Okay, anyone looking to see a great work of art should NOT watch this film. A sophisticated film connoisseur will no doubt be nauseated by the horrid production values and the sight of watching an excellent actor (Joseph Cotten) whoring himself out for a buck. Mr. Cotten must have either really needed the money or he was too senile to realize that the film was crap. The same phenomenon occurred with Dana Andrews, who late in his career appeared in the campy and awful FROZEN DEAD. I know Mr. Andrews was in the throes of alcoholism, but why did Cotten do this mess?!

As for the plot, it's a reworking of the Frankenstein plot. The first half of the movie really looked as if they were doing a serious but seriously flawed version of the original Frankenstein story. Then, inexplicably, they introduced a daughter. This wasn't a bad thing,...until then, out of the blue, they decided to stop making a horror film but make a soft-core pornographic flick!! The change was dramatic and bizarre. It was almost as if they said "okay, Mr. Cotten is done with his scenes and has gone home,....now ladies,...STRIP!".

The problem is that on every level, the film is just awful except for the monster's makeup. While not great, it is still pretty cool to see. But bad writing, acting and a budget of $17.46 conspired to make this a drab and awful flick--one so bad that tossing in some nudity for the pervs out there shouldn't be enough to entice anyone to see it.

Joseph Cotten takes his turn as the Baron Von Frankenstein in Lady Frankenstein. He's been given a grownup daughter this time in the person of Sara Bay who assists in his experiments. She's educated in the sciences so she can take over in a moment's notice.

Which she has to, because the main reason for watching this film Joseph Cotten is killed by his creation when the current is left on and burns his experiment as well as giving it life again. So as in the original classic Frankenstein, the creature is out running amuck doing all kinds of bad things. He seems to love catching folks en flagrato as it were.

In the meantime Bay's noticed that dad's assistant Paul Muller has taken a shine to her for years. But he's old and it's more than implied past his prime. There's this retarded guy, who is simple minded, but a real physical specimen. Now if we can transplant Muller's brain into the Adonis body of this young man...........

I think you can see where I'm going here. Lady Frankenstein does offer a few nice nude scenes for the prurient and I'll bet at the drive-ins it offered some nice stimulation.

But I'll bet Joseph Cotten longed for the Mercury Theater troupe.

This Italian variant on the classic Frankenstein story sees Baron Frankenstein dispatched by his own creation about half an hour into the movie, crushed in powerful arms with blood flowing from his mouth. From this point on, his beautiful daughter Tania (as played by the gorgeous Rosalba Neri) takes up his experiments where he left off which makes for an unusual slant on the story, loaded with themes of death and, most prominently, sex. Charles Marshall, a middle-aged assistant of the Baron's, has designs on Tania, whereas she has eyes only for the handsome but dumb handyman Thomas. The solution? To remove the brain from Charles and put it into the body of Thomas. It sounds simple but all ends in tragedy with a fantastically over-the-top finale which has a classic scene of the Thomas-monster and Tania coupling together whilst the castle burns down around them and policeman Harris looks on in astonishment with Thomas' sister!

Before these incredible antics occur, this slow-moving but atmospheric tale has all the right ingredients to make an interesting Frankenstein story. There are numerous scenes of gory surgery (complete with brain transplants and knives slashing through flesh),lots of melodrama and heated debates between the principle characters, an evocative score, and an excellent setting in the old castle complete with a storm raging outside. The first creation scene is actually very impressive and expensive-looking, with a realistic laboratory set and special effects which make you think you've seen more than they actually show. Director Mel Welles (also a prominent Hollywood actor in Italian/Spanish exploitation cinema) keeps things lively and always interesting, displaying a real talent for involving the audience in his action.

Rosalba Neri is the real star of the film, a perfect example of an icy beauty lusted after by the old and young alike. Her character of Tania is a real bitch and the tongue-in-cheek story lets her have fun in the role. Joseph Cotten appears briefly as Baron Frankenstein early on in the film but doesn't have time to make much of an impression. Much more impressive is Paul Muller (AVENGER OF THE SEVEN SEAS) giving an understated performance in the sympathetic role of Charles Muller, Frankenstein's ever-helpful assistant, and Mickey Hargitay (THE LOVES OF HERCULES) as an investigating policeman who suspects most of the cast.

The film has plenty of ingredients to keep you watching, the same old clichés but displayed with relish. There's a pair of grave-robbers digging coffins out of the graveyard, a band of angry torch-wielding villagers who go on the rampage, surgery, experiments, an ugly misshapen monster (whose face gets burnt after being struck by lightning!) which runs around committing a string of brutal murders in the village (in a fun take on an often cut scene in 31's FRANKENSTEIN in which the monster throws a young girl into a river, drowning her, we see the monster grab a naked woman and chuck her in instead!),plenty of sex and nudity (some from the fetching Miss Neri) to keep exploitation fans happy, and the OTT finale which has monster-vs-monster action complete with arms being chopped off and axes driving into skulls.

LADY FRANKENSTEIN is a great example of what can happen when a classic horror story is given the B-movie retelling in an inventive and fun way, and stands as a testament to what the best efforts of an above-average cast and direction can do for a film.