archaeologists find and open the tomb of Egyptian Princess Ananka with nefarious consequences. Christopher Lee romps as the mummy. In Twins of Evil (1971), Cushing leads a religious sect as Puritan Gustav Weil and hunts all women suspected of witchcraft In the process, he kills a number of innocent victims. Young Frieda, Gustav's niece, will involve herself in a devilish cult, and become an instrument of Justice in the region. A young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown (Joan Collins) moves with her husband to a boys' school and finds herself being terrorized by a mysterious one-armed man, but nobody believes her in Fear in the Night from 1972. Here, Cushing is the Headmaster, Michael Carmichael. Six times he starred as Baron Frankenstein, the last being Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) in which he is hiding out in an insane asylum so that he may continue his experiments in reanimating the dead along with fellow inmate Dr. Simon Helder, who has been institutionalized for conducting such experiments.—Garon Smith

Simon Helder (Shane Briant) spends his nights piecing together body parts from cadavers for his research but is brought before a judge and sentenced to 5 years in an insane asylum where he is tortured by the orderlies. Little does Helder know but Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) has been hiding out in the asylum and when he discovers the young doctor he enlists him as an assistant to help in the tending of the medical needs of the other inmates but ultimately to help with the creation of a new monster he is bringing to life. The monster (David Prowse) is a compilation of body parts taken from the dying inmates in the asylum, many of whom Frankenstein euthanizes for his purpose. Helder is uneasy with the Barons utilizing of the inmates to further his research and tells the Baron his feelings, but the Baron confides in Helder a secret that is the cause of his lovely young assistant Sarah (Madeline Smith) a mute who is the daughter of the lecherous Asylum Director (John Stratton). As the experiments progress and the monster is created it becomes apparent that there is an incompatibility of body parts, driving the monster homicidally insane and aggressively vicious.