Blackenstein

Plot synopsis:
Big and burly African-American soldier Eddie Turner (Joe De Sue) stepped on a land mine while serving in Vietnam and lost both arms and legs. His physicist fiancée Doctor Winifred Walker (Ivory Stone) thinks she's found help for him in her white former teacher and colleague Doctor Stein (John Hart) who has recently won a Nobel Peace Prize for "solving the DNA genetic code".
In a tour of Doctor Stein's castle-like Los Angeles home, Winifred is introduced to his other patients: the ninety-year-old Eleanor who looks to be only fifty (Andrea King) thanks to Stein's treatments, and the bald Bruno (Nick Bolan) whose lower legs have been successfully re-attached via "laser beam fusion" and Stein's "DNA solution". Winifred is startled when she sees one of Bruno's legs is tiger-striped, which Doctor Stein attributes to "an unknown RNA problem" which he hopes to correct during the course of treatment. His sinister black assistant Malcomb (Roosevelt Jackson) seems overly interested in her reaction to this sight and in her in general. Meanwhile, the stoically suffering Eddie is being verbally abused by an obnoxious white orderly (Bob Brophy) at the local Veteran's Hospital. When Doctors Stein and Walker arrive to ask if he'd be interested in submitting to experimental limb transplant surgery that could correct his condition, he consents.
Doctor Stein gives Eddie new replacement arms using his DNA solution, and Eddie seems to be recovering well until Malcomb confesses his attraction to Winifred. Winifed tries to let him down gently, explaining that she intends to marry Eddie as soon as the surgeries are complete, and Malcomb seems to accept her statement, but he later vindictively sabotages the DNA solution used during Eddie's leg surgeries with the contaminated RNA, causing the former soldier to start to devolve into a primitive brutish state with hairy hands and a Neanderthal brow ridge. As his condition worsens and he loses the mental capacity for speech and rational thought, the stony-faced Eddie becomes a slowly shambling monster resembling an African-American version of the iconic Boris Karloff monster with a squarish afro instead of the usual scars and neck bolts. Although he lies in a near catatonic state by day, compelled by horrible cannibalistic urges the black suit and turtleneck-clad Eddie secretly leaves the house late each night in search of victims who he dismembers, disembowels and devours zombie-style, always returning in time each morning for his ongoing schedule of DNA injections with his doctors none the wiser.
Two police detectives visit Doctor Stein as the body count starts to rise (their suspicions aroused due to the fact that all the killings took place in the surrounding vicinity and that the abusive hospital orderly was the vengeful Eddie's first victim), but Stein is ignorant of the fact that there is now a murderous monster living in his basement laboratory. Winifred however has become suspicious of Malcomb and spends her time in the lab, examining the various solutions used during Eddie's surgery. One night, returning from his usual senseless rampage, Eddie hears screaming coming from Winifred's room. He enters to find Malcomb at her bedside and interrupts the attempted rape. Malcomb grabs a gun and empties it into the unaffected Eddie as Winifred flees. Eddie strangles Malcomb and then goes on to kill Bruno and Eleanor, the latter aging rapidly as she dies. Doctor Stein meets Winifred on the stairs, where she tells him Eddie is the monster. Together they down run to the lab.
Winifred busies herself preparing an injection of the DNA solution that she hopes will cure Eddie. When Eddie draws near, he seems moved by her terror and backs away, perhaps dimly remembering that she is his fiancée. Doctor Stein however attacks him from behind, provoking a violent response. After a brief tussle with his creator that ends with Stein being fatally knocked into the high voltage electrical equipment, Eddie leaves the house. The police arrive too late to stop Eddie but discover Doctor Stein's body and console Winifred. Eddie finds a brunette attempting to start a Jeep and spends several long minutes chasing her around an empty industrial warehouse. The police call in the Los Angeles County Canine Corps, and the Dobermans surround Eddie, knock him to the ground and, with a fittingly macabre irony, viciously tear the monster to pieces in the same way he killed his victims.

