I Was a Teenage Frankenstein

This companion piece to I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF is somewhat fun, even if it's largely for all the wrong reasons! As another "modern" descendant of the Frankenstein family, Whit Bissell takes the body of a hideously disfigured teen from a car wreck and assembles a muscular young man with a head that looks like it passed through a garbage disposal. Though Bissell's doctor is supposed to be from England, he's the main attraction of the show by providing many unintentional laughs while speaking in his all-American accent. The serious conviction with which he recites some of the most ridiculous lines ever written for a monster movie will keep you in stitches (here's a taste: "Speak! You have a civil tongue in your head. I know, because I sewed it back myself!"). Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane from TV's ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) plays his snooping fiancé with a bad habit of putting her nose where it doesn't belong.

Not as remarkable as TEENAGE WEREWOLF, with a tendency to feel kind of claustrophobic in its indoor environment. But the immortal monster makeup is above the low budget standard and this is still worth watching for fans of cheesy fifties monster movies. Perhaps owing to Hammer's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, we also get to see dismembered body parts, which was uncommon back in the day. **1/2 out of ****

I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN is the story of Professor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell- I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF), and his experiments involving dead tissue re-animation. As the great-great-grandson of Baron Frankenstein, he plans to stitch together a familiar patchwork of body parts, in order to create life.

Conveniently, a fatal car crash occurs just outside the Professor's home / morgue / lab, providing him with his much needed, young, though heavily damaged cadaver! He begins work on his plan immediately, assisted by Dr. Karlton (Robert Burton). Mad science unfolds.

How could anything possibly go wrong?

Thoroughly absurd, IWATF is also exceptionally entertaining! Bissell's character is so tightly wound, that his head could fly off at any second, like a runaway balloon! The monster's brooding, angst-ridden persona is a riot!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The Professor's "spare-body-parts-disposal-by-alligator" system! #2- His attempts at carrying on a love life, while spending most of his time heartlessly creating his monster! #3- His nosy fiancee and her big surprise! #4- The monster's homicidal rampages!

A true classic. Now, if only I could acquire an alligator and some equipment...

The production of this film, hot on the heels of Michael Landon's immortal 'Teenage Werewolf' opus, signified that Teen Horror was in fact a specific genre of film. Teen Horror films have been a constant cinematic presence from 1957 to the present, although they have waxed and waned several times over the past 53 years. Everything you see in 'the Craft,' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' and of course the ubiquitous 'Twilight' movies is a re-hash of Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein.

Wereas Teenage Werewolf focuses on the personality and emotions of the Michael Landon character, thus structurally grafting the point of view of 'Rebel Without a Cause' to the horror genre, Teenage Frankenstein is more pre-occupied with Whit Bissel's portrayal of a Dr. Frankenstein living in the era drive-in movies. As such, Teenage Frankenstein follows more traditional monster movie conventions than Werewolf.

Nonetheless, teenagers are featured heavily, and teen actor Gary Conway as the eponymous monster is a major presence, so it is indeed appropriate to study this film in the context of the Teen Horror genre.

This film is an excellent example of the aesthetics of low-budget 1950's monster film-making. The acting is earnest and competent, the script does not get bogged down with dialog that would try to explain weak plot points, but rather dances across such places quickly, as one might dash across a wobbly bridge before it can collapse. It moves quickly and delivers just what the intended audience expected and needed: cheap and harmless thrills.

One of my favorite sequences involves the monster's search for a suitable head for himself at a nightime lovers' lane with teens parked in their cars. This is the earliest example I know of where the monster targets promiscuous teens. Also, since this film was obviously intended to be shown at drive-ins, so it must have been neat for 1957 teens parked in Studebakers in the dark to imagine their own heads as being coveted by a monster lurking somewhere nearby. Almost pushing the forth wall, really.

