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Okay, I'll admit it--you need to suspend disbelief on this one--A LOT of disbelief! But, you have to do this all the time in movies so stretching this just a bit further might enable you to enjoy this film. I know that I went in with very low expectations after reading the IMDb reviews, but it turned out to be a decent little movie about yet another doctor who wanted to play God.

The film begins with a doctor (Rock Hudson) hitting a dog. He takes the pooch home and tries to save it, but he's unsuccessful. But here's the weird part--using some special serum he'd been working on, he injects the dog's surviving puppies to try to save it. That's because the puppy is WAY too young to survive. Speeding up its growth at an astronomical rate enabled the puppy to grow many weeks in a matter of hours and it survives.

A short time later, the doctor decides to play God with a human. Taking a recently dead pregnant woman, he's able to remove the small fetus and grow it in his lab at an even faster rate. The problem is that for some time he cannot stop its fast growth and the fetus ends up becoming a full-grown woman by the time he's arrested the fast growth. At first, things seem great as the woman is a sort of super-woman--with amazing learning skills and intelligence and the ability to be well-coiffed despite being raised in a lab. Plus, and here's the best part, it turns out to be an amazingly HOT young lady (Barbara Carrera). What's next? Well, I'd say more but don't want to spoil the plot. Suffice to say that the lady's moral reasoning abilities are at times VERY suspect...yet hot! Despite the prologue that makes it sound as if this technology is possible, it certainly is not! But, it did make for an interesting film with a few nice surprises (such as at the very end). A word of note--you WILL see a lot of Miss Carrera in this one, so perhaps it's best not shown to your small children or mother!

I sat through this on TV hoping because of the names in it that it would be worth the time...but dear Gussie, whoever thought this script was worth producing? The basic idea is excellent but the execution is appallingly bad, with a constantly illogical sequence of scenes, an ending that is almost laughably melodramatic and poor Rock Hudson wanders through this with an understandably confused look on his slightly sagging face. Looks like a bad B movie from the 40's...

I suppose I'm supposed to take something like this with a grain of salt. These laboratory movies (and, yes, they spend a lot of time in the laboratory), always fail in one dimension: there is an understanding that single people fooling around have uncovered secrets beyond the comprehension of anyone to this time. Of course, they pay a price because their experimenting has the same shortcomings that Dr. Frankenstein's did. There is always something they didn't anticipate. There are so many things from pure science to fashion for young ladies to outrageous cover ups that don't work here. The young woman is certainly fetching and the doctor can't help himself, but he could have been a little bit discreet or even made an effort to shelter what he was doing. Things go wrong and because of this intellect, she gains tremendous power, including an understanding of how she came to be. Rock Hudson looks pretty fit here. He never quite makes it in this role, however. It wanders all over with lots of clichés and silliness which diminishes the basic issue. Once she has her revenge a more suitable thing would be for her to wander off and allow him to seek her out and destroy her in some grand way.

I think this movie was WAY ahead of it's time. Very few people were aware of the scientific manipulations that could be done for development of new life.

Also it doesn't hurt that the leading actors are absolutely gorgeous. Barbara Carrera has nude scenes that even a woman can appreciate. What a goddess!

If you like sci-fi from olden times that mimics the life we are living now, you'll love this one.

That said, I agree with the other reviewer who noted that it was absolutely ridiculous to put in the scene about the natural language query to a computer that came back with a good answer. I worked with mainframes in 1976, and we were still feeding trays of punch cards into readers to run programs. CRT's were still command line interfaces.

There are a bunch of hater's for this movie for resistance to scientists assuming the role of gods.

I happen to be a Monsanto HATER, ABHORER, LOATHER, DESPISER!

Did ya'll know they "own," legally, but NOT morally IMO, a terminator gene, that renders their seeds unable to reproduce? Imagine if that gene got loose and started mutating flora and fauna. That could be the absolute end of life on our planet. Fortunately, our government, stupid and clueless as it is, has so far denied Monsanto the ability to deploy such a dangerous assault against us.

Watch "Bitter Harvest" with Ron Howard to see some of the corporate antics this toxic multinational corporation gets up to: contaminating (getting loose on) neighboring farms with their genetically modified seeds and pollen, then suing them for stealing their patented stuff. They get away with it, and have put many hard-working people out of business and off their land.

Ralph Nelson made some good movies particularly in the 1960s, mostly middle-of-the-road dramas addressing pressing social issues. But he didn't appear to have a fantastical bone in his body, and was clearly the wrong choice to direct this sci-fi variation on the Frankenstein story.

