Frankenstein General Hospital

My review was written in May 1988 after watching the movie on New Star video cassette.

"Frankenstein General Hospital" is a rather flat sendup of horror films, closer to aping "Young Doctors in Love" than Mel Brooks' classic "Young Frankenstein". In regional release since March, it's headed for home video.

Mark Blankfield, who unsuccessfully sent up another genre classic in Paramount's flop "Jekyll & Hyde.. Together Again", toplines as Dr. Bob Frankenstein. Great-great-grandson of the legendary scientist, who's busy experimenting on the creation of a perfect human in the basement of General Hospital whr he works. Gag of all the downstairs scenes being in black & whit offes a pleasant visual variation.

Sadeled with dumb puns and lots of running gags that don't work, nealr plotless film proceeds by fits and stasrts, with an occasional, brief topless sene by former Plyaboy magazine model Kathy Showe4r (cast unconvincingly as the hospital shrink) or voluptuous nurse Katie Caple to liven things up. Blankfield is hamstrung by the weak material; ditto his dimutive asisstant Iggy, played unfunnily by Leslie Jordan.

In casting reminiscent of the 1940s films of Rondo Hatton, distorted-featur4ed Irwin Keyes plays the monster with little makeup required; it works for a while, but Keyes is far too normal looking and unscary to support the latter reels when he's supposdely on the rampage upstairs in the hospital and everyone screams at the sight of him.

Tech credits are acceptable.

I'll put it simply: this Frankenstein spoof (actually more of a Frankenstein travesty) doesn't offer enough laughs to merit a recommendation. There is no plot, and there isn't enough material for a feature-length film; as a result, there are some scenes where the actors are just sitting in front of the camera doing almost nothing, because nobody gave them something to do. The script is lame and the treatment of the Frankenstein Monster is demeaning. (*1/2)

I thought that Mark Blankfield was fairly amusing in horror comedy Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982), but in Frankenstein General Hospital he provides about as much laughs as a children's oncology ward.

A blatant attempt at trying to mimic the madcap humour of Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein, this woeful medical mess is really hard going: Blankfield is no Gene Wilder, director Deborah Sahagun is no Brooks, and writers Robert Deel and Michael Kelly clearly recognised their lack of talent soon after and gave up the film biz.

The film sees Dr. Bob Frankenstein (Blankfield), great-great-grandson of the legendary monster-maker, continuing his ancestor's experiments in the basement of a general hospital, which provides all of the necessary equipment and body parts; aiding him in his work is his diminutive loyal assistant Iggy (Leslie Jordan). The pair continuously run the risk of being discovered by hospital boss Dr. Frank Reutgar, who wants to find out what Bob's 'secret experiment' (cue godawful running gag) is all about.

I can honestly say that I never laughed once, but I groaned more than someone with a ruptured appendix. All of the jokes flat-line; there's no injecting any life into the movie, no matter how hard the cast try. To rub salt in the wound, just when I thought the film was over, it turns out that it's not quite the end: jeez, haven't we suffered enough?

Oh well, at least there's three hot women on duty to help ease the pain, two of whom go topless for their art (including Playboy Playmate Kathy Shower).

This feels like an indirect sequel to Jekyll & Hyde...Together Again(1982). It's similar that they both star Mark Blankfield and take place mostly in a hospital setting. This feels alot like Jekyll but with less drug humor and more sex humor. Some genuine light horror scenes,and some scenes are very hilarious. Love the appearance of the actress Bunky Jones,she is my favorite B-movie horror actress I think. The low budget is the only thing that hurts this,otherwise a really underrated late 80's comedy!

You know you're in trouble when Kathy Shower is both the most recognizable name and the best actress in the cast. Actually, there isn't enough Kathy Shower in "Frankenstein General Hospital" to save it. The film does boast one good idea - shooting all the laboratory scenes in black & white, as a kind of homage to the old Frankenstein classics. Other than that, it is boring, amateurish and witless. * out of 4.