Lady Frankenstein (aka La Figlia di Frankenstein) (1971)

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LiamCasey
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Lady Frankenstein (aka La Figlia di Frankenstein) (1971)

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Lady Frankenstein (aka La Figlia di Frankenstein) (1971) - Tubi

w/ Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri (aka Sara Bay), Paul Muller, Riccardo Pizzuti (aka Peter Whiteman), Herbert Fux and Mickey Hargitay. Screenplay by Edward Di Lorenzo. And directed by Mel Welles.

This movie contains all the tropes one comes to expect from a Frankenstein movie: mad scientist (Joseph Cotten), mad scientist's assistant (Paul Muller), mad scientist laboratory, grave robbers (Herbert Fux and others), hanged criminal, lightning, a hunchback (one of the other aforementioned grave robbers), etc. All of which leads to the inevitable creation of a monster (Riccardo Pizzuti) with a brain that is both criminal and damaged who quickly turns on his creator and then goes out to ravage the countryside. Which leads to the inevitable investigation by a local authority (Mickey Hargitay coming off oh-so American even though born in Hungary). And, equally inevitable, villagers with torches and a hankering for arson.

Heck, we even have someone saying, "It's alive, it's alive!".

So, overall, the grand majority of this movie (especially the first 30+ minutes) goes predictably down a path well beaten by both Universal and Hammer in earlier decades.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

But then, with the death of Mr. Cotten's character, it appears that the makers of this movie just remembered that it is the 1970s and that they are in Italy and not in the U.S. or England.

So we suddenly take a kinky side road where we now focus on Frankenstein's daughter (Rosalba Neri (who is definitely not Frankenstein's Daughter (1958))) who just happens to be a newly minted surgeon and who is interested in her father's work (but not interested enough to be present for the creation of the monster?). And who decides to pick up where her father left off not only to save his reputation but also to satisfy her own urges both emotionally and sexually. And not allowing anything to stand in the way of satisfying those urges. And, ultimately, allowing those urges to lead to her undoing. Basically, this one gives us the alternate ending of Bride of Frankenstein (1935) where Colin Clive gets it on with Elsa Lanchester while the tower laboratory blows up around them.

That sudden change saves this movie from being just "Meh!". But not by much.

But, hey, where else will you get to see a hommage to the original Frankenstein (1931) done with the monster tossing a completely naked 20-something year old woman fresh from coitus into a body of water rather than an innocent 6-year-old girl? :roll:

The big question, of course, is why the heck Joseph Cotten was in this one in the first place. Did he think the director's first name was Orson rather than Mel? :?

Originally posted October 18, 2020 on forums.tcm.com.
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