You can take a Frankenstein out of the Old Country, but you can't take the Old Country out of a Frankenstein.
Yet another of Victor's descendants, Oliver, trucks his mad experiments all the way to the suburbs of L.A.
Charting the family tree of the randy Frankenstein clan is daunting. Ollie would seem to be the son of Wolf (the titular 'Son of Frankenstein'), perhaps the older brother of Dr. Freddie ("Frahn-ken-SHTEEN!), nephew of the lusty Lady Tania Frankenstein, and either nephew or cousin of Maria Frankenstein (think she was fudging on her age to Jesse James).
Though he hides his identity behind a truncated last name, Oliver is full-blooded Frankenstein, with a healthy dose of his forefathers' urbane insanity and his aunts' horn-dog chromosome.
Oliver can barely keep his mind on monster-building while Trudy Morton is around. Trudy is the niece of his employer, Carter Morton, a tottering mad scientist with a perplexing Germanic accent. (played by Felix Locher, who portrayed Frenchmen, Spaniards, and even Sitting Bull -- twice -- during his long career.)
Oliver adds a whole new dimension to sexual harassment by slipping Trudy fruit-punch mickeys laced with Digenerol, an apparent early version of Rohypnol.
Trudy keeps waking from nightmares where she's been running around the suburbs in her bathing suit or blue nightie, with bug eyes, Bubba teeth, and a profuse amount of facial hair.
When other members of the community begin to describe seeing the same scantily-clad creature, Trudy deduces that she must be the monster, and proceeds to tell just about everyone she knows. They all pooh-pooh the notion, because, after all, the movie still has 65 minutes to fill.
At this point, we get to know a little more about Trudy's close friend, Suzie (played by February 1957 Playmate, Sally Todd). Seems Suzie is still sore because Trudy stole her boyfriend, Johnny. Suzie can see that live-in employee Oliver has a thing for Trudy, so she plans to get a piece of that action for herself.
Date night comes, and Suzie gets more of Ollie than she wants. Slapping a Frankenstein is a capital offense, and the mad scientist salvages Suzie's brain for his brand new monster.
Exposition ensues, as Mad Doctor Frank explains to his henchman Elsu that he is placing a female brain in his male monster's head because, "the female brain is conditioned to a man's world, and therefore takes orders ...". Ollie forgot that this particular brain just got done slapping the snot out of him.
Elsu, who must be older than dirt, also assisted Granddaddy and Daddy Frankenstein when they brought their own creatures into the world, and gets the notion that Oliver's motives are less honorable than his predecessors. Not good at taking constructive criticism, Dr. Frank tells his henchman, "From here on in, I decide what's evil."
While the mad scientist works hard to spark life in his creature, old man Morton picks that inconvenient moment to have a heart seizure. Hearing his cry for help, and needing to keep him from staggering in on their secret experiment, Oliver and Elsu rush out to aid Morton. As Trudy runs downstairs to see what's the matter, Morton makes a miraculous recovery.
Wouldn't you know it, just when the mad doc is out of the room, the monster gets the jump-start he/she needs, and shambles out of the laboratory. We get our first good look at the new Suzie, and wish we hadn't. Androgyny wasn't in vogue in 1958, so instead of giving us a Prince or a Sting, the director resorted to the old sideshow freak trick of putting lipstick and make-up on the right side of the monster's face, while the scarred left side is that of a man (specifically, Hollywood tough guy Harry Wilson).
Apparently gender-confused, the monster makes a point of ripping the frilly curtains off the window before busting through the front door into the night.
Cut to the two unluckiest dockworkers since Abbott and Costello met Dracula. Suzie the monster does a Mummy shuffle along the dock, and catches the attention of one of the workers, who demands to know "Who are you?". Suzie tries to use her new monster vocal chords to say, "Miss February, 1957", but it all comes out as a grunt. Frustrated that she can't make the crowbar-wielding worker understand, she leans on her best feminine wiles, and repeatedly bitch-slaps him. In this new monster body, though, Suzie bounces him all over the dock.
Tired of killing for the night, Suzie heads home to her mad doctor. A little humanity shines through, as the monster stops and politely knocks at the very same door he/she had smashed through just an hour before.
Expecting boyfriend Johnny, the hapless Trudy answers the door and collapses in a total wiggins at the sight of her new dead best friend, Suzie.
The monster gets whisked away by his/her maker, Trudy is revived and duly convinced by concerned loved ones that she's nuts, and Uncle Carter urges her to have a teenage rock-n-roll dance party barbecue by the backyard pool, just to calm her nerves.
The viewer is invited along, as the four-man (?) Page Cavanaugh Trio plays jazzy, hep hits for the come-as-you-are teen party-goers. This is the way life should be. There should always be combos playing in the backyard while newspaper headlines scream "WOMAN MONSTER MENACES CITY!" Not even Godzilla should keep us from grabbing a little gusto. Hollywood filmmakers should resurrect the tradition of musical interludes in horror movies, so we can relive great moments like this and the barn dance in 'Giant Gila Monster'.
This movie adds a timeless tune, 'Daddy Bird' to the teenage horror movie hit list -- right up there with 'Beware the Blob', 'Ghoul in School' from 'Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory', and 'Kiss My A--' from 'Zombie High'. 4 out of 10.
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