Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster – DVD
Dark Sky Films
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is an old low-budget B movie from 1965 that was just released on DVD for the first time. The title is a bit misleading because this is not the Frankenstein we all know and love from the Universal Monsters series.
The movie tells the story of NASA having their last few attempts at launching rockets into space fail due to the rockets exploding. What they don’t know is the reason for their exploding is they are being shot down by aliens from Mars hovering Earth. These aliens are in search of suitable female specimens that they plan to breed with in an attempt to repopulate their planet. They are led by a Princess and a twisted Doctor Nadir, who reminds me a lot of John Lovitz on Saturday Night Live and I wouldn’t be surprised if the inspiration for his character came from this film. In an effort to have successful space flight without the risk of human casualties, NASA creates an android named Frank to pilot their next rocket. The rocket is shot down by the aliens, but Frank survives and is lands back on earth in the escape pod. He stumbles across the aliens who shoot him in the head, thus disfiguring half his face and also causing his wiring to go faulty and he turns into a monster killing everything in his path.
Frank’s creator and his female assistant go on a search to find their lost creation while the aliens start kidnapping every good looking female in sight. Frank is found and repaired, while the female companion is kidnapped by the aliens. Frank ends up also getting captured while the army is unsuccessful in their attempts to destroy the alien vessel which is now parked on earth and is where they have been bringing all of their captives. This leaves Frank as the only one who can save everyone from the inside.
The movie is right around 80 minutes long and was shot in black and white. The picture is anamorphic widescreen and the sound is the original mono track. I’d like to tell you the picture was painstakingly restored but it doesn’t appear to be the case, in fact I would guess they didn’t have the best of materials to work with. At times the picture can be a bit shakey, there are odd spots on the print and lines and grain are quite prevalent throughout the film in regular doses. It is certainly quite watchable, but it obviously really shows its age and what they had to work with. The sound has held up a lot better and was actually quite clear. The only extras on this DVD is the theatrical trailer and a photo gallery, there is no commentary track or any other frills. The disc does come with a nice little booklet telling of the history of the film and how it was a bomb and how it got made which was a nice little inclusion and quite a fun read. It is a pure campy horror B-movie that was destined and relegated to late night UHF TV and weekend afternoon shows like Son of Svengoulie. If you enjoy that kind of thing, then you’re likely going to enjoy spending about a hour and a half with a bowl of popcorn and this disc.
Related links:
Order the DVD from amazon.com
Dark Sky Flims website
