Lady Frankenstein
Encyclopedia
Lady Frankenstein is a 1971 Italian
horror film
directed by Mel Welles
. It stars Joseph Cotten
, Rosalba Neri
(under the pseudonym Sara Bey), Mickey Hargitay
and Paul Müller
. The script was written by cult writer Edward di Lorenzo
.
Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania (Neri/Bay) arrives from school, having completed her studies in medicine, and is greeted by her father and his servant, the handsome but mildly retarded Thomas. Tania reveals to her father that she has always understood his work with "animal transplants" to be a cover for his work reanimating corpses, and that she intends to follow in his footsteps and help him in his work.
The next day, Frankenstein, Tania, and Marshall witness the execution of a criminal who is hanged down a well
, and it is implied that his body will be harvested for their experimentation.
Law enforcement agent Captain Harris (Hargitay) arrives to harass Lynch at the hanging. Harris claims to be on to Lynch's grave robbing.
That evening, having harvested salient body parts, Frankenstein and Marshall successfully reanimate a corpse (The Monster) as Tania secretly watches. The Monster, however, bear-hugs Frankenstein to death almost instantly, then walks out of the castle. Tania and Marshall report the murder to Harris, but claim that it was a burglar.
Meanwhile, the narrative is interspersed with shots of the Monster roaming the countryside killing locals, including Lynch.
Tania then goads Marshall into admitting harboring romantic feelings for her. She responds to his affections, but says that while Marshall's body is old, she finds the body of Thomas young and attractive. The "solution" to this situation will be to transplant Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. To accomplish this, Tania seduces Thomas, and Marshall kills him during their lovemaking with a pillow.
Tania then transplants Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. The local villagers, however, have had enough and arrive to destroy the castle, replete with torches and pitchforks. In the chaos, the Monster arrives and has a fight against Marshall/Thomas and Tania. The Monster is defeated, but Tania's allegiance during the fight is highly suspect.
Harris arrives with Thomas's sister to see Tania and Marshall/Thomas enjoying post-fight sexual intercourse. However, during their lovemaking, Marshall/Thomas strangles Tania to death, and the film ends.
cycle made by the Hammer Studios (1957-72), and may also have been an influence on Paul Morrissey
's controversial Flesh for Frankenstein
(1973).
genre.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Mel Welles
Mel Welles
Mel Welles was an American film actor. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors....
. It stars Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
, Rosalba Neri
Rosalba Neri
Rosalba Neri , sometimes credited as Sara Bey or Sara Bay, is a retired Italian actress.-Biography:When she was very young, she won a beauty pageant and attended il Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia...
(under the pseudonym Sara Bey), Mickey Hargitay
Mickey Hargitay
Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay was an actor and Mr. Universe 1955. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he was married to Jayne Mansfield, and the father of actress Mariska Hargitay...
and Paul Müller
Paul Müller (actor)
Paul Konrad Muller is a Swiss character actor. Notice: In fact his real name is "Muller" not "Müller". It seems that it is not possible to change the false written name in the headline of this article.- Theatre :...
. The script was written by cult writer Edward di Lorenzo
Edward di Lorenzo
Edward di Lorenzo is a screenwriter with a cult following among fans of Gerry Anderson's science fiction TV series Space: 1999.He also wrote for series Miami Vice and The Wild Wild West...
.
Plot
The films opens with a trio of grave robbers (led by a man named Lynch) delivering a corpse to Baron Frankenstein (Cotten) and his assistant Dr. Marshall (Müller), for obvious reanimation purposes.Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania (Neri/Bay) arrives from school, having completed her studies in medicine, and is greeted by her father and his servant, the handsome but mildly retarded Thomas. Tania reveals to her father that she has always understood his work with "animal transplants" to be a cover for his work reanimating corpses, and that she intends to follow in his footsteps and help him in his work.
The next day, Frankenstein, Tania, and Marshall witness the execution of a criminal who is hanged down a well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
, and it is implied that his body will be harvested for their experimentation.
Law enforcement agent Captain Harris (Hargitay) arrives to harass Lynch at the hanging. Harris claims to be on to Lynch's grave robbing.
That evening, having harvested salient body parts, Frankenstein and Marshall successfully reanimate a corpse (The Monster) as Tania secretly watches. The Monster, however, bear-hugs Frankenstein to death almost instantly, then walks out of the castle. Tania and Marshall report the murder to Harris, but claim that it was a burglar.
Meanwhile, the narrative is interspersed with shots of the Monster roaming the countryside killing locals, including Lynch.
Tania then goads Marshall into admitting harboring romantic feelings for her. She responds to his affections, but says that while Marshall's body is old, she finds the body of Thomas young and attractive. The "solution" to this situation will be to transplant Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. To accomplish this, Tania seduces Thomas, and Marshall kills him during their lovemaking with a pillow.
Tania then transplants Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. The local villagers, however, have had enough and arrive to destroy the castle, replete with torches and pitchforks. In the chaos, the Monster arrives and has a fight against Marshall/Thomas and Tania. The Monster is defeated, but Tania's allegiance during the fight is highly suspect.
Harris arrives with Thomas's sister to see Tania and Marshall/Thomas enjoying post-fight sexual intercourse. However, during their lovemaking, Marshall/Thomas strangles Tania to death, and the film ends.
The Frankenstein canon
The film is often compared with the FrankensteinFrankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
cycle made by the Hammer Studios (1957-72), and may also have been an influence on Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...
's controversial Flesh for Frankenstein
Flesh for Frankenstein
Andy Warhol's Frankenstein or Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Andy Warhol, Andrew Braunsberg, Louis Peraino, and Carlo Ponti and starring Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging...
(1973).
Feminism
Some have posited that Di Lorenzo intended that this film should present a feminist slant to the mad scientistMad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
genre.