The Curse of Frankenstein – 1957

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

Storyline

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.”

Watch the original trailer on YouTube

Crew


Function	Credited	Age at Release	Birth		Death	Age	Hammer Productions
	Click a link for more info						Credited	Uncredited	Total
Art Director	Ted Marshall						1		1
Assistant Director	Derek Whitehurst	28	2 Oct 1928		6 Dec 2005	77	16		16
Associate Producer	Anthony Nelson-Keys	45	13 Nov 1911		19 Mar 1985	73	41		41
Camera Operator	Len Harris	41	19 May 1916		21 Feb 1995	78	52	1	53
Casting	Dorothy Holloway	59	7 Mar 1898		1972	73	1	5	6
Continuity	Doreen Soan	31	1 Jan 1926			96	3	3	6
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	14		14
Editor	James Needs	37	17 Oct 1919		4 Feb 2003	83	110	1	111
Executive Producer	Michael Carreras	29	21 Dec 1927		19 Apr 1994	66	82	3	85
Hair Stylist	Henry Montsash	51	17 Sep 1905		29 Sep 1974	69	16		16
Make-up	Phil Leakey	49	4 May 1908		26 Nov 1992	84	48		48
Music Composer	James Bernard	31	20 Sep 1925		12 Jul 2001	75	24	1	25
Music Director	John Hollingsworth	41	20 Mar 1916		29 Dec 1963	47	36	2	38
Producer	Anthony Hinds	34	18 Sep 1922		30 Sep 2013	91	84	1	85
Production Designer	Bernard Robinson	44	28 Jul 1912		2 Mar 1970	57	46	3	49
Production Manager	Don Weeks	52	15 Nov 1904		Mar 1988	83	30		30
Screenplay	Jimmy Sangster	29	2 Dec 1927		19 Aug 2011	83	65	2	67
Uncredited
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
Boom Operator	Jim Perry							8	8
Chief Electrician	Jack Curtis						3	23	26
Clapper Loader	John Pratt							1	1
Construction Manager	Fred Ricketts	44	1913		19 Jan 1968	55		4	4
Costume	Molly Arbuthnot	48	19 Dec 1908		31 Oct 2001	92	48	4	52
Draughtsman	Don Mingaye	28	1 Jan 1929		8 Nov 2017	88	26	14	40
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
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		53	53
Hanged Man/ Burning Creature	Jock Easton	45	27 Apr 1912		1980	67	1	3	4
Lighting: Second Unit	Steve Birtles	42	12 Nov 1914		2003	88	13	14	27
Master Plasterer	Arthur Banks						18	29	47
Matte Painter	Les Bowie	43	10 Nov 1913		27 Jan 1979	65	32	11	43
Production Secretary	Faith Frisby	29	1928		1997	69		2	2
Property Master	Tom Money	40	1917		1974	56	2	20	22
Publicity Director	Leslie Frewin	39	8 Aug 1917		27 Aug 1997	80		1	1
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	1 Jan 1905		8 Jan 1991	86	30	1	31
Sound Camera Operator	Michael Sale							8	8
Still Photographer	Tom Edwards				1999			26	26
Still Photographer	John Jay	36	14 Nov 1920		29 Apr 2005	84	13	22	35
Stunt Double : Christopher Lee	Jock Easton	45	27 Apr 1912		1 Jan 1980	67	1	3	4
Third Assistant Director	Hugh Harlow	17	17 Jun 1939	17.06.1939		83	3	28	31

Cast


Character	Actor	Age at Release	Birth		Death	Age	Hammer Productions
	Click a link for more info						Credited	Uncredited	Total
Aunt	Noel Hood	46	25 Dec 1910		15 Oct 1979	68	1		1
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
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
Grandpa	Fred Johnson	57	6 Aug 1899		4 Dec 1971	72	6	2	8
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
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
Professor Bernstein	Paul Hardtmuth	68	2 Jul 1888		5 Feb 1962	73	1		1
Uncle	Raymond Ray						1		1
Warder	Michael Mulcaster	45	3 Oct 1911		10 Aug 1984	72	3	3	6
Wife	Anne Blake	48	4 Nov 1908		27 Jan 2000	72	3		3
Young Elizabeth	Sally Walsh	7	15 May 1950	15.05.1950		72	1		1
Young Victor	Melvyn Hayes	22	11 Jan 1935	11.01.1935		88	4		4
Uncredited
2nd Priest	Eugene Leahy	74	14 Mar 1883		25 Feb 1967	83		2	2
Coachman	Jimmy Millar							1	1
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	1	1	2
Fritz	Joesf Behrmann	31	25 Jun 1925		Aug 1995	70		1	1
Guard	Philip Johns							2	2
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
Prison Gatekeeper	Lindsay Hooper							9	9
Prison Officer	Bill Rooney							3	3
Relative	James Ure							3	3
Schoolmaster	Harry Caine	68	19 Jul 1888		9 Jul 1962	73		1	1
Servant	Paddy Smith							5	5
Tramp	Bartlett Mullins	52	13 Aug 1904		15 May 1992	87	2	3	5
Uncle	Trevor Davis							1	1
Undertaker	Ernest Jay	63	18 Sep 1893		8 Feb 1957	63		1	1

Production


FILMING BEGAN	19 November 1956
UK RELEASE	2 May 1957
STUDIO	Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England
LOCATION	Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England
	Oakley Court Hotel, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Buckinghamshire, England	Chateau Frankenstein exterior

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”.

Details were complied viewing the actual film.
Source of viewing copy – The Hammer Graveyard Collection