User Reviews

Rosalba Neri is very hot indeed as the titular Lady Frankenstein though she is called Mrs. Marshall throughout the film. After her father's death, played by Joseph Cotton who must be wondering how the hell he's gone from Citizen Kane to cheap euro-horror, by the hands of the Baron's creation with a brain supplied by a man that eerily resembles Patrick Swayze circa Point Break, the nubile doctor Tania Frankenstein becomes determined to advance in her father's morbid work. It's a good thing too because I can't see Joe Cotton pulling off asphyxiation and orgasms quite like Ms. Neri can. The Baron's assistant Charles has long been enamored with Tania and wishes to woo her now that her old man is kaput. Tania loves his mind but can't quite picture jumping into the sack with the old horny bastard without a serious makeover. That is where village dolt Thomas steps in as the half-wit has been graced with good looks and brings the thunder into Tania's private lab if you catch my drift. Now, all Tania has to do is put Charles's brain into Thomas' body and voilà! instant marriage material. Too bad Mickey Hargitay as a persistent police captain keeps inquiring into what exactly her father's experiments entailed and why did he associate with graverobbers. Definitely one of the most amusing and downright bizarre endings I have ever seen. Who knew the sight of a mutilated corpse got her juices flowing?

I give this film a lot of credit by retelling the story of Frankenstein as apposed to the more faithful to the mythos Hammer films which is geared more for the hard-core euro-horror fans. Rosalba Neri is extremely engaging as the sexy doctor and commands your attention in every scene not just her nude ones. The supporting cast does a great job as well with a special salute to Herbert Fux as a slimy graverobber. My major complaint is that this film looks like it was edited with a samurai sword. Scenes appear for a second then disappear without any reason whatsoever. The version I saw was the 84 minute cut though I wonder what was excised from the film as most of the gore and plenty of nudity still remained. On a side note this is the third consecutive film in the "Chilling Classics" collection that features an adult woman sexually seducing a mentally challenged man/child. This is not a trend I would like to see continue thank you very much. Grab some popcorn and enjoy this guilty pleasure.

When Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton) is killed by his creation, his daughter sets out to create her own to bring the killer to justice and to make herself the perfect mate while she's at it. This one focuses on this more disturbing aspect of this and does a decent job of exploiting it.

I was quite stunned to see so many wonderful sets and costumes here, plus a decent atmosphere and lighting too. The film looks better than it is...The Monster may not be up to expectation but the rest delivers better than you might expect.

I gave this a 5 because of Rosalba Neri's wonderful performance as the Lady Frankenstein. Actually she's the daughter of Dr. Frankenstein, played by Joseph Cotten in a routine manner, but routine from Cotten is always good regardless. The flick deserves more than 5 based upon Neri, and decent acting all around, good sets and good atmosphere. It also deserves less than 5 due to a pretty crummy monster, both in appearance and mannerisms. Makes one long for the days of Glenn Strange, or even Kiwi Kingston. It's like everyone went to sleep when it came time to design the monster, because everything else is above average. And way above average is the performance of Neri as a really sexy and domineering lady doctor. She's a 10 in this flick and makes it worth watching.

Mel Welles, you might remember him as Mr. Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, directs this somewhat interesting yet wholly twisted tale of Dr. Frankenstein's daughter carrying on her father's work after his death and creating a creature not for its intellectual ability or its likelihood to be/do good but rather for its sex appeal. You see, Tania Frankenstein, though a doctor and scientist in her own right, is concerned with really nothing more than satiating her primal desires for the stable boy and making some super sex slave by using his body with the excellent brain of a man she does not love. The story is tissue-thin here, and one gets what one might expect: lots of leering and suggestive comments(surprisingly most from the female lead), special effects that are not so special, acting that lacks depth of characterization, and not really much action or suspense. And while this film is almost barren in regards to good storytelling, Lady Frankenstein does oddly have some aspects which make it watchable - not highly watchable but watchable nonetheless. Italian actress Rosalba Neri AKA Sara Bay/Bey plays the Baron's daughter with some aplomb and lots and lots of sex appeal. She oozes desire and seduction quite well. Her performance is pretty one-dimensional, but she is quite lovely and plays over-the-top a little too well. She is also very open with her performance if you catch my drift. Poor Joseph Cotten, now regulated to European horror films for money, plays the father in a brief yet competent performance. He is the star attraction but gone before the film really kicks into a gear. As for the rest of the cast, Paul Muller is somewhat effective as Dr. Charles Marshall, the baron's assistant and an admirer of the daughter for some time. As crimes and missing persons begin to unfold in the village, policeman(I wasn't buying this)Mickey Hargitay starts to pump Tania for answers - despite what you might think not to her satisfaction. Where the movie really loses credibility is in the final third of the film where the suspect script, weak performances, and lackluster direction all head further South. The creature is revealed and looks quite ridiculous. The film ends somewhat abruptly with one of the hasty resolutions very common in the 1970s. While not nearly as bad and repulsive as some might want you to think, Lady Frankenstein is indeed a very flawed film with some perverse albeit intriguing overtones.

