La figlia di Frankenstein

Plot synopsis:
Somewhere in Western-Central Europe in the 1860s, a trio of grave robbers, led by a man named Lynch (Herbert Fux), deliver a corpse to Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his assistant Dr. Marshall (Paul Müller), for obvious reanimation purposes.
Baron Frankenstein's daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri) arrives from school, having completed her studies in medicine, and is greeted by her father and his young servant, the handsome but mildly retarded Thomas (Marino Masé). 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, Frankenstein and Marshall both have an eye toward harvesting the criminal's body for their experimentation. Law enforcement agent Captain Harris (Mickey 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 gruesome giant corpse with a scarred, misshapen head (Peter Whiteman) as Tania secretly watches. Almost instantly,however, this monster bear-hugs Frankenstein to death - breaking his back - then walks out of the castle. Tania and Marshall report the murder to Harris, but claim that it was a burglar. Harris points out that according their description, the burglar would be over seven feet tall.
The monster, roaming the countryside, comes across a couple having sex out in the open, and after scaring away the man, picks up the woman, who screams and then faints. The monster then carries her later body and drops it into a river, and when the body is later found two men, the monster kills one by breaking his neck. After Harris questions Lynch, and Lynch refuses Tania's offer for more grave-robbing work, the monster breaks into Lynch's home while he is having sex with a local whore, and kills Lynch by beating him to death. The monster then kills a local farmer and his wife, and Lynch's two grave-robbing friends.
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 brilliant brain into the brain-damaged Thomas's young healthy body. To accomplish this, Tania seduces Thomas into having sex while Marshall secretly watches, and Marshall kills him with a pillow during their lovemaking.
Tania then successfully transplants Marshall's brain into Thomas's body. Thomas now speaks with Marshall's voice and his body has become inhumanly strong as well. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's monster has continued to terrorize the town, and the local villagers, having had enough, arrive with torches and pitchforks to destroy the castle by setting it on fire. In the chaos, the monster returns, knocks down Harris, and has a fight with Marshall/Thomas, who cuts off his arm. When the monster bear-hugs Marshall/Thomas, Tania stabs him in the back with a sword, and Marshall/Thomas kills him by puncturing his head open with a metal handtool. The monster is defeated, but Tania has made it clear that she has no allegiance to Marshall.
Harris arrives with Thomas's sister Julia (Renate Kasché) to see Tania and Marshall/Thomas naked and enjoying post-fight sexual intercourse as the castle burns beside them. However, during their lovemaking, Marshall/Thomas chokes Tania to death as the flames of the fire consumes them.

Tags: revenge

Review:
It's as good a reason as any I've heard in a movie for creating a monster.I've always thought that Lady Frankenstein was better than its reputation suggests.
Lady Frankenstein comes across to me as an Italian Hammer-style film - rich, vibrant colors, nice Gothic touches, attention to details, and a lot of fake looking blood.
Joseph Cotten, Rosalba Neri, Paul Muller, and even Mickey Hargitay give performances that are as good as most any other Italian horror film of the period.
After her father's death, played by Joseph Cotton who must be wondering how the hell he's gone from Citizen Kane to cheap euro-horror, by the hands of the Baron's creation with a brain supplied by a man that eerily resembles Patrick Swayze circa Point Break, the nubile doctor Tania Frankenstein becomes determined to advance in her father's morbid work.
At that time , nothing interested me more than Rosalba Neri's outstanding appeal to the senses , though I was still a young boy - this shows the extent to which Rosalba's beauty could be really something very special.Upon seeing it a second time just a few months ago , I came to discover that it's more than a movie with a really sexy actress in it.What struck me most was the atmosphere of the film , which makes you feel as though you were living in that very village and castle , among those people each of whom seems to want to hide something.The only week point , I found is Joseph Cotten's performance as Baron Frankenstein - maybe because I've seen him in some of his earlier , and much better parts.As for Rosalba Neri , I can simply say that she is incredible .Her strong desire to create a more powerful monster than the one her father did , and her unflinching determination to carry on her task till the end give to the character of Tania a strength that I've never felt in any of Rosalba's many other performances..
She carries this movie pretty much by herself--Joseph Cotton is good as her father but he is killed off early, and Mickey Hargitay isn't bad but is horribly miscast as a 19th century police detective.
