Frankenstein Created Woman

A Hammer film set in a European town. Baron Frankenstein is still working. This time his subject is not the body. He is working on the soul. He believes an energy leaves the body just after death and he wants to catch it. He builds an apparatus. It will be held inside a field. His assistant is Doctor Hertz. Drunk, capable, and he does not object to the baron. Hans helps them. A young man whose father was guillotined years ago. Christina is the innkeeper's daughter. One side of her face and one leg are damaged. The town mocks her. Hans and Christina love each other. One night three rich young men cause trouble at the inn. Hans gets into the fight. Then the innkeeper is found dead. Hans is accused. The real killers are the three young men. He does not tell the truth. He was with Christina that night and will not give her name. He is executed. Christina sees it and throws herself into the river. From there the film reaches its real subject. Frankenstein caught Hans's soul. He has taken Christina's body too. He repairs her. He removes the damage and places the soul in her. Christina wakes. She does not remember who she is. Then she starts to remember. Two memories at once. What the narrative is interested in is not creation but revenge: its idea is that two people are in one woman's body, and that the three young men are sought out in turn. Her method is plain. Christina draws them and kills them. This time Frankenstein loses control. What he made moves outside his plan. Peter Cushing again plays the part measured. This is the fourth film in Hammer's Frankenstein series and Terence Fisher directed again. The running time is short and it was shot inside the studio. Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters and Robert Morris are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes Hammer horror and genre films that carry an idea. Who it is not for: anyone expecting horror; the narrative is a revenge story and there is very little of it.