Starring Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri, Paul Muller, Peter Whiteman, Herbert Fux
Directed by Mel Welles
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
Doctor Frankenstein welcomes home his medically trained daughter just as he is attempting to bring a re-assembled corpse back to life, and she is eager to follow in his experiments.
Welles, and his uncredited co-director Aureliano Luppi, per IMDB, bring more sex and gore to the screen in their Frankenstein adaptation, which borrows more from James Whale's 1931 film than Mary Shelley's novel. I would have liked for the film to delve more into Cotten's portrayal of Frankenstein, but this is Neri's movie all the way, with the stunning raven-haired actress making a decided impact both clothed and unclothed once Cotten is dispatched fairly early in the film. The monster's design is fairly simplistic but effective, which includes a grotesque disfigured face, ruined when the lightning that is supposed to revive him sets his face on fire, but there's not much imagination, staging or photography wise put into his attacks. The screenplay is at its best in the interviews of Neri and her partner Muller by Mickey Hargitay's police captain Harris, who quickly establishes their guilt. I liked his character very much, and thought he kept things interesting. Alessandro Alessandroni's score is repetitive at times but has some lovely cues for the beautiful Neri. Overall, I wouldn't say it's a particularly accomplished film, and find it almost more of a slasher picture than a gothic horror, with a good bit of female nudity to titillate the audience, but it's certainly memorable.
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