Rock Hudson plays a scientist whose personal guilt over his wife's death drives him to experiments in his private lab that attempt to save the lives of fetuses trapped in the bodies of dying females. He succeeds in saving one such being from a suicidal young woman. His methods lead the fetus to develop rapidly into an adult (Barbara Carrera) who is beautiful and brilliant but, because she has skipped past all the standard character-forming years of human growth, lacks any sense of morality--when she eventually feels threatened, she doesn't hesitate at resorting to homicide. But that doesn't happen until the last 15 minutes or so in a movie without any prior "action" (a little partial nudity aside), and Nelson doesn't even seem interested in the violence when it does arrive, keeping it mostly off-screen.

Hudson gives an earnest performance--he's not just walking through it, as he sometimes did with mediocre material--and Carrera, one of those actresses who seldom got to stretch much because she was typecast as cheesecake, is as good as the film allows. The supporting cast is strong enough, excepting Roddy McDowell, who throws off the straightfacedf tone somewhat with an overly hammy "guest star" turn as a snippy chess master infuriated when Carrera's "Victoria" beats him.

But the script isn't quite intelligent or credible to be taken seriously. Nor is Nelson's direction stylish, suspenseful, or lurid enough to make "Embryo" any kind of guilty pleasure--it's watchable enough, but once you realize there really won't be much payoff, the entire experience becomes somewhat deflating. While the 70s was full of variable big-studio sci-fi films that in one way or another emphasized their futurism, "Embryo" has no sci-fi trappings at all beyond a premise whose ideas aren't very boldly worked out. It wasn't a success at the time, and one has to admit there isn't much reason to pronounce it under-rated now. It's a competently crafted misfire.

i really enjoyed this movie.i thought the acting was very good,and the storyline well developed.i'm sure the movie was inspired by past literary works and movies,but i think it also inspired other movies and novels.so,obviously it's not wholly original,but it does have its own original elements to it.it's a cautionary tale for sure and it's just as relevant today, probably more so .the only negative thing i can say about it is that it can be a bit slow,and the first half has an almost clinical feel to it.by this i mean at times it's a bit dry and almost too scientific.overall,though i think it was a well done movie.i give Embryo a 7/10

One of the most intriguing facets to largely forgotten 70s Sci-shocker 'The Embryo' is the casting. Rumpled icon, Rock Hudson, squirrelly, Diane Ladd, and the dazzlingly exotic, Barbara Carrera suggest lachrymose soap, or chintzy movie-of-the-week melodrama rather more than grimly gestating terror! Another singularity is the lack of archetypal 'Mad Scientist' tropes, and said 'monster' rearing its far from ugly head in the final act is another notable kink in standard creature feature DNA. The benign-ish Dr. Holliston's (Rock Hudson) cavalier usage of an experimental growth hormone on a purloined fetus has dramatic, wholly unforeseen results! Holliston's placental lactogen rapidly transforms this ailing embryo into the captivatingly beauteous, and voraciously inquisitive adult, Victoria (Barbara Carrera).

Domestic life chez Holliston becomes quirky, as twitchy sister-in-law, Barbara Douglas (Diane Ladd) is piqued by the increasingly malign actions of genetically altered Dobermann No. 1, and sleekly sinister, Victoria. Victoria's insatiable hunger to uncover life's mysteries, matched by her greater zeal for unlawful carnal knowledge with warped Svengali /patriarch, Holliston! More Dorian Gray, than Dr. Moreau, as the film's queasier moments are spawned from Victoria's desperate quest for prolonged life! Her accelerated deterioration can only be arrested by gruesomely harvesting the pituitary gland extract from a 5-to-6 month old fetus! The robust performances, maestro, Gil Melle's moody score, and a sordid, hysteria-laden climax all have an undeniable entertainment value, a fact blithely ignored by the film's many detractors.

"Embryo" has a touch of "Bride of Frankenstein" plus a pinch of "Lost Horizon", but all in all, I still find it a guilty pleasure.

Dr Paul Hollistan (Rock Hudson) is a genetic scientist who uses experimental growth hormones to speed up the growth of embryos. He has success with a dog, which becomes fully grown in no time at all. He then tries his luck on a human embryo and within a few days has produced a stunning Barbara Carrera. Not bad for his first human. He names her Victoria and sets out to educate her, finding that she absorbs information at a furious pace.

Of course, as devotees of horror/sci-fi well know, these kinds of experiments always have a catch and the growth hormone continues to accelerate Victoria's growth well past the hottie stage into old age; there are tears and screams before the final fade out.

The film has suspense: we wait to see people's reactions when Victoria explores her world and surprises them with her superior intelligence. The film starts stronger than it finishes, it has some interesting bits of pseudo science at the beginning with even a reference to DNA long before the acronym tended to pop up in every second sentence.

The presence of Rock Hudson gave the film a lift. The director, Ralph Nelson, had some big ones under his belt by this stage, and the film is many notches above the standard of many of the science fiction/horror movies that were around at the time.

I think Rock gave it some of the same juice he gave "Seconds" 10 years before; he ends up railing against fate at the end of both. "Embryo" was in that period between his big hits of the 50's and 60's, and before his career had a revival of sorts on television. However he was always watchable and had charisma to spare.

