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{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}

{{Infobox film
| name           = Frankenstein Created Woman
| image          = Frankcreatedwoman.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Terence Fisher]]
| producer       = [[Anthony Nelson Keys]]
| screenplay     = [[Anthony Hinds|John Elder]]
| based_on       = {{based on|[[Victor Frankenstein]]|[[Mary Shelley]]}}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Peter Cushing]]
* [[Susan Denberg]]
* [[Thorley Walters]]
}}
| music          = [[James Bernard (composer)|James Bernard]]
| cinematography = [[Arthur Grant (cinematographer)|Arthur Grant]]
| editing        = Spencer Reeve
| studio         = [[Hammer Film Productions]]
| distributor    = [[Warner-Pathé]] (UK) <br>[[20th Century-Fox]] (US)
| released       = {{Film date|1967|03|15|US|1967|06|18|UK|df=y}}
| runtime        = 86 minutes {{small|(UK)}}<br>92 minutes {{small|(US)}}
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| budget         = £140,000<ref name="hearn">Marcus Hearn & Alan Barnes, ''The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films'', Titan Books, 2007 p 79</ref>
| gross          = 457,019 admissions (France)<ref>[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boxofficestory.com%2Fbox-office-alain-delon-c22669761%2F39&sandbox=1 Box office information for Terence Fisher films in France] at Box office Story</ref>
}}
'''''Frankenstein Created Woman''''' is a 1967 British [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer horror]] film directed by [[Terence Fisher]] and starring [[Peter Cushing]] and [[Susan Denberg]].<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=Frankenstein Created Woman |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150041248 |access-date=19 June 2024 |publisher=British Film Institute }}</ref> The screenplay was written by [[Anthony Hinds]] (as John Elder). It is the fourth film in [[Frankenstein (Hammer film series)|Hammer's ''Frankenstein'' series]].

==Plot summary==
Years after witnessing his father being [[executed]] by [[guillotine]], Hans Werner is working as an assistant to Dr [[Victor Frankenstein]], who survived the destruction of his [[castle]] in the last film. Victor, with the help of Dr Hertz, is in the process of discovering a way of trapping the [[soul]] of a recently deceased person. Victor believes he can transfer that soul into another recently deceased body to restore it to life.

Hans is also the lover of [[Bride of Frankenstein (character)|Christina Kleve]], daughter of [[cowardly]] [[innkeeper]] Kleve, whose entire left side is disfigured and partly paralysed. Young [[dandy|dandies]] Anton, Johann and Karl frequent Kleve's inn and cause a disturbance. Johann threatens to have his father revoke Kleve's licence, if he complains. The three insist that they be served by Christina and mock her for her deformities. The taunting angers Hans, who fights the three of them and cuts Anton's face with a [[knife]]. Kleve runs away and fetches the [[police]]. Hans tells the police to keep away, that the other three are only getting what they deserve, but the police grab hold of him and Kleve takes the knife from his hand; Hans angrily threatens him. Asked if he wants to press charges, Kleve says no. Anton wants Hans charged, but when the policeman suggests that a fight with three men against one will not look good in court, he relents. Eventually, the dandies leave the inn. They return in the night to steal [[wine]] and when Kleve catches them in the act, they beat him to death.

Meanwhile, Hans spends the night with Christina, and, in the morning, watches her leave on the stagecoach to visit another doctor her father has paid, to find out if there is a treatment to help her. Returning to town, he sees a crowd outside Kleve's tavern and when he asks what has happened, the crowd looks at him accusingly. Since the [[overcoat]] Dr Hertz had given him is found by the body, and the police heard him angrily threaten Kleve the night before, Hans is immediately a suspect in the murder and is arrested. He would not reveal his time with Christina as an [[alibi]] and, known for his short temper, is [[Criminal procedure|tried]]. The trial is a farce, with Anton testifying against Hans, and Hans's father's execution being brought up in evidence. The [[judge]] urges him to say where he was that night, but Hans refuses, and, despite Victor and Hertz's defences against the accusations, Hans is convicted and executed. Seeing this as an opportunity, Victor gets hold of Hans's fresh corpse and traps his soul.

