**** out of 5
The final Frankenstein tale from Hammer Studios, this film has the doctor (Peter Cushing, as usual) up to his old tricks, this time using his imprisonment in an insane asylum to his advantage, taking 2 fellow inmates as his apprentices, and the rest as a used body parts supply. The creature he constructs (portrayed by David Prowse, who later shared screen time with Peter Cushing in a little film called Star Wars, in which he provided the imposing physical appearance of a fellow they called Darth Vader) in this film is an excellent balance of tragedy and terror, a misshapen mass of mis-matched parts with the brain of a musical and mathematical genius trapped within.
On a side note, the keeper of the asylum seems very reminiscent of the eminent Dr. Caligari, as depicted in that early silent horror that bears his name.
This film ends up being a quite suitable conclusion to Hammer's Frankenstein series, leaving the doctor exactly where he ought to be left.
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