Lady Frankenstein (1971)
Directed by Mel Welles and Aureliano Luppi (uncredited); written by Dick Randall and Edward Di Lorenzo.
Having recently seen Frankenstein's Daughter (1958), which features no female relative of Frankenstein at all (the title is strictly a metaphor for the monster), as well as Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966), which actually features Frankenstein's granddaughter, it was refreshing to finally see a film which actually involves Frankenstein's daughter. (In fact, the Italian title for this Spaghetti Gothic is La figlia di Frankenstein.) It seems appropriate that this variation on the Frankenstein theme resembles something created from various bits and pieces, then somehow brought to life. I found it to be more entertaining than I expected.
(Trival conincidence: Not too long ago I happened to hear the Rob Zombie song "Living Dead Girl" on the radio. It began with this sampled quote: "Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?" I wondered what this was from, and I was going to ask the smart folks around here, but the IMDB reveals that it is from the trailer for Lady Frankenstein.)
We begin with typical Frankenstein stuff, as some graverobbers deliver their wares to the Baron and his assistant Charles. (As in the Hammer series, Frankenstein is a titled aristocrat. In fact, most of the first part of this film resembles a Hammer movie.) It turns out that Frankenstein needs a body no more than six hours dead to procede with his plan to revive a corpse. Amazingly, the graverobbers do not murder somebody to get the body. Instead, they wait until a condemned murderer is hanged and then grab his body out of the grave. The revival involves transplanting the murderer's heart and brain into another corpse, then raising the body, in typical Universal horror movie style, to the castle's skylight so it can get zapped by lightning.
(A word here on the heart and brain transplantion theme. This movie seems to imply that the heart is literally the seat of emotions, as the brain is the seat of thought. This odd notion reminds me of the movie Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961), where the dead are brought back to life after heart transplants, even one which has been rotting in the grave for quite a long time.)
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
During the lightning-induced revival (a scene which also includes a bunch of bats flying around, I suppose just to make things a little more spooky) the monster gets zapped in the face and starts to burn. This happens just so it will look ugly. The makeup used here reminds me a lot of the kind of thing that used to show up in Famous Monsters of Filmland long ago, where some kid would send in a photograph of himself (nearly always himself, of course) in his homemade monster face. In other words, gruesome but not very professional or convincing. A few minutes after the monster comes to life, it kills Frankenstein. (Charles told him not to use a brain with a damaged hypothalamus, particularly one from a murderer!) Exit Joseph Cotton, who actually makes a pretty good Peter Cushing.
You'll notice that I have not yet mentioned Lady Frankenstein. (Since she's the daughter of a Baron, I suppose the title is appropriate enough.) She's shown up by this time, but doesn't yet play much of a role in the story. Tania Frankenstein (who has a first name which seems rather unlikely to me, given the vaguely 19th Century England setting of this thing; the characters all have names like Jim Turner and Jack Morgan) is played by Italian exploitation actress Rosalbi Nori, under the pseudonym Sara Bay. Nori is strikingly beautiful, and is quite delightful to watch in her Victorian gowns. (Many gentlemen may prefer the two brief scenes where she is wearing nothing.) In particular, her aristocratic profile is a thing of joy. Lady Frankenstein is played as a very intelligent, strong-willed woman, who has just returned from the University with her degree in surgery.
The movie changes from early Hammer horror to later, sexed-up Hammer horror when the monster begins its rampage. The first victims are a couple making out by a stream. Sadly, the man is completely clothed and the woman is stark naked. The female nudity in this movie is extremely gratuitous, and rather out of place, given the PG level of violence. Lady Frankenstein's two nude scenes, it must be admitted, are more relevant to the plot.
As expected, Lady Frankenstein sets out to continue her father's experiments, not only to destroy the monster who is decimating the village, but, in an interesting plot twist, to create the perfect man for herself. She admires Charles for his mind, but prefers a simple-minded but strong and handsome servant for his body. Charles is so smitten with Lady Frankenstein that he agrees to have his brain transplanted into the servant's body. In the movie's kinkiest scene, Lady Frankenstein seduces the servant and has Charles suffocate him with a pillow while she's having sex with him. (Mind you, by this time she is actually married to Charles, and is called Mrs. Marshall by everybody. Poor Charles puts up with a lot for the object of his affections.)
(Remember that thing about the heart transplant that I mentioned? We find out here that it won't be necessary to transplant Charles's heart into his new body, because the servant already has a kind heart!)
Long story short, this all leads up to the final battle between the monster and the new Charles. The movie ends with an scene which reminds me of nothing so much as the old article from National Lampoon "How to Write Good," which suggested that you end your story with "Then they were all hit by a truck." No trucks are involved, but the final fate of Lady Frankenstein is just as sudden and unexpected.
Surprisingly, this movie has some interesting characters (I liked the cynical graverobber Lynch), some sharp dialogue ("On Earth, Man is God."), and some decent acting. Many outdoor scenes are filmed in the snow, adding an interesting touch. Mickey Hargitay, of all people, is pretty much wasted as the police captain investigating the murders, but it's interesting to compare his sanity here compared to his role in Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965). I think you might enjoy spending some time with this lovely and talented Lady.