Needing money for his experiments, the last of the Frankensteins leases his castle out to a film company as he tries to complete his ancestor’s gruesome experiments at creating life. This time, he’s using an atomic pile, in Frankenstein 1970.
Frankenstein 1970 (1958) starring Boris Karloff
Baron Victor von Frankenstein: [reading from his ancestor’s stone memorial marker] “I, Frankenstein, began my work in the year 1740 A.D. with all good intentions and humane thoughts to the high purpose of probing the secrets of life itself with but one end, the betterment of mankind.”
[speaking for himself]
So wrote my ancestor, but first he had to learn how flesh is made. He had to discover the art of transplanting vital organs from human beings into his creature and knitting them together until they all had all the attributes of God-inspired birth. Of course, I must admit that perhaps he was not too scrupulous about where he got his raw material.
Product Description
Is there a doctor in the house? At the eerie House of Frankenstein, the answer is “yes” — and he’s out to make right the experiment in playing God that’s doomed his family for generations. There’s also a Karloff in the house, a fact that makes 1958’s Frankenstein 1970 a must-see for savvy fright fans. Twenty-seven years after scaring the daylights out of everyone as the lumbering monster in Frankenstein, Boris Karloff is at the other end of the laboratory switches and gizmos. He’s Dr. Victor Frankenstein, an aging, hulking shambles of dignity and menace who agrees to let a TV crew shoot a horror flick at the family castle. The crew members don’t know it yet, but they’re just what the doctor ordered: fresh body parts, ready for harvesting!
Cast of characters
- Boris Karloff (The Body Snatcher; The Walking Dead 1936) … Baron Victor von Frankenstein. The last of the Frankenstteins, he’s been disfigured and crippled by the Nazis for refusing to work with them. Fighting against time, he’s trying to create on final creature, before he dies.
- Tom Duggan … Mike Shaw. Clearly has a crush on Judy. But she’s still worked up over Douglas.
- Jana Lund … Carolyn Hayes. The beautiful young leading lady of the film-within-a-film.
- Don ‘Red’ Barry (Only Angels Have Wings) … Douglas Rowe. Producer of the film-within-a-film, he has a strained relationship with his ex-wife, Judy.
- Charlotte Austin (Daddy Long Legs; Desiree) … Judy Stevens. A catty, insecure actress. She accuses Douglas of lusting after Carolyn. She gets murdered by the monster for her eyes … Although the blind monster was supposed to murder Mike.
- Irwin Berke … Inspector Raab
- Norbert Schiller … Shuter. Frankenstein’s faithful butler. But when he stumbles into the doctor’s secret lab, his doom is sealed. The doctor regrets is, but after all the doctor needs body parts …
- John Dennis (Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.) … Morgan Haley. Photographer, murdered by the creature in the family crypt. Baron Frankenstein tries to harvest the eyes, but they’re the wrong blood type.
- Rudolph Anders (She Demons) … Wilhelm Gottfried. Baron Frankenstein’s lawyer, and oldest friend. But when he becomes too suspicious over the multiple “missing” people, the Baron murders him as well. And harvests his eyes for the creature.
- Mike Lane … Hans Himmler / The Monster. Hans is the replacement butler, when Shuter allegedly goes to visit his relatives. But as Gottfired points out, he has no living relatives.
Additional cast
- Jack Kenney … Assistant Cameraman (uncredited)
- Joe Ploski (Li’l Abner) … Station Porter (uncredited)
- Otto Reichow (36 Hours) … Atomic Reactor Expert (uncredited)
- Franz Roehn … Cab Driver (uncredited)