Tags: violence, murder, blaxploitation

Review:
Watching Blackenstein the Black Frankenstein (what a title!) is a one of a kind experience.
I can truly say that I've never seen a film quite like it.
Watch this one with your Z Grade movie loving friends and plenty of cold beverages.
This kitschy blaxploitation film was originally intended as a serious movie, which (ultimately) earns it some points in the camp department.
However, the movie's slow starting pacing pace, wooden acting, and (periodically) decent production value make for a largely uneventful ride.
Using sets from the original 1931 "Frankenstein," as well as similar art direction, "Blackenstein" was a movie that tried hard to be legitimate, and the first half of the film rises above typical exploitation schlock.
However, once the Blackenstein monster is created, the film begins to fall apart, and what follows is a terrible, "Blood Freak"-style horror movie, with laughably amateurish scene direction and gore effects.
The highlight is the awful acting, (particularly of Blackenstein himself), which makes for decent joke material, but I can't say we consistently laughed our way through this one.
BLACKENSTEIN is a terrible movie and its title wouldn't suggest otherwise.
Like ABBY (sort of like a Black version of THE EXORCIST), BLACKENSTEIN has practically no budget whatsoever and the acting is just terrible.
Believe it or not, the two Blacula movies aren't that bad--BLACKENSTEIN, however, is abysmally bad--so bad that bad movie fans might (but probably won't) love it.
One of the first things you'll notice on the DVD is that the print is really, really bad--though it does get a bit better later.
Instead, a sane researcher and his assistant work to attach dead limbs to living people who lost theirs in accidents.
While the transplant looks promising, no one realizes that the doctor's evil butler switches the genetic formulas and the poor Black man starts to mutate and become evil.
He, of course, goes on some obligatory rampages and since this is a so-called "Blaxploitation" film, you see two ladies' breasts--though it really made no sense at all and was very, very contrived.
The acting is purely amateur, the script is amazingly static and dull (something you'd never expect in a horror film--even a bad one) and the sets are cheap and make no sense.
It's really too dull for bad movie fans to enjoy and I found myself falling asleep from time to time--it was that unexciting.
By contrast, even the very worst Hammer horror film was light years better..
"Blackenstein" is a delightfully inept movie, some would even categorize it under so-bad-it's-great, and the script goes far beyond simply copying the original Shelley tale.
The actual Frankenstein plot is moderately altered as well, since the mad doctors (yes, two in this case, black & white brotherly messing with Mother Nature and God's creation together!) don't intend to re-insert life into dead body parts, but supply a wounded Vietnam veteran with new arms and legs.
"Blackenstein" is original and funny because of its ineptness, but after a while it nearly becomes unendurable to sit through.
Especially Roosevelt Jackson, as Malcomb the assistant, is the hammiest performer I've seen in a long time.
The DVD states that the operating sequences were shot with the same and carefully persevered scenery and sets of the original Frankenstein film.
"Blackenstein" is definitely not a good film, but nevertheless recommended to people with a morbid & insatiable curiosity for weird film-making..
At least Blackenstein is not a pimp or anything, though that's probably what viewers want from their campy movies.
Some Good, Cheesy Fun. Eddie is a Vietnam veteran who loses his arms and legs when he steps on a land mine, but a brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs.
Unfortunately an insanely jealous assistant (who has fallen in love with Eddie's fiancé) switches Eddie's DNA injections, transforming him into a gigantic killer.The most interesting thing about this film is that Bud Costello is credited as the property master.
This is not a great movie with great acting or plot.
Following on the heels of blacula and Dr black and Mr Hyde,blackenstein is a pretty good little b movie made by American international pictures,although not shown in the credits.blackenstein is laughable at some point,but good.i actually enjoyed it more than blacula.John Hart who played the lone ranger back in the day,is Dr stein a kindly Dr who has mad lab equipment in his basement.a former pupil of Dr stein comes to visit,played by lovely;Ivory Stone whose fiancé is a Vietnam vet who had his arms and legs blown off in combat.OK i guess you will see how this is going.for a 1974 movie its pretty gory.and yes the lab props were from the universal Frankenstein films borrowed from the late Ken Skrickfadden.blackenstein is a fun horror film for fans of the genre.cant figure out why a.i.p. is not in any credits,they may have disowned the film in the later years.if you never seen blackenstein then heres your chance.gruesome exploitation from the seventies..
