Lady Frankenstein

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.

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.

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.

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.