La figlia di Frankenstein

When Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton) is killed by his creation, his daughter sets out to create her own to bring the killer to justice and to make herself the perfect mate while she's at it. This one focuses on this more disturbing aspect of this and does a decent job of exploiting it.

I was quite stunned to see so many wonderful sets and costumes here, plus a decent atmosphere and lighting too. The film looks better than it is...The Monster may not be up to expectation but the rest delivers better than you might expect.

Mel Welles, you might remember him as Mr. Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, directs this somewhat interesting yet wholly twisted tale of Dr. Frankenstein's daughter carrying on her father's work after his death and creating a creature not for its intellectual ability or its likelihood to be/do good but rather for its sex appeal. You see, Tania Frankenstein, though a doctor and scientist in her own right, is concerned with really nothing more than satiating her primal desires for the stable boy and making some super sex slave by using his body with the excellent brain of a man she does not love. The story is tissue-thin here, and one gets what one might expect: lots of leering and suggestive comments(surprisingly most from the female lead), special effects that are not so special, acting that lacks depth of characterization, and not really much action or suspense. And while this film is almost barren in regards to good storytelling, Lady Frankenstein does oddly have some aspects which make it watchable - not highly watchable but watchable nonetheless. Italian actress Rosalba Neri AKA Sara Bay/Bey plays the Baron's daughter with some aplomb and lots and lots of sex appeal. She oozes desire and seduction quite well. Her performance is pretty one-dimensional, but she is quite lovely and plays over-the-top a little too well. She is also very open with her performance if you catch my drift. Poor Joseph Cotten, now regulated to European horror films for money, plays the father in a brief yet competent performance. He is the star attraction but gone before the film really kicks into a gear. As for the rest of the cast, Paul Muller is somewhat effective as Dr. Charles Marshall, the baron's assistant and an admirer of the daughter for some time. As crimes and missing persons begin to unfold in the village, policeman(I wasn't buying this)Mickey Hargitay starts to pump Tania for answers - despite what you might think not to her satisfaction. Where the movie really loses credibility is in the final third of the film where the suspect script, weak performances, and lackluster direction all head further South. The creature is revealed and looks quite ridiculous. The film ends somewhat abruptly with one of the hasty resolutions very common in the 1970s. While not nearly as bad and repulsive as some might want you to think, Lady Frankenstein is indeed a very flawed film with some perverse albeit intriguing overtones.

I gave this a 5 because of Rosalba Neri's wonderful performance as the Lady Frankenstein. Actually she's the daughter of Dr. Frankenstein, played by Joseph Cotten in a routine manner, but routine from Cotten is always good regardless. The flick deserves more than 5 based upon Neri, and decent acting all around, good sets and good atmosphere. It also deserves less than 5 due to a pretty crummy monster, both in appearance and mannerisms. Makes one long for the days of Glenn Strange, or even Kiwi Kingston. It's like everyone went to sleep when it came time to design the monster, because everything else is above average. And way above average is the performance of Neri as a really sexy and domineering lady doctor. She's a 10 in this flick and makes it worth watching.

A typical exploitation sex&horror flick from the early 1970s for the most part, it has one distinguishing quality that elevates it from the usual dross: its leading lady, Rosalba Neri. She has screen presence, she is sexy, strong, sensual, menacing, seductive, independent, radiant. Even in the nude, when other genre actresses go into autopilot, become passive, timid, or giggly, even then she stays in control. I almost forgot to mention that she can act as well. Watching her in films like this I just cannot understand how mainstream cinema could have failed to give her more substantial projects to work on.