Returning from her visit to the specialist, a distraught Christina arrives in time to witness Hans's death and [[Suicide|throws herself]] in the [[river]]. The peasants fish out her body and bring it to Hertz to see if he can do anything. Victor and Hertz transfer Hans's soul into her body. Over months of complex and intensive treatment, they cure her physical deformities. The result is a physically healthy woman with no memory of her past life. Victor insists on telling her nothing but her name, and keeping her in Hertz's house. Despite coming to her senses regarding her identity, Christina is taken over by the spirit of the vengeful Hans.

Christina kills Anton and Karl, driven mostly by the ghostly insistence of Hans. Victor and Hertz become suspicious of her behaviour and take her to the guillotine, where Hans and his father were executed. However, they believe she subconsciously retains the memories of Hans's father's death rather than of Hans himself. By the time Victor realises the truth, he finds her already murdering Johann. Despite Victor's pleas, Christina knows she, now, has no one and nothing left to live for, and drowns herself again. Victor, disappointed, and having apparently learned a lesson, walks away silently.

==Cast==
{{cast listing|
* [[Peter Cushing]] as [[Victor Frankenstein|Baron Victor Frankenstein]]
* [[Susan Denberg]] as [[Bride of Frankenstein (character)|Christina Kleve]]
* [[Thorley Walters]] as Dr. Hertz
* [[Robert Morris (actor)|Robert Morris]] as Hans Werner
* [[Peter Blythe]] as Anton
* [[Derek Fowlds]] as Johann
* [[Barry Warren]] as Karl
* [[Duncan Lamont]] as Werner
* [[Alan MacNaughtan]] as Kleve
* [[Peter Madden (actor)|Peter Madden]] as Chief of Police
* [[Philip Ray]] as Mayor
* [[Ivan Beavis]] as Landlord
* [[Colin Jeavons]] as Priest
* [[Bartlett Mullins]] as Bystander
* [[Alec Mango]] as Spokesman
}}

==Production==
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2024}}
''Frankenstein Created Woman'' was originally mooted as a follow-up to ''[[The Revenge of Frankenstein]]'' during its production in 1958, at a time when [[Roger Vadim]]'s ''Et Dieu créa la femme'' (''[[And God Created Woman (1956 film)|And God Created Woman]]'') (1956) was successful (the film's original working title was ''And Then Frankenstein Created Woman''). The film finally went into production at [[Bray Studios (UK)|Bray Studios]] on 4 July 1966. It was [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer]]'s penultimate production there.

==Reception==

=== Critical ===
''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote that the film has "the excellent technical aspects which have come to be expected of the Hammer Film people," but that the script "often seems overly influenced by other and better-written screen efforts."<ref>{{cite journal |date=15 March 1967 |title=Frankenstein Created Woman |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=6 }}</ref>

''[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]]'' wrote: "It is thirty-two years since the creative [[Victor Frankenstein|Baron]] last applied himself to the intricacies of female construction, but this new enterprise in no respect matches [[James Whale]]'s ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]''. It could reasonably be expected from the title that the pièce de résistance would be the creation of [[Bride of Frankenstein (character)|the woman]], but by an unusual quirk of obstinacy this is the very point in the story that is casually glossed over, and the script is more concerned with the gory murder spree which follows in the wake of Christina's restoration. It is the pre-credits sequence, in fact – the guillotining of Hans's father – which really sets the tone, for of genuine ''Frankenstein''iana there is little beyond the Baron's initial resuscitation. The laboratory paraphernalia is steam-puffing and picturesque, with a nice line in parabolic mesh, but the poverty of the script is little compensation for loss of the old tradition."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1967 |title=Frankenstein Created Woman |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305834539 |journal=[[The Monthly Film Bulletin]] |volume=34 |issue=396 |pages=95 |id={{ProQuest|1305834539}} }}</ref>

