Frankenstein 1970 (1958)





Dir: Howard W. Koch

The last of the Frankensteins, Baron Victor Von Frankenstein (Boris Karloff FRANKENSTEIN), toils away in his family's castle seeking to create life as his ancestor did. Disfigured at the hands of the Nazis for refusing to use his talents in their war effort he is a bitter old man, growing distant from his life long friend. Desperate for funds to purchase an atomic reactor (!) the Baron allows a television crew into his home to film a documentary for the 230th anniversary of the birth of Frankenstein's monster.


Consumed with creating his creature and in need of fresh body parts the Baron orders his not yet finished monster to kill the staff and the visiting television crew. I will give the crew some credit as it only takes three mysterious disappearances before they go to the police.


There's not much to the plot. The viewer spends most of the running time waiting for characters to stop blathering on and the cheap looking monster (a tall actor wrapper from head to toe in bandages) to appear and knock in some heads. It's a bit of a slog getting to the surprise reveal at the very end of the film but Karloff's maniacal chewing of the scenery manages to enliven things a bit.

Behold! The monster!

** out of ****

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