Baron Victor von Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) is the last of the Frankenstein lineage. Having been tortured during WWII for not cooperating with the Nazis he has been maimed suffering from a facial disfigurement and a permanent limp. Now in his ancestral castle he continues with his experiments in secret. The monster created by the first Frankenstein still exists but is in need of repair.
Frankenstein works in a secret lab repairing the monster. Needing money to fund his experiments he has leased out his castle and grounds to a film crew. Douglas Row (Don Barry) is shooting a movie based on Victor Frankenstein’s ancestor and his monster creation. With the money he gets from the movie people the Baron can purchase the final piece of equipment he needs, a nuclear reactor.
The Baron’s servant Shutter (Norbert Schiller) stumbles on the Baron’s secret lab. Since the Baron needs new body parts anyway he kills Shutter and uses his brain for the monster. Needing eyes the Baron sends Shutter to kill Row. Instead the monster goes to the room of Row’s secretary and ex-wife Judy Stevens (Charlotte Austin). Now two people are missing from the castle and the Baron’s friend and accountant Wilhelm Gottfried (Rudolph Anders) is very suspicious of what is going on.
After cameraman Morgan Haley (John Dennis) goes missing Row calls the police. Inspector Raab (Irwin Berke) shows up to investigate. When the inspector comes up short on clues Dr. Frankenstein is free to continue culling body parts from his castle guests.
“Frankenstein 1970” was released in 1958 and was directed by Howard W. Koch. It is a low budget science fiction/horror film produced by poverty row distributor Allied Artists, formerly Monogram Studios.
Originally the film was to be titled “Frankenstein 1960”. The 1970 in the title is intended to give the film a futuristic feel. The filmmakers felt that an independent researcher owning an atomic reactor in 1960 would be unbelievable. Apparently in 1970 they were expected to be all the rage.
The title may have turned me off but the movie didn’t. I actually enjoyed the mix of creepy castle and modern laboratory. As a whole I found the film to be a refreshing take on the basic Frankenstein story. There is a surprise beginning and a surprise twist ending that gave the film an added dimension.
Although the monster is not much more than a pile of surgical tape wrapped around a guy with a bucket on his head the make-up for Dr. Frankenstein AKA Boris Karloff is quite convincing. He actually looks like a disfigured refugee from a concentration camp. That plus his acting skills makes him one of the creepiest Dr. Frankensteins I’ve ever seen. He’s far scarier than the actual monster. Some may think that his performance was a little on the ham sandwich side but what’s a mad scientist without a little ham and cheese. Because of the lame looking monster many people found the movie stupid. I liked it despite the lame looking monster.
The Motion Picture Production Code, as usual, had some changes they wanted to the script and to the original cut of the film. One of them was a sound effect. Originally the disposal that Dr. Frankenstein uses to get rid of unused body parts had a grinding noise attached to it. The original sound was a little too gruesome for the code’s taste so it was replaced with the sound of a flushing toilet. It’s supposedly the first time a toilet flush was used in a movie.