The Curse of Frankenstein

The film introduces itself with the on-screen information:- “More than a hundred years ago, in a mountain village in Switzerland, lived a man whose strange experiments with the dead have since become legend. The legend is still told with horror the world over…..It is the legend of…..The Curse of Frankenstein.”

Original trailer

Production Details

A Hammer production released by Warner Brothers
Copyright MCMLVII
Clarion Film Production.
MPAA Approved Certificate No. 18491
RCA Sound Recording
Eastmancolour by Humphries Laboratories
81 Mins

Based on the novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley

Filming dates: 19th November 1956 – January 3rd 1957
UK Release: 2nd May 1957

Studio:
Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire

Locations:
Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire
Oakley Court Hotel, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Buckinghamshire – Chateau Frankenstein exterior

Stills from film

Click an image for enlarged slideshow

Cast & Crew

Cast – Verified complete
Crew – Believed complete

Red = Uncredited

CREW	NAME	AGE AT RELEASE	BIRTH	Hidden	DEATH	AGE	CREDITS	UNCREDITED	TOTAL HAMMER
Art Director	Ted Marshall						7	1	8
Assistant Director	Derek Whitehurst	28	2 Oct 1928		6 Dec 2005	77	16		16
Assistant Make-up Artist	*George Turner	54	2 May 1903		9 Dec 1962	59		1	1
Assistant Make-up Artist	*Roy Ashton	48	16 Apr 1909		10 Jan 1995	85	36	4	40
Associate Producer	Anthony Nelson-Keys	45	13 Nov 1911		19 Mar 1985	73	43		43
Boom Operator	*Jim Perry							9	9
Camera Operator	Len Harris	40	19 May 1916		21 Feb 1995	78	63	2	65
Casting	Dorothy Holloway	59	7 Mar 1898		1972	73	4	6	10
Chief Electrician	*Jack Curtis						3	24	27
Clapper Loader	*John Pratt							1	1
Construction Manager	*Fred Ricketts	44	1913		19 Jan 1968	55		4	4
Continuity	Doreen Soan	31	1926	1 Jan 1926		99	3	3	6
Costume	*Molly Arbuthnot	48	19 Dec 1908		31 Oct 2001	92	48	5	53
Director	Terence Fisher	53	23 Feb 1904		18 Jun 1980	76	31		31
Director of Photography	Jack Asher BSc	41	29 Mar 1916		Apr 1991	75	13		13
Draughtsman	*Don Mingaye	28	1929		8 Nov 2017	88	28	15	43
Editor	James Needs	37	17 Oct 1919		4 Feb 2003	83	113	1	114
Electrician	*Bob Palmer							1	1
Electrician	*Harold Marland							1	1
Executive Producer	*James Carreras	48	30 Jan 1909		9 Jun 1990	81	1	1	2
Executive Producer	Michael Carreras	29	21 Dec 1927		19 Apr 1994	66	98	11	109
First Assistant Editor	*Roy Norman	36	30 Jan 1921		16 Aug 1987	66		3	3
Focus Puller	*Harry Oakes	36	16 Jan 1921		11 Dec 2012	91	3	56	59
Hair Stylist	Henry Montsash	51	17 Sep 1905		29 Sep 1974	69	16		16
Lighting: Second Unit	*Steve Birtles	42	12 Nov 1914		2003	88	14	15	29
Make-up	Phil Leakey	48	4 May 1908		26 Nov 1992	84	50		50
Master Plasterer	*Arthur Banks						19	29	48
Matte Painter	*Les Bowie	43	10 Nov 1913		27 Jan 1979	65	30	13	43
Music Composer	James Bernard	31	20 Sep 1925		12 Jul 2001	75	25	1	26
Music Director	John Hollingsworth	41	20 Mar 1916		29 Dec 1963	47	37	3	40
Producer	*Max Rosenberg	42	13 Sep 1914		14 Jun 2004	89		1	1
Producer	Anthony Hinds	34	18 Sep 1922		30 Sep 2013	91	87	3	90
Production Designer	Bernard Robinson	44	28 Jul 1912		2 Mar 1970	57	46	4	50
Production Manager	Don Weeks	52	15 Nov 1904		Mar 1988	83	31		31
Production Secretary	*Faith Frisby	29	1928		1997	69		2	2
Property Master	*Tom Money	40	1917		1974	57	2	21	23
Publicity Director	*Leslie Frewin	39	8 Aug 1917		27 Aug 1997	80		1	1
Screenplay	Jimmy Sangster	29	2 Dec 1927		19 Aug 2011	83	66	2	68
Second Assistant Director	*Jimmy Komisarjevsky	36	27 Aug 1920		Nov 1986	66		1	1
Second Assistant Editor	*Max Wheeler							2	2
Sound	*Jock May	52	1905		8 Jan 1991	86	31	1	32
Sound Camera Operator	*Michael Sale							9	9
Still Photographer	*John Jay	36	14 Nov 1920		29 Apr 2005	84	13	22	35
Still Photographer	*Tom Edwards				1999			27	27
Stunt Double : Christopher Lee	*Jock Easton	45	27 Apr 1912		1980	67	1	3	4
Third Assistant Director	*Hugh Harlow	17	17 Jun 1939			86	6	34	40
CHARACTERS
2nd Priest	*Eugene Leahy	74	14 Mar 1883		25 Feb 1967	83		2	2
Aunt	Noel Hood	46	25 Dec 1910		15 Oct 1979	68	1		1
Baron Victor Frankenstein	Peter Cushing	43	26 May 1913		11 Aug 1994	81	24	1	25
Burgomaster	Andrew Leigh	69	30 Nov 1887		21 Apr 1957	69	1		1
Coachman	*Jimmy Millar							1	1
Creature	Christopher Lee	34	27 May 1922		7 Jun 2015	93	22		22
Elizabeth	Hazel Court	31	10 Feb 1926		15 Apr 2008	82	2		2
Ellen	*Helen Ford	62	6 Jun 1894		19 Jan 1982	87		1	1
Father Felix	*Raymond Rollett	50	9 Mar 1907		19 Dec 1961	54	2	1	3
Fritz	*Joesf Behrmann	31	25 Jun 1925		Aug 1995	70		1	1
Grandpa	Fred Johnson	57	6 Aug 1899		4 Dec 1971	72	6	2	8
Guard	*Philip Johns							6	6
Hanged Man/ Burning Creature	*Jock Easton	45	27 Apr 1912		1980	67	1	3	4
Justine	Valerie Gaunt	24	26 Jun 1932		27 Nov 2016	84	2		2
Lecturer	Middleton Woods	70	20 Sep 1886		1974	87	2	2	4
Little Boy	Claude Kingston						1		1
Mother	*Marjorie Hume	64	27 Jan 1893		13 Mar 1976	83		1	1
Pallbearer	*Fred Wood	35	26 Oct 1921		25 Jan 2003	81		19	19
Party Guest	*Jack Hetherington							1	1
Paul Kempe	Robert Urquhart	35	16 Oct 1921		21 Mar 1995	73	2		2
Priest	Alex Gallier	36	20 Mar 1921		9 Jun 1969	48	2	1	3
Prison Gatekeeper	*Lindsay Hooper							10	10
Prison Officer	*Bill Rooney							4	4
Professor Bernstein	Paul Hardtmuth	68	2 Jul 1888		5 Feb 1962	73	1		1
Relative	*James Ure							4	4
Schoolmaster	*Henry Caine	68	19 Jul 1888		9 Jul 1962	73		1	1
Servant	*Paddy Smith							7	7
Tramp	*Bartlett Mullins	52	13 Aug 1904		15 May 1992	87	2	3	5
Uncle	*Trevor Davis							1	1
Uncle	Raymond Ray						1		1
Undertaker	*Ernest Jay	63	18 Sep 1893		8 Feb 1957	63		1	1
Warder	Michael Mulcaster	45	3 Oct 1911		10 Aug 1984	72	3	2	5
Wife	Anne Blake	48	4 Nov 1908		27 Jan 2000	91	3		3
Young Elizabeth	Sally Walsh	6	15 May 1950			75	1		1
Young Victor	Melvyn Hayes	22	11 Jan 1935			90	3	1	4

