Ralph Bates is no substitute for Peter Cushing in this feeble attempt by Hammer to remake its classic The Curse of Frankenstein. He overplays the good/bad doctor as ridiculously evil in this throwaway comic variation on the well-worn theme. David Prowse (the Green Cross Code man and Darth Vader's body in the first Star Wars trilogy) is also a poor replacement for sympathetic Christopher Lee as the Monster. Writer/director Jimmy Sangster displays little subtlety, accenting instead the black humour in a very lowbrow entry, even considering the poor quality of Hammer's dated 1970s output. Sangster wrote many early Hammer classics and the biggest shock here is his apparent lack of feeling for the genre.

Young Victor Frankenstein returns from medical school with a depraved taste for beautiful women and fiendish experiments.