Barbara Carrera is captivating. She played a lot of femme fatales in her time, but that's fair enough; along with a sexy accent, she had a sensuous look that could easily cause turbulence amongst the male population. She works well with Rock, although she looks tiny alongside him despite the fact she was 5'8" (according to IMDb); he sure was a big dude.

"Embryo" is still worth a look even though there have been many variations on the theme over the decades, it doesn't outstay its welcome and the stars make it worth the effort.

Rock Hudson plays a widowed scientist who runs down a pregnant dog whilst driving in a storm. He manages to save the unborn dog by messing with its genes, and decides that if he can do it with dogs, he can do it with humans. He steals a foetus from the local hospital, and uses it to create a female child. Amazingly, the child grows an incredible rate, and is a near-genius, very beautiful woman within a couple of months. Then, Franken-daddy makes his big mistake... he falls in love with his own creation, and gets her pregnant!

The modern elements of The Bride of Frankenstein sit nicely in this disturbing update. Hudson is OK as the scientist, and Carrera as the female he builds is pretty believable. Roddy McDowall has a funny guest appearance as a chess whiz who gets thrashed at his favourite game by the super-intelligent Carrera.

What I dislike about this movie is that as it goes on, it starts to go for cheap shocks and unpersuasive horror touches, rather than maintaining the accent on the science fiction side of the story. It veers off track and ends up like any old exploitation horror flick of the 60s and 70s. If they could have just stuck by the science fiction, then this would have been a top class film. As it is, it's no better than average. Pity, really!

Although Embryo could have been a potentially thought provoking examination of bioethics, it degenerates into a stereotypical Frankenstein parable, putting across the by now monotonous lesson that there were some realms man was not meant to enter or study.

Scientist Rock Hudson is experimenting with ways to prevent miscarried babies from dying. After success with a dog, he immediately jumps to humans-violating medical ethics and any sense of plausibility-with the equally unrealistic assistance of a hospital administrator. His experiment works too well, with some decidedly unpleasant side effects.

Although Barbara Carrera is reasonably good in her role, and some of the animal training is spectacular, the film suffers from being too fantastical. Even though a message at the prologue assures viewers that this represents contemporary technology, the scientific work depicted looks far fetched even for the twenty-first century, let alone the mid- 1970s. Furthermore, the scene where Carrera is able to find a cure for the side effects of bioengineering simply by typing a question into a computer is laughable.

Okay, I admit, the movie theme isn't as frightening now as it might have been in the 70s when the film was made. Still, the movie was an interesting and somewhat disturbing view of a scientific experiment gone wrong.

Horribly disappointing movie. Had a fantastic poster featuring nude Barbara Carrera (supposedly?) which is, by my standards, a collector's item today like few others. The only fun about this movie is that poster. I ordered the DVD and hoped the poster would be the box cover, but no, only a weak, weak, weak rendition of the original image as big as an average-sized postage stamp. The movie is hugely disappointing... Given the theme, From Embryo to Woman in 4 1/2 Weeks, there is a hell of a lot that could have been done with it. Imagine cultivating your own dreamgirl down in the laboratory, only for it to go wrong in a most disastrous way. Movie needs a remake, with particular focus on the anguish of premature aging, especially since the object of desire comes into the world as a fresh flower that is as doomed as just exactly that. It is however my experience that the movies of Ms. Carrera are invariably disappointing because, it seems to me, she's not exactly the star material she appeared to be at the time. Long, long hair a la Jane Seymour got her on my radar back in the mid- Seventies, but alas! long, long hair alone a fine actress doth not make.

The poster is fun though, and today I saw the Net version of the one cutting out the off- putting male presence. To this day, when I see girls curled up so innocently, vulnerably, in the fetal position, I think of this poster. Nice legs, and especially the bare feet added that total total vulnerability.

Had the movie been a tenth of the fun of the poster... but it doesn't have a hundredth.

A scientist attempts to create the perfect woman using an advanced test-tube procedure he has developed after experimenting on a dog fetus, resulting in a super-intelligent but fast-growing canine. Unbeknownst to the doctor, however, is the fact that this new science turns its subjects into killers. To this end, he falls in love with his creation - a very beautiful, extremely intelligent woman - who happens to have homicidal tendencies unfortunately also.

