THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) Because life, as they say, goes on What can I say on a day like this, in a week like this? It's not very often that we get a hands-down winner for the "most horrible thing we've ever seen" sweepstakes, and the unspeakable attacks on the United States have left some of us shaken, some of us stirred, and most of us wondering, for a little while anyway, how anything can possibly ever be the same. Pulled out of bed in the morning by my roommate, I looked at the TV and saw the two most recognizable buildings in the world smoking like lit cigarettes stood on end. When I'd gone to be the night before, I was wondering how I was going to get Lacuna Coil's "Stars" out of my head. I woke up in a world with bigger concerns. News about just what had happened seemed at the time to come so slowly. At one point, not knowing just how big the planes were, we discussed the possibility of repair, since a similar incident once happened to the still-standing Empire State Building. And then they came down. No point in describing how I felt, since a lot of you out there probably felt the same thing. But for a while, it's fair to say, that the people who did this won, because I seriously wondered how after something like this, we were ever supposed to feel safe again, be merry again, or smile again. I've always called country music "the music of whining about superficial shit", and in the face of something like this, everything becomes superficial shit. All my beloved horror flicks and heavy metal albums became one with country music. I couldn't watch movies, write, look around on the internet, read a book, listen to music, play music, any of it for even five minutes without having to turn on the TV and find out what happens next. I wondered how life would be the same. I wondered how music and movies would be the same. I wondered what would happen to that Spider-Man trailer. I wondered about the handful of people I know who live within five hundred miles of New York. I wondered how long it's going to take that corpse-fucking piece of fat hillbilly dogshit Garth Brooks to make a video composed of crash/collapse footage. I wondered how many middle-east governments are still going to be around in five years. I wondered how things might be if my parents were still living in an Islamic county, as they'd been for much of the 90's. I wondered if this would affect the Nevermore tour coming through here in October. I wondered if Bush was up to the job (I still wonder). I wondered if Chretien is going to continue to do absolutely nothing but talk out of his ass and still get re-elected in a landslide. I wondered how my family's handling this. I wondered if I was a hypocrite for finding inappropriate the half-mast lowering of Canadian flags in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. I wondered how long it's going to take before some crass hack like Michael Bay makes a movie out of this one, and which presently-existing movies that prominently feature the World Trade Center (often being destroyed) will be re-edited. I wondered if and when and how they'll be rebuilt. I wondered if this would make us better people because of what we've seen this week...or how many of us are made worse. Oh, how I longed for the days when the most horrible thing we expected to see were sullen teenagers in trenchcoats. But life goes on. And nobody can sit around wondering about these things forever. By Thursday, I was so fucking desperate for some mirth that I caught some of Tommy Boy on TV and laughed like it was the funniest goddamn thing I'd ever seen, and since I've seen it before in less disturbing times, I know better. Buildings crumble, people die by the thousands, and with the exception of a handful of fanatics, the world mourns. And figures out that life has to go on. New York certainly seems to be figuring that out; the TV can't go on for five minutes without bringing a tear to my eye about how much superficial shit they've stopped worrying about for now to concentrate on the things that matter. Frightening and disturbing as this week has been, once the initial shock is over (I jumped out of my skin every time a bird flew past behind a newscaster with the NYC skyline as a backdrop), I find myself no more afraid to get on an airplane than I was a week ago, no more afraid to get into a skyscraper, no more afraid to live life and be happy and love my loved ones. And, of course, watch movies and write reviews. So...The Revenge Of Frankenstein. The second of Hammer's Frankenstein flicks, this one brings back Peter Cushing as everybody's favorite treader into areas where mankind was not meant to tread, but not, alas, Christopher Lee and his previously unknown to me skills in mime. The Revenge Of Frankenstein opens with a shot of a raised guillotine, harkening back of course to the closing shot of the original film. As we find out in good time, Dr. Frankenstein manages to escape his fate (the details are quite sketchy) by striking a deal with a cripple (Oscar Quitak) - get me out of here, and I'll put your brain in a new, healthy body. And indeed, Dr. Frankenstein (now going under the assumed name of Dr. Stein) has a new, healthy body lined up, which doesn't look like a freak. It's almost a gimme that this isn't going to work out, but he has even more problems. Dr. Stein's medical practice in Germany rapidly becomes the most popular one in town; so much that he raises the ire of the local Medical Council, who is not only irked at him because of that, but because he refuses to join. (great moment where they first approach him, with his semi-sarcastic, awesomely icy reply to their president's introduction: "I am the president of the Medical Council." [not even looking up from what he's doing] "Congratulations.") One member of the council (Francis Matthews) thinks he knows who Dr. Stein really is...but he doesn't want to blow the whistle, he wants to learn. Dr. Frankenstein's scientific theories are, again, rather suspect; in the last movie, he claimed that goodness and wisdom would make for attractive facial features. Here, he says that the brain has no part of reflex and involuntary action. An utterly ridiculous scene with eyes floating in a jar is used to demonstrate this; it's still kinda freaky, though. As was the case in the last movie, it seems like any line which actually features the word "brain" becomes involuntarily hilarious, like "Dr. Stein is welcome to my brain!" (okay, maybe that one was intentional) Unlike last time, they actually show the brain here. Similar to the first film, things don't work out as planned, and maybe predictably so; while Dr. Stein was under rather difficult circumstances when he lined up this brain, it's yet another obvious hurdle for him to easily overcome when he tries this again in one of the following sequels. Cushing is excellent from beginning til end, usually not quite as icy as last time, and consistently displaying a calm control even under duress, making him seem less villainous, but too distant to be genuinely sympathetic, and yet always fascinating to watch and listen to. The character thinks well on his feet and cooly deals with his mounting problems with a charismatic reserve you don't often get from movie mad scientists. The rest of the cast doesn't distinguish themselves too much next to his performance (I like him here more than in the original film), but they're all good. The Revenge Of Frankenstein is a lot of fun most of the way through, though it does slow down once the new creature wakes up and busts loose. This one is not only less of a "monster" in appearance, but in behavior as well - it's almost a gimme that it's gonna kill somebody, but this time, it's out of defense, so who can blame it? Highly recommended? Oh yeah. I had more fun with this one than with the original. Written and directed by Sangster and Fisher, with "additional dialogue" by Hurford Janes and some uncredited work from George Baxt. BACK TO THE R's BACK TO THE MAIN PAGE