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The Tormented/Lady Frankenstein

The Tormented/Lady Frankenstein

List Price: $11.98
Your Price: $10.78
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cinema junk
Review: Another bad DVD double feature featuring two movies that are better off not seen. Joseph Cotton is billed as "James" Cotton on the case. (?) DVD Drive-In is releasing the official Lady Frankenstein DVD soon so if you want this flick, wait for that remastered version.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cinema junk
Review: Another bad DVD double feature featuring two movies that are better off not seen. Joseph Cotton is billed as "James" Cotton on the case. (?) DVD Drive-In is releasing the official Lady Frankenstein DVD soon so if you want this flick, wait for that remastered version.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Whattya want? Good acting??
Review: Before you even hit "play," you know you're getting schlock, but this is good schlock. It's a variation on the basic Frank theme, but with a few little twists. Joseph Cotten looks completely embarassed most of the time, while Hartigay (Jayne Mansfield's ex) just looks happy to be working. Bay/Neri is actually quite fetching. She's also an abysmal actor, as is the fellow who plays Marshall. As are, in fact, pretty much everyone in the movie. There are some interesting lab scenes, some nudity, a goofy-looking monster, a few double entendres, bad FX, lotsa murders and a seriously abrupt ending. For this price, you just can't go wrong.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wacky Italian Take on the Frankenstein Legend
Review: Fresh out of medical school and eager to prove her abilities as a "surgeon," Dr. Frankenstein's daughter (Rosalba Neri) sets out to build her own monster-to kill the one created by her late father, which is now running amok terrorizing the locals. As if that weren't goofy enough, she decides to construct her monster using the brain of her father's assistant (whom she's just married) and the body of the hunky village idiot. It's a movie that could only be made in Italy and only in the '70s. Recommended for Euro-horror fanatics only.

The picture and sound quality on this DVD could be better, but I've definitely seen worse on bargain-priced DVDs like this. The print that was used is scratchy at times, but the colors are still fairly vibrant and sound is generally quite good. All in all, this DVD is a pretty good buy at this price.