After the huge success of "Blacula", Sam Arkoff made plans for a similar knock-off called "Blackenstein".
In the meanwhile, write-producer Frank Salteri decides to beat him to the proverbial punch by taking the Black Frankenstein concept, dashing out something resembling a script, gathering together a considerably less than stellar cast (including ex-mob moll Liz Renay and a couple of 40's has-beens who appear to have needed some extra bucks to pay the phone bill that month), and spending what appears to be about $30, slaps out one of the worst pieces of cinematic drek to have ever played inside the confines of a movie theater.
If the wooden acting and laughably inept gore effects don't get you, how about the inappropriate musical and stand-up comedy routines (such as they are), or the long-shot camera work during crucial scenes, or how the title character shuffles about with his arms outstretched, just like every parody of Frankenstein you've ever seen.For years, Sam Arkoff has taken the blame for this cinematic blunder.
if today they do a remake of blackenstien YES it would be scary now .THINK ABOUT IT.AND THE MOVIES THEY make now unless the music is really hard people are not that scared now.
but on the real tip the movie was not all that bad for it,s time that it came out.the end of it was a bit silly.
you don,t see that many black women getting killed in the white movies .
you don,t see that many black women getting killed in the white movies .
Probably trying to latch on to the success of Blacula(a rather good film), Blackenstein tells the story of a limbless Vietnam vet named Eddie returning only to be the guinea pig of a Nobel Peace prize winning doctor.
It seems that Eddie's girl, winsome Winifred Walker, a doctor with a PH.D in physics once worked under the renowned Dr. Stein.
Although on the surface this might seem like grand entertainment, the director and cast do an amazing job of breathing as little life into this film as possible.
The site of the good doctor's work is seemingly in a country estate, but later we hear from two policeman, not unlike members of the mob, that murders have been happening in the nearby vicinity.
The special effects consist of the old lab equipment of Kenneth Strickfaden that was used in the 30's Frankenstein films.
If you are looking for something akin to fun "trash" from that decade famous for just that, I think you will be greatly disappointed with Blackenstein..
A few of the 70s drive-in movies I've seen were a lot of fun.
A lot of your fun goes to scenes of mad scientists playing with liquid formulas and having to sit through useless scrap footage.
The way our stiff-looking creep in an afro walks around and spreads his arms defines the most horrendous acting performance I've ever seen.
I and my friends had a great time watching this collection of dismal performances, tacky set design, a confused patchwork script, and completely unjustified invocation of serious themes like Vietnam and racism in support of exploitationist trash.
The things we couldn't figure out were little things like: why does a black female physics student do graduate work with a white male medical doctor?
Why does the movie just stop dead right in the middle to present a couple of nightclub acts, then just pick up again like nothing had happened?
Stein is approached by Dr. Winifred Walker (Ivory Stone) for help w/ her boyfriend, Eddie Turner (Joe De Sue), a Vietnam vet who has returned home, minus several appendages.
Stein's monotone assistant, Malcolm (Roosevelt Jackson) is jealous of Eddie and Winifred.
Eddie mutates into BLACKENSTEIN!
Shambling forth in all new threads, and a head like a fireplug, the monster-formerly-known-as-Eddie sets off on a bloody rampage of limb-tearing / gut-unraveling death!
Ludicrous in every way, this "blaxploitation" movie is hyper-schlock in its purest form.
I thought fellow-blaxploitation horror flick "Blacula" (1972) had slipshod production values and was campy, but, wow, it's "Citizen Kane" compared to "Blackenstein." I understand the other IMDb reviews and voters who voted this movie 1/10, a rating I usually reserve for motion pictures that lack even the most basic of technical competence, for which in many ways this one is wanting.
