Lady Frankenstein (1971) – Episode 115 – Decades of Horror 1970s

"Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?" Wait. Do you have to be dead for the insatiable love part? Join your faithful Grue Crew - Doc Rotten, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and Jeff Mohr - as they meet the insatiable creature with the insatiable love for the dead known as Lady Frankenstein (1971).

Decades of Horror 1970s
Episode 115 – Lady Frankenstein (1971)

When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments. The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain into the muscular body of the servant Stephen in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life. Meanwhile, the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr. Frankenstein. Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter.

IMDb

 

• Directors: Mel Welles, Aureliano Luppi (co-director) (uncredited)
• Writers: Dick Randall (original story), Edward Di Lorenzo (story and screenplay)
• Cast
  • Rosalba Neri as Tania Frankenstein (credited as Sara Bay)
  • Joseph Cotten as Baron Frankenstein
  • Paul Muller as Dr. Charles Marshall (English voice: Mel Welles)
  • Riccardo Pizzuti as The Creature (credited as Peter Whiteman)
  • Herbert Fux as Tom Lynch, the graverobber
  • Mickey Hargitay as Captain Harris
  • Lorenzo Terzon as Harris' assistant (credited as Lawrence Tilden)
  • Renate Kasché, as Julia Stack (credited as Renata Cash)
  • Marino Masé as Thomas Stack (uncredited)

The first thing the Decades of Horror 1970s Grue-Crew discovered is the plethora of different cuts of Lady Frankenstein that exist in the stream-o-verse. The second thing they discovered is they had no idea who the “Stephen” in the synopsis is. Oh well. Forging ahead, Lady Frankenstein is Doc’s pick; he loves him some Frankenstein flicks. Chad favors Karloff’s monster to the one depicted in this film but thinks Joseph Cotten performs admirably in this low-budget Italian fare. Bill marvels at Cotten’s career and the number of highly regarded films in which he played. The ending seems abrupt to Jeff and, of course, they all get in on a discussion about Lady Frankenstein’s director, Mel Welles.

The Grue-Crew’s general consensus is that Lady Frankenstein is a bad film but can be a bad-film fun-watch. Various cuts are currently available for streaming from several sources. There is also a region B, Blu ray out there that includes a diverse set of extras.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror 3-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In three weeks, the next episode in their very flexible schedule will be From Beyond the Grave (1974), the last of the seven Amicus portmanteau horror films.
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