Frankenstein Created Woman

1967 British film by Terence Fisher

Frankenstein Created Woman

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Terence Fisher
Screenplay by| John Elder
Based on| Victor Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Produced by| Anthony Nelson Keys
Starring|

* Peter Cushing
* Susan Denberg
* Thorley Walters

Cinematography| Arthur Grant
Edited by| Spencer Reeve
Music by| James Bernard

Production
company

Hammer Film Productions

Distributed by| Warner-Pathé (UK)
20th Century-Fox (US)

Release dates

* 15 March 1967 (1967-03-15)

(US)

* 18 June 1967 (1967-06-18)

(UK)

Running time

| 86 minutes (UK)
92 minutes (US)
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Budget| £140,000[1]
Box office| 457,019 admissions (France)[2]

Frankenstein Created Woman is a 1967 British Hammer horror film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Susan Denberg.[3] It is the fourth film in Hammer's Frankenstein series.

Where Hammer's previous Frankenstein films were concerned with the physical aspects of the Baron's work, the interest here is in the metaphysical dimensions of life, such as the soul's relationship to the body.[citation needed]

## Plot[edit]

Years after witnessing his father being executed by guillotine, Hans is working as an assistant to the failed Doctor Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein, with the help of Dr Hertz, is in the process of discovering a way of trapping the soul of a recently deceased person. Frankenstein believes he can transfer that soul into another recently deceased body to restore it to life.

Hans is also the lover of Christina, daughter of cowardly innkeeper Kleve. Christina's entire left side is disfigured and partly paralysed. Young dandies Anton, Johann and Karl frequent Kleve's inn and cause a disturbance. Johann threatens to have his father revoke Kleve's licence if he complains. The three insist that they be served by Christina and mock her for her deformities. The taunting angers Hans, who fights the three of them and cuts Anton's face with a knife. Instead of helping Hans against the thugs, Kleve runs away and fetches the police. Hans tells the police to keep away, that the other three are only getting what they deserve, but the police grab hold of him and Kleve takes the knife from his hand. Hans angrily threatens him because of his involving the police. Asked if he wants to press charges, Kleve says no. However, Anton says he wants Hans charged, but when the policeman suggests that a fight with three men against one will not look good in court, he reluctantly drops the charge. Eventually, the dandies decide to leave the inn. They return in the night to steal wine from the inn and when Kleve catches them in the act, they beat him to death.

Meanwhile, Hans spends the night with Christina, and in the morning sees her leave on the stagecoach to visit another doctor her father has paid to see if there is a treatment to help her. Returning to town, Hans sees a crowd outside Kleve's tavern and when he asks what has happened, the crowd looks at him accusingly. Since the coat Dr Hertz had given him is found by the body, and the police heard him angrily threaten Kleve the night before, Hans is immediately a suspect in the murder and is arrested. He will not reveal his time with Christina as an alibi and, known for his short temper, is tried. The trial is a farce, with Anton testifying against Hans, and Hans' father's execution being brought up in evidence. The judge urges him to say where he was that night, but Hans refuses, and, despite Frankenstein and Hertz's defences against the accusations, Hans is convicted and executed by guillotine. Seeing this as an opportunity, Frankenstein gets hold of Hans' fresh corpse and traps his soul.

Returning from her visit to the specialist, a distraught Christina arrives in time to witness Hans' death and throws herself in the river. The peasants fish out her body and bring it to Hertz to see if he can do anything. Frankenstein and Hertz transfer Hans' soul into her body. Over months of complex and intensive treatment, they cure her physical deformities. The result is a physically healthy woman with no memory of her past life. Frankenstein insists on telling her nothing but her name and keeping her in Hertz's house. Despite coming to her senses regarding her identity, Christina is taken over by the spirit of the vengeful Hans.

Christina kills Anton and Karl, driven mostly by the ghostly insistence of Hans. Frankenstein and Hertz become suspicious of her behaviour and take her to the guillotine where Hans and his father were executed. However, they believe she subconsciously retains the memories of Hans' father's death rather than of Hans himself. By the time Frankenstein realises the truth, he finds her already murdering Johann. Despite Frankenstein's pleas, Christina knows she now has no one and nothing left to live for and drowns herself again. Frankenstein, disappointed and having apparently learned a lesson, walks away silently.

