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I Was a Teenage Frankenstein
USA 1957
produced by Herman Cohen, Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson for Santa Rosa Productions, AIP
directed by Herbert L. Strock
starring Whit Bissell, Phgyllis Coates, Robert Burton, Gary Conway, George Lynn, John Cliff, Marshall Bradford, Claudia Bryar, Angela Blake, Russ Whiteman, Charles Seel, Paul Keast, Gretchen Thomas, Patrick Miller, Joy Stoner
written by Kenneth Langtry (= Herman Cohen, Aben Kandel), based on a character created by Mary W. Shelley, music by Paul Dunlap
Frankenstein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Rather by chance, Doctor Frankenstein (Whit Bissell) and his assistant
Karlton (Robert Burton) get hold of the dead body of a victim of a car
accident while discussing the possibility of returning life to the dead
(or returning the dead back to life, you choose) - and Frankenstein is not
one to miss up on an opportunity, and immediately starts to work on the
corpse, even stealing bodyparts from other accident victims as
replacements for the damaged parts of his own body. Only the face remains
that of a monster for some reason. Ultimately, Frankenstein and Karlton
breathe life back into the corpse via their electrical apparatus, and once
brought back to life, they teach the creature (Gary Conway) to speak,
teach it manners and basic human values. But the creature has the brain of
a young man, and he wants to be among his own, so at the first
possibility, he makes an escape and shows up at a nearby dorm where he
tries to mingle with the residents - but he only freaks out a young girl
(Angela Blake) he promptly kills in response. Remorseful, he returns to
the doctor's lab ... Frankenstein manages to shake the police off his
tail, as nobody knows about the nature of his experiments of course, but
his fiancée (Phyllis Coates) starts to suspect something - so he lures
her into a trap and lets the creature feed her to his pet alligator. Then
he gives the creature what it always wanted, a new, human face, lifted
from y local youngster picked up at lovers lane. The creatures new face
presents Frankenstein with a new set of problems though, as the boy he
lifted it from was well-known around town. So he decides to disassemble
the creature, ship it to England, reassemble it and then present it to the
science world. However, the creature is quick to sense there's something
fishy and gets into a fight with its creator, whom it ultimately throws to
his own alligator. Karlton has alarmed the police meanwhile who now force
the creature back into Frankenstein's electrical apparatus where it
electrocutes itself ... I
Was a Teenage Werewolf might not have been a very good movie, but
as a marriage of old-fashioned horror and teenage topics, it was a small
revelation. I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, its companion piece in
title mainly, was nothing of the sort, just a weak variation of the old Frankenstein
myth played out in contemporary sets and costumes while paying next to no
attention to the teenage-portion of its title. Granted, lovers of
1950's horror and science fiction drive in cinema like myself will still
find something to like in this movie, including many of its shortcomings,
but that said, better not expect something other than a (still likeable)
piece of routine schlock when watching this one.
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