Frankenstein 1970 ** (1958, Boris Karloff, Tom Duggan, Jana Lund) – Classic Movie Review 5616

‘The One…The Only KING OF MONSTERS as the new demon of the atomic age!’ Director Howard W Koch’s 1958 CinemaScope horror movie Frankenstein 1970 stars cinema’s most famous and iconic Frankenstein’s Monster, Boris Karloff, as Baron Victor von Frankenstein, who uses TV money from filming at his Castle Frankenstein to finance an atomic revival of his Monster.

Too much dialogue and too little action in the screenplay by Richard H Landau and George Worthing Yates (based on a story by producer Aubrey Schenck and Charles A Moses) keep the film on the sluggish side.

And this movie does the disservice of perhaps making Karloff and The Monster sadly seem to be getting near towards the end of their sell-by date. But it is still notable as the movie that turned Karloff from the original Monster into the Baron (even if he is now the grandson of the first experimenting Baron).

It is worth a cautious look for the fans, for Karloff’s grave presence, the Monster, the Gothic atmosphere, and the surprise ending.

Also in the cast are Tom Duggan, Jana Lund, Mike Lane, Donald Barry [Don ‘Red’ Barry] Charlotte Austin, Irwin Burke, Rudolph Anders, John Dennis and Norbert Schiller, with Mike Lane as Hans Himmler / The Monster.

Karloff played the Monster in Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Son of Frankenstein (1939), after which he resolved never to return to the role, feeling that it was becoming a joke, and Lon Chaney Jr took over the role of the Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein in 1942.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5616

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