This sci-fi-horror-melodrama was directed by Ralph Nelson who previously was known to me for a couple of violent westerns, Duel at Diablo (1966) and Soldier Blue (1970), with the latter being a particularly controversial film. With Embryo, he is involved in something a lot less contentious, yet it does have a look at some uncomfortable issues, such as the horror of a human being growing to full adulthood in a matter of weeks and the associated tragedy inherent in that. The moral dimension of course is the old Frankenstein conundrum of man playing god and meddling with nature. The scientist here is Rock Hudson and I thought he was good enough in the part. Barbara Carrera stars as his creation, while Diane Ladd plays his dead wife's sister who stays with him to work as his assistant for some reason - it's not really much of a role for Ladd to be fair. Much better was Roddy McDowall in a cameo appearance in what is certainly the best scene in the movie, he plays a chauvinistic chess master who has his ass whipped by Carrera in front of an amused gathering of guests at a party – McDowall is really entertaining to watch in this part. Challenging him as best performer is the Doberman who nonchalantly carries out a series if very clever tricks throughout the movie.

Overall, while I wouldn't say this is a fully successful film, it's still a pretty interesting one. It only really moves into horror territory in its final stages and in fact ends on a pretty commendably dark note indeed. But I found the ideas and story quite engaging and think this one is worth catching, particularly if you like 70's sci-fi.

I never understood the general vitriol aimed at this film, whilst it doesn't succeed as a serious thriller, as a modest sci-fi it's taut, tense and generally quite compelling. Relatively low-budget but capably handled by director Nelson, it's a film I first caught on late-night television almost forty years ago and it's stayed with me since that time, primarily due to Carrera's intelligent, beguiling performance.

The basic plot finds Grieving Doctor (Hudson) creating freaks in his home laboratory, first a prematurely born Doberman with a murderous streak, then an attractive specimen with a superior intellect played by Carrera.

The cast is a solid mix of experience (Hudson and Ladd in the supporting role as his embittered sister-in-law) and newcomers (Carrera and Schedeen as the bubbly pregnant daughter in law), whilst Roddy McDowall even has a quirky cameo as an egotistical chess player with whom Carrera duels, in a scene that's surprisingly tense and satisfying.

Initially it might appear facile or frivolous and of course the essential plot requirement which has Hudson managing to stop the accelerated ageing of his human foetus experiment just as it reaches the ultra-hot twenty-something form of exotic Carrera is both sensational and hopelessly contrived. Persistence pays however as the second act establishes Carrera's character sympathetically which leads into a prodigious final act that's well worth the wait.

Uncomfortable at times, there's a sinister (and sometimes cruel) undertow but it's mostly superficial akin to a matinee television movie, except for some brief, darkened toplessness and the last couple of scenes where the violence goes above and beyond small-screen constraints.

Overall, 'Embryo' is a quiet storm that's intelligently paced and ends with an unexpected cliffhanger, made even more memorable by Carrera's natural charisma and acting talent, and much better than its maligned reputation supposes.

Entertaining nonsense where Rock Hudson learns the secret of growing fetuses to adulthood with the offspring super-fast learners, highly skilled and super intelligent.

The Doberman which is the first successful offspring is a fabulous character (like the diabolical dog in The Omen.) She is beautifully trained and does some great stunts, and is chilling in other scenes. The second success is Victoria (Barbara Carrera) who - surprise - is a stunning beauty. Carrera is good in the role and creates a believable character.

Diane Ladd provides great support as Rock's cynical sister-in-law/live-in assistant who is suspicious of Victoria, and hates the dog. The most chilling (and high camp) scene has Ladd's character, who has been away, return to Rock's estate to rummage through the attic and retrieve a hideous frog-shaped lamp, only to be followed by the snarling dog the entire time. The dog carefully escorts Ladd from the premises, clearly glad to be rid of the ugly light fitting.

The opening scenes are rather dull, padded out with Rock endlessly recounting plot exposition into his refrigerator sized reel to reel tape recorder. The film really begins to feel like a TV movie with its tiny cast and few locations. But once Victoria's up and talking (and disrobing) the pace and interest picks up.

Rock Hudson's second venture in the science fiction genre after Seconds is Embryo a film that combines elements of the Bride of Frankenstein and Pygmalion in one rather weird film about for lack of a better word a test tube baby that grows up to be Barbara Carrera.

Hudson is scientist experimenting in organic development and gets a chance to first experiment on his own Doberman pincher when it is accidentally hit by his car.

Some pituitary secretions from the female dog are given to a prematurely born puppy and it grows remarkably into an adult. Exalted with his success, Hudson takes a fetus from a dead accident victim and gives it some of the same stuff.

What he gets is Barbara Carrera. And she develops physically and intellectually at a prodigious rate. What she doesn't do is develop emotionally. Still Hudson passes her off as his new research assistant to friends and family like sister-in-law Diane Ladd, son John Elerick, and daughter-in-law Anne Schedeen.

Embryo doesn't explore some of the real issues in this kind of science, it exploits them instead. The special effects as they are, are pretty second rate. Hudson looks like he lost interest in the project about halfway through the film.

Now what would have really been interesting is if he had gotten boy child and it grew up to be a harlequin novel hero. Now that would have been something Rock Hudson could have sunk his teeth into.