Tuesday

A man has died in rural Bavaria, his cooling body placed in the windowsill like a pie. When the body is snatched by a freelance henchman, a young girl raises the alarm. "What manner of evil is this?" says the parish priest, responding to the cries for help. Why, it's the Evil of Frankenstein (1964),* an after-midnight October-thon return to Hammer Films' shock Victoriana. The baron doctor is continuing his life's work nearby after having been run from his own home town. Working frantically over the credit sequence, he removes the snatched body's intact heart, attaches battery cables, and makes it live! But townies are already at the door to destroy his work and burn all his equipment. "Why do they destroy everything?" laments the baron doctor in frustration. Soon, Frankenstein and his assistant are on the road to the baron's forbidden chateau. Frankenstein is persona-non-grata in town, but they need the money they can make selling the old Castle Frankenstein finery. Of course, they discover the chateau ransacked, the Treasure Frankenstein relocated into the possession of the local Bürgermeister. Angered, Frankenstein reveals his presence in town, and so must hide from the police in the crowded local carnival fair, meeting a stage mentalist named Zoltan. Later, hiding in the local caves with his assistant and a deaf-mute, he discovers the body of his original monster frozen into a block of ice. There is no choice but to thaw him and return to the castle, where Frankenstein has the equipment to fix him--or does he? Soon he'll need the help of the evil mentalist to make contact with the monster using hypnotism. Zoltan has plans of his own. Peter Cushing is excellent as the titular type-A maniac, bounding between his humanism and his lunatic compulsions. Marvelous stuff. [Cavin]