Rating: 2.5/5
Hoop-Tober | 11/31 | Terence Fisher 1/5
Paris 1890
On a foggy night, a shadowy figure accosts a man, knocking him unconscious. The shadowy figure produces surgical tools. He performs his work in silence and slips away before anyone notices.
Meanwhile, Dr. Georges Bonnet hosts an elegant party to unveil his most recent sculpture. When a servant tells him the time, Bonnet ends the party, sending everyone home.
Margo, the sculpture’s model, stays behind, unbeknownst to Bonnet. She approaches him to ensure they will see each other again. But she witnesses Bonnet’s eyes change, with bags forming underneath them. His skin greens as he covers Margot’s screaming mouth. She feints when he pulls his hand away, his handprint burned into her face.
Bonnet rushes to a safe, producing and drinking a green serum. His skin and eyes return to their original color. While the title may reveal Bonnet’s secret, the method is more complicated than it seems.
The film is a mad scientist Picture of Dorian Gray, but Bonnet is already long gone by the time we meet him, willing to risk and take anything to keep his secret and his life. As a result, the film is quite talky, as most of the compelling story beats happened before the movie began.
Still, the film manages an entertaining and chaotic third act.
This film is a rare Hammer picture in which Christopher Lee does not play the villain. Anton Diffring plays Bonnet in a role that Peter Cushing would have killed if he had not just finished The Hounds of Baskerville and needed a break. But Diffring does a fine job, albeit difficult to empathize with.
As many have said, this isn’t an A-tier Hammer film, and certainly one of Terence Fischer’s worst, but their production quality and roster of actors keep the movie from being a total mess.