dvd review story As the film played in cinemas Jimmy Sangster penned the sequel Blood of Frankenstein (as Revenge was originally titled). A fast and twisted tale, laced with a black humour, and continuing the story of the misguided surgeon, Sangster says that he based it around the one thing he found the most horrifying - cannibalism. Its an odd subject matter, which is never really explicitly gone into, though as a back-story is admirable. The style is faster and tighter than Terence Fisher's classic Curse. Carrying on straight from where the original left off (with Victor apparantly decapitated at the hands of the guillotine), the narrative follows body snatching, brain transfer, tissue rejection, and horror as well as a token love story between Francis Matthew's (later the voice of Captain Scarlet) and Eunice Gayson. Fritz in the form of Oscar Quitak is a pathetic creature for whom we have the utmost sympathy. With his transition to Michael Gwynn, we suspend disbelief, and watch him rapidly turn from a dashing soft-spoken man into a parody of his former self, with some nastiness on the side. Cushing shines as Dr Stein, a man maskarading under a false pretence. With the best intentions in the world, Stein cannot help but get carried away by his projects, and fail to see the disaster unfolding itself before him. His arrogance is crumbled only briefly when Francis Matthew's character works out his real identity. The love story aside is merely an aside - it gives spur to the ascent of the monster, and provides morality crisis, but little more. Perhaps the best moments are the comic asides. Cushing is adept not only with naturalistic dealing with props, but also the gentle look, the silent moment where the laugh goes his way -such as the first scene with the patient and her mother in his private surgery. The most obvious scene played for laughs is the great gravedigging pair of Lionel Jeffries and Hammer veteran, the late Michael Ripper. There is nothing to fault with the look, pace and direction of the film either. This is stylish gothic at its best. Terence Fisher keeps the pace steady, moving with the action, and coaxing superlative performances from all his actors. Combined with Jack Asher's photography and Bernard Robinson's fantastic set design, all done to a swelling score, and one has a great film. The laboratory sets are encapsulating also, with great play made of Franknestein's experiments with tissue and limbs in glass jars. Faced with the excess of today, Revenge holds its own as stylish, well crafted and intelligently constructed. transfer For those with the UK video release by Columbia Tristar (I presume it was the same in the US), this dvd is a revelation and reason enough to throw away your old cassette. A stunning example, until recently I didn't think it would be possible to ever see this one in such good shape. The print is very sharp, with vibrant colour, and a great sense of depth to the rooms and the framings. Although there is some dirt, this is minimal, (most obvious in the opening and closing scenes) and overall the quality of the picture is stunning. The film is also presented in an anamorphic 1.66:1 widescreen, preserving the original aspect ratio as best as possible. On closer examination comparing it to both the old CTHE video I have, and a slightly newer fullscreen print which has been playing on UK tv of late (and which is very close in framing to the CTHE video), I find that a small amount of information from the top and the bottom (especially) has been lost compared to the full frame video. I suspect that the video version was based on an open-matt (ie, without the black bars in place, ususally there when the film is readied for the cinema ratios), as there is substantially more information to the left and right of the frame. Hopefully, this is as close to the original cinema aspect as possible. The anamorphic enhanced aspect though, does crop the top and bottom a little further.
The sound has transferred well also. It is clear and defined, in its digitally entrusted mono glory.
extras Theatrical Trailers Photo Gallery A selection of eleven publicity photographs from the film, portraits of the stars, and action shots. A little thin on the ground which is a shame, but an excellent addition to the package. Its when it gets to this stage of including photos as well as trailers on a bare-bones disc that they start to irk me by not putting more in. A silly quibble. The restoration and high-definition prints of the films, are often more than enough to really calm my hunger. After all, most of us don't have time to sift through endless extras. Subtitles Removable subtitles are available in either English or French. SUMMARY RJES |
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