Frankenstein 1970 (1958)

As its title implies, Frankenstein 1970 (1958) is set in the future.  Well, the future as far as 1958 is concerned.  Not that you'd know that from watching the film - apart from the title and some references in the dialogue as to how long ago the war ended, there's little to suggest that we're twelve years into the future.  Indeed, it doesn't even look that much like 1958 - apart from the fact tat there's a TV crew at the Baron's castle and that everyone keeps making reference to Frankenstein's victimisation at the hands of the Nazis, we might be forgiven for suspecting that we're in the 1930s of Universal's early Frankenstein pictures.  The main concession to the supposedly futuristic setting is that the hard up Baron is only allowing a TV crew to make a documentary about the original Frankenstein, (yes, that one, the one who made the monster), is so that he can finance the purchase of a nuclear reactor for his experiments, (apparently, in 1970, portable reactors suitable for home use are commercially available).  His plan, of course, is to use the reactor as part of his scheme to revive his ancestor's monster, having exhumed it from the crypt.  He's already removed the corrupted flesh from its skull and his immediate concern is to find it a new brain and rebuild its features, for which he needs materials.  Unfortunately for the elderly butler, he walks into the lab at the wrong time and ends up donating his brain and other bits, although, apparently, his eyes are no good.  Naturally, the Baron goes in search of some replacement eyes, working his way through the TV crew as he attempts to find a suitable pair: one pair is rejected because their donor is 'one of those small number of people with blood group A', thus making them incompatible.  (In reality, blood group A is actually not uncommon, accounting for 30% or more of the population in most European countries).  To obtain the needed spare parts, he keeps sending out his blind and bandaged monster, who stumbles and crashes around like a particularly clumsy mummy.

While the plot of Frankenstein 1970 might be pretty much standard for such a film, (barring its 'modernistic' touches like the TV crew and nuclear reactor), its main point of interest lies in its casting of Boris Karloff, the original monster himself, as the current incarnation of Baron Frankenstein.  As far as I'm aware,not only was this the last Frankenstein film Karloff would appear in, it is also his only appearance as the monster's creator, rather than as the monster, (although he did play a Frankenstein monster reviving mad scientist in House of Frankenstein (1944), but he wasn't a member of the family).  His version of the Baron is embittered and mistrustful of authority as a result of his having been tortured and disfigured by the Nazis, due to his refusal to fully co-operate with them. Simultaneously, he is wracked with guilt at the fact that eventually was blackmailed into carrying out experiments for them on concentration camp inmates, in exchange for his now deceased wife's safety.  These two factors define Karloff's characterisation of the Baron: secretive and determined to work free of the constraints and imposed morality of authority, while at the same time seeking to redeem his reputation as a serious scientist.  His aim seems to be to emulate Peter Cushing's characterisation for Hammer, of the Baron being essentially amoral in his pursuit of knowledge.  Unfortunately, the script he is working from simply isn't strongly developed enough for Karloff' to create a performance worthy of his characterisation.  At times, he does manage to create some powerful scenes, as he recalls his past ordeals and eulogises his ancestor's work in what he sees as 'pure' science, untainted by political agendas.  But all too often, he is forced to revert to the mad scientist stereotype by the script, which is itself conflicted in the way it seeks to portray the Baron.  On the one hand, it clearly wants the audience to sympathise with him in regard to his past, yet on the other it requires him to also be the villain of the piece, sending out his monster to abduct innocent victims for vivisection.

The only other 'name' actor in the cast is veteran B-movie star Don 'Red' Barry as the hard nosed TV producer, who begins to suspect that the Baron is up to no good as people start to disappear.  His character is written as a stereotype and he performs it accordingly.  The film's low budget is evident in the fact that most of the action is confined to the interior of Frankenstein's castle, represented by sets borrowed from the Warner Brothers Diana Barrymore biopic Too Much, Too Soon (1958).  The second hand sets, along with the widescreen monochrome photography, at least lend the film, (hastily shot in eight days), the impression of higher production values than its budget might have suggested.  Far too much of this action consists of people creeping around corridors or crypts, standing around wondering where various characters have gone or being chased by the rickety monster.  It does, however, boast a couple of scenes, at each end of the movie, where director Howard W Koch and writers Richard Landau and George Worthington Yeates manage to summon up some genuine atmosphere, suspense and ingenuity.  The opening has a young girl being chased outside a castle by a monster with huge hands, that relentlessly pursues her, finally chasing her into a lake, where it tries to drown her.  The sequence is genuinely quite disturbing and scary, very moodily shot and generation some real tension.  This tension is quickly dissipated as it is revealed that this was just a sequence being shot by the TV crew for their documentary.  The film never really recovers from this sense of anti-climax.  The film climaxes with the Baron and his monster being engulfed in a cloud of radioactive steam from the reactor, killing them both.  In a surprising coda, the dead monster's face is uncovered, revealing that the Baron had modelled it on himself while, simultaneously, a recording of the Baron's voice plays, explaining that, as the last of his line, he wanted the creature to carry it on, as he had been unable to create an heir naturally, (bringing to mind his earlier remark that his torture at the hands of the Nazis had left him barely identifiable 'as a man' and implying that it wasn't just metaphorical).

Despite the presence of Karloff and his valiant attempts to transcend a weak and confused script, Frankenstein 1970 never really manages to rise above the level of being a cheaply produced independent B-movie, doubtless designed to cash in on the popularity of Hammer's recent Frankenstein films, (scenes such as Karloff spilling eyeballs all over the lab seem to be in direct imitation of them).  While these latter productions, the second of which was released the same year as Frankenstein 1970, managed to give a fresh take on the story, refreshing a concept that had become stale and laughable in its earlier iteration at Universal, Frankenstein 1970 ultimately just rehashes all the standard mad scientist cliches, albeit with a few 'modern' touches.  Although the conceit of having Frankenstein a victim of Nazi brutality, the script never manages to exploit this idea to its full potential.  As it stands, it is reasonably enjoyable, but inconsequential, B horror movie.