Mel Welles, you might remember him as Mr. Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, directs this somewhat interesting yet wholly twisted tale of Dr. Frankenstein's daughter carrying on her father's work after his death and creating a creature not for its intellectual ability or its likelihood to be/do good but rather for its sex appeal.
You see, Tania Frankenstein, though a doctor and scientist in her own right, is concerned with really nothing more than satiating her primal desires for the stable boy and making some super sex slave by using his body with the excellent brain of a man she does not love.
Baron Frankenstein (who is played by Joseph Cotten here) has a beautiful daughter in this film, and young Lady Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri) is just as dedicated to recreate life as her father is...
When Baron Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created,his daughter Tania and his lab assistant Marshall continue his experiments.The two fall in love and attempt to transplant Marshall's brain in to the muscular body of a retarded servant Stephen,in order to prolong the aging Marshall's life.Meanwhile,the first monster seeks revenge on the grave robbers who sold the body parts used in its creation to Dr.Frankenstein.Soon it comes after Marshall and the doctor's daughter...Inspired by the Universal horror films,looking like Gothic Hammer films and containing a fair dose of European style blood and nudity "Lady Frankenstein" is an enjoyable horror film with a bit of romance thrown in.Gothic sets for Frankenstein's castle are certainly impressive and incredibly sensual Queen of Italian Horror,Rosalba Neri is a joy to look at.I have seen the American version of the film,the original European cut runs 15 minutes longer..
Even if it means taking Mary Shelley's classic monster tale and updating the story with a feminist twist.B-movie actor Mel Welles (best known for playing Mr. Mushnik in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) directs this muddled tale of a beautiful med school graduate (Rosalba Neri) who decides to take the place of Baron Von Frankenstein by creating a monster of her own.The entire movie suffered under the guises of a low budget, and it truly shows for itself.
While the initial idea is to stop the monster, Baroness goes a secondary route in hoping to complete her father's dreams by transforming the brain of her older husband in to the body of a young man named Tom. Love, both physically and emotionally, flies rampant throughout all phases of the Baroness' plans – and even when fire, anger, and destruction surround our characters, it doesn't stop the love that they have.literally."Lady Frankenstein" has the feel of a classic midnight movie.
That is, until I recently saw the 1971 Italian film "Lady Frankenstein" starring Rosalba Neri (AKA Sara Bey) in the title role of Tania Frankenstein, the beautiful daughter of Baron Frankenstein.So what sets "Lady Frankenstein" apart from all the other Frankenstein incarnations?
In addition, you get everything else you'd ever want in a Frankenstein picture -- sincere but sincerely mad "scientists," dungeons, monsters on the rampage, beautiful damsels, horse-drawn carriages and torch-carrying village mobs out for blood.Make no mistake, despite the limitations of being a Grade-B Italian flick from 1971 this is a powerful horror film about the insanity of obsession (for achievement, honor, love, loyalty, lust, money and revenge) and its consequences.
I recently saw this movie for the first time after reading about it previously online on various sites..............usually gets bad reviews,but I found it to be a decent movie with fair acting and great sets and costumes.The dubbing was a bit bad but after a few scenes I barely noticed at all.Joseph Cotten must have needed some cash but he played his part quite well as usual.Rosalba Neri was very good as The Lady Frankenstein,and former Mr. Universe,Mickey Hargitay was adequate as the inspector.The monster could have been better, but then again who says the monster always has to look like Karloff or Glenn Strange?
She carries out the experiments alongside Marshall, her father's assistant, but when he finds out that she can't love him because of his body, they decide to transplant his brain into a better body and have the new monster kill the original monster...I'm a big fan of Hammer's Frankenstein series, and I'm also a big fan of Italian rip-off cinema; so this is a favourable meeting of two different styles as far as I'm concerned, and indeed I enjoyed the film immensely.
Italian horror fans will also be glad to know that the film features a performance from popular American export, Joseph Cotton as Baron Frankenstein.
Although I had previously watched this one some time ago on Italian TV, I found it to be a surprisingly tolerable potboiler this time round, buoyed by an international cast of familiar faces (including a bemused Joseph Cotten as the Baron) and, contrary to many another film of the Euro-Cult sub-genre, an incident-packed plot in place of lethargic pacing.The creature itself looks a bit dodgy and Cotten is a bit too old to be taken seriously as an eager scientist still dabbling in creating life-forms out of corpses (one would have thought that he would have made himself an army of them by now and not struggling at perfecting his technique still) but Ms. Neri does look good in and out of costume and reliable Herbert Fux probably comes off best as a lecherous grave-robber/blackmailer..
