Director: Donald F. Glut
Writer: Donald F. Glut
Stars: John Blyth Barrymore, Buddy Daniels Friedman, Jim Tavaré
Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2RGR8S1
Synopsis
We are told that these are the tales of some of the later followers of Frankenstein.
Segment 1: “My Creation, My Beloved”
Bavaria 1887. Dr. Gregore Frankenstein has Victor’s notes, and he wants to make his own creature. His pen-pal, a lady scientist, has died and sent him some part of her body to use. He heads over to the morgue, where he needs just one more part: a brain. On the way home, he stabs a guy for attempting to rape a prosititute who was hanging out in the cemetery; everyone knows that all the good hookers hang out in the cemetery. The brain in his bag is destroyed, but hey, that hooker has a perfectly good brain! He takes her whole head home with him.
There’s a fire at the dance hall, and a bunch of dancers were killed. Gregore has his choice of parts now. He throws the switch, lightning strikes, and the girl he assembled on the table lives! She then kills Gregore, which was not the result he was looking for. But that’s not the end of it…
Commentary on segment one:
This one looks good and was very well-shot. The gore and effects were very good, and the only thing that reminded me that this was an indie film was the stock footage of the dance hall fire. This may be the first Frankenstein story to have a happy ending.
Segment 2: “Crawler from the Grave”
Switzerland 1910. Vincent wakes up with a bad dream. He goes downstairs and admires his box of jewels. The “grey plague” has come to town. Mrs. Frankenstein says the plague is carried on the wind. Her husband has just died, and Vincent calls to arrange to buy his ring. She explains that they buried the ring with him. Vincent is not happy.
Vincent goes to see Johann, who collects shrunken heads. Vincent explains that Helmut Frankenstein was a rich old man who married a much younger gold-digger. Helmut thought he could use Victor’s notes to become young and immortal. He drank down his formula, turned grey, and died of the plague just a few seconds too soon.
Johann refuses to help Vincent dig up the body. Vincent goes out and does it himself. As he digs, he thinks he hears a heart beating. Helmut then crawls up out of the grave– he’s not dead after all. Vincent cuts off Helmut’s hand and takes the ring anyway. Frankenstein’s hand then kills Johann.
Vincent puts the ring on, but can’t get it off again. Then Helmut’s hand shows up for a rematch…
Commentary:
They threw in all the Poe references they could think of in this one. The story was fairly predictable, but was still entertaining.
Segment 3: “Madhouse of Death”
Los Angeles 1948. A noir detective named Jack breaks down on the road and has to hoof it to the nearest shelter as a storm approaches. He goes to a house, and a scary tribal African-looking guy named Mogambo answers the door.
Dr. Mortality is thrilled when Mogambo explains that the “one” has arrived. Three chinese women appear and offer Jack tea and fortune cookies. Jack gets sleepy because Mortality has drugged the tea.
Mortality introduces Gargantus, a huge gorilla. Mortality is planning to remove Jack’s brain and transplant it into Gargantus…
Commentary: This is more a comedy/play for laughs story. It’s got Mel Novak, so it’s creepy from the get-go. The guy who played Jack was not a great actor by any means, but even so, it was still entertaining.
Segment 4: “Dr. Karnstein’s Creation”
Transylvania 1957. Dr. Karnstein has already built his monster. We jump back seven months, and he’s considering buying the old castle on the hill. It was supposed to be the home of a nest of vampires. He explains to Karl that he intends to recreate Victor’s experiments and use the vampire legend as a cover to avoid the locals. First, they need to rob some graves…
They open a grave and the doctor comments on how well-preserved the body is. It’s preserved in soil inside the coffin and surrounded by garlic. Then he “borrows” a brain from Karl. Tonight is a full moon, and the full moon is said to be able to revive the dead.
Commentary: This one is a bit of a mash-up of monster genres, as you might expect from the plot. Dr. Karnstein gets a lot more than he bargained for. I would have liked to see this one as a full-length film with a better budget and acting. Great concept! At times I thought Karnstein was doing a Boris Karloff impersonation with his voice, but that came and went as the story progressed.
Overall, I think all four segments had very distinctive and interesting actors to play the various Frankenstein relations, and they were all entertaining. Some of the acting in some of the segments was weak, but the stories were all fun to watch. I definitely do recommend this one!