But, I found its wretchedness to be amusing.The story is thin, the plotting repetitive (the monster interrupts three near rapes, Malcolm exchanges way too many creepy glances, and there are far too many lingering exterior shots of Dr. Stein's residence), the science-y stuff is ludicrous.
the monster is pathetically slow and his victims hilariously too stupid to just keep running away, or merely walking away at a comfortable pace, and the editing is some of the worst I've ever seen.
The cuts to close-ups of Malcolm and Dr. Walker, for instance, which are also poorly directed and acted--I didn't even know what the movie was trying to convey, at first, until Malcolm declared his love for her.Like "Blacula" and its sequel "Scream Blacula Scream" (1973), "Blackenstein" has at least one nightclub interlude, where we're treated to a stand-up act and some singing.
The dog joke, though, as with much of the movie, is bad, although it's not nearly as atrocious as the use of dogs in the film's conclusion.
The actor playing Eddie turned the monster has his arms and legs covered by blankets in too obvious of a way during the scenes where he supposedly has no arms and legs.
Choppy editing and dark lighting help hide the later makeup job, where he's made to look like a cross between Universal's Frankenstein monsters and a giant Neanderthal.
Additionally, "Blackenstein" doesn't deal with anything like the racial issues that elevated the Blacula films beyond mere camp.
The semi-mad doctor Stein is white, but there's also a female black doctor assistant.
I have nothing bad to say about it; it's all I could hope for from a low-budget, bad 1970s exploitation monster movie trying to rip-off the 1931 "Frankenstein," complete with pseudoscientific gizmos, beakers that are always burning with bubbling liquids, shadows cast on the walls, flickering lights, spinning things and other nonsense.
The film's lingering and repetitive shots and scenes also are put to good use in showing off the space..
Blackenstein (1973) * 1/2 (out of 4) A black man has his arms and legs blown off in Vietnam but Dr. Stein puts him back together again using his DNA potion.
Whenever you hear the title BLACKENSTEIN it's usually followed by "worst movie ever made" or something to that nature.
In all honesty I was rather disappointed that the movie didn't live up to its bad reputation.
Yes, it's a very bad movie but it's not nearly as bad as hundreds of other horror movies out there and I'd say if you're a fan of drive-in cheese from the 70s then you'll probably find yourself either smiling or laughing at this picture.
Being blaxploitation, it's mostly dumb white people being killed by the monster but the stereotypes are rather hilarious.
The monster looks very stupid but the death scenes are rather brutal, although the special effects are a joke.
I would tell you how the monster dies at the end but you really need to see if for yourself as it's reason enough to check the film out..
Blacula is the actual better movie but it's dull.
All the sequences of the monster killing others are utterly hilarious and mostly random with some victims being those that wronged Blackenstein and others being random civilians.
This movies is absolutely awful.
I truly feel like every copy of this movie should be destroyed to prevent additional people from wasting part of their lives on it.
Trust me, this movie should not be viewed, even to laugh at how bad it is..
When her boyfriend Eddie Turner (Joe DeSue) returns from Vietnam without arms and legs, Dr. Winnifred Walker (Ivory Stone) appeals to former teacher and Nobel Prize-winning Dr. Stein (John Hart) for help--and Dr. Stein, who has been fiddling with DNA, accomodates them by growing some new arms and legs.
and one of his first victims is an ugly white woman with a really bad hair-do and bad taste in pink nighties.On the surface, BLACKENSTEIN would seem everything a cult-movie fan could ever wish.
And it is true, there are about six "howlers" per minute in this film--actors who can't act, ridiculous dialogue, bad cinematography, awful special effects, extremely silly make-up, you name it, this flick has it.
BLACKENSTEIN (1973) ½* John Hart, Ivory Stone, Joe DeSue, Roosevelt Jackson.