Original Poster

Click to enlarge

Footnotes

Little did they know it, but with the arrival of actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Production Designer and miracle-worker Bernard Robinson and Photographer Jack Asher, Hammer now had more or less in place the team which would transform their fortunes virtually overnight.

So much has been said and written about The Curse of Frankenstein that it seems superfluous to say more. Suffice it to say that it was a seminal horror movie, showing dismembered body parts and large quantities of blood and gore in all their full-colour glory, and it (and its successors) have influenced the making of films of the genre ever since.

Hazel Court was already a dab hand at horror, having been scared witless by the rather unfriendly Devil Girl from Mars (1954). She worked again for Hammer in The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) and then starred in Doctor Blood’s Coffin (1960), before appearing for Roger Corman in his adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Premature Burial (1961); The Raven (1963) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).

With Hazel Court playing Elizabeth, her own daughter, Sally Walsh, was cast as Young Elizabeth. At the time Hazel was married to actor Dermot Walsh (who later played Ken in the Journey to the Unknown episode Matakitas is Coming)

Melvyn Hayes, who plays the young Baron here, gained further fame, or perhaps notoriety, as Gloria in the BBC TV sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum.

1957 BBFC Cert. “X”

Production Details

Stills from film

Cast & Crew

Original Poster

Footnotes

Archives