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5
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3 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Rosalba
Neri (99 Women, Amuck!),
the Italian sex goddess of the '60s and early
'70s, generates her own form of electricity as
the title character in Mel Welles' low budget
Eurosleaze shocker Lady
Frankenstein.
For some inexplicable reason
the story is set in England rather than the customary
Germany or Switzerland. Baron Frankenstein (Joseph
Cotton), aided by his assistant Charles Marshall
(Paul Müller), is up to his usual regimen
of graverobbing and experimentation. When his
lovely daughter Tania (Neri) returns from university,
he is surprised and pleased to learn that she
is aware of his experiments and wants nothing
more than to help him fulfill his dream. A proto-feminist
of the 1820s, Tania has studied to become a fully
qualified surgeon, overcoming discrimination to
gain her medical licence. Her fervor to carry
on the Baron's less than ethical research is troubling
to Charles — a homely man with a crippled leg
who is morally conflicted about his association
with Frankenstein. He's also been madly in love
with the beautiful Tania since she was a teen.
With corpses supplied by slimy
criminal Lynch (Herbert Fux — yes, that's
his real name) and his gang of drunken ghouls-for-hire,
the Baron finally completes the construction of
a human body he can attempt to reanimate. A hanged
criminal, as always, provides the essential parts:
a heart and (damaged) brain. Activated by lightning,
the goofy looking, mushroom-domed monster attacks
and kills the Baron by crushing him in a bear
hug, then strolls out of the castle. Rather than
being devastated by her father's death, the steely
Tania declares that she will continue his work,
making his name immortal in the annals of science.
She tells Charles that vengeance, too, motivates
her; a new creature will be created that will
destroy her father's killer. Charles is shocked
but will do anything Tania asks — he's totally
whipped. (Can't really blame the guy, though.)
With the Baron's violent death,
local authority in the guise of Police Captain
Harris (Delirum's Mickey
Hargitay) comes calling at the castle. Tania and
Charles announce that they are married (funny,
but I totally missed the ceremony — must've been
in Vegas), and lie to Harris about Baron Frankenstein's
murder. They claim that a robber broke into the
lab and killed him when caught in the act. The
swaggering, sarcastic Harris doesn't believe them.
But without proof he's unable to act. Besides,
he soon has a bigger problem on his hands: the
Monster has begun killing locals it randomly encounters
in the countryside. (Including a funny scene in
which the creature
happens upon a naked woman and her [clothed] boyfriend
going at it by the river. 'Shroom-head grabs the
woman, carries her off, then chucks her in the
water further downstream — damn near falling in
himself in the process.) Later the Monster kills
Lynch and his co-horts, supposedly for their role
in his blasphemous creation. Harris learns that
the late Baron had 'business' dealings with Lynch
and starts to connect the dots. While this is
going on, Tania puts her evil scheme in motion.
The besotted Charles declares
his undying love but Tania rebuffs his physical
advances. She callously informs him that he's
too lame and ugly to have sex with. Instead she
proposes that they murder the castle's handsome
but retarded handyman, Thomas, and transplant
Charles' brain into his skull! In that way she
can fulfill all her desires in one stroke: to
complete her father's work, to unleash a superhuman,
lightning-charged avenger on her father's killer,
and create the perfect lover for herself — one
with the mind of a scientist and the physique
of a young stud. She tantalizes Charles with the
promise of possessing her magnificent body...
How can the poor dope say no? (Tania's
amoral ruthlessness would seem to undercut Welles'
claim that the flick has a "pro-feminist"
message.)
If all this sounds decidedly
cheesy, it's because it is. Rescued at the
last minute by a cash infusion from the notoriously
tight-fisted Roger Corman, Lady
Frankenstein is a low budget affair filmed
in Italy by American Mel Welles. Screen veteran
Joseph Cotton, slumming near the end of his career,
gets top billing though he's killed off 35 minutes
in. The rest of the procedings benefit mightily
from a cast populated by experienced European
character actors who are dubbed but mouth the
dialog in English. The dubbing was apparently
done in the States by Corman's people; this leads
to the quirky anomaly of a film set in an early
19th Century England where the townspeople talk
and sound like the cast of a post-Civil War western.
Hargitay's sarcastic Captain Harris, in particular,
is a real hoot. Both the script and the dubbing
have him come off more like a wise-guy Noir film
detective than a Napoloeonic era policeman! But
it's Rosalba Neri (billed as "Sarah Bay"),
at the height of her beauty, who really steals
the show. Her Tania is a calculating, self-centered
bitch who's willing to drive a man to murder so
she can enjoy a good-looking boy toy. The scene
in which she wickedly seduces the child-like Thomas
is the high point of the film. Teasingly undressing
in front of him, Tania mounts the poor sap while
a tortured Charles watches from behind a curtain.
Charles then sneaks up and suffocates Thomas with
a pillow. Tania climaxes as the retarded man dies,
sensuously biting her hand to stifle her own cries
of pleasure. Neri pulls this off marvelously.
Evil never looked so sexy.
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Lady
Frankenstein
is the debut release of DVD
Drive-in, the cult film website. The disc comes
with a notable selection of extras including TV
spots, some fun trailers for this and other Eurosleaze
pics, a nude photo gallery of the leading lady and
two recently-held interviews with Neri and Welles.
The Q
and A with director Welles is fairly interesting;
he provides numerous anecdotes about the cast and
the making of the film. (Nearly 80, the elderly
Welles does get some names mixed up. He refers to
Italian special effects wizard Carlo Rambaldi
as "Franco" and confuses movie producer
Carlo Ponti with Dino Di Laurentiis.) During this
interview, however, Welles suggests the DVD features
a (quote) "pristine" copy of his film.
Not by a long shot, folks. I assume he hadn't
seen it prior to the taping of the interview.
The quality of the print used (the slightly trimmed
U.S. export version) is wildly uneven. At times
it's murky, cropped, washed out and/or grainy.
Film damage is evident in a number of scenes. Obviously,
this was the best print the folks at DVD Drive-in
could get their hands on. Making matters worse,
it appears to be a fullframe transfer that's been
matted to replicate the letterbox format. It's truly
a disappointment, detracting from what is otherwise
a handsome presentation. 6/18/01 |
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