As this was made at the height of Hammer's power with their best director and one of their best stars, a review would almost be superfluous.
Dr. Otto Heidecke (Jim Collier) is walking home one late night when a disfigured figure jumps him, sickle and hatbox at the ready. The sickle takes the doctor's life and the hatbox takes his head. The figure skulks back towards a ruined mansion where a burglar (Harold Goodwin) has made the worse choice for his trade. The burglar barely escapes the man, who then pulls off his face to reveal the familiar visage of Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing). The Baron trashes his lab before his escapes into the countryside, Inspector Frisch (Thorley Walters) hot on his heels.
The next we see of the Baron, he's checking into a boardinghouse under the name of Mr. Fenner. His landlady, Anna (Veronica Carlson), has a few issues. Her mother has been committed to a rather pricey sanatorium. Her boyfriend, Dr. Karl Holst (Simon Ward) is helping her the best he can. He works as the pharmacist in the nearby Holberg Asylum, mostly so he can steal the best drugs from the hospital's supply and sell them, with the profits going to Anna. It's a good deal, but the Baron figures it out within a few days and soon he has two new assistants.
Oh, Frankenstein is going to be going to be up to his old tricks of course, but there is a twist. One of the Holberg Asylum's more infamous residents is Dr. Brandt (George Pravada), a former colleague of Frankenstein who worked more in brains. Brandt actually managed to beat a problem that has been stumping Frankenstein, namely being able to preserve and transplant a human brain. He's also utterly mad. So, Frankenstein figures to smuggle the mad doctor out, operate to make him sane, and then carry on with the mad science.
A few snags happen though; while Brandt's brain is cracked, his heart isn't much better. It gives out mid-escape, thus needing the unwilling volunteering of Professor Richter (Freddie Jones), plus Holst ends up killing a night watchman during their raiding of the medical supply warehouse. Frisch is on the case, though, and he has the aide of Mrs. Brandt (Maxine Audley), who has the advantage of knowing what Frankenstein looks like.
Plus we have the latest Monster, who remember has the brain of a madman. With the police drawing their net closer, the tension between the Baron and his unwilling aides, and the Monster being the Monster, things are building towards a massive explosive conclusion.
Utterly black hearted and more of a giallo influence, Cushing's Baron goes from bad to a total bastard here. The abuse Anna suffers at the hands of Frankenstein is a cruel and ugly thing, which shows how terrible her plight is. You have two characters who are utterly lost and at the hands of a man with nothing to lose. Harrowing stuff.
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