Director Freddie Francis is captured at work in this exceptional behind-the-scenes production photograph from THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964). Crouching at the edge of the muddy outdoor location, Francis holds a production script or binder prominently marked HAMMER while Katy Wild, who portrays the deaf-mute girl Rena, stands in costume watching from the background. The informal composition provides a fascinating glimpse of Hammer filmmaking taking place beyond the carefully staged world seen on screen.

FREDDIE FRANCIS & KATY WILD - THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964) Rare Hammer Script Behind-the-Scenes Production Photo

What makes this photograph particularly compelling is the visible HAMMER production material in Francis’s hands. Combined with the director’s practical working posture, muddy terrain and Wild waiting behind him, the image preserves the everyday mechanics of filmmaking and transforms an otherwise fleeting production moment into a remarkable document of Hammer Studios history.

Directed by Freddie Francis, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN was the third entry in Hammer’s Frankenstein series and once again starred Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein. The production also featured Kiwi Kingston as the Creature, Sandor Elès and Katy Wild, with a screenplay by Anthony Hinds developed from an earlier story by Peter Bryan.

Francis was already an acclaimed cinematographer when he directed the film, having won an Academy Award for his cinematography on SONS AND LOVERS (1960). His career would ultimately encompass both distinguished cinematography and an extensive body of British horror filmmaking, making behind-the-scenes photographs documenting Francis actually directing a Hammer production especially fascinating for genre historians and collectors.

Carefully restored and professionally printed from archival source material, this museum-quality photograph is a distinctive collectible for admirers of Freddie Francis, Katy Wild, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN, Peter Cushing, Hammer Horror, Frankenstein cinema, and rare behind-the-scenes production photography.

A flashback creates a prior history that is wholly unrelated to the last Sangster script and is instead plundered from Universal's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman." The film was in production from October 14th to November 16th, 1963 at Bray Studios in Windsor, Berkshire and on location at Black Park Country Park in Wexham, Buckinghsamshire.

The film was made during Hammer's six-year co-production pact with Columbia Pictures. This led to the company to make a few productions a year with Universal Pictures, with The Evil of Frankenstein being the only film that Hammer made that was financed by Universal in 1963.

The film's version of the Monster is noted for resembling the one in Universal Pictures' original Frankenstein series of the 1930s and 1940s, including the distinctive laboratory sets as well as the flat-headed look of Jack Pierce's monster make-up which had been designed for Boris Karloff. Earlier Frankenstein films by Hammer had studiously avoided such similarities for copyright reasons. However, a new film distribution deal had been made between Hammer and Universal.

As a result, Hammer had free rein to duplicate make-up and set elements. Additional scenes for American television were filmed on January 14th, 1966 at Universal Studios in Los Angeles adding a new subplot featuring Steven Geray, Maria Palmer and William Phipps, who had not appeared in the original version.

The Evil of Frankenstein had its premiere in London on April 19th, 1964 at the New Victoria Theatre. It received a general release in the country in May 31st, 1964. It later received a release in the United States by Universal Pictures on May 8th, 1964.

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the monster made "a welcome return to tradition in a close approximation of Boris Karloff's celebrated make-up" and that the Baron's lab equipment was "as photogenic as ever.