Really bad Italian horror movie, a sort of remake of Hammer infamous Frankenstein must be destroyed, this time with a lady Frankenstein taking over the business from father.
Lady Frankenstein (1971) *** (out of 4) Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his assistant (Paul Muller) might have discovered the way to bring life to the dead but the doctor doesn't want his daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri) to be involved with the experiments.
Soon the monster comes to life and goes on a killing rampage, which has the daughter wanting to get into the game and clear her father's name.Mel Welles, no relation to Orson, will always be best remembered for his role in Roger Corman's THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS but he also directed this picture, which has gathered a pretty large cult following over the years.
I've always thought the large head, mutilated face look of the monster here was excellent and it's really too bad he didn't get even more action.The cast is also great fun to watch with Cotten learning from his friend Vincent Price that these types of horror movies paid well.
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.
Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) and his best friend Dr. Charles Marshall (Paul Muller) are on the brink of creating life from human spare parts (provided by loathsome grave-robbers, of course), when the baron's beautiful daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri), a recently qualified surgeon, shows up at her father's castle, desperate to help him with his work.Soon after, the baron and Charles succeed in bringing their creation to life, but regret having used a damaged brain in their experiment when the monster, disfigured by fire, kills the baron and goes on a murderous rampage.
While the monster is out and about attacking the locals, Tania comes up with a brilliant idea: transplant Charles's superior brain into the perfect body of dimwitted villager Tom, thereby preserving her father's reputation whilst simultaneously providing herself with a perfect lover.Lady Frankenstein is a prime example of cheesy '70s Gothic Euro-horror, with all the trappings one expects from such a film: thunder storms, a creepy castle, a hunchback, an angry mob with flaming torches.
The movie is entertaining in its way, not great but somewhat entertaining.The film is basically the classic story of Frankenstein but with a little bit of a twist to it because Baron Frankenstein's daughter, Tania, who is a surgeon herself, is there to continue with the experiments after the monster kills her father.
Top-billed Joseph Cotten doesn't have much screen time as weary Baron Frankenstein, but that's OK, his beautiful nympho daughter Tania ("Sara Bay"/Rosalba Neri) has just returned from med school eager to contribute to her father's experiments.
After the baron's first lightning-born creation backfires in a big way (killing him and then escaping the castle to kill some grave-robbers and a few random naked women), Tania decides to redeem the family name (and make sure she is kept sexually satisfied!) by transferring the brain of her obedient, older doctor lover (Paul Muller) into the virile body of a hulking half-wit.Despite the low-grade quality of much of this production, it's still highly entertaining, genuinely fun and is blessed with a fantastic performance by the great Rosalba Neri; an engaging, vicious, demanding, sexy femme fatale who is sick of everyone treating her like a little girl, gleefully attends a public hanging and uses both her brain and her body to manipulate everyone around her to get what she wants.
For once, the advertising wasn't overstated, with the picture of the voluptuous female scientist and her creation and the tag line " Only the monster she made could satisfy her strange desires!"The real surprise of this movie is the unexpectedly straightforward and quite dramatic scenes of Joseph Cotten as Baron Frankenstein and Paul Muller as his assistant creating the monster.These are classic moments straight out of the original 1931 James Whale movie, with some obvious Hammer Films influence as well.Sarah Bay /Rosalba Neri is remarkable as the beautiful, scheming daughter of Frankenstein, determined to create her own monster and clear her father's name.
After Baron Frankenstein (a dignified portrayal by Joseph Cotten) gets killed by his hideously disfigured creation (hulking Paul Whiteman), the Baron's smart, feisty, and determined daughter Tania (ably played with devilishly sensuous aplomb by the ravishing Rosalba Neri) decides to make her own creature using the brilliant mind of her assistant and the hunky muscular body of a dim-witted servant in order to make the perfect lover and killer.
