Tonight on MeTV, we finally have the much-delayed premiere of our show featuring Hammer Studios’ original take on one of the classic monsters- as the great Peter Cushing experiments with creating life from dead tissue- only to also bring to life the “Curse of Frankenstein”!
In this 1957 Hammer classic – its first color horror film- we visit with Victor Frankenstein as he awaits execution for murder! In his final conversation, he relates to a priest the story of how he came to this terrible end- starting with his youth, as a brilliant lad with a great scientific mind, who ends up with total control of the family estate, giving a small portion of his wealthy to his aunt and her daughter Elizabeth. Victor hires a scientist, Dr. Paul Krempe, to tutor him and advance his scientific knowledge- but soon, the pupil has surpassed his teacher.
The pair collaborate on experiments in restoring life, and , after encouraging results, Victor wants to take the next step- bringing life to a body composed of parts of dead men. Paul is reluctant, but assists him nonetheless- up to the point where he can no longer bear obtaining the remains of the dead. Things are complicated further when Victor’s cousin Elizabeth- now grown into a beautiful adult- comes to live with them! Then, there’s also the house maid Justine who has a “special relationship” with her boss…
Victor continues to salvage human body parts, and, wanting only the finest brain for his creation, commits yet another in a long line of unspeakable acts. Paul’s interference brings about more tragedy, and his pleading with Elizabeth, who has no knowledge of what is transpiring, to leave Victor’s house fall on deaf – but lovely- ears. She is still in the mindset of marrying Victor ( I know, they are cousins, but, back then…)
Victor continues with his plan to bring his creature to life- but his success brings more horror and tragedy! Can Paul manage to interfere in Victor’s ( and his creation’s ) ongoing acts of evil and rescue Elizabeth from the terror within the estate?
This is a slightly different version of the tale, differing from the classic Universal version in several ways, as well as utilizing some ideas from the original book by Mary Shelley. We’ll discuss that, and talk about the fine cast- including Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein ( a role he would return to time and again), the alluring Hazel Court as Elizabeth- and Christopher Lee in his first horror pairing with Cushing, debuting as Frankenstein’s creation ( we’ll explain why he was chosen for the part)! We’ll have a song for you, as well as other Sven shtick- and see if Kerwyn is still making good on having Sven banned from the mail segment!
This show was originally scheduled for March of this year, but did not run because the Covid 19 virus delayed post-production. We are very pleased to finally be able to bring it to you ( the show, not the virus)- I think you’ll find the wait was worth it!
“Curse of Frankenstein” shows up tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central time. We continue to trend high on Twitter thanks to viewers live-Tweeting during the show using the hashtag #svengoolie , and MeTV invites you to join in. Our Chicago viewers get an encore of “Night Monster” this morning at 11 am on the U.
We have already been working on shows for this fall- a blend of classics, including some that you have not seen for a while, and some that have never been on our national program. We continue to work from the top secret Sven cave to keep you entertained!
Join us tonight for the film that some say started the reign of Hammer Studios as the new top horror film production house!
2243 Comments
The upcoming movie, the curses are in ancient Egyptian.
Oh I just caught a bat in my fishnet ! Cute little thing.
This will be my last post ripping on the makeup put on Christopher Lee in _The Curse of Frankenstein_ (The Curse of Frankenstein’s Makeup?). At least, until the next airing. According to IMDb and elsewhere on the ’net:
“Christopher Lee's monster makeup was almost literally done at the ‘last minute.’ After previous attempts to design a monster make-up using a cast of Lee's head had failed, make-up Artist Philip Leakey made the final design the day before shooting began, directly onto Lee's face, using primarily cotton and other household materials. Since he didn't use any latex or molds, the make-up had to be re-created from scratch every day.”
This reads like Leakey tried to create latex appliances to glue onto Lee’s face to alter his appearance, like the appliances for the principal (close-up) apes in _The Planet of the Apes_. Use of latex appliances has the advantages that appliances can be produced ahead of time, reducing the time needed to apply the makeup, and because the latex appliances are pulled from the same molds, the appearance is much more consistent. When the castings failed, Leakey had to fall back on the tried-and-true technique of building up facial features using glue, cotton balls, and mortician’s wax, known to makeup artists in the UK as “dooku”*.
I had seen an image of the failed casting earlier when I was researching another topic about the movie, but I haven’y been able to relocate it. I did find this image of Leakey working on Christopher Lee...
Whatever that is on Lee’s nose, it doesn’t follow the contours of the Creature’s nose in the film, so I suspect Leakey is making the master castings of the appliances directly on Lee’s face.Even if Leakey’s latex appliance concept had succeeded, Lee would have still been stuck under the wig that is the Curse of the Second Doctor...
*Just kidding about the dooku!
METV has been completely out since Laura blew through here yesterday. I assume their antenna was damaged, or they lost electricity.
Ha ha, welcome to the blog. Can't wait to go visit Ocracoke when all this virus stuff subsides. Looks like a fun ferry ride and anxious to see your island.
But everyone wants to go and blame the mummy.
