Forgotten Film Friday - Frankenstein 1970 (1958)
Did you know Boris Karloff was in a Frankenstein movie outside of the Universal Monster movies?
What is Forgotten Film Friday? Well, I'm taking a look at a film that seems to have been forgotten by film watchers. Does this mean it’s hard to find or unavailable? No, but most movie fans seem to have lost track of it. Here, I’ll point them in the direction of what I thought about them when I did end up finding them.
Plot: In post-WWII Germany, the last in the Frankenstein family invites a film crew to his estate to film a movie about the fabled monster. Little do they know that the doctor plans to create his own experiment in his hidden lab.
Review: Little did I know that there was a Frankenstein film that once again had Boris Karloff in it but wasn’t made by Universal Pictures. On my podcast, The Midnight Drive-In, we recently reviewed this film, and I was kind of surprised by it. This time, Karloff was out of the makeup and got to play the actual scientist. His take on the character is fantastic, and the story that is put together ended up being pretty good.
The film was released in 1958 and called Frankenstein 1970 for no reason other than to make it sound futuristic. Why? Who knows, because they never mention the year that it is supposed to be in the future, nor does it play any significance in the plot. Initially, they planned on calling it Frankenstein 1960 but decided it needed to be further in the future. Executives have weird ideas.
An interesting note about this film is that it takes place in post-war Germany. We see that Victor Frankenstein is disfigured and walks with a limp. He was captured by Nazis and ordered to help them find the secret of re-animating the dead. When he refused, they tortured him. Now he seeks to continue his family’s experiments but finds that their fortune has dried up. In order to get the funding he needed, he allowed an American film crew to film at his castle.
When he gets the equipment he needs, he puts together a new animated corpse. He quickly finds that some body parts are incompatible, but he has a collection of crew and cast members to choose from. People start to ask questions, which leads to new problems for Frankenstein.
Karloff is excellent, which is not surprising at all. He was usually great in just about every role, even when the movies themselves were terrible. The film crew plays their parts well, but most of them are just there for a body count as needed. Body parts don’t just grow on trees.
The monster itself is really my only complaint about the film. He is wrapped in bandages for the whole movie which in itself isn’t bad. Really, the most notable thing is that the head is wrapped up like a strange large helmet, which seems odd. If we saw something more like what we had in the old Invisible Man films, I would be completely happy with it. The large helmet gives it a goofy feel, which some may like, but it made it more comedic for me when he was sent out to find crew members to kill.
The set design is terrific, and the giant mansion has a classic set feel. The large staircase gives characters different levels to play with on-screen and keeps the film moving. We spend a lot of time in the family crypt under the castle, which houses the entrance to the secret laboratory. Of course. Where else would it be?
By the film's end, we are ready to see what this creature really looks like. You will not be disappointed by the delightful twist towards the end that explains why this scientist decided to return to the family business. This is a fantastic take on the Frankenstein story that falls right in line with the old Universal films and could even be seen as a sequel.
WATCH IT FORGET IT
The film is well worth your time, and you should seek it out, especially if you are a fan of Karloff’s original Frankenstein films.