Since hearing about how much fun the Joseph Cotten Spaghetti Western The Hellbenders is,I felt that it was worth picking his Italian Gothic Horror Lady Fankenstein,and although Frankensteins monster is a bit too underused,this is still a very entertaining,low-budget Gothic Horror.The plot:After attempting for twenty year to bring back animals from the dead,Dr Fankenstein decides that with age catching up on him,it is time for him to step up his experiments and replace the animals with humans!.Having sorted an unofficial contract with a group of grave robbers,Frankenstein investes heavily in the gang,hoping the they at one point will get hold of a "fresh" corpse.Eventally his wish is granted,when the robbers bring to him a corpse that is only 6 hours old.Seeing thunderstorms gathering from above,Frankenstein dismisses the pleas from his assistant Dr Charles Marshall to check the damaged-looking brain,and to instead seize the moment.Shortly before he starts the operation,Frankenstein gets a surprise visit from his daughter:Dr Tania Frankenstein,who tells him to leave the operation,so she can attempt to help him achieve his goal in another way.Feeling that he has got to the point of no return,and also wanting to gain the success on his own,Frankenstein orders Tania to leave him and Marshall on their own.Initially thinking that his experiment has failed Fankenstein is left a bit surprised,when his creation awakes,and bear hugs him to death!.Barely escaping from being attacked himself,Marshall goes to give Tania the bad news.Whilst they both try to get to grips with what has happened,they suddenly get a knock at the door from the police,who are asking them to explain reports about a strange looking man, (who was seen leaving Dr Frankenstein's mansion)who is going around brutally killing people.Realiseing that everyone is starting to suspect that they are some how involved in the killing spree,Tania starts explaining to Marshall that the only one way to destroy her farther's monster,is to create a monster of their own.
View on the film:Looking at the "missing scenes",I feel that whilst they don't add a huge amount of extra things to the story, (such as explaining what led Dr Fankenstein to start his experiments)they do help to expand on a few small bits in the film.(such as explaining how the operations work.)Checking the screenplay credits on IMDb,I was startled to find that the film has a total of 7 writers!, (not including Mary Shelley)especially due to the film having a great screenplay,which moves at a surprisingly fast pace,with the film having a new plot turn,every 15 minutes or so.For the directing,Mel Wells and Aureliano Luppi spilt the film into two,by having the first section of the film, (which centres on Joseph Cotten's gleeful performance as Dr Fankenstein) being filmed in a good,light Gothic style,with Cotten impressively being able to make the scene where he (unknowingly) says goodbye to his daughter,be surprisingly not goofy,but instead tender.Almost from the moment of Cotten being killed by a disappointingly under-used monster,Wells and Luppi massively turn up the sleaze factor of the film,with the directors showing lead actress Rosalba Neri ravishing beauty.Although the film does risk falling into a sleaze pit,Neri always makes sure that it never falls down the pit,thanks to her, (and a warm-hearted performance from Paul Muller as Marshall) keeping the Gothic Horror elements of the film alive for its whole running time,which leads to a weird,reverse-Beauty and the Beast style ending.
Final view on the film:A very enjoyable,low-budget Gothic Horror,with a great,constantly moving screenplay and very good performances from Joseph Cotten and the under-rated,beautiful Rosalba Neri..
The twist is that Tania Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri, Lucifera: Demon Lover, Amuck!) has completed her studies in medicine and is eager to help her father with his secret work.The next day, the Frankensteins and Marshall watch a criminal be hung and run into Captain Harris (Mickey Hargitay, the former husband of Jayne Mansfield and father of actress Mariska Hargitay, who was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1980 made for TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story), who already suspects them of graverobbing.That night, Frankenstein brings the man back to life -- a scarred, weird headed, giant-eyed beast -- who pretty much instantly hugs the Baron to death.
The flames consume them as Marshall begins to choke out Tania.Lady Frankenstein isn't a great movie, but has a great lead who can do anything a man can do, if a man wants to bring the dead back to life and have sex with their reanimated corpses.
This movie essentially begins with a man named "Baron Frankenstein" (Joseph Cotten) conducting secret experiments with his assistant "Charles Marshall" (Paul Muller).
When the Baron is killed by his latest creation, Tania & her father's assistant Dr. Charles Marshall (who has secretly become her lover) decide to make a new creature to destroy the rampaging monster.
Now husband & wife, they start work on the new creature while the police captain investigates the original monster's killing spree & begins to connect the dots leading to the doctors.The Frankenstein legend is one of horror's great stories.
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.
Dr. Frankenstein (Joseph Cotton!) is making a monster when his daughter Tania (Rosalba Neri as Sara Bay) returns from college with a medical degree to help her father.
Baron Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten, from "Citizen Kane") dies after bringing his creation to life; his daughter Tania picks up where he left off, using monster-making as a way to manipulate her johns and satisfy her sexual urges (so typical!).