A group of Martians led by Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold) and
scientist Dr Nadir (Lou Cutell) approach earth to harvest for females
(yes, Mars needs Women once more), because a nuclear war has
destroyed the planet's female population or at least made them sterile.
And just to prove a point, our Martians shoot all earth rocketships out of
the sky - despite the fact that they want to remain unnoticed.
Back on earth, scientist Dr Steele (James Karen), army general Bowers
(David Kerman) and Steele's love interest Karen (Nancy Marshall) have
decided to send an android, Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly) with the next
rocketship they send to Mars. Of course, soon enough, this rocketship,
too, is shot out of the skies by our Martian friends, but Saunders manages
to escape the crash in the escape pod, which eventually crashlands in
Puerto Rico. The Martian decide they have to kill Saunders, who is a
witness, so they land in Puerto Rico as well. And our trio of earthmen
(and -women) decide to go to Puerto Rico as well to retrieve Saunders.
Saunders though has been damaged by the crash and is now a deformed
monster killing everyone in his sight - including quite a few monsters.
Eventually though, Steele and Karen have tracked the monster down to a
cave on their Vespa roller (!), where they perform an operation on him to
make him a good monster again.
Karen however is soon abducted by the Martians with plenty of go-going
teenagers in swimwear in order to be brought to Mars for breeding
purposes. But then the Martians capture Saunders as well, and Saunders
frees all the girls and fights the Martians' own spacemonster (Bruce
Glover) to a standstill. Eventually, the Martians decide to leave earth in
a hurry, but unfortunately Saunders is still on board, and ultimately he
blows up the Martian spaceship in mid-air ...
This is it ! One of the greatest pieces of trashy drive-in moviemaking,
a film that scores high on all the so-bad-it's-good-scores: It was
obviously underbudgeted, it features a incredibly silly-looking monster,
the alien costumes are hilarious, and the script is ridiculous and full of
plotholes. And then there are these scenes you just stare at in disbelief:
Why for example do Steele and Karen try to track down something as
complex as an android on nothing more sophisticated than a Vespa roller ?
Why do the Martians bring their very own spacemonster with them ?
Why does a little damage turn the android into a killer ?
... and this list could go on endlessly.
And as if all that wasn't enough, there are several scenes thrown in
for budgetary reasons that make next to no sense storywise. For example an
elongated moped-ride past tourist sites of San Juan/Puerto Rico that had
to be included in the film to allow the company to shoot for free in
Puerto Rico. And then of course the extended stock footage from the NASA,
the Army and the Air Force, that are merely in the film to stretch the
running time.
In other words, One could for sure call Frankenstein Meets the Space
Monster a bad movie ... but one not to be missed !!!
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