FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER (1958)
Article #189 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-21-2001
Posting date: 2-4-2002

The assistant to a scientist is actually the evil Dr. Frankenstein, and he’s performing hideous experiments under the scientist’s nose.

I approach my discussion of this film with a little trepidation, as I know that it is quite popular among many people I’ve known. Unfortunately, the only real appeal I can find to this movie is in the “so campy it’s good” category; as a genuinely scary movie I think it’s quite awful, despite the fact that the first minute does catch my attention. In order for a movie like this to work for me, I need to believe it on some level, but in order to suspend my disbelief with this one, I’d need a crane. Most of the problems I have revolve around the character of Dr. Frank; I find it unbelievable that he would have secret storage areas in another scientist’s house that nobody but him and his assistant know about, or that the scientist wouldn’t fire him after all the stunts he pulls (such as destroying the scientist’s hard-bought supply of Degenerol) and his constant attempts to seduce the scientist’s daughter. I also consider Donald Murphy’s performance as Dr. Frank to be one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The character doesn’t come across as being deliciously creepy, but as being a creep (and there is a difference); I almost expect to see scenes of him going through the dirty laundry and smelling everyone’s underwear. All in all, I don’t find the movie a great deal of fun; rather, I find it somewhat stupid and more than a little repellent.