Levey (Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman; Skatetown, U.S.A.), "Dr. Stein" replaces the arms and legs of a black Vietnam vet named Eddie, but something goes wrong and Eddie becomes a murdering, rampaging monster.
If you're interested in blaxploitation/horror hybrids like this, check out the vastly superior "Blacula" instead..
This has got to be the worst movie I have ever seen, an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back.
So really this is better then the original Frankenstein.
This black s.p.l.o.i.t.a.t.i.o.n remake of Frankenstein.
Doctor Frankenstein creates a monster out bead body parts.
This movie has a great story line.
Blackenstein – THE BLACK FRANKENSTEIN (William A.
Anyway, after the runaway success that the Blaxploitation take on "Dracula" i.e. BLACULA (1972) had been, it was inevitable that Frankenstein would also undergo a similar makeover – pity they did not wait for a better script or, for that matter, a more talented crew of both technicians and performers before experimenting!
However, neither is the make-up devised for it any better: after his cells are exchanged with those of another patient in white(!) Dr. Stein's laboratory – by a zombie-like assistant who lusts after his girl, a former pupil of the doc's – he gets an absurdly elongated and bulging forehead to go along with the recognized arms outstretched countenance and snarling!
Horror and blaxploitation with Malcomb & Eddie..
I wanted to originally call this the original "Malcolm & Eddie" but apparently the guy's name in this movie is Malcomb.
There were a number of black themed horror films that were made.
Of course, they also decided to remake Frankenstein.The movie begins as Dr. Winifred Walker has come to her mentor Dr. Stein in Los Angeles asking for his help.
Her boyfriend Eddie Turner is a Vietnam vet who came back to the U.S. with both his arms and legs amputated due to a landmine explosion.
He agrees to help Eddie.During the operation, which takes three steps, Dr. Stein's assistant Malcomb falls in love with Dr. Walker.
Winifred tells Malcomb that she can only like Malcomb as a friend because she loves Eddie and wants to marry him once he's recovered.
Malcomb then switches Eddie's DNA with the DNA of someone (something?) else and when they keep injecting the DNA in him, he mutates into the title character: BLACKENSTEIN!
All this while the doctors try to figure out why Eddie has mutated to this form.The acting in this movie is atrocious.
Malcomb, played by Roosevelt Jones, does come off as effective due to Jones' wooden acting since he is playing a simple but sinister man.
And boy, does Blacky move slow and look silly with his afro and threads.If you do like bad movies, this is worthy, but it is missing that special ingredient that something like Plan 9 From Outer Space or Showgirls offered.
There is better in every genre (blaxploitation, horror, so-bad-it's good or a mix) so you should look elsewhere..
Noted scientist Dr. Stein (stolid John Hart) and perky assistant Dr. Winfred Walker (a winningly spunky portrayal by Ivory Stone) try to restore dismembered Vietnam veteran Eddie Turner (an engagingly earnest performance by the hulking John De Sue) to his former self.
Alas, smitten and jealous servant Malcomb (deliciously overplayed with deep-voiced hammy brio by Roosevelt Jackson) tampers with the serum, which turns Eddie into a grunting grotesque monster who breaks out to embark on the expected murderous rampage.
The scenes showing Eddie tearing apart people are simply hilarious; the definite sidesplitting highlight occurs when our hideously malformed maniac disembowels a shrieking topless woman in an alley way.
If you like 'b' movies to just check off your list, Blackenstein should rate number 27.
Eddie, a Vietnam Vet, tragically wounded by a land mine gets the crappy version of Lieunenant Dan's new legs (and arms!) in a thrilling (not so thrilling) adventure of third rate science and fourth rate acting.
There are three really amazing things to see in this movie.
One: The 'science' laboratory set of Dr. Stein (LOVE the groovy funkified name shortening, really, I think it's a hilarious update to this century.) Two: the night club with an appearance by Cardella Di Milo.
Death by bad acting!This movie is a must see for everyone who enjoys a laugh at 70's cheese, and won't take the plot too seriously.