This movie essentially begins with a man named "Baron Frankenstein" (Joseph Cotten) conducting secret experiments with his assistant "Charles Marshall" (Paul Muller). As luck would have it, they are soon visited by Baron Frankenstein's daughter "Tanya" (Rosalba Neri) who tells them that she has just attained the title of surgeon from a university and wants to help them on their research. However, Baron Frankenstein is hesitant to tell her everything because he doesn't want her involved in case anything goes wrong. As a result, he continues working in secret and not long afterward successfully transplants a heart and a brain from a recently deceased murderer into another body. Unfortunately, before he can complete his work "the monster" (Peter Whiteman) kills him and escapes from the laboratory into the surrounding area where he immediately goes on a killing rampage. Undaunted by all of this, Tanya not only attempts to cover up any evidence leading to her father's culpability but also continues even further with her father's experiments. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather unusual film which had both good and bad points. For starters, I liked the way Tanya developed into such an evil and manipulative person after the death of her father. On the other hand, I thought the appearance of the monster was quite ludicrous and hurt the overall effect immensely. Be that as it may, because of its uneven nature I have rated this movie according. Average.

Low budget, but still creepy enough to hold your interest in another take off on the familiar Frankenstein story. This movie is also known as LADY FRANKENSTEIN. The alluring Tania Frankenstein(Sara Bay)fresh from medical school arrives at her father's estate to find that he is still up to his old tricks. Baron Frankenstein(Joseph Cotten)is murdered by his own creation and now his daughter decides to carry on the family tradition by creating herself a lover. This is closer to being an eerie melodrama than horror flick. Supporting cast features Mickey Hargitay, Paul Whiteman, Paul Muller and Herbert Fux. A rainy night could amplify the atmosphere. Still a fun watch.

A typical exploitation sex&horror flick from the early 1970s for the most part, it has one distinguishing quality that elevates it from the usual dross: its leading lady, Rosalba Neri. She has screen presence, she is sexy, strong, sensual, menacing, seductive, independent, radiant. Even in the nude, when other genre actresses go into autopilot, become passive, timid, or giggly, even then she stays in control. I almost forgot to mention that she can act as well. Watching her in films like this I just cannot understand how mainstream cinema could have failed to give her more substantial projects to work on.

Joseph Cotten takes his turn as the Baron Von Frankenstein in Lady Frankenstein. He's been given a grownup daughter this time in the person of Sara Bay who assists in his experiments. She's educated in the sciences so she can take over in a moment's notice.

Which she has to, because the main reason for watching this film Joseph Cotten is killed by his creation when the current is left on and burns his experiment as well as giving it life again. So as in the original classic Frankenstein, the creature is out running amuck doing all kinds of bad things. He seems to love catching folks en flagrato as it were.

In the meantime Bay's noticed that dad's assistant Paul Muller has taken a shine to her for years. But he's old and it's more than implied past his prime. There's this retarded guy, who is simple minded, but a real physical specimen. Now if we can transplant Muller's brain into the Adonis body of this young man...........

I think you can see where I'm going here. Lady Frankenstein does offer a few nice nude scenes for the prurient and I'll bet at the drive-ins it offered some nice stimulation.

But I'll bet Joseph Cotten longed for the Mercury Theater troupe.

Okay, anyone looking to see a great work of art should NOT watch this film. A sophisticated film connoisseur will no doubt be nauseated by the horrid production values and the sight of watching an excellent actor (Joseph Cotten) whoring himself out for a buck. Mr. Cotten must have either really needed the money or he was too senile to realize that the film was crap. The same phenomenon occurred with Dana Andrews, who late in his career appeared in the campy and awful FROZEN DEAD. I know Mr. Andrews was in the throes of alcoholism, but why did Cotten do this mess?!