Two out of five stars.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Girls just want to have fun
Review: Imagine a role-reversed "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" if the ghost were played by Jayne Mansfield's long-lost sister, and you'll have Juli Reding as "Vi Mason" in the trashy Bert I. Gordon film, "Tormented". Gordon also gave us such trash classics as the giant locust classic "The Beginning of The End", and "The She Creature." "She Creature"'s title character looks like a lobster Jayne Mansfield, complete with stringy blond hair and enormous rock-like breasts. Another Gordon opus,"Picture Mommy Dead", features Don Ameche, haunted by the ghost of Zsa Zsa Gabor (no, I'm not kidding!) Mr. Gordon unleashed "Tormented" in 1960. Richard Carlson, who definitely was on a career nosedive, plays Tom Stewart, "famous jazz pianist." Stewart is spending the summer on an unnamed island, and is engaged to marry society deb "Meg", played by Lugene Sanders. However, two-timer Stewart has to contend with his jealous, blonde and VERY buxom girlfriend Vi, who vows never to let him go, definitely putting a kink in the wedding plans. Conveniently, Stewart allows top-heavy Vi to topple to her death from the top of a deserted lighthouse. The remainder of the film consists of Vi's ghost nagging the hell out of Stewart, who also murders the sleazy skipper of a chartered boat who threatens to blackmail him. And just wait til you see what happens at the wedding! The film is very cheaply produced, replete with cheesy "special effects", which consist of Vi's "footseps" in the sand, ala "She Creature", and her disembodied, ghostly hand and head which tactlessly pop up at the most inconvenient times. My favorite scene features Vi's disembodied head, screaming "Tom Stewart killed me! Tom Stewart killed me!" over and over again! There are also, if you listen closely, snippets of music from William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" in there, too. The print quality is ok, not great, but hey, for this price, who's complaining? I haven't built up enough courage to sit through "Lady Frankenstein" yet, but I'm sure, after a cocktail or two, it's at least good for a few laughs. Any film that has Joseph Cotten AND Mickey Hargitay in it MUST be a camp. There are also the original trailers for both flicks on this DVD, along with a cartoon, just like the good old days when you'd go to your local neighborhood "dump" and spend an afternoon, munching away on popcorn and nonpareils. This "Drive-In" series is manna for trash film lovers like myself. They bring back very pleasant memories of my childhood, when junk like this actually used to scare me!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Girls just want to have fun
Review: Imagine a role-reversed "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" if the ghost were played by Jayne Mansfield's long-lost sister, and you'll have Juli Reding as "Vi Mason" in the trashy Bert I. Gordon film, "Tormented". Gordon also gave us such trash classics as the giant locust classic "The Beginning of The End", and "The She Creature." "She Creature"'s title character looks like a lobster Jayne Mansfield, complete with stringy blond hair and enormous rock-like breasts. Another Gordon opus,"Picture Mommy Dead", features Don Ameche, haunted by the ghost of Zsa Zsa Gabor (no, I'm not kidding!) Mr. Gordon unleashed "Tormented" in 1960. Richard Carlson, who definitely was on a career nosedive, plays Tom Stewart, "famous jazz pianist." Stewart is spending the summer on an unnamed island, and is engaged to marry society deb "Meg", played by Lugene Sanders. However, two-timer Stewart has to contend with his jealous, blonde and VERY buxom girlfriend Vi, who vows never to let him go, definitely putting a kink in the wedding plans. Conveniently, Stewart allows top-heavy Vi to topple to her death from the top of a deserted lighthouse. The remainder of the film consists of Vi's ghost nagging the hell out of Stewart, who also murders the sleazy skipper of a chartered boat who threatens to blackmail him. And just wait til you see what happens at the wedding! The film is very cheaply produced, replete with cheesy "special effects", which consist of Vi's "footseps" in the sand, ala "She Creature", and her disembodied, ghostly hand and head which tactlessly pop up at the most inconvenient times. My favorite scene features Vi's disembodied head, screaming "Tom Stewart killed me! Tom Stewart killed me!" over and over again! There are also, if you listen closely, snippets of music from William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" in there, too. The print quality is ok, not great, but hey, for this price, who's complaining? I haven't built up enough courage to sit through "Lady Frankenstein" yet, but I'm sure, after a cocktail or two, it's at least good for a few laughs. Any film that has Joseph Cotten AND Mickey Hargitay in it MUST be a camp. There are also the original trailers for both flicks on this DVD, along with a cartoon, just like the good old days when you'd go to your local neighborhood "dump" and spend an afternoon, munching away on popcorn and nonpareils. This "Drive-In" series is manna for trash film lovers like myself. They bring back very pleasant memories of my childhood, when junk like this actually used to scare me!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: italien hammer variation
Review: in germany this movie is out of stock for long years, so I had only a bootleg in very bad quality to watch it. but even in this way I think it is a very entertaining horror movie. the critics in germany hated or ignored it but I think it comes very close to the best hammer horror movies of the 70s. there is very good acting, in particular paul muller as frankensteins poor assistant charles, rosanna alby as the wicked lady and our german actor herbert fuchs who gives an over the top performance as the leacherous bodysnatcher lynch. greetings from germany and merry christmas

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Baron Frankenstein, you've got a lovely daughter
Review: Lady Frankenstein, somewhat to my surprise, comes off as the most creative if not the best retelling of the done-to-death Frankenstein theme I have ever seen. It has its logical inconsistencies, at least one annoying and irrelevant character, and a thoroughly cheesy-looking monster, but I cannot but love this movie. Maybe it's the European ambiance that appeals to me so much; maybe it's the interesting little parallel contradictions (a term that makes little sense, I admit, but seems to encapsulate my thoughts) with Shelley's story and the original 1931 movie version. Probably, though, it is Rosalba Neri (going by the name of Sara Bay) in her role of Frankenstein's daughter. I don't have to tell you that I never really expected to find myself watching a Frankenstein movie with the words "Man, she's hot" constantly forming on my lips. As you might have guessed by the lead actress' name, Lady Frankenstein is an Italian horror film released in 1971 with the title La Figlia Di Frankenstein. Its look and feel is very much in line with the Hammer horror films that were all the rage back then. I'm still a little unsure how Joseph Cotton found his way in the picture, but maybe it had something to do with the American director Mel Welles. In any event, the casting of Cotton in the role of Dr. Frankenstein is a little weird, but he does a fine job in the role.

Forget some of what you know about the Frankenstein legend. In this film, Frankenstein, assisted by the non-hunchbacked Dr. Charles Marshall (Paul Muller), gives life to his monster only days after his daughter (Rosalba Neri) has returned home with her own surgical degree and "radical" medical ideas. Naturally, the monster kills Frankenstein right there in the lab and escapes into the night. The monster, incidentally, is quite silly-looking, looking like nothing so much as one of the Metaluna creatures from This Island Earth whose face, unfortunately for him, sort of caught on fire during the lightning strike that gave him life (not to mention super-human strength). Since his criminal brain sadly has a damaged hypothalamus, there is really nothing for him to do but wander the countryside killing people, especially if he catches them fornicating in the woods, before settling down to even the score with the men responsible for his new despicable life.

