Largely decent Hammer Horror because it lets Peter Cushing do anything and everything and he delivers one of his most commanding performances, with intelligence, charisma and a small bit of knowing comedy. If only the rest of the cast could match him. What does compliment his performance are the sets, depicting an Old English aesthetic badly in need of a refresh, all abandoned mansions and asylums.
The film avoids retreading a lot of old, familiar Frankenstein ground, boiling the legend down to its bare thematic essentials and then letting Cushing get to it. There’s also a terribly out of place rape scene. It comes out of nowhere and has no lasting effect on any of the characters, because it was added later against the wishes of the filmmakers. Wonderfully gothic finale that I wish was longer.
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