Tag Archives: frankenstein

“Lady Frankenstein” (1972) – Debauched Baroness

Either you will find this enjoyable or feel revulsion at its sordidness. Here is a version of “Frankenstein” that elaborates on the general tale and ends up pouring on excessive violence and twisted themes.

Dr. Frankenstein is practicing his favorite past time, namely, sewing together bits and pieces of dead bodies and reanimating the resultant corpse. Into this unnatural environment is the arrival of Frankenstein’s daughter, returned from university. She has an admiration for her father’s studies and wants to prolong his legacy by doing a bit of body stitching herself. Never mind that she is a bit afflicted with her own mental issues and a raging libido. After her father is destroyed by his own patchwork being, his daughter uses what she learned from dear old dad to affix her handicapped husband’s superior brain in the strong, flawless body of a half-witted servant who hangs around the castle and to whom she is madly attracted.

In the meantime, Frankenstein’s monster runs amok around the countryside, dispatching and murdering townsfolk. Anxious to build her own Perfect Man, Lady Frankenstein doesn’t give the rampaging monster much thought but first wants to fulfill her own creative, corpse building ambitions and take time to praise the great work of her father. Oh yeah. And jump in and out of the sack. lol.

This picture clearly borrows from Hammer Films and their reliance on gore and sexy women and the Italian Horror cycle which proliferated in the 1970’s. Roger Corman pitched in some money to make sure this travesty got completed and his New World Pictures distributed the film in America. Noted actor Joseph Cotton shilled for a paycheck in this bungle.

See also: “Horror of Frankenstein”, “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein”.

The Terminal Man (1974) – Science For A Better Tomorrow

Author Michael Crichton made a career of fabricating yarns about scientific pursuits which are intended for the advancement and betterment of Man going horribly awry. Whether it be an unfailing belief in the infallibility of scientific advancement being a good thing and absolutely essential to our well being or just a catastrophic domino effect of good intentions and can’t fail scientific method crumbling into chaos, Crichton offered up a bevy of such cautionary tales about our experts overstepping their bounds with regard to natural order and development.

Case in point: The Terminal Man. This cinematic take explores what would happen if a psychologically damaged individual was administered a surgical procedure to curb his appalling tendency to succumb to seizure induced bouts of homicidal rage. Well, let us say, that it only makes things worse. Chalk up another big victory for science as it certainly meant well.

Great George Segal movie. He wildly swings from playing the weak, helpless subject of his laboratory masters to becoming a raging, menacing maniac. A modern day Frankenstein monster. Nightmarish.

May Segal rest in peace.

Ex Machina (2014) – Trust Nothing

Science Fiction mind fuckage in the high mode. AI experiments run rampant in a secluded state of the art home/fortress/laboratory surrounded by some of the most grandeur examples of nature imaginable. In this fabulous environment, human and artificial intelligence interact and collide, deceiving each other along the way and providing a battleground for a survival of the fittest both mentally and physically. Not hard to imagine who comes out on top. Beautifully shot with some creepy footage of the initial AI experiments of brilliant programmer Nathan. It is his last creation, Ava, who takes on a very vibrant life of her own that far exceeds the expectations of all involved. (SEE ALSO: “Frankenstein”, “Games”, “Colossus: The Forbin Project”, “Demon Seed”)

COUNT DRACULA – 1970

 

cd3

Christopher Lee commented that he welcomed this take as Dracula because it was a role that followed the novel source material closer than the Hammer Film’s series which brought Lee to international stardom.  Lee also had a chance to emote beyond the various snarls, grunts and invectives that the Hammer Dracula required.  I look back fondly on this film, admittedly. a low budget affair.  Yes.  The interior sets look a bit prefabricated and cheap and spray on spider webs adorn Dracula’s castle to an uncomfortable degree but there are many charming exterior sequences that sustain my interest.  There is also a nice turn by macabre movie veteran Klaus Kinski as a bug eyed, creepy Renfield.  I remember seeing Christopher Lee at a horror movie convention in the 1970’s where he sat not more than five feet away surrounded by fans and talked of his career.  It was a very awesome experience for an impressionable youth, being me.  I always enjoyed Lee’s work, whether it be portraying Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, The Man with the Golden Gun, or Dracula.  A true giant in the world of fantasy films, Lee will be greatly missed.

NEWS FLASH – 10/07/16 – I watched some of this flick last night and noticed that Van Helsing (Herbert Lom) had blue hair!  The back of his gentlemanly white pate was an odd shade of blue.  WTF?  Nice touch whether intentional or not.