Lady Frankenstein

Rosalba Neri is very hot indeed as the titular Lady Frankenstein though she is called Mrs. Marshall throughout the film. After her father's death, played by Joseph Cotton who must be wondering how the hell he's gone from Citizen Kane to cheap euro-horror, by the hands of the Baron's creation with a brain supplied by a man that eerily resembles Patrick Swayze circa Point Break, the nubile doctor Tania Frankenstein becomes determined to advance in her father's morbid work. It's a good thing too because I can't see Joe Cotton pulling off asphyxiation and orgasms quite like Ms. Neri can. The Baron's assistant Charles has long been enamored with Tania and wishes to woo her now that her old man is kaput. Tania loves his mind but can't quite picture jumping into the sack with the old horny bastard without a serious makeover. That is where village dolt Thomas steps in as the half-wit has been graced with good looks and brings the thunder into Tania's private lab if you catch my drift. Now, all Tania has to do is put Charles's brain into Thomas' body and voilà! instant marriage material. Too bad Mickey Hargitay as a persistent police captain keeps inquiring into what exactly her father's experiments entailed and why did he associate with graverobbers. Definitely one of the most amusing and downright bizarre endings I have ever seen. Who knew the sight of a mutilated corpse got her juices flowing?

I give this film a lot of credit by retelling the story of Frankenstein as apposed to the more faithful to the mythos Hammer films which is geared more for the hard-core euro-horror fans. Rosalba Neri is extremely engaging as the sexy doctor and commands your attention in every scene not just her nude ones. The supporting cast does a great job as well with a special salute to Herbert Fux as a slimy graverobber. My major complaint is that this film looks like it was edited with a samurai sword. Scenes appear for a second then disappear without any reason whatsoever. The version I saw was the 84 minute cut though I wonder what was excised from the film as most of the gore and plenty of nudity still remained. On a side note this is the third consecutive film in the "Chilling Classics" collection that features an adult woman sexually seducing a mentally challenged man/child. This is not a trend I would like to see continue thank you very much. Grab some popcorn and enjoy this guilty pleasure.

This movie essentially begins with a man named "Baron Frankenstein" (Joseph Cotten) conducting secret experiments with his assistant "Charles Marshall" (Paul Muller). As luck would have it, they are soon visited by Baron Frankenstein's daughter "Tanya" (Rosalba Neri) who tells them that she has just attained the title of surgeon from a university and wants to help them on their research. However, Baron Frankenstein is hesitant to tell her everything because he doesn't want her involved in case anything goes wrong. As a result, he continues working in secret and not long afterward successfully transplants a heart and a brain from a recently deceased murderer into another body. Unfortunately, before he can complete his work "the monster" (Peter Whiteman) kills him and escapes from the laboratory into the surrounding area where he immediately goes on a killing rampage. Undaunted by all of this, Tanya not only attempts to cover up any evidence leading to her father's culpability but also continues even further with her father's experiments. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather unusual film which had both good and bad points. For starters, I liked the way Tanya developed into such an evil and manipulative person after the death of her father. On the other hand, I thought the appearance of the monster was quite ludicrous and hurt the overall effect immensely. Be that as it may, because of its uneven nature I have rated this movie according. Average.

After creating life, Baron Frankenstein is murdered by his hideous creation that heads off to kill those people who were involved in its resurrection, or who are simply in the way. The baron's daughter, Tania, who has just arrived from university with the help of his lab assistant, decides to go on and continue with her father's work. To keep the high reputation of the family name and to satisfy her lustful needs. Tania seductively plans to create a perfect being with the brains of her fellow assistant and the body of the slow-witted servant.

"I am, my father's daughter". She sure is! And a whole lot more! This sleazy Frankenstein imitation (of Hammer's "The Horror of Frankenstein") is beyond warped with its kinky fixations with seedy sex and red paint jobs (gore, of course) within its highly Gothic surroundings, inspires this cheap Italian exploitation picture. Albeit at times quite nonsensical and melodramatic, at least it gave the mad doctor theme a huge revamp with its lewd nature and having a female protagonist who was in supreme control with her manipulative prowess. This refreshing twist was one of the few neat additions to this rough around the edges, but above-average production. Director Mel Welles shuffles around some assured moments of suspense, array of blinding images and builds upon the morbidly vivid atmosphere. Although the creeping sound effects and nagging music score really did give me an almighty headache. The make-up effects were simply okay with the ghastly looking monster going on to aimlessly cause havoc like they mostly do in these stories.

When it came to the performances, one can only say they were quite laboured, despite a few decent turns. The very appealing Rosalba Neri grafts away with her conniving and forcefully voluptuous personality. She was quite hypnotic in the role and looked the part of Tania Frankenstein. Joseph Cotten gives the flick a steady head for the short time he's in it and Herbert Fux makes a more than a good impression as Tom Lynch the grave robber. The raw to-the-bone story and script aren't typically the best with their telegraphed patterns, but it lifted when it needed to by showing how much Tania has taken a shine to her father's aspiring work and there were hardly any dull spots.

"Lady Frankenstein" is an entertainingly tainted exercise on someone who cherishes what they do.

This Italian-made Gothic horror movie often gets the short shrift from fans of the overrated Hammer films of the time. Sure, it has much lower production values and, sure, Rosalba Neri (aka "Sara Bay")is no Peter Cushing, but there's no doubt which one of them I'd rather see naked. Seriously though, Neri shed her clothes so graciously on screen and looked so appealing doing it that no one ever gave her credit for being the great actress that she was. She carries this movie pretty much by herself--Joseph Cotton is good as her father but he is killed off early, and Mickey Hargitay isn't bad but is horribly miscast as a 19th century police detective. Probably more than in any other of her movies, Neri stays dressed here. But the two scenes in which she does shed her Victorian garments are VERY memorable, and not for the usual reasons. In one scene she helps her would-be lover kill a handsome but idiotic handyman by having sex with the guy while her accomplice smothers him with a pillow, but her evil and lustful character doesn't let the guy's untimely death interruptus the coitus. The look on her face as she has "the little death" well after her sex partner has had the big one (and her poor would-be lover can only watch) is amazing and very perverse. There's probably not another actress that could have (or would have) pulled it off. The final scene, if anything, is even more warped, so much so that it was censored from many prints. Let's just say that this nymphomaniacal Frankenstein just can't resist Frankenstein's monster, and the sight of the two of them on the operating table stops even the rampaging villagers with torches dead in their tracks.

Is this is a classic Frankenstein movie? Well, no. It resembles the Mel Brooks comedy "Young Frankenstein" more than the Hammer films or the Universal classics, but it is reasonably well-made, definitely pretty entertaining and it is, if nothing else, the sexiest Frankenstein movie ever.