La fille de Frankenstein

Capitalizing on the 'teenage monster' craze of the late 1950's, this is one is weak even by the modest standards of the teenage schlock horror school of film. It's better than 'Teenages From Outer Space,' but that's not saying much.

The eponymous monster, Frankenstein's Daughter, does not appear even vaguely female, instead looking like one of the lunch ladies from my grade school cafeteria, or perhaps the great thespian William Frawley.

I suspect the producers of this film must have figured out that they had Fred Mertz Monster on their hands, because there is a really strange and tangential subplot which involves making a temporary monster out of a cute young bathing-suit clad ingénue. This time the monster make up is good (by schlock-horror standards) and there is some interesting footage of a nice-looking bathing suit clad female body with a horrible monster face.

The other interesting thing in this film is the creepy, murderous and sexually predatory Dr. Frankenstein. He attempts to date rape one teenage girl, and he turns another one temporarily into a monster (see above). Oh, and the one he attempts to turn into a monster...well, he tries to put the moves on her as well.

The son of the great silent film comedian Harold Lloyd plays a part in this film, but damned if I can remember him. The guy who played the boyfriend of the ingénue/monster girl later showed up in a few of the Annette Funnicello/Frankie Avalon beach movies. There is also some obligatory teenage music and scenes by the swimming pool.

As an adult connoisseur of schlock horror and bad movies, this film is mildly enjoyable. Whereas some of the better teenage schlock horror films can also be enjoyed for their aesthetic value as well.

Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Dr. Frankenstein's grandson (Donald Murphy) moves to L.A. where he becomes an assistant but in his off time he is creating another brutish monster. This film runs 86-minutes and I can't help but think it would have been much better had twenty-minutes been edited out. As it stands, this is a mildly entertaining film that has a few 'so bad it's good' laughs but in the end there's just not enough going for it to be rewarding in its running time. What does work are the monsters, which includes the one the doctor is making but we also have a second one involving a young woman (Sandra Knight) who is being drugged by the bad doctor, which transforms her into a beast. The make up effects are rather silly looking but they do create a couple interesting monsters, although it's very hard to believe that actress Sally Todd is behind the main one. Now, what really kills the film is that the two monsters get very limited screen time as most of it focuses on the doctor, the young woman and her boyfriend. All the teen drama stuff just doesn't work and I'm not sure how many scenes we need with people not believing who or what the monster is. John Ashley, Knight and Murphy turn in decent performances but quite often they garner laughs due to the rather weak screenplay they're working in. Harold Lloyd, Jr., has a small role here but doesn't impress too much either.

I love this take on the "man creates monster" tale. This 1958 movie stars Donald Murphy as Oliver Frank (short for Frankenstein), grandson of the original monster maker. It is 1958, Los Angeles, and he is living with Dr. Carter Morton (Felix Locher) and assisting him with his experiments. Unbeknownst to Dr. Morton, Oliver is using the lab for not just legitimate experiments, but to try to carry on the "family business", creating a human being from body parts.

Sandra Knight portrays Trudy Morton, Dr. Morton's teenage niece. John Ashley is her good guy boyfriend, Johnny. To make a long story short, Oliver creates a woman monster using the head of Trudy's va va voom friend Suzy (played by 1957 Playmate of the Year, Sally Todd) who was killed by Oliver in a jealous rage, and various other body parts, mostly male. The resulting monster with a female head, all be it butt ugly, and male body is hilarious to say the least. There is also a side story where Oliver is drugging Trudy with a drug that turns her into a monster because she won't play hide the salami with him. The monster make up on both monsters is not scary, but laughable.

All teen oriented movies in the 1950's had to have a few dance/song sequences with that new music, rock and roll, and this movie is no exception. Surprisingly enough, John Ashley doesn't perform (he was a singer and sang in several 1950's movies, most noticeably to 50's scary movie fans in the movie "How to Create a Monster"). Instead, Harold Lloyd Jr. sings two songs with the Page Cavanaugh Trio. The songs are funny although I think they were meant to be serious back when the movie was released.

This movie has everything you would expect from a 1950's low budget horror movie...cheap sets, grade b actors, crapola make up and cheezy song and dance routines. In other words, everything for a fun movie!

For many years people derided this film as the worst Frankenstein movie ever made. Of course that was before things like FRANKENSTEIN '80 or FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS came along. I grew up watching this film on "Chiller Theatre" and now I have a beautiful sepia tinted print on video so it is indeed a pleasure of mine, and not a guilty one either. I like this film and I am not ashamed to admit it, so there! What a cast, Felix Locher, real life father of actor Jon Hall, as a dedicated but misguided scientist; Donald Murphy as yet another "last of the Frankenstein's" (the third one the movies offered us in the space of a single year!); Harold Lloyd Jr as the comedy relief, Sandra Knight (future Mrs. Jack Nicholson) as both the girl in distress AND the fill-in monster; and last but not least John Ashley as the hero. Two men played the title monster: mostly he (she?, it?) was played by Harry Wilson, former stunt double for Wallace Beery (you can see Mr. Wilson briefly in THEM! in the hospital scene. He is in the bed next to the one occupied by Olin Howland) and for the scene where the Monster is on fire stuntman George Barrows takes over. Ms. Knight is memorable as the crusty faced, bug eyed monster who dominates the first half of the movie. If she had just gone on one date with Mr. Murphy perhaps he would not have experimented on her; but of course the plot had to advance. It's the title monster that gets me. An ostensibly male body with the severely mutilated head of a female hit-and-run victim grafted on; talk about gender confusion! Mr. Murphy gets a classic bit of male chauvinism when he declares "The brain of a female is conditioned to a man's world, therefore it takes orders." Wanna bet? The first thing the monster does after it wakes up is wander out on its own and kill someone! It is polite enough to knock when it returns home at least. You have to love the party scene. Harold Lloyd Jr (backed by Paige Cavanaugh and his Trio, a jazz combo trying to ease into rock and roll) sings "Special Date" and "Daddy Bird" and nearly steals the second half of the movie. Oh, and for your trivia folder, that burned face makeup on Mr.Murphy that was immortalised in the opening credits of "Chiller Theatre" was accomplished in less than 5 minutes thanks to some clear gel, lens paper, and chocolate syrup. Director Richard Cunha made other features, but I do believe this is his best.

Everyone remembers "their first time" of doing many things. So when people ask me why this movie is in my collection, I just tell them "It was my first". It was the first time I ever saw a horror movie in a theater. It was a double bill with Frankenstein's Daughter and The Man Without a Body. My cousin who was six years older than me took me. I was 8 or 9 I think.

I was absolutely terrified. I had just barely enough guts not to put my hands over my eyes and show my cousin what a coward I was. I never saw the movie again till I was in my 50's. Hmmm, no so scary but when I let my imagination go I could still remember the night in the theater and how I felt.

The best advice I can give others on this film is that my 5 was generous. It is, however, not just bad. It is wonderfully bad! If you want to have your own Mystery Science Theater, invite some friends over, serve plenty of drinks and laugh your way though the film. But watch out that there are no little ones in the room because they may react as I did in the theater all those years ago.