As for the plot, it's a reworking of the Frankenstein plot. The first half of the movie really looked as if they were doing a serious but seriously flawed version of the original Frankenstein story. Then, inexplicably, they introduced a daughter. This wasn't a bad thing,...until then, out of the blue, they decided to stop making a horror film but make a soft-core pornographic flick!! The change was dramatic and bizarre. It was almost as if they said "okay, Mr. Cotten is done with his scenes and has gone home,....now ladies,...STRIP!".

The problem is that on every level, the film is just awful except for the monster's makeup. While not great, it is still pretty cool to see. But bad writing, acting and a budget of $17.46 conspired to make this a drab and awful flick--one so bad that tossing in some nudity for the pervs out there shouldn't be enough to entice anyone to see it.

***This review contains plot SPOILERS***

I admit that I'm not a big fan of Frankenstein. The idea of a mad scientist creating a living human creature from spare body parts of corpses never fascinated me. Over the years I've seen various Frankenstein films or, at least, clips and the story just never did anything for me. That is, until I recently saw the 1971 Italian film "Lady Frankenstein" starring Rosalba Neri (AKA Sara Bey) in the title role of Tania Frankenstein, the beautiful daughter of Baron Frankenstein.

So what sets "Lady Frankenstein" apart from all the other Frankenstein incarnations? Well, the film starts out as a standard Frankenstein flick with Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant Charles Marshall trying to create life from the body parts of recently dead corpses. A new element is introduced in this story and that, as expected, is Frankenstein's daughter Tania. Tania has just graduated medical school as a surgeon and reveals to her father and Charles that she knows what they're trying to achieve and wants to assist them in their gruesome work. Before they agree to her partnership they successfully give life to a hideous monster. The monster kills Dr. Frankenstein and proceeds to go on a killing spree in the country-side.

Meanwhile Tania and Charles come up with a mad scheme to create another "monster" that will have the same super stength necessary to slay the original creature that murdered Tania's father. Ultimately it is revealed that Charles profoundly loves Tania, even though he's much older than her. Tania admits that she loves Charles' mind but he's physically too old and feeble to stir her carnal passions. Their insane answer to this predicament is to murder the local retarded hunk and replace his brain with Charles'!! Only then will Tania have her cake and eat it too -- the perfect brain with the perfect body!

As you can see, "Lady Frankenstein" takes the done-to-death Frankenstein story and gives it a much-needed new twist, a highly intriguing twist, I might add. Even though this is so, the film would have failed if it didn't have the right person in the titular role. All I can say is Rosalba Neri (credited as Sara Bey) is magnificent as Tania Frankenstein. It's more than just her obvious physical beauty, highlighted by those big cat-like eyes, it's the utter passion and seriousness she puts into the role. Tania fully realizes the womanly power she holds and expertly utilizes it to easily put Charles into a love-trance so profound that he's actually willing to have his brain transplanted for her. I would have done the same thing. What red-blooded man could possibly resist her charms?

The American version is only 85 minutes, cut down from the original 96 minutes. I'm gonna be on the look out for the longer version, but the 85 minute version is fine as is. Trust me, Rosalba is fully shown in all her glory in this short version. Interestingly, even though this is so, the film powerfully illustrates that sexuality and beauty are far more than a matter of simply showing skin as Rosalba expertly oozes beauty and sensuality in every blink, eye movement, word and motion!

In addition, you get everything else you'd ever want in a Frankenstein picture -- sincere but sincerely mad "scientists," dungeons, monsters on the rampage, beautiful damsels, horse-drawn carriages and torch-carrying village mobs out for blood.

Make no mistake, despite the limitations of being a Grade-B Italian flick from 1971 this is a powerful horror film about the insanity of obsession (for achievement, honor, love, loyalty, lust, money and revenge) and its consequences. It's as good or better than just about any Hammer film. I should add that "Lady Frankenstein" is not goofy, campy or comedic as the cover art of some of the DVDs would suggest; this is a serious take on the Frankenstein story, just keep in mind its origins.

