Trama

Having escaped execution and assumed an alias, Baron Frankenstein transplants his deformed underling's brain into a perfect body, but the result proves to be mortally perilous.

Baron Frankenstein escapes from the guillotine and goes to Germany. There, he names himself Dr. Stein and plans to restart his experiments by using parts of dead bodies.—Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>

Baron Victor Frankenstein is sentenced to the guillotine but he succeeds to escape facilitated by the hunchback Karl Immelmann to Carlsbruck in Germany adopting the alias Doctor Victor Stein. Three years later, he is a successful physician in a poor hospital. Doctor Hans Kleve recognizes Frankenstein and blackmails him to be his assistant. Dr. Stein shows a perfect body and tells to Dr. Kleve that Karl will donate his brain to a healthy body. They successfully transplant Karl's brain to the new body and Dr. Stein hides Karl in the attic. However a snoopy janitor witnesses the transportation to the room and tells to the nurse Margaret Conrad that the doctors have hidden a patient in the attic. Meanwhile Dr. Kleve comments with Karl that he will become a medical sensation and Karl is afraid of the situation. When Margaret finds Karl in the attic, he convinces her to release the straps that hold him to the bed. Karl runs to Dr. Stein's laboratory but he is attacked by a man that believes that he is a burglar. When Dr. Stein and Dr. Kleve arrive in the laboratory, Karl has already gone leaving two deaths on his path. What will happen to Karl and to Dr. Frankenstein?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Having escaped death by the guillotine, Dr. Frankenstein relocates to Carlsbruck. There, as Dr. Victor Stein, he successfully establishes himself as a physician with a large practice and a hospital for the poor. After three years however he is recognized by Dr. Hans Kleve but rather than expose him, the young doctor wants to join him in his research. Frankenstein has resumed his experiments and is on the verge of re-animating a body he has constructed using the brain of Fritz, the deformed assistant who helped him escape from his death sentence. The operation goes quite well and Fritz is quite pleased with his new body. An encounter with a drunken hospital attendant however sends him on the run. As his mind and his body deteriorates, he publicly reveals the good Doctor's true identity.—garykmcd

1860 and Baron Frankenstein [Peter Cushing] is to be executed for the murders his creature committed. The Baron is taken from his prison cell to the guillotine but a scuffle is heard before the blade drops...

In a bar, two drunk grave robbers Fritz [Lionel Jeffries] and Kurt [Michael Ripper] talk about a potential job. Kurt is reluctant at first but agrees when he hears the price. They open the grave of Baron Frankenstein but inside the coffin is the priest from the execution. Frankenstein appears, causing Fritz to suffer a fatal heart attack in shock. The Baron and his partially paralysed and deformed assistant Karl [Oscar Quitak] bury Fritz in the open grave.

Three years later and Baron Frankenstein is now practising as a medical doctor called Dr. Stein in Carlsbruck but is not a member of the town's medical council. The council are not happy about this so they send a delegation to try to persuade him to join or to stop him practising. Stein is working in his overcrowded hospital ward full of sick patients when the council delegation arrives. He refuses to join them, saying the council only exists to eliminate competition and he has succeeded alone.

Doctor Hans Kleve [Francis Matthews] is waiting for Stein when he returns to his office from the ward. He recognises Stein as Baron Frankenstein and negotiates to work with and learn from him in exchange for his silence about the Baron's former indiscretions. Stein agrees and takes Kleve to his laboratory and introduces him to Karl. In the laboratory are various body parts that Stein has removed from patients in his hospital ward. Stein demonstrates how disembodied eyes and a hand connected to a remote brain react to a flame. Also in the laboratory is a chimpanzee into which Stein has transplanted the brain of a orangutan. In another preservation tank, Stein shows Kleve a complete man [Michael Gwynn] constructed from various body parts. The only thing missing is a live brain. Karl helped Stein escape the guillotine and has agreed to donate his brain in return for the new body.

Back at the hospital, Margaret [Eunice Gayson], the daughter of the president of the medical council, arrives at the ward to work with Stein and Kleve as a compromise to allow Stein to keep his hospital open.

That night in the laboratory, Stein and Kleve perform the operation on Karl and transplant his brain into the new body. During the operation the creature becomes highly agitated and they have to subdue it until the brain becomes used to the new body. They move Karl to the hospital but are seen by the hospital porter who confides in Margaret about Stein's activities.

The next day Margaret visits Karl and releases him from his straps because he is uncomfortable. The hospital assistant talks to Kleve about changes in animals. This prompts Kleve to start wondering if a brain may react differently in a different body. Kleve returns to the laboratory where he and Stein discuss the chimpanzee which has started eating meat since its brain transplant.

Karl escapes from his room at the hospital via the window and returns to the laboratory that night after Stein and Kleve have left. He finds his old body and throws it into a furnace but is overheard by the janitor [George Woodbridge] who comes to investigate. At first the janitor thinks the chimpanzee is making the noise, but as Karl tries to leave he accidentally starts up lab equipment connected to another complete body in a glass tank. The janitor fights with Karl and although Karl is meek to start with he soon becomes angry and kills the janitor.

Stein and Kleve go to Karl's room to find him gone. They rush back to the laboratory and find the janitor's body and the burnt remains of Karl's old body. Stein tells Kleve to return to the hospital and continue as normal.

Margaret finds Karl hiding in her stables so goes to the hospital to fetch Kleve. Meanwhile, Karl is struggling to control his new body in the stable and when Margaret and Kleve return, Karl has gone.

That night, Stein and Kleve search for Karl. Karl murders a girl as his cannibal tendencies start to develop. Stein and Kleve go to Margaret's house and the now disfigured Karl breaks in and implores Frankenstein to help him. One of the other house guests, Dr Molke [Arnold Diamond], sees this and reports Frankenstein to the medical council.

Stein and Kleve attend the medical council where Stein denies he is Baron Frankenstein and suggests they obtain proof. The medical council open the Baron's grave again and find the priest's body.

Back in the hospital ward, none of the patients want to be treated by the man they now believe to be Frankenstein. The patients all attack Frankenstein but before they kill him Kleve arrives and takes him to the laboratory to tend to his injuries. However, Frankenstein is mortally wounded so Kleve transplants his brain from his disfigured and mutilated body into a new one. A police inspector and the medical council members arrive at the laboratory to arrest Frankenstein but Kleve shows them Frankenstein's old body and they leave, believing Frankenstein to now be dead.

Frankenstein and Kleve relocate to Harley Street in London where Frankenstein resumes practising medicine under the name Dr Franck.