House On Bare Mountain (1962) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 13, 1964

I have yet to see this nudie-cutie, and probably won't, but if I were ever to subject myself to one it would be this one. Because... it features a bunch of familiar and beloved monsters.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - February 11, 1970

Considering the amount of pre-release tampering that is alleged to have been done on Frankenstein Must De Destroyed, I was surprised to read that, when asked which of his own films were his favorites, Terence Fisher (in an interview in Vol. 4, Issue 3 of Cinefantastique magazine) said this was one of them. That, of all his films, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed was the one he most enjoyed making.

As far as that supposed tampering goes, I heard there was a "last minute" decision it "spice up" the film with a sexual assault that, according to an interview with Veronica Carlson that appeared in (I think) Fangoria magazine, had both Cushing and Fisher apologizing to the actress throughout the filming of the scene.

Another ill-advised "last minute" inclusion was the comedic investigating carried on by Inspector Frisch (Thorley Walters). One could excise both the assault and Frisch scenes from the film and be left with a tighter, leaner, and far better paced movie, I think.

My favorite hammer Frankenstein's remain The Revenge of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Created Woman.

Double-billed with Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, the middle section of Hammer Film's trilogy of direct sequels to [Horror of] Dracula. While an interesting and entertaining enough follow up to Dracula Prince of Darkness, picking up more or less where that film ended, and leading directly into Taste the Blood of Dracula, I have to say that I prefer and enjoy both Prince and Taste a great deal more than Grave.

It is not bad, I just find it a tad slow and, because of that, it has tested of my patience at times. Other times, not so much.

Creature Features: The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) - Promo

San Francisco Examiner - January 6, 1974

The San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle's Sunday TV Week supplement had this modest promo for an episode of Creature Features featuring Hammer Film's third Frankenstein movie, 1964's The Evil of Frankenstein. This would be one of two entries in the famed company's series of Frankenstein films the was not directed by Terence Fisher. Nope, this one was helmed by Freddie Francis. The other would by the 1970 Jimmy Sangster helmed horror-comedy The Horror of Frankenstein.

This episode aired on Saturday, January 12, 1974 and, being all six or seven years old, I would not have been allowed to stay up and watch it. So it goes.

Young Frankenstein (1974) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - December 19, 1974

1974 saw an amazing one-two punch from Mel Brooks. The first half of the year saw the release of his Western Genre parody Blazing Saddles, while the end of that very same year had his Universal Monster parody Young Frankenstein getting placed under the Christmas tree.

While Young Frankenstein drew inspiration from the first three Universal Frankenstein movies, Son of Frankenstein was the one it 'borrowed from' the most.

Frankenstein 3D [Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)] - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - October 7, 1982

Paul Morrissey's over-the-top and pitch black comedic take on the Frankenstein story got a re-release when 3D made a brief comeback in the early 1980s. I have only seen it on video, but if the opportunity to see it in all of its 3D grisly glory on the big screen, I would take it.

"To know death, Otto, you have to fuck life... in the gall bladder!"

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) / X the Unknown (1956) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1957]

John McCarty, in his seminal book Splatter Movies Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, shared how his "young, monster-movie addicted eyes were quick to spot a series of starkly lettered handbills that had been tacked to the trees and telephone poles." [Splatter Movies, Pg. 16]

Those handbills were hyping the imminent release of today's subject du jour, a double-bill of two terrific, top tier Hammer Film productions: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and X the Unknown (1956).

Going in order of production, 1956's X the Unknown, the 'B' feature of this double-bill, began as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment,  a moneymaker for the company. Only there was one small detail Hammer Film had not factored into the equation. Screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who had created the character of Bernard Quatermass and retained the rights, refused to have his creation appear in anything that he himself had not written. 

Even with any and all marketable connections and/references to The Quatermass Xperiment excised, X the Unknown is able to stand on its own as a cracking good monster movie. 

First-time screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, having penned a sturdy and reliable script for X the Unknown, was then entrusted with scripting Hammer Film's first color film, 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein. 

Curse took a very different approach than the 1931 Universal film and its sequels, for reasons that were both legal and artistic. In this film Baron Victor Frankenstein turns out to be every bit as dangerous and deadly monster as his witless creation.

Audiences ate it up and Hammer Film, seeing that it had struck gold, proceeded to mine the Gothic Horror genre for every penny it could uncover.

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune- February 12, 1970]

The Solano Drive-In still exists and is open for business. I saw Tenet (2020) there, back when drive-ins were getting a pandemic fueled boost in business.

Frankenstein (1931) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - December 3, 1931]

The success of Dracula set the stage for the taking of this risky second venture into gothic horror. With Dracula, at least, there was the proven success of the stage production it was adapting to point at and assuage the concerns of dubious investors.

That was not the case with Frankenstein, though. This was a big swing gamble that had more than a few people at Universal Studios questioning the commercial instincts of Carl Laemmle Jr., the 23-year-old head of production.

Laemmle's instincts proved correct, though. Frankenstein was another smash hit for the studio and, coupled with Dracula, opened the creative doors, so that other monsters would be able to shamble out of the shadows and up onto the big screen.