GRADE: A-

After creating life, Baron Frankenstein is murdered by his hideous creation that heads off to kill those people who were involved in its resurrection, or who are simply in the way. The baron's daughter, Tania, who has just arrived from university with the help of his lab assistant, decides to go on and continue with her father's work. To keep the high reputation of the family name and to satisfy her lustful needs. Tania seductively plans to create a perfect being with the brains of her fellow assistant and the body of the slow-witted servant.

"I am, my father's daughter". She sure is! And a whole lot more! This sleazy Frankenstein imitation (of Hammer's "The Horror of Frankenstein") is beyond warped with its kinky fixations with seedy sex and red paint jobs (gore, of course) within its highly Gothic surroundings, inspires this cheap Italian exploitation picture. Albeit at times quite nonsensical and melodramatic, at least it gave the mad doctor theme a huge revamp with its lewd nature and having a female protagonist who was in supreme control with her manipulative prowess. This refreshing twist was one of the few neat additions to this rough around the edges, but above-average production. Director Mel Welles shuffles around some assured moments of suspense, array of blinding images and builds upon the morbidly vivid atmosphere. Although the creeping sound effects and nagging music score really did give me an almighty headache. The make-up effects were simply okay with the ghastly looking monster going on to aimlessly cause havoc like they mostly do in these stories.

When it came to the performances, one can only say they were quite laboured, despite a few decent turns. The very appealing Rosalba Neri grafts away with her conniving and forcefully voluptuous personality. She was quite hypnotic in the role and looked the part of Tania Frankenstein. Joseph Cotten gives the flick a steady head for the short time he's in it and Herbert Fux makes a more than a good impression as Tom Lynch the grave robber. The raw to-the-bone story and script aren't typically the best with their telegraphed patterns, but it lifted when it needed to by showing how much Tania has taken a shine to her father's aspiring work and there were hardly any dull spots.

"Lady Frankenstein" is an entertainingly tainted exercise on someone who cherishes what they do.

Although I had previously watched this one some time ago on Italian TV, I found it to be a surprisingly tolerable potboiler this time round, buoyed by an international cast of familiar faces (including a bemused Joseph Cotten as the Baron) and, contrary to many another film of the Euro-Cult sub-genre, an incident-packed plot in place of lethargic pacing.

The creature itself looks a bit dodgy and Cotten is a bit too old to be taken seriously as an eager scientist still dabbling in creating life-forms out of corpses (one would have thought that he would have made himself an army of them by now and not struggling at perfecting his technique still) but Ms. Neri does look good in and out of costume and reliable Herbert Fux probably comes off best as a lecherous grave-robber/blackmailer.

This Italian-made Gothic horror movie often gets the short shrift from fans of the overrated Hammer films of the time. Sure, it has much lower production values and, sure, Rosalba Neri (aka "Sara Bay")is no Peter Cushing, but there's no doubt which one of them I'd rather see naked. Seriously though, Neri shed her clothes so graciously on screen and looked so appealing doing it that no one ever gave her credit for being the great actress that she was. She carries this movie pretty much by herself--Joseph Cotton is good as her father but he is killed off early, and Mickey Hargitay isn't bad but is horribly miscast as a 19th century police detective. Probably more than in any other of her movies, Neri stays dressed here. But the two scenes in which she does shed her Victorian garments are VERY memorable, and not for the usual reasons. In one scene she helps her would-be lover kill a handsome but idiotic handyman by having sex with the guy while her accomplice smothers him with a pillow, but her evil and lustful character doesn't let the guy's untimely death interruptus the coitus. The look on her face as she has "the little death" well after her sex partner has had the big one (and her poor would-be lover can only watch) is amazing and very perverse. There's probably not another actress that could have (or would have) pulled it off. The final scene, if anything, is even more warped, so much so that it was censored from many prints. Let's just say that this nymphomaniacal Frankenstein just can't resist Frankenstein's monster, and the sight of the two of them on the operating table stops even the rampaging villagers with torches dead in their tracks.

Is this is a classic Frankenstein movie? Well, no. It resembles the Mel Brooks comedy "Young Frankenstein" more than the Hammer films or the Universal classics, but it is reasonably well-made, definitely pretty entertaining and it is, if nothing else, the sexiest Frankenstein movie ever.

Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton) is researching the creation of life using body parts with the support of his assistant Dr. Charles Marshall (Paul Muller). Out of the blue, his daughter Tania Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri) returns home after graduating as surgeon when her father is on the verge of discovering how to create life. However, he uses a damage brain of a criminal, and his strong creature (Riccardo Pizzuti) kills him. The efficient Captain Harris (Mickey Hargitay) investigates the case while the creature proceeds in a crime spree, also killing those who robbed the graves to get its body parts. Meanwhile, Tania reads her father's journal and seduces Charles, convincing him to kill the retarded servant Thomas Stack (Marino Masé). She promises to transplant his brain and heart to Thomas' beautiful body to marry him and kill the creature with his force.

"La figlia di Frankenstein", a.k.a. "Lady Frankenstein', is a reasonable Frankenstein's story. The edition is very poor, and the plot seems to have editions mistakes (or censorship?). It is difficult to understand how the studios allow the Brazilian title, which is completely wrong, misleading the viewer. Good times when the cellulite of Rosalba Neri is not noted by the audiences. The end of the film is abrupt and weird. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Mulher de Frankenstein" ("The Frankenstein's Wife")

"La Figlia Di Frankenstein" (aka. "Lady Frankenstein" / "Daughter Of Frankenstein") of 1971 is a highly entertaining Gothic flick that is labeled pure trash by some and praised as a terrific cult gem by others. I belong to the latter group, and I am sure that most of my fellow fans of cult-cinema will share my opinion. Fact is that "Lady Frankenstein" is, even if occasionally silly or over the top, an overall amazingly moody, stylish and highly original Gothic tale that no lover of Eurohorror and Exploitation cinema should consider missing. As the title already gives away, the obsessed scientist Baron Frankenstein is not the central figure of this film. Baron Frankenstein (who is played by Joseph Cotten here) has a beautiful daughter in this film, and young Lady Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri) is just as dedicated to recreate life as her father is... I have been a great fan of Joseph Cotten for years, and he is once again terrific in the role of Frankenstein (even though not as great as Peter Cushing, whom I admire even more, was in the role in the Hammer films). Beautiful Rosalba Neri is great in the role of the eponymous young Lady Frankenstein, sexy, cold and obsessed at the same time. The cast includes several other familiar faces for Horror/Exploitation fans, most memorably the sinister Paul Muller ("Nightmare Castle", "Vampiros Lesbos", "Nights Of Dracula"), and Austrian actor Herbert Fux ("Mark Of The Devil", Jack The Ripper",...), who recently passed away. Fux is best known for TV roles in Austria, but his most memorable ones are still those in 70s Exploitation flicks. Jayne Mansfield's one time husband Mickey Hargitay ("The Crimson Executioner") and Joshua Sinclair ("Keoma") also have roles in the film. The film is not very violent, and for early 70s exploitation there is very little gore, but it is quite sleazy occasionally. What probably makes this film most worthwhile, are both the wonderfully Gothic, and sometimes genuinely creepy atmosphere, and the delightful insanity that is maintained throughout the film. Overall, "Lady Frankenstein" is an immensely entertaining and atmospheric Gothic tale that I highly recommend to all my fellow cult-cinema lovers out there!

Rosalba Neri is Tania "Lady" Frankenstein, daughter of the infamous Baron in this Italian/Spanish twist on the Mary Shelley story. She transplants the brain of her assistant into the body of a brawny, but simple handyman. There's a lot of softcore sex, and it was filmed in the style of the Frankenstein feature films produced by Hammer. New World Pictures distributed it in the USA

When Baron Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created,his daughter Tania and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments.The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen,in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life.Meanwhile,the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr.Frankenstein.Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter...Inspired by the Universal horror films,looking like Gothic Hammer films and containing a fair dose of European style blood and nudity "Lady Frankenstein" is an enjoyable horror film with a bit of romance thrown in.Gothic sets for Frankenstein's castle are certainly impressive and incredibly sensual Queen of Italian Horror,Rosalba Neri is a joy to look at.I have seen the American version of the film,the original European cut runs 15 minutes longer.

When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments. The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen, in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life. Meanwhile, the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr. Frankenstein. Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter.

Did George Cotton really need the money so much he had to travel to Europe to make a bad movie? It's really hard to watch this severely dubbed, slow, drawn out flick. I got the impression from the movie that all the lines -- even Cotton's were post dubbed.