## Cast[edit]

* Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein
* Susan Denberg as Christina Kleve
* Thorley Walters as Dr. Hertz
* Robert Morris as Hans Werner
* Peter Blythe as Anton
* Derek Fowlds as Johann
* Barry Warren as Karl
* Duncan Lamont as the prisoner (Hans' father)
* Alan MacNaughtan as Kleve
* Peter Madden as Chief of Police
* Philip Ray as mayor
* Ivan Beavis as landlord
* Colin Jeavons as priest
* Bartlett Mullins as bystander
* Alec Mango as spokesman

## Production[edit]

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Frankenstein Created Woman was originally mooted as a follow-up to The Revenge of Frankenstein during its production in 1958, at a time when Roger Vadim's Et Dieu créa la femme (And God Created Woman) (1956) was successful (in fact, the film's original working title was And Then Frankenstein Created Woman). The film finally went into production at Bray Studios on 4 July 1966. It was Hammer's penultimate production there.

## Reception[edit]

### Critical[edit]

Variety wrote that the film has "the excellent technical aspects which have come to be expected of the Hammer Film people," but that the script "often seems overly influenced by other and better-written screen efforts."[4]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "It is thirty-two years since the creative Baron last applied himself to the intricacies of female construction, but this new enterprise in no respect matches James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. It could reasonably be expected from the title that the piéce de résistance would be the creation of the woman, but by an unusual quirk of obstinacy this is the very point in the story that is casually glossed over, and the script is more concerned with the gory murder spree which follows in the wake of Christina's restoration. It is the pre-credits sequence, in fact – the guillotining of Hans' father – which really sets the tone, for of genuine Frankensteiniana there is little beyond the Baron's initial resuscitation. The laboratory paraphernalia is steam-puffing and picturesque, with a nice line in parabolic mesh, but the poverty of the script is little compensation for loss of the old tradition."[5]

Leonard Maltin wrote: "everything goes wrong, including script."[6]

Halliwell's Film and Video Guide describes this film as a crude and gory farrago."[7]

The Time Out Film Guide says it is "full of cloying Keatsian imagery which somehow transcends the more idiotic aspects of the plot."[8]

Martin Scorsese picked the movie as part of a 1987 National Film Theatre season of his favourite films, saying "If I single this one out it's because here they actually isolate the soul... The implied metaphysics are close to something sublime."[9]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 62% of 13 critics' reviews are positive.[10]

### Box office[edit]

According to the records of the Fox studio, the double feature of this film and The Mummy's Shroud (1967) needed to earn $1,625,000 in rentals to break even and made $1,590,000, meaning it made a loss.[11]‘

## Home media[edit]

Frankenstein Created Woman was released in October 2013 in the UK and on 28 January in the US. Each disc featured a restored version of the film, the episodes of "World of Hammer" episodes included on the DVD released by Anchor Bay over a decade before. Among the highlights is an audio commentary with actors Robert Morris and Derek Fowlds, moderated by Hammer expert Jonathan Rigby.

## See also[edit]

* Frankenstein in popular culture
* List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster

## Selected reading[edit]

* Rigby, Jonathan (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-01-3.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes, The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films, Titan Books, 2007 p 79
2. ^ Box office information for Terence Fisher films in France at Box office Story
3. ^ "Frankenstein Created Woman". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
4. ^ "Frankenstein Created Woman". Variety: 6. 15 March 1967.
5. ^ "Frankenstein Created Woman". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 34 (396): 95. 1 January 1967 - via ProQuest.
6. ^ Leonard Maltin Movie Guide 2009, New York and London: Plume, 2008, p.489
7. ^ John Walker (ed) Halliwell's Film and Video Guide 2000, London: HarperCollins, 1999, p.307
8. ^ John Pym (ed) Time Out Film Guide 2009, London: Aurum Press, 2008, p.378
9. ^ Cited in M. Hearn & A. Barnes, The Hammer Story, Titan Books, 1997, ISBN 1-85286-876-7, p.111
10. ^ "Frankenstein Created Woman". Rotten Tomatoes.
11. ^ Silverman, Stephen M (1988). The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. L. Stuart. p. 326. ISBN 9780818404856.