[[Leonard Maltin]] wrote: "Everything goes wrong, including script."<ref>Leonard Maltin ''Movie Guide 2009'', New York and London: Plume, 2008, p. 489</ref> [[Leslie Halliwell]] said: "Crude and gory farrago, with the central laboratory sequence apparently excised at the last moment."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0586088946 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=375}}</ref> ''The [[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]] Film Guide'' says it is "full of cloying [[John Keats|Keatsian]] imagery which somehow transcends the more idiotic aspects of the plot."<ref>John Pym (ed) ''Time Out Film Guide 2009'', London: Aurum Press, 2008, p. 378</ref> ''The [[Radio Times]] Guide to Films'' gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This sequel to 1964's ''[[The Evil of Frankenstein|Evil of Frankenstein]]'' is considered by Hammer aficionados to be the best ''[[Frankenstein (Hammer film series)|Frankenstein]]'' made by the House of Horror.&nbsp;... [[Terence Fisher]]'s neat balance of psychological horror and murky sexuality makes this a fine addition to the genre."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=[[Immediate Media Company]] |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=342}}</ref>

[[Martin Scorsese]] picked the movie as part of a 1987 [[BFI Southbank|National Film Theatre]] season of his favourite films, saying "If I single this one out it's because here they actually isolate the [[soul]]... The implied [[metaphysics]] are close to something sublime."<ref>Cited in M. Hearn & A. Barnes, ''The Hammer Story'', Titan Books, 1997, {{ISBN|1-85286-876-7}}, p. 111</ref> {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|62||13}}<ref name="tomatoes">{{cite web |title=Frankenstein Created Woman |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frankenstein_created_woman |publisher=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] }}</ref>

===Box office===
According to the records of the Fox studio, the [[double feature]] of this film and ''[[The Mummy's Shroud]]'' (1967) needed to earn $1,625,000 in rentals to break even and made $1,590,000, meaning it made a loss.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/foxthatgotawayt00silv/page/326 326]|title=The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox|url=https://archive.org/details/foxthatgotawayt00silv|url-access=registration|last=Silverman|first=Stephen M|year=1988|publisher=L. Stuart|isbn=9780818404856 }}</ref>'

==Home media==
[[Anchor Bay Entertainment]] released ''Frankenstein Created Woman'' on DVD in July 25, 2000.

''Frankenstein Created Woman'' was released on Blu-ray in October 2013 in the UK and on 28 January in the US. Each disc featured a restored version of the film NS the episodes of ''[[The World of Hammer]]'' included on the DVD released by [[Anchor Bay Entertainment|Anchor Bay]] over a decade before. Among the highlights is an audio commentary with actors [[Robert Morris (actor)|Robert Morris]] and [[Derek Fowlds]], moderated by Hammer expert [[Jonathan Rigby]].

==See also==
* [[Frankenstein in popular culture|''Frankenstein'' in popular culture]]
* [[List of films featuring Frankenstein's monster]]
* [[Frankenstein (Hammer film series)]]
* [[Hammer filmography]]

==Selected reading==
* {{cite book|author=Rigby, Jonathan|title=English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema|publisher=Reynolds & Hearn Ltd|year=2000|isbn=1-903111-01-3}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

* {{IMDb title|0061683}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=75590}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060620155629/http://www.eeweems.com/cinemagraphe/frank_woman.html Frankenstein Created Woman] A review and analysis of the Hammer Studios film

{{Frankenstein}}
{{Hammer Horror}}
{{Terence Fisher}}

[[Category:1967 films]]
[[Category:1967 horror films]]
[[Category:1960s science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:British science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:Frankenstein (Hammer film series)]]
[[Category:Hammer Film Productions horror films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Terence Fisher]]
[[Category:Films scored by James Bernard]]
[[Category:Films set in Europe]]
[[Category:20th Century Fox films]]
[[Category:1967 English-language films]]
[[Category:1967 British films]]
[[Category:English-language science fiction horror films]]
[[Category:1967 science fiction films]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Frankenstein Created Woman|access_date=2026-03-03}}