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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Frankenstein Meets The Space Monster (1965)

Starring Marilyn Hanold, James Karen, Lou Cutell, Nancy Marshall, David Kerman
Directed by Robert Gaffney
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The last survivors of an atomic war travel to Earth to abduct its women for breeding stock, while at the same time NASA prepares to secretly send an android astronaut into outer space.

The title of this film is misleading, because there is no real connection to Mary Shelley's classic horror novel "Frankenstein," other than the android being compared to the classic monster.  The space monster is also not quite as advertised, being a somewhat minor player in the film.  The best thing about the movie is the makeups, creating a cyborg look for the android after an explosion shears half the skin on his face away, and a fearsome visage for the space monster, with bulging eyes, and giant clawed hands.  However, the rest of the film doesn't have much else to recommend it.  There are no convincing special effects and there's an over-reliance on military stock footage.  On top of that, the music score rather inexplicably drifts from electronic motifs for the aliens to pop songs, including an ill-fitting love ballad as the scientists drive along the seashore to search for the android when he goes missing.

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