An exceptionally rare color image from FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN captures Peter Cushing’s Baron Frankenstein working over Susan Denberg’s Christina on the laboratory table—preserved by KissMeMonster from the original photographic negative in our archive.

With Cushing staring directly into the camera as his black-gloved hands work across Christina’s bandaged body, the unusual viewpoint creates an extraordinary sense of immediacy: Frankenstein is not merely being observed at work—he appears to acknowledge our presence inside his laboratory.

The composition is superb. Christina lies horizontally across the lower half of the frame, her blonde hair cascading toward the foreground while one hand rests upon her chest beneath the white bandaging. Cushing occupies the precise visual center above her, his dark waistcoat and gloves contrasting dramatically with his white shirt, the pale fabric and Denberg’s skin. Overhead, the large surgical reflector immediately establishes the clinical environment. Every element directs the eye from Christina’s vulnerable figure upward toward Frankenstein’s penetrating gaze.

Inside Frankenstein’s Most Unusual Creation

Directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Film Productions, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967) stars Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein and Susan Denberg as Christina, alongside Thorley Walters, Robert Morris and Barry Warren.

The fourth entry in Hammer’s Frankenstein series with Cushing as the Baron takes the character’s experiments into particularly fascinating territory. Rather than concentrating solely upon the physical assembly and reanimation of a body, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN extends his obsession into questions of the human soul and its relationship to the body.

That makes laboratory imagery from this production especially intriguing.

Cushing’s Frankenstein remains unmistakably the scientist—controlled, methodical and completely absorbed by experimentation—but the nature of what he is attempting has changed. The body upon the table is no longer simply the end of the experiment; it becomes the vessel through which Frankenstein pursues something far more elusive.

This photograph captures that relationship beautifully.

Denberg’s Christina is positioned almost completely at Frankenstein’s disposal, her recumbent body and extensive white bandaging creating an immediate impression of vulnerability. Cushing, meanwhile, remains upright, active and entirely in control.

But then he looks directly at us.

That gaze transforms the photograph.

Instead of a conventional side view of a laboratory procedure, the camera occupies a position that feels almost intrusive. Cushing’s expression appears to bridge the fictional laboratory and the viewer beyond it, giving the image a striking immediacy that distinguishes it from more conventional production photography.

The visual contrast is equally compelling. Hammer’s use of color allows the clinical whites, dark clothing, flesh tones and vivid operating surface to coexist within a richly layered composition. The surgical reflector above Cushing completes the image, transforming Frankenstein’s Gothic experiment into something disturbingly close to legitimate medical procedure.

Once again, the Baron’s horror lies partly in how professional everything appears.

For collectors of Peter Cushing and Hammer’s Frankenstein cycle, that distinction matters. Cushing’s Baron evolved across the series, and photographs showing him actively engaged in experimentation allow a collection to document Frankenstein as scientist rather than merely Frankenstein as horror icon.

Susan Denberg adds another major collecting dimension. Her Christina stands at the center of one of Hammer’s most unusual variations on the Frankenstein mythology, making imagery that places Cushing and Denberg together within the laboratory particularly representative of this individual film.

And this example carries an additional archival distinction.

The image is preserved in the KissMeMonster archive from the original photographic negative, providing a direct photographic source for this exceptionally unusual view of Cushing and Denberg together. Rather than relying solely upon a familiar frame reproduced repeatedly through later publications, the negative preserves the remarkable detail, color relationships and distinctive camera angle of the original photographic image.

For a serious Hammer collection, photographs such as this do something especially valuable: they reveal views of familiar productions that even knowledgeable collectors may not immediately recognize.

Peter Cushing. Susan Denberg. Frankenstein’s laboratory. The operating table. And an extraordinary direct gaze that seems to invite the viewer into the forbidden experiment itself.

Preserved from the original photographic negative held within the KissMeMonster archive, this exceptionally rare color image has been carefully restored to retain the natural detail of Peter Cushing and Susan Denberg, the clinical whites of Christina’s bandaging, the rich tones of the laboratory and operating table, and the subtle shadow and color information present in the photographic source—allowing this distinctive FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN image to be presented with renewed clarity while preserving the character of the original material.