While this movie is fun and better than the title would suggest, it does lack the original psychic/emotional center that characterizes the classic horror pictures. King Kong, Frankenstein, Godzilla and Creature from the Black Lagoon all have a definite theme, a center, a statement relating to life and the human condition. So far as I could discern, this film does not. If a viewer can content himself with a bit of escapist fun, he will be satisfied.

This is top of the line 1950's B movie schlock.And it is wonderful.Countless tv viewings and a recent VHS viewing confirms this.

Prof Frankenstein(Whit Bissel)is visiting from England on a lecture tour.He wants to create a perfect body from a youth.As it so happens there is a terrible auto accident outside which allows him to grab a corpse.

Of course there is the hesitant assistant to deal with. There is also the nosy just moved in fiancee to contend with. Frankenstein manages to put together a body but it has a severe case of morning face.The boy disobeys his creator and goes out for a stroll. He also kills a blonde and creates a panic.

Well the pesky bride to be stumbles upon the "monster" which angers the mad doctor to no end. He convinces the boy that she wants to kill him. So our boy kills her and she is dumped in the alligator pit(I'm not making this up).The pit is used to dispose of spare parts by the way.

The boy needs a nice face(does he ever)so he and the doctor go out in search of one.Happily they locate one and it is grafted on.Everybody is all smiles now.

The doctor and his assistant prepare to go to England. The boy has no passport so they plan to dissect him for easier international travel.The rousing finish is in color.

Whit Bissel gives a great performance as the cracked to the max mad doctor.He has a heck of a realtor that can set him up in temporary lodgings with a lab & an alligator pit in the basement.Wonder where he got the alligator.

If you can overlook or poke fun at the plot holes you can really enjoy this flick.See it if you can!

Hollywood's first stab at Mary Shelley since the Universal days, AIP's 1957 "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" was of course Herman Cohen's follow up to the phenomenally successful "I Was a Teenage Werewolf," shot back to back right after co feature "Blood of Dracula," in which the teen menace was a girl. Rather than a simple retread of "Werewolf," this script goes through the usual paces expected of a Frankenstein film, Herbert L. Strock's perfunctory staging enlivened by Whit Bissell's deadpan wit as the arrogant modern day Professor Frankenstein, eager to prove all those who scoffed at his limb transplant theories that he can indeed restore life to the dead, blackmailing his mild mannered assistant (Robert Burton) and even dispatching his devoted fiancée (Phyllis Coates) for disobedience. The idea of making the scientist a teenager rather than The Monster apparently didn't occur to Cohen, Hammer's massive worldwide success with "The Curse of Frankenstein" the obvious model (Peter Cushing's Baron a vivid anti hero), and Bissell, just as he had in "Werewolf," the adult manipulator of his youthful creation. A convenient crash near his home provides Frankenstein a teenage body to start with, replacing various hands and limbs but not yet the hideous wreck of a face. Gary Conway's Monster is alive at the 25 minute mark, his creator referring to him as 'my boy,' noting that he can both speak ("you've got a civil tongue in your head, I know you have because I sewed it back myself," "he should talk like a congressman at a filibuster!") and cry ("even the tear duct functions"). This Monster is a rebel with a cause, his most fervent wish to go out and walk among people, but when he does escape winds up strangling a young girl when she screams at his hideous appearance. His only other murders are clearly set up by his creator, the final one a gift of a new face (Conway's own with only a few scars), while the climax just lies there, the doctor receiving his comeuppance simply because he needed to, this final scene shot in not so vibrant color. Conway, in only his second screen role (following Roger Corman's "The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent"), would be back in the same makeup for Cohen's "How to Make a Monster," Gary Clarke replacing Michael Landon as the Teenage Werewolf, while Bissell returned to supporting ranks with "Monster on the Campus." The decade closed with Peter Cushing's sequel "The Revenge of Frankenstein," Boris Karloff starring in "Frankenstein-1970," and Donald Murphy hamming it up in "Frankenstein's Daughter," the 60s far more prolific for Mary Shelley's creation.