Daughter Tanya will not let her father's lifetime dream end in such a dishonorable way as this, so she claims her father was killed by a robber. Her idea is to create a second monster to be the executioner of the first monster, but then love and sex and just a little bit of beautiful evil fall in the mix, setting the stage for a conclusion that augurs well for no one. Torch-bearing villagers naturally demand their rightful place in the denouemont, and the ending, when it comes, is quite sudden and quite tragic, at least to my Rosalba Neri-enchanted eyes. There is some nudity in this picture, which is surely something you don't see in your average Frankenstein movie, and I for one definitely have no problem with it, especially since it plays delightfully off of the somewhat Victorian Gothic Euro-horror look and feel of the movie. This is basically a four-star movie that more than earns its fifth shiny star from this reviewer as a result of Rosalba Neri's captivating performance.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Baron Frankenstein, you've got a lovely daughter
Review: Lady Frankenstein, somewhat to my surprise, comes off as the most creative if not the best retelling of the done-to-death Frankenstein theme I have ever seen. It has its logical inconsistencies, at least one annoying and irrelevant character, and a thoroughly cheesy-looking monster, but I cannot but love this movie. Maybe it's the European ambiance that appeals to me so much; maybe it's the interesting little parallel contradictions (a term that makes little sense, I admit, but seems to encapsulate my thoughts) with Shelley's story and the original 1931 movie version. Probably, though, it is Rosalba Neri (going by the name of Sara Bay) in her role of Frankenstein's daughter. I don't have to tell you that I never really expected to find myself watching a Frankenstein movie with the words "Man, she's hot" constantly forming on my lips. As you might have guessed by the lead actress' name, Lady Frankenstein is an Italian horror film released in 1971 with the title La Figlia Di Frankenstein. Its look and feel is very much in line with the Hammer horror films that were all the rage back then. I'm still a little unsure how Joseph Cotton found his way in the picture, but maybe it had something to do with the American director Mel Welles. In any event, the casting of Cotton in the role of Dr. Frankenstein is a little weird, but he does a fine job in the role.

Forget some of what you know about the Frankenstein legend. In this film, Frankenstein, assisted by the non-hunchbacked Dr. Charles Marshall (Paul Muller), gives life to his monster only days after his daughter (Rosalba Neri) has returned home with her own surgical degree and "radical" medical ideas. Naturally, the monster kills Frankenstein right there in the lab and escapes into the night. The monster, incidentally, is quite silly-looking, looking like nothing so much as one of the Metaluna creatures from This Island Earth whose face, unfortunately for him, sort of caught on fire during the lightning strike that gave him life (not to mention super-human strength). Since his criminal brain sadly has a damaged hypothalamus, there is really nothing for him to do but wander the countryside killing people, especially if he catches them fornicating in the woods, before settling down to even the score with the men responsible for his new despicable life.

Daughter Tanya will not let her father's lifetime dream end in such a dishonorable way as this, so she claims her father was killed by a robber. Her idea is to create a second monster to be the executioner of the first monster, but then love and sex and just a little bit of beautiful evil fall in the mix, setting the stage for a conclusion that augurs well for no one. Torch-bearing villagers naturally demand their rightful place in the denouemont, and the ending, when it comes, is quite sudden and quite tragic, at least to my Rosalba Neri-enchanted eyes. There is some nudity in this picture, which is surely something you don't see in your average Frankenstein movie, and I for one definitely have no problem with it, especially since it plays delightfully off of the somewhat Victorian Gothic Euro-horror look and feel of the movie. This is basically a four-star movie that more than earns its fifth shiny star from this reviewer as a result of Rosalba Neri's captivating performance.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: MOVIE FANS WITH TASTE BEWARE! (THAT'S NOT A BAD THING)
Review: Let me first state that I love these kind of movies. If you're gonna pop this disc in your player and expect "SCREAM", "I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER", or any other somewhat recent horror movie, you're in for a Lady Frankenstein slap to the face. These movies are viewable only by fans who appreciate how bad/good they really are, and these fans know what I am talking about. For [the price] this disc is worth it. The movies are very fun and entertaining, and Lady Frankenstein showing a little skin to get her ways sets the standard for the classic "nudity for no reason rule" that we all love in our cheesy horror movies. It's presented in a drive-in double feature with trailers and an intermission cartoon, it's actually pretty cool. The only thing I can gripe about is that the quality of the film transfer can be very poor at times. Obviously not from a master soure, but hey it's 2 tasteless horror flicks for [a good price]. I am glad with this purchase. Enjoy cheese horror fans!


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