LADY FRANKENSTEIN Vampires, Mummies & Monsters

Italy - U.S.A. | 1971 Directed by Mel Welles Starring Joseph Cotten "Sarah Bay" (Rosalba Neri) Paul Muller Color | 84 Minutes | R Format: DVD (R0-NTSC | 2-disc set) Shout! Factory

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		EC Home Review List Coming Soon Downloads
		Review by Brian Lindsey Film:6 DVD:8

Replaces EC's review of the 2001 DVD Drive-in edition DVD Rating is for entire 4-film set

Rosalba Neri, the Italian sex goddess of the 1960s and '70s, generates her own form of electricity as the title character in Mel Welles' low budget Eurosleaze shocker Lady Frankenstein.

For some reason the story is set in England rather than the customary Germany or Switzerland. Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten), aided by his assistant Charles Marshall (Paul Muller of Nightmare Castle), 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 license. 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 (Mark of the Devil's 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 (or penis?)-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 (Mickey Hargitay, Delirum) 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 cohorts, 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 (Marino Mase), 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.)

Rescued at the last minute by a cash infusion from the notoriously tightfisted Roger Corman, Lady Frankenstein is a low budget affair filmed in Italy by American Mel Welles. Screen veteran Joseph Cotten, slumming near the end of his career, gets top billing though he's killed off 35 minutes in. The rest of the proceedings benefit mightily from a cast populated by experienced European character actors. 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 cowboy 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 Napoleonic era policeman! Muller is his usual reliable and convincing self, playing the critical supporting character on whose decisions much of the plot turns. 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 childlike 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 (99 Women, Amuck!) pulls this off marvelously. Unmitigated evil can be sexy!

Lady Frankenstein shouldn't be missed by anyone who enjoys Hammer-influenced gothic Eurohorror. They're sure to get a charge out of it.

For years a mainstay of cheap-o public domain releases (and easily viewable online), Lady Frankenstein gets its best U.S. home video edition to date via Shout! Factory's two-disc Vampires, Mummies and Monsters Collection. The other titles in the four-film set are 1971's The Velvet Vampire (which shares Disc 1 with Lady), Time Walker (AKA Being from Another Planet, 1982), and Grotesque (1988). The subject of this particular review is easily the best, most entertaining of the quartet.

Lady's anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer isn't exactly pristine, exhibiting minor print damage and omnipresent grain, but colors are stable and interiors are sharper and more detailed than I've ever seen them; some of the nighttime/outdoors scenes obviously suffer in comparison but remain superior to any other DVD version. (The worst-looking section is the opening credits, set in a cemetery at night. But let there be no misunderstanding... The film has never looked better than it does here, at least in America, making the new Shout! disc the definitive DVD edition to date.) As with the other films in the collection, audio is your basic Dolby Digital Mono track. In Lady's case I noted a few instances of distortion but they're quite minor and never impair one's enjoyment. EXTRAS: In addition to a photo gallery, TV spot and the rather battered theatrical trailer, Lady comes with an intriguing bonus feature... the full 95-minute 'international cut' of the movie! The extra 12 minutes of footage is taken from different source materials which are inferior to those of the U.S. theatrical print, but — with the exception of one scene culled from a horribly washed-out VHS master with burned-in subtitles — not disconcertingly so. Selecting "Play Extended Version" from the menu restores these scenes via seamless branching, which an onscreen text message explains may cause some machines to briefly pause during the switchover. This 'hiccup' occurred on both my DVD and Blu-ray players, making the Extended Version a trifle awkward to watch, but since the extra footage doesn't contain any additional Neri nudity or monster mayhem it didn't really bother me. In the longer cut, Hargitay's police captain gets additional screen time and there's a bit more depth to Neri and Muller's characters; the film seems slightly less choppy but the pace is also slowed. This 'complete' version of Lady was certainly interesting to see but all in all I still prefer the 84-minute cut. (As for the other films in the set, Velvet Vampire is given an audio commentary, trailer and photo gallery; Time Walker a trailer and two short interview featurettes. There are no supplements for Grotesque.) 10/07/11

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