Lent Day 31 "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" is Cushing's Baron Grand Finale

Having played Baron Frankenstein for 16 years, Peter Cushing said "goodbye" to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's creation. It was an interesting character evolution, with a roller coaster ride of villainy and madness. The character is now 16 years older since the events of "The Curse of Frankenstein." The consequences of his previous actions have crippled the doctor and the characater has become a bit dotty, yet Frankenstein's obsession is still strong. The fact that Baron Frankenstein finds haven in a mental institution reveal Hammer production's tongue-in-cheek approach.

An era of screen horror ended in the early seventies, as blothe Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee-Vincent Price form of gothic horror gave way to the blockbusters of "The Exorcist" and "Jaws." However Cushing would reboot his career with "Star Wars" as Grand Moff Tarkin, who must have had some DNA with Baron Frankenstein. Like Frankenstein and his Monsters, Tarkin held the lease of Darth Vader, played by David Prowse who portrayed "the Monster from Hell."



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