Frankenstein doesn’t really create a woman nor does he create a “Bride of Frankenstein”. What the good doctor does do is something much more twisted.
This time out Dr. Frankenstein (Cushing) is interested something more than just resurrecting corpses, he’s looking into the human soul.
The movie starts with a young Hans witnessing his father get guillotined. The story then moves forward, Hans (Robert Morris) is a young man and he’s been working as an assistant to Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters). Hertz is the town’s local doctor but he’s been helping Frankenstein with his experiments on capturing and transferring the human soul. Hertz also acts as Frankenstein’s hands as his were previous crippled.
Hans goes to the local pub to spend time with his crippled/disfigured girlfriend Christina (Susan Denberg). Some rich local bullies harass Christina and refuse to pay their bar tab. Hans gets into a fight with them and gets kicked out of the bar. The bullies do too and they return to steal wine. They get caught by the bar owner and murder him. Hans is arrested for the murder and despite Frankenstein testifying on his behalf, Hans is convicted and executed for the crime. Christina is so distraught that she commits suicide by drowning. For Frankenstein this all too perfect.
First Frankenstein and Hertz capture Hans’ soul. Then they fix and resurrect Christina. They do some amazing plastic surgery for the 19th century and give her blond hair. Then they put Hans’ soul into her body. She doesn’t remember anything and Frankenstein refuses to tell her who she is. Soon Hans’ voice is telling her what to do, kill the rich bullies.
This is a weird twisted experiment. Christina still has her brain but she doesn’t remember anything from her past life. Hans’ soul is in her and he remembers those he wronged him so I’m not sure if it’s Hans (he seems to be running the show) or Christina or a weird combination of both. The end result is another failed experiment for Dr. Frankenstein in his search for perfection and immortality. The movie definitely isn’t what you’d expect and Cushing carries the movie like always. There is some interesting ideas presented but nothing is really resolved. The end result is an strange entertaining movie.
