The fifth of seven Hammer Frankenstein films, this iteration blends in strains of both Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes, the former finding his malevolent equal in Peter Cushing’s Dr. Frankenstein. With a bloodthirst that is now clinical and routine, Frankenstein blackmails a young doctor and his lover into servitude as he searches for a former collaborator to be his next revolutionary experiment. The angst of the couple’s bind serves as the backbone of a plot riddled with psychological torment: the small indiscretion that leads to a deal with the devil; the droll detectives who are always one step away from catching their prey; and a maniac easily camouflaging his psychosis behind an educated, aristocratic mask, then forcing others to do his dark bidding. Compared to surgeries of earlier films, the transformation in this one is clean and straightforward; it is ghastly not for its monstrosity but its cruel and uncanny incongruity.