Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster
Directed by Robert Gaffney
Written by George Garrett
1960/USA
Futurama Entertainment Corp./Vernon-Seneca Films
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Princess Marcuzan: We have won the war, but we have no women. We have come here to this plaent for one purpose only: to acquire breeding stock to repopulate our planet.[/box]
I was looking for something to cheer me up. WINNER!
Story starts out looking like your typical “Mars Needs Women” plot with Princess Marcuzan and right-hand-man Dr. Nadir in a space ship scouting Earth for a potential solution to the planet’s problem. The princess runs a tight ship and she punishes “failure” with a visit to half-alien, half-gorilla space monster “Mull”.
Simultaneously, the U.S. is attempting to launch a space ship of its own. The princess and co. mistake the rockets as missiles and shoot them down. The U.S. retaliates by manning a ship with a life-like robot. He turns into a monster when an explosion burns his circuits. The movie follows Frank as he rampages through town and the Martians as they kidnap bikini clad girls from pool and beach parties.
Things I love about this movie:
- Poster is truth in advertising. It makes the movie sound as cheesy as it actually is.
- Completely ridiculous space monster used mostly in extreme close-ups in hopes of disguising the minuscule special effects budget.
- Effective Frankenstein attire.
- Lou Cutell as Dr. Nadir. Seriously … his line readings and facial expressions must be seen to be believed.
- Every minute inside the space ship with Dr. Nadir and Princess Marcuzan.
- All the dialogue.
- It is never boring except during the musical sequences see below. You will never see anything quite like it.
Things that mark this as a “bad” movie:
- Seemingly interminable filler in which scenes of auto trips, dance parties, etc. are used over a background of faux-British Invasion American pop rock musak.
- Everything is laughably over-the-top.
On balance, obviously a must-see for fellow fans of the genre. I see that the complete film is currently available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9It2mr5hP8