## External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Frankenstein Created Woman.

* Frankenstein Created Woman at IMDb
* Frankenstein Created Woman at AllMovie
* Frankenstein Created Woman at the TCM Movie Database
* Frankenstein Created Woman then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
* Frankenstein Created Woman A review and analysis of the Hammer Studios film

* v
* t
* e

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Characters|

* Frankenstein's monster
* Victor Frankenstein
* Doctor Waldman
* Elizabeth Lavenza

Films|

| Universal series|

* Frankenstein (1931)
* Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
* Son of Frankenstein (1939)
* The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
* Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
* House of Frankenstein (1944)
* House of Dracula (1945)
* Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Characters|

* Igor
* Doctor Septimus Pretorius
* Wolf Frankenstein
* Bride of Frankenstein
* Ludwig Frankenstein

Hammer series|

* The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
* The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
* The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
* Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
* Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
* The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
* Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

Toho series|

* Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965)
* The War of the Gargantuas (1966)

Parodies|

* Mad Monster Party? (1967)
* Mad Mad Mad Monsters (1972)
* Young Frankenstein (1974)
* Frankenstein all'italiana (1975)
* Frankenweenie (1984)
* Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)
* The Monster Squad (1987)
* Frankenhooker (1990)
* Monster Mash (1995)
* Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein (1999)
* Monster Mash (2000)
* Frankenström (2001)
* Frankenthumb (2002)
* Igor (2008)
* The Bride of Gingy (2010)
* Frankenweenie (2012)
* Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy (2014)
* Monster Family (2017)
* Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

| The Munsters|

* Munster, Go Home! (1966)
* The Munsters' Revenge (1981)
* Here Come the Munsters (1995)
* The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas (1996)
* The Munsters (2022)

|

Hotel Transylvania|

* Hotel Transylvania (2012)
* Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)
* Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
* Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)

Others|

* Frankenstein (1910)
* Life Without Soul (1915)
* Il mostro di Frankenstein (1921)
* I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)
* Frankenstein 1970 (1958)
* Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)
* Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965)
* Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)
* Los Monstruos del Terror (1970)
* Lady Frankenstein (1971)
* Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)
* Frankenstein '80 (1972)
* Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
* Blackenstein (1973)
* Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974)
* Frankenstein Legend of Terror (1981)
* Frankenstein Island (1981)
* The Bride (1985)
* Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
* Frankenstein (1992)
* Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
* Van Helsing (2004)
* Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove (2005)
* Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009)
* House of the Wolf Man (2009)
* Frankenstein: Day of the Beast (2011)
* Frankenstein's Army (2013)
* The Frankenstein Theory (2013)
* I, Frankenstein (2014)
* Army of Frankensteins (2014)
* Frankenstein vs. The Mummy (2015)
* Frankenstein (2015)
* Victor Frankenstein (2015)
* The Great Yokai War: Guardians (2021)
* The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)
* The Bride! (2025)
* Frankenstein (TBA)

Television|

* Tales of Frankenstein (1958)
* The Munsters (1964–1966)
* Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles (1966–1968)
* Groovie Goolies (1970-1971)
* Frankenstein (1973)
* Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
* Monster Squad (1976)
* Struck by Lightning (1979)
* The Munsters Today (1988-1991)
* Monster Force (1994)
* House of Frankenstein (1997)
* Frankenstein (2004 TV film)
* Frankenstein (2004 miniseries)
* Frankenstein (2007)
* Mary Shelley's Frankenhole (2010)
* Once Upon a Time
* "The Doctor" (2012)
* "In the Name of the Brother" (2013)
* Penny Dreadful (2014–2016)
* Frankenstein, MD (2014)
* The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015–2017)
* Second Chance (2016)
* Hotel Transylvania: The Series (2017–2020)
* Code:Realize − Guardian of Rebirth (2017)

Stage|

* Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein (1823)
* Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim (1887)
* Frankenstein (1927)
* Fortitude (1968)
* Joined At The Heart (2007)
* Frankenstein – A New Musical (2007)
* Young Frankenstein (2007)
* Frankenstein (2011 play)
* Frankenstein's Wedding (2011 play)

Novels|

* Frankenstein's Aunt (1978)
* Gothic Romance (1984)
* Frankenstein's Aunt Returns (1989)
* Frankenstein's Cat (2001)
* Dean Koontz's Frankenstein
* Prodigal Son (2005)
* City of Night (2005)
* Dead and Alive (2009)
* Lost Souls (2010)
* The Dead Town (2011)
* Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013)

Comics|

* Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein
* Frankenstein (DC Comics)
* Frankenstein (Dell Comics)
* Doc Frankenstein
* Embalming
* Frankenstein's Monster (Marvel Comics)
* Frankenstein (Prize Comics)
* Young Frankenstein

Video games|

* Frankenstein's Monster
* Frankenstein
* Frankenstein: The Monster Returns
* Dr. Franken
* Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
* Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster
* Van Helsing
* Code: Realize

Related|

* Universal Classic Monsters
* Frankenstein in popular culture
* Frankenstein Castle
* Frankenstein Day
* Frankenstein's Promethean dimension
* Johann Konrad Dippel
* Franken-FMs (radio stations)
* Frankenstein complex
* Frankenstrat (guitar)
* "Frankenstein" (1973 single)
* "Dr. Stein" (1988 single)
* Frankenstein (Death Race)

* v
* t
* e

Hammer Horror

Films|

| Quatermass|

* The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
* Quatermass 2 (1957)
* Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

|

Frankenstein|

* The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
* The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
* The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
* Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
* Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
* The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
* Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

Dracula|

* Dracula (1958)
* The Brides of Dracula (1960)
* Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
* Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
* Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
* Scars of Dracula (1970)
* Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
* The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
* The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

The Mummy|

* The Mummy (1959)
* The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)
* The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
* Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)

Jekyll & Hyde|

* The Ugly Duckling (1959)
* The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
* Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
* Doctor Jekyll (2023)

She|

* She (1965)
* The Vengeance of She (1968)

Cave Girl|

* One Million Years B.C. (1966)
* Prehistoric Women (1967)
* When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
* Creatures the World Forgot (1971)

The Karnstein Trilogy|

* The Vampire Lovers (1970)
* Lust for a Vampire (1971)
* Twins of Evil (1971)

The Woman in Black|

* The Woman in Black (2012)
* Angel of Death (2014)

Other films|

* X the Unknown (1956)
* The Abominable Snowman (1957)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
* The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
* The Stranglers of Bombay (1959)
* The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
* The Shadow of the Cat (1961)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
* The Damned (1963)
* Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
* The Old Dark House (1963)
* The Gorgon (1964)
* Nightmare (1964)
* Fanatic (1965)
* The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
* Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966)
* The Reptile (1966)
* The Witches (1966)
* The Devil Rides Out (1968)
* Crescendo (1970)
* Countess Dracula (1971)
* Hands of the Ripper (1971)
* Vampire Circus (1972)
* Fear in the Night (1972)
* Demons of the Mind (1972)
* Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974)
* To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
* Beyond the Rave (2008)
* Wake Wood (2009)
* Let Me In (2010)
* The Resident (2011)
* The Quiet Ones (2014)
* The Lodge (2019)

Television|

* Journey to the Unknown
* Hammer House of Horror
* Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense

Category

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Terence Fisher

* A Song for Tomorrow (1948)
* Colonel Bogey (1948)
* To the Public Danger (1948)
* Portrait from Life (1948)
* Marry Me! (1949)
* The Astonished Heart (1950)
* So Long at the Fair (1950)
* Home to Danger (1951)
* The Last Page (1952)
* Wings of Danger (1952)
* Stolen Face (1952)
* Distant Trumpet (1952)
* Mantrap (1953)
* Four Sided Triangle (1953)
* Spaceways (1953)
* Blood Orange (1953)
* Face the Music (1954)
* Murder by Proxy (1954)
* A Stranger Came Home (1954)
* Final Appointment (1954)
* Mask of Dust (1954)
* Children Galore (1955)
* Stolen Assignment (1955)
* The Flaw (1955)
* The Gelignite Gang (1956)
* The Last Man to Hang (1956)
* Kill Me Tomorrow (1957)
* The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
* Dracula (1958)
* The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
* The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
* The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
* The Mummy (1959)
* The Stranglers of Bombay (1960)
* The Brides of Dracula (1960)
* The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
* Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)
* The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
* The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
* The Horror of It All (1963)
* The Gorgon (1964)
* The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
* Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
* Island of Terror (1966)
* Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
* Night of the Big Heat (1967)
* The Devil Rides Out (1968)
* Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
* Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)

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