Frankenstein's Daughter (1958)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This schlock Monster flick is eye catching from the Get go as petite brunette Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight) our leading lady, jumps out of the bushes and scares a woman after her date drops her off. Trudy looks hideous complete with fangs matted hair and darkened eye shadow. The story flashes back to a laboratory with the abominable, undaunted, scheming Doctor Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) and his assistant, the weathered foreign helper Elsu (Wolfe Barzell) who spends his days and nights searching for body parts to satisfy Dr. Frank's experiments to create a modern Frankenstein monster. The owner of the premises is craggy, elderly Professor Morton who is days away from being sent to a assisted living facility. Old man Morton doesn't approve of Frank's experiments and is unaware of Dr. Frank's motives for eternal life. Earlier Dr. Frank slipped Trudy, who by the way is Professor Morton's Niece, a mickey which transformed her into that fore- mentioned creature at the beginning of the film. Enter Actress and former Playboy pin-up Sally Todd who plays Trudy's best Suzie. Doctor Frank noticed her swimming in the family pool and took an interest in her body parts. Dr. Frank flirts with Suzie as she excepts a date with the evil Doctor.The two are sitting in Doctor's car as an evening of necking gets out of control. The Good Doctor wanted more. Suzie runs out of the car and Doctor Frank runs her down. After cleaning up what's left of Suzie, Elsu and the Doctor tape and sew her back together again and add some lipstick to create Frankenstein the woman? The rest is sure to make you laugh so sit back and enjoy a period piece of fifties music and horror.

"Professor Carter Morton" (Felix Locher) is an elderly scientist attempting to create a drug that will halt the aging process. Working with him is his assistant "Oliver Frank" (Donald Murphy) who has very little regard for either Professor Morton or the experiment he is working on. Instead, Oliver's real last name is Frankenstein and he is the grandson of none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself. So although he works with Professor Morton during the day he secretly uses the laboratory at night to continue the legacy his grandfather by attempting to create life from death. Since he already has a dead body what he now needs is a brain from a subject freshly deceased. Unfortunately, he has experienced great difficulty in obtaining one until one night he takes matters into his own hands. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say this movie initially started off rather well. However, things fell apart after the introduction of the so-called "monster" which looked extremely ridiculous for a supposed member of the female gender. Conversely, Sandra Knight (as "Trudy Morton") looked quite nice and her presence was definitely most welcome. Regrettably, it just wasn't enough. Below average.

When Universal gave Dracula a daughter, Gloria Holden was quite genuinely creepy in Dracula's Daughter. But the franchise of Frankenstein got away from Universal and when Frankenstein got a daughter she was just the subject of a horribly bad movie, not a good horror picture.Sandra Knight's uncle Felix Locher is a scientist doing some home experiments with a new lab assistant Donald Murphy aiding him. But Murphy is a descendant of those Frankensteins back in Europe and you know what they were experimenting with. He works for Locher so he can use the lab facilities for some experiments of his own. He's got a human body stitched together, but if he only had a brain.We learn here that the Frankensteins were nothing if not male chauvinists. Murphy thinks why not try a female brain and the brain he gets is a friend Locher's niece Sandra Knight, Playboy centerfold Sally Todd.This one ranks right down there among the worst films ever made. The monster's just as gruesome even if one of Hugh Hefner's monthly delights is the brain. But she does kill on command and the end confrontation between Murphy and his creation and Knight and boyfriend John Ashley will have you rolling up the aisles.It occurred to me that since he only got the idea for a female brain and the original monster was a male, Frankenstein may have created the first deliberately made transgender individual. If the monster had lived the sexual reassignment surgery would have truly been historic.Transgender rights however were certainly not advanced with Frankenstein's Daughter. Nor was film entertainment in general.

Ever since Universal's classic in 1931, starring Boris Karloff, "Frankenstein" has continuously been one of the most filmed stories ever. There literally exist hundreds of versions, remakes, re- imaginings, parodies, spin-offs, sequels and variants on Mary Shelley's legendary tale and there probably will follow hundreds more. Only a small portion of these films can be considered as classic, whereas the vast majority can be considered as inferior. "Frankenstein's Daughter" is something entirely different and quite unique. This is epic trash! Up until now, I thought only Andy Warhol's "Flesh For Frankenstein" fell into this category, but now there's two. Hooray, because there can never be enough trashy/campy horror in this world. "Frankenstein's Daughter" is absurd but massively amusing rubbish from start to finish, with awkward plot twists, demented characters, gruesome (for 50's standards) make-up effects, inane dialogs and completely irrelevant but swinging poolside dance sequences. The brilliant but naive and elderly professor Morton is working on a breakthrough medicine that will prevent the further ageing of human cells. His unbalanced assistant secretly serves this still malfunctioning potion to Morton's attractive young niece Trudy, which turns her into a horribly deformed monster that terrorizes the streets at night. Now, this given alone is quite awesome already, but it's only a small part of Oliver Frank's hidden agenda. For you see, he's actually the grandson of THE baron Frankenstein and determined to further optimize the mad science family business. Oliver has the luminous idea to plant a female set of brains into the body of the creature. Why? Well, because females obey orders much better. These aren't my words, naturally, but just one of the many bonkers and politically incorrect quotes from the movie. "Frankenstein's Daughter" is quite heavy for a 1958 flick. The monstrous make-up effects are hideous but nasty and there are multiple sadistic implications, like an aggressive hit-and-run scene and various dismemberment. Donald Murphy's psychotic and mad-raving character Oliver Frank(enstein) is sheer opposite to the bone-headed and typically 50's teenagers, who like to play tennis and dance to atrocious song. Truly one of the most epic trash/camp movies ever made. Recommended to the right audiences.