FRANKENSTEIN – 1970 (1958)
Article #547 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 9-13-2002
Posting date: 2-6-2003

A descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein is engaged in experiments of his own.

This movie starts out with a bang with a thrilling chase through a swamp, so you know the people who made it were capable of shooting an exciting film; unfortunately, it turns out the scene is from a movie being shot in the area rather than a part of the movie itself, and this rather disappointing revelation leads us into the real story, which leaves us with the feeling that we’d rather have seen the movie they were shooting. This lame variation on the Frankenstein tale makes the major mistake of keeping the monster in bandages from head to toe throughout the movie, and though this may be necessary for the final revelation, it certainly makes for a disappointing monster; the fact that his head seems to be the size and shape of a wastebasket doesn’t help, either. But I think the real disappointment here is Karloff’s performance; it’s the weakest one of his that I have seen. He seems to have been saddled with too many gimmicks, what with the big scar on his face and the exaggerated limp being more distracting than scary, and though he handles certain scenes quite well, there are others where he is overacting and seems somewhat desperate. This is a shame; a good performance from him might have lifted this dull movie immensely; as it is, it’s one of the least interesting